Charlevoix to Leland and Frankfort MI

August 18th and 19th

Today was to be and early start but we were held up by fog and a farmers market here in town.  It has been about a month or more since we have had the opportunity to visit a farmers market so we took advantage.  We picked up some homemade breads and fresh flowers for the boat, and headed out at the 9;30 bridge opening in Charlevoix.  The lake was a bit choppy but not to bad for the first 3 hours but the last hour and half the seas were building lucky for us we only had planned a 37 mile day.  We spotted Grianan as we got close to Leland and they followed us in to the marina.  There are 4 loopers here, yesterday in Charlevoix we met a couple who just started the loop a couple of weeks ago from Ohio (Brown eyed Girl) they too were here when we got in.  We headed into town to check it out it has a New England feel about it.  This is there sidewalk sale weekend so all the shops had their wares out on sale.  It is a very convenient town to stock up on groceries as is Charlevoix,  its just a short walk away as is the liquor store, restaurants, and of course our Jim's favorite the ice cream shop. 

Aug 20th

We ended up 2 days in Leland due to wind, but left early this morning for Frankfort 4 hours travel another nice small town.  As luck would have it, there was a farmers market, car show, and art and crafts fair happening here today.  The farmers market was all FRESH locally grown with quite a nice array of veggies and fruits (tis the season) the local farmers had fresh eggs, homemade cheeses, jams jelly's, goat cheese a woman we were talking with has 93 goats that she has to milk.  Lots of homemade sausages, fresh packed meats of course pies, cookies,breads etc.  This is the first farmers market with real farmers, with there own products not something being resold.  Although the one thing I was looking for I didn't see,  potted herbs so I can pot up the planter that SOMEONE tossed as we entered Canada. 

 Leaving Leland theres that beautiful blue water

 nice paint job

 Sunset at Leland Thursday night

 Theres Grianan (left) and Nectar (right) Nectar completed the great loop in 2002 this is there home waters.

 Sunset the 2nd night in Leland cool! AY?

 Today (Sat) we left Leland with Grianan, Nectar and Lifestyles

 the next few photos are of Sleeping Bear State Park

 The entrance of Frankfort MI

Mackinac Island Michigan to Charlevoix MI

Here are some photos from the last few days, click on any of the photos to enlarge them

may take some time to load hit, reload if some are blank enjoy........................we did!



Mackinac Island MI downtown

Taxi anyone?

The side entrance to the Grand Hotel

Front entrance

Ahh this is the life,  as long as we don't have to pay for a room

Mackinaw Bridge we will be going under it in a couple of days

The Grand Hotel is massive!  The largest old time resort hotel in the country and expensive, cheapest room is $279/person double occupancy,  the cottages are $19,000/week

shopping area in Mackinaw City

Sunset in Mackinaw City at the Straits State Marina, beautiful marina 2 years old about 75 slips, there were only 15 boats there when we were.  No waiting for showers!

Going under the Mac Bridge the water was like glass

I doubt it could of been any calmer

yup it got foggy

The entrance to Charlevoix is a canal with a draw bridge opens on the hour and half hour.

August 12-14
We have really been enjoying the Island and it is beautiful here,  there are NO motorized vehicles allowed on the island and all traveling is by bikes, foot, horse drawn carriages or horseback.  The only exception to the rule is snowmobiles, golf carts (for use on the course only) tractors and emergency vehicles. The population of the island on off season is about 500 people but, it is a huge vacation destination.

August 15th

We moved over to Mackinaw City after fueling up at St Ignace,  we thought we would be here for 2 or 3 days as Ashley was flying out of Traverse City on the 17th, however there is no car rentals in the area so we moved to Charlevoix where they have a Budget office.  Charlevoix was a planned stop for us anyway so it all worked out in the end. 

August 16th

Charlevoix MI we are here now and will remain here until the 18th,  Ashley flew out of Traverse City today on a 6:33am flight so we were up at 3am,  ugh! 
Charlevoix is a very nice resort community with all the restaurants and shops,  there is a bandstand right next to the marina which is downtown and a band was playing last night and a trio there this afternoon. Today is clean and put the boat back together day.  Having a 3rd person onboard  has its advantages especially through all the locks but the boat gets real small with 3 people.  We have enjoyed having our daughter with us for a month so she could experience what daily life is like on SweetPea I think she enjoyed it.  We are planning that next time she visits we should be in the Keys. 
On the way into Charlevoix WE as well as Ashley got to experience what its like to navigate the boat in dense fog, all I will say about that is so glad for the chartplotter as there was only a 1/4 mile visibility at best. 

Here are some photos from the last few days, click on any of the photos to enlarge them....................
 

Gore Bay to Meldrum Bay and Drummond Island Back in the USA

Aug 10th

The winds calmed down and we all took off for Meldrum Bay the seas were much calmer than we had expected, so it was a nice day for travel.  About 4 hours later we docked in the Bay along with CrawDad and Grianan settled in for the night after dinner and on to Drummond in the morning.

Aug 11th

We are Back in the States good and bad.  Such mixed emotions,  on one hand its nice to go to a store and see the brands you are used too at prices you are use too.  But, time was just to short to really explore the North Channel the way we would have liked.  I would say with maybe 8-10 weeks time there would be nice, but to do that you must leave your boat here for the winter and get pulled .  Well maybe we can come back again someday.

The word was COLD!

Meldrum Bay

Leaving Meldrum Bay with CrawDad and Grinanan

Heading into Drummond (customs) were DreamCatcher, Jeramiah, SeaMoore, Grianan, Crawdad and SweetPea behind us was GloryDays, DockersInn and Gemini.

Homeland security, Passports please. 

Drummond Island road signs.

Party of 13, out to dinner back in the USA! 

Little Current to Croker Island Anchorage to Gore Bay

August 7th

Things don't always pan out the way they are planned.  Due to weather we have passed up a couple of my MUST anchorages.  We spent a night in Little Current instead of Baie Fine very disappointing, especially when it turned out to be good weather for the anchorage there.  Little Current was an ok stop not alot happening there 1 restaurant, a very small down town area and an ice cream shop.  We were surprised to see we have caught up to a group of loopers who we thought were further ahead of us, there were 7 other looper boats there.

August 8th and 9th

We anchored out at Croker Island very nice anchorage with beautiful scenery and again we saw more looper boats in addition to the ones we saw in Little Current.  It seems we are back in the pack.  We wanted to spend another night at Fox Island anchorage but again the weather got the best of us, so we left and headed towards Gore Bay just a 17 mile trip.  It was nice to get some laundry done and take a long hot shower.  Two other Loopers came into Gore Bay after us, Crawdad and Grinan they too "chickened out" on an anchorage given the weather reports of high winds and thunderstorms.  The next day we had planned to head to Meldrum Bay but once again the weather held us in Gore Bay.  At least we really did get the weather (winds) as expected and we were very glad to be tied to a dock.  It has been extremely windy here today and a couple of other looper boats joined us at the marina.  We are all hoping to head out to Meldrum Bay and other points southwest from here.  For us at least, it looks like the end of any exploring of the North Channel on this trip, and we will work our way stateside when good weather allows,  Ashley will be flying out of Traverse City MI so we need to get her there.  We called the kennel to check up on Barkley and to extend his stay as well, since we are now almost a week behind what was anticipated for Ashleys stay with us.  Luckily, they have fallin in love with him and are more than happy to keep him an additional week.  Seems he has found himself a couple of girlfriends and has become quite the social animal, much to our surprise! 

 Not a great day heading in to Little Current to get tied down for some nasty weather

 Such a pretty day !

 Sailboats all tucked in for the night

 On anchor in the North Channel at Croker Bay

 Sunset at Croker anchorage

Sitting on the Dock of Gore Bay, waiting on better weather for tomorrow and fishing the night away.

Aug 6th Killarney

 Herbert's Fisheries they have fish and chips cooked and sold out of an old bus.

 These boats across the way have front row seats for the movie.

 And the End of another wonderful day in beautiful Can a da

Today we again traveled the outside as to make up some time.  We are at the Sportsmen Inn, We seemed to have caught up with some loopers by traveling the cargo route, there are 5 other AGLCA boaters here now and yesterday 6 left so we are now back in a pack. (for now)  We walked around town, very small, had ice cream and bought a homemade pie.  This marina does something I have not seen written up anywhere, not in any blogs or cruisers guides.  They have an outdoor screen across the channel and play movies,  Its a Cruise In Theater, we sat on the upper helm tuned in the radio and there you have it! Very cool.

Tomorrow we will be anchoring out hopefully,  the weather for this evening was not suppose to be good, but so far its pretty nice here.  The North Channel has some of the best anchorages in Canada and some are said to be in the top 10 list in the world.