Travel Time: 5.5 hours
NM Today: 43
NM Total: 1070
Locks Total: 70
Before getting underway this morning, I ran up to town and bought eggs and milk as our planned destination required anchoring out for tonight. Clark had heard that Les Chenaux was a must see. Les Chenaux is the French equivalent of the Indian word for this area which translates into The Channels which aptly describes this area.
We left the docks about 9:45 after saying farewell to our new friends on Knot Home. I dressed warmly due to the chill in the air at Mackinac Island. We woke to 61 degrees. I expected the temperature to drop once we got out in open water as I have experienced so often on this trip. Surprise! I forgot we were heading east - into the sun and with the wind. Before I could strip off my layers, I had to get Clark set up with his waypoint / heading so he could be pointed in the right direction. By the time I was done, sweat was pouring off me. I ran downstairs and ripped off my jeans and heavy shirt and dressed in shorts and t-shirt. That's one good thing about traveling on your house, a change of clothes is just a few steps away.
Our first stop after finding the entrance to Les Chenaux was at Cedarville Marina where we asked if we could tie up for an hour or two to go shopping at Viking Marine. The staff at Cedarville were very accommodating and said sure but told us that Viking Marine had their own docks and asked if we wouldn't rather boat there instead of bike there. With a resounding yes, we cast off from Cedarville and headed the short distance away to Viking. Clark wanted 1 thing there and I wanted 2. He read that there is a Michigan Harbor Guide published by the state of Michigan, and he wanted a copy. I wanted a replacement fender and strap for the one that snapped on me in Drummond Bay.
I was disappointed and came away empty handed; Clark was successful and came away with his harbor guide, which since it is published by the state, turned out to be a free publication. Clark chatted with locals while waiting for service in the Viking Marine store, but the locals had no idea where any good anchorages were in the area. After we shoved off from Viking, we traveled on down Les Chenaux to see what there was to see.
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| Interesting House Occupying an Island and surrounding rocks |
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| Cloudy Day on Les Chenaux |
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| Typical View on Les Chenaux - Boat Garages |
Clark was not super impressed with the anchorage options and suggested we forego the anchoring out tonight and head over to St. Ignace instead. We both agreed that Les Chenaux offered nothing exceptional after the views we had experienced in Canada.
With the change of destination in mind, Clark decided that we should rent a car and drive up to Sault Ste. Marie on Lake Superior and see the lock they have there as multiple people told him it is definitely worth a visit even though we have been through numerous locks on this trip and others. The marina in St. Ignace gave us the contact information for a car rental business that delivers and picks up the car to/from the marina, so very convenient. We gave the representative the credit card info and he said he would have the car at the marina for us tonight. By the time we got the boat docked in the slip, I had already received a text that the car was in the parking lot of the marina.
When we went into the marina office to check in, we noticed that they had Michigan Harbor Guides on every countertop as well as a box full under one of the tables. I guess we didn't need to worry about stopping at Viking after all. We were laughing about the fact that we made a special trip to get a copy with the person behind the desk who said she can't give them away fast enough to make room in the office for them. That's the way it goes.
We grabbed the keys out of the car on our way by on bikes to explore the town. I wanted to get air in my bike tires as I believe they have lost air since Troy, NY when we last filled them. We rode our bikes for miles and did not find a single one even though we were on a highway by then. We tried Google and came up pretty empty on gas stations in proximity to our current location so we gave up and went to find dinner. We had a brochure from the marina office for a pizza place, so we went there. Afterwards we indulged our sweet tooth craving by getting ice cream at a local shop. They put so much ice cream in that "single" scoop, I thought it would topple over onto the ground. It didn't!
We passed a park and several museums on our bike ride.
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| Waterfront Park in St. Ignace |
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| Fountain in Park near Museum of Ojibwa Culture |
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| Ev standing outside Museum wondering where Clark disappeared to |
After we got back to the boat, Clark decided to take the exhaust pipe apart as we have been smelling exhaust in the cabin. He found a leak in the exhaust pipe, so now we have to do some repair work before we can move on with our trip.
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| Black lines under pink area are cracks releasing exhaust fumes into the cabin |
The trick is finding the replacement part and getting it shipped to us. Finding that part is now tomorrow's top priority. The exhaust fumes were very heavy in the cabin today, so this is a must fix and must fix now item. The amount of time we spend docked in St. Ignace will be directly proportional to the amount of time it takes to get a new part installed.
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