Day on the Cruise: 122
From: Harrisville Marina, Harrisville, MI
To: Presque Isle, MI
Statute Miles: 54.0 SM
Time: 6.25 Hrs
Cumulative Miles: 2,850.9 SM
On Board: Susan, Chuck, Maggie, Trooper, Peanut
Presque Isle, MI is our location tonight. We are about 75 miles from Mackinaw City at the top of the main portion of the State of Michigan.
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| About 75 miles from Mackinaw |
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| In a protected harbor |
This place is pronounced "Press - Keel". It is apparently the French pronunciation and means "part of an island". The land mass here is mostly an island with a thin strip of land connecting it to the mainland. Would this also be an archipelago?
Looking at the water here it is hard to tell whether we are in Michigan or in the Bahamas. This water is the clearest I have seen outside of the tropics. We are floating in our slip and it looks like we can reach out and touch the bottom. It is eerie to walk the dock and then step on the boat. It is like you want to step on the water because you can see the bottom so clearly. It is hard to explain!
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| Marina at Presque Isle |
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| Marina at Presque Isle |
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| Marina at Presque Isle |
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| It's Like we are floating on air! |
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| Can see the bottom very clearly |
Now, another quality that we have experienced up here in the past several days is NOT like the Bahamas. This morning it was in the mid 40's when we got up. It was jeans and sweat shirts to get underway. Soon, it warmed up and the entire ride up here from Harrisville was very pleasant.
Seas were very Rolly this morning, hitting us with 2' waves on the port beam. After we passed Thunder Bay, we got into the lee of the land and the water flattened considerably. The last several hours presented a very nice ride.
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| View out the front door this morning |
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| Clouds to the West this afternoon |
Cruising the Great Lakes, we often see other boats. I am amazed at how with the thousands of miles of water in these lakes, that two boats can end up virtually at the same place at the same time. Is it fate, or dumb luck? Today we overtook a big sailboat that was under sail and on the same course as were we. We had set our autopilot on a route between waypoints from Harrisville to Presque Isle. On the long leg of the trip across Thunder Bay, we came right up on the sailboat. He changed his tact and we passed by. This has happened more than once to us in the Lakes, either meeting another boat head-on out in the middle of the water, or having another boat cross in front of us. Maybe we are just selecting popular routes!
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| Out in the middle of Lake Huron. Just the Two of us! |
We also got into fish nets today. A couple of miles before we got to Presque Isle, we started seeing two buoys with a third buoy with a flag on it. This marks a big net that is suspended from the buoys and that traps fish - presumably Perch and Walleye? Of course these nets were right on our route between waypoints, so we had to deviate around them. To be fair, we had been warned by other boaters that we would see these up here, so we both had been keeping a keen lookout!
Presque Isle is another Harbor of Refuge. It has a big break wall around the harbor. There are a few boats here permanently, but there are more empty slips. We do not see much around the marina. This facility is, like other marinas up the coast, out in the middle of nowhere.
Susan and Maggie took a walk on the break wall and through a wooded area this evening after dinner. She pronounced this area the most beautiful part of Michigan we have been in yet. (Personally for me, I thought downtown Detroit was hard to beat......ha ha). I have said this before, but every day I am blown away by the beauty of Lake Huron. We are very lucky to be traveling on this body of water. I also am starting to believe what people have said about the incredible beauty of Georgian Bay and the North Passage in Canada, which is the Great Loop route that you take through that Country. Both of these bodies of water connect to Lake Huron. I think it is the water that contributes to the beauty of this area.
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| Blue Moon at Presque Isle Marina in the evening light |
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| The original light house at Presque Isle, circa early 1800's |
Tomorrow we go only about 20 miles Northwest to Rogers City, MI. We will get some prescriptions filled at Rite Aid in town near the marina. Saturday we go up to Mackinaw City at the summit of our climb North to the top of Michigan. Weather for the next two days looks good. There is a warming trend that is forecast, and we should be back into the 60's at night.
Thanks for Reading!
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