Lake Michigan, here we come! Our planned stop is Charlevoix. Mark and
Sylvia will depart Mackinaw Island a day or two after our departure so we are
expecting to see them once again at our new digs at the Charlevoix City
Marina. The marina is located on the west shore of Round Lake.
Our trip down the northern part of Lake Michigan was easy 5 hour run, no
huge seas but they were big enough in most areas to limit our time on plane to
an hour and one half. Sooo that means we were running three and one half hours
at slow speed. "On plane" means that you put on enough power so the boat climbs up and
over its bow wave and essentially goes fast enough to get on top of the water
allowing travel in the 22 to 26 knot speed range with reasonable fuel economy
given that we are pushing 16000 pounds of boat and "stuff" on the water at those
speeds. Slow speed is where the boat is fully in the water and the speed that way is
limited to 7 knots or less. We covered the majority of the distance on plane in the
shorter of the two times.
Charlevoix is a really beautiful touristy town just north of Traverse
City. Lots of things to see and enjoy. It turned out the day we arrived was
the last day during our stay that Lake Michigan was in any way
cooperative.
November strength winds came up out of the west. These winds are about 6
weeks early. On the beaches one could barely walk into the wind because of the
blowing sand. This airborne sand was really painful in the face. We made one
attempt to leave for Frankfort, MI on Wednesday, Sept 1 but made the decision to
turn back early in the attempt because staying in the resulting waves (7 footers
were typical) would put us into Frankfort well after dark and this was not
anything we wanted to attempt.
We returned to our slip at the City Marina and had one more enjoyable day
in Charlevoix.
This is a air view photograph of the Charlevoix area. The big water at the bottom is Lake Michigan. The large lake that fills the majority of the photo is Lake Charlevoix. That little bitty lake between is Round Lake. There is a cut (the Pine River) leading from Lake Michigan to Round Lake and a cut from Round Lake Charlevoix allowing navigation into all of these waters. Our marina was on the shore of Round Lake that is closest to the bottom of the photo.
The Michigan managed marina is well designed and manicured and besides boaters is intended for the shore bound visitor. This is a wading pool that is part of the facility.
There is no shortage of various kinds of local stone and rocks. Here is a manicured fish pond on the marina grounds.
There are many structures that commemorate veterans who sacrificed in previous wars. This the front of one of them.
This is the other side of the marker.
This is a view of the shore side from the front deck of the Salt Shaker.
This is the Pine River, the inlet that takes you from Lake Michigan to Round Lake and the marina.
This is Heavenly Ours arriving from Mackinac Island. Sylvia is waiving to us from the pilothouse door.
Heavenly Ours going toward Round Lake thru the opened bridge.
Heavenly Ours at her dock.
Cracker Bay. This boat fueled up earlier at the fuel dock. But the fuel was pumped out of a tank truck that was specially brought in. The in ground tanks at the facility did not have enough capacity to fill this big mamoo up.
One of the other websites on the subject says that it is rumored that Paul Allen of Microsoft owns the vessel but this could not be verified.
A stature that was donated to the Charlevoix Public Library. For a town as small as Charlevoix, this is one very big library.
This is the library viewed from the back. The building was originally the area high school which was built in 1927
This is one of the many Hobbit houses designed and built by the architect Earl Young. Earl Young was born and raised in the Charlivoix area and developed a skill for designing unique structures using stone as a material. It is reported that he had no formal training and developed all his talents on his own.
Another Hobbit House.
Downtown street scene.
A prominent business in downtown Charlevoix.
We are motoring out of the harbor on our first attempt to leave Charlevoix, destination Frankfort. This is some of the high end waterfront real estate in the area. Our trip as it turned out was very short because of the waves encountered. No desire to navigate them into the night.
We can make it under the bridge. No need for the bridge tender to open it for us.
This is Staffords Weathervane Inn We took the pictures of Heavenly Ours from the balcony deck while having a nice lunch and an adult beverage. It was designed by the Earl Young referenced above.
Out in the lake. We encountered this schooner on our way back to the harbor.
In and out of the rough stuff. The schooner is following us in.
Back at the dock and we noticed this beautiful butterfly on one of our coiled up lines. We felt like he was welcoming us back.
Thursday, the day we made it. We left much earlier than yesterday so we had no issues with running out of daylight.
Looking into the entrance to the channel leading to the Frankfort harbor. A nice but rough and wet 5 hour run.
