Michigan: Harbor Springs to Boyne City

Day 54
Travel Time: 3.5 Hours
NM Today: 28
NM Total: 1174
Locks: 70

Usually Clark drives the boat, but today I wanted to drive for a while.   I didn't feel like reading or just staring at the water, so I took the wheel.  We do not have autopilot on our boat, so we have to watch the bearing carefully and manually keep the boat pointed in the right direction.  Normally to do this, we find something on the horizon, in the distance that lines up with our course line and head for it.  Well, today, there was nothing, nada except clouds.  Normally we can pick a cloud and head for it if there is nothing better.  Today, though, even the clouds refused to cooperate and kept transforming in shape and moving off our course line.

With nothing else to look at except quick glances at gauges, depth finders, and the vast amount of water in front of me, I started studying the shapes of the clouds I selected as my target destinations. As I looked at the clouds, I saw first Cyrano de Bergerac with his long nose, then a clown, then a sea captain wearing his billed aptain's hat and desperately needing to trim his very fuzzy beard, and finally Leonardo de Vinci's profile showed up.  It kept me entertained for quite some time.  While I enjoyed my drive, Clark read his Passage Maker magazine, so we had a complete role reversal today - me driving, him reading.

Although it did not look far on the chart, for some reason the trip across the bay to Charlevoix seemed to take forever.  At one point I asked Clark, "How fast are we going?"   I looked all over the display and couldn't find the answer which he pointed out was shown on the lower left at the standard 8 knots.  It sure didn't feel like it.  With my people cloud shapes dissipated and only saddles and pigs appearing, I lost interest in the clouds and was ready to turn the helm over to Clark.  I kept drivng though so he could keep reading for a while longer.

When we got close into Charlevoix, however, the trip got interesting once again when Clark announced that he intended to try to squeeze under the bridge blocking entrance to Charlevoix Lake and our route to Boyne City.  The minimum clearance we need is about 15' 9".  The bridge is reportedly a 16' clearance.  Wow - a whole 3 inches to spare!  I drove as Clark peaked over the Bimini top to see if he thought we could make it.  The whole time I am saying "I don't think so, I don't think so, Well maybe, no, I don't think so."  While Clark is saying, "I think we can do it." as he helps me edge the boat right up to the bridge.

It appeared to be very very close, and as it was 27 minutes after the hour, and the bridge opens on the half hour, I could not understand why Clark was pushing it.  Finally I realized that he wanted to do it just to see if we could make it.  Men!?  Well just as we got close enough to almost reach out and touch the bridge, an idiot boat driver in a very small boat went by us at a speed that caused a wake. Now if we could just barely fit under with the water flat, we certainly could not fit under with the boat rocking side-to-side.  Clark backed off from the bridge as I muttered some curses about the other guys lack of intelligence and consideration.  Meanwhile, as all this occurred, the bridge tender must have decided he had a nut job approaching his bridge, so the bridge went up a little before that half hour mark, and we sailed on through.

Entrance to Charlevoix Lake
blocked by drawbridge

After Clark put the radar mast and the two antennas back into their upright positions, I gave the helm over to him and picked up my book for the trip through Charlevoix Lake to Boyne City.  Before leaving Harbor Springs this morning I visited the online Monmouth County Library and took out four historical romance novels and loaded them on my Kindle.  I made my selections rather rapidly and did not know which would most appeal to me as I picked four basically at random and hoped that among them I would find a good one or two.  I selected one and started reading.  It's too soon to tell if it's a good one or not.

Shortly after we docked the boat in the Boyne City municipal marina, my son and his wife called to talk.  As we talked I wandered around the marina grounds where an antique flea market was in progress.  Not being in the market for antiques, I looked but found nothing too much of interest for sale.  An antique car show, setup in the parking lot next door, attracted an audience causing a lot of activity right there at the marina grounds.

Also nearby we found the Veteran's Memorial Park with a very nicely laid out display of military items among flower arrangements.

Boyne City Veteran's Memorial Park

After a very pleasant phone call with Chris and Heather, we went back to the boat where we got waylaid by some boat owners in the marina who wanted to chat.  The first had shown interest in our kayaks and came to talk about them, and then after he left, another couple who saw our AGLCA "great loop" flag came to chat about that.  By the time we got on our bikes to see town it was around 4:30 or so.  The town is small, however, so we didn't need much time to see all that the town had to offer.   One item that did attract our attention and interest was the Draco Viewer monument.  Until we read the details, we had no clue what we were looking at.  From reading about the Draco Viewer, I learned that Draco means dragon in Latin.  "Is that how Draco Malfoy got his name?" I wonder.

Draco Viewer Monument
designed specifically to observe the constellation Draco in the Northern Sky

Plaque explaining the Draco Viewer Monument

After leaving that site, we wandered the various streets and found a public beach on the lake.  Clark turned to me with a big grin on his face and said, "Want to go swimming?"  I had reached boiling point with the heat and humidity long before we got to the beach, so I told him, "Yes, I'm ready to dive into whatever you have to offer."  We finished our quick tour of town including a view of the Boyne River, so we could head back to the boat for our swimwear.

Kayakers on Boyne River in Boyne City

After such a hot, muggy, and buggy day, I was more than ready to go jump in a lake.  Oh yes, more bugs!  We have progressed from the Canadian mosquitoes through the Upper Peninsula deer flies to the lower Michigan gnats - massive swarms of them.  They appear everywhere there is a lack of breeze, and today we had none.  The top of the Bimini cover was swarming with them as we crossed from Harbor Springs to Charlevoix as we traveled with the wind not into it.  Nasty!

The swim area at the public beach had a sandy bottom that could easily be seen through the clear water.  With a temperature of around 74 degrees, the water felt very refreshing.  The water in the swim area is very shallow, so we suffered the slow torture way of getting wet until we could get to a point where we could get the rest of us wet quickly.  It was already well after 5:00 by the time we got to the swim area, and both Clark and I were hungry when we got there, so our swim turned into a rather short but exceedingly pleasant one.

Swim Area Selfie
Believe it or not I apply sunscreen to my nose and cheeks multiple times a day
and they are still bright red!

After our swim Clark suggested that we grab a snack and then the kayaks to go explore the river.  I said I didn't see how we had time for that as I wanted a shower and then had to cook supper, so no kayaking today.  I took some food out to thaw while I grabbed my shower and made a stir fry when I got back to the boat.

After dinner Clark decided to change the starboard side impeller (the easy side as he can actually see what he is touching on the starboard engine) to see what condition it was in.  The job went smoothly and the inspection of the impeller showed that it was in relatively good condition - not dried or split. Consequently Clark is going to leave the port side (the one where he has to use a mirror and grope blindly while bent around the back of the engine) replacement for now.  Happy with his day's work, Clark went off the take his shower while I finished up today's blog entry.