Mackinac Island to Lake Charlevoix 56 Miles

Mackinac Island to Lake Charlevoix, 56 Miles

Up at 5 AM (me, not her), checked all of the boat systems, rechecked my navigational route (glad I did that) and headed out of the harbor around 7:45 AM.

Just a little breeze, but cloudy and cold.

Following one ship and passing by another

  

Travelling under the Mackinaw Bridge

 

 





Her new favorite spot in the next to the helm

Thing were just fine until we got about 5 miles west of the Mackinaw Bridge into the Straits of Mackinaw. Now I know why they say it is always rough there. We needed to cover 22 miles directly into the wind and swells before turning south thru Gray's Channel. Lori was a little uneasy (nice way to say it). All of the suddenly she was really-really interested in all of the emergency equipment, and not so much about the carpet and pillows. Now I know how to get her attention.

When boating on Lake Michigan people actually wear their life jackets.  When docking at Mackinac we noticed we were the only ones who came in without wearing them!  A good lesson for us!

 
The Good:,

 

The boat is proving to be a very capable vessel and we are learning quickly what we need to make passages and how to prepare for them. Like securing everything so the salon table isn’t falling over, the bathroom windows are completely closed so the drawers don’t fill with water, and the deck hatch is closed so the beds don’t end up wet..

Docking  is going great (don’t want to get to cocky with that statement, but I am 2 for 2).  It is nice to pull into your slip and no one notices it was only your second time.

Getting much more comfortable with the electronics (the autopilot drives itself better than I can keep a course in rough water). 

I learned that you really can’t see most sailboats on radar if they don’t have a radar reflector (and most don’t).

 
The Bad:
The weather is always worse than forecasted and ten miles out it is even worse yet.
 
The boat consumes fuel just the way they said it would.  I was hopeful for a little bit of a surprise here. 

It is not fun knowing your wife is uncomfortable with the conditions; although she was a great trooper, I was very proud of her. There were a few actual remakes of the movie “perfect storm”  with the bow heading down a swell and burying it’s self into a couple of feet of water and pulling back up shedding the water off  and spray flying everywhere. The bow is about 8 feet above the water, so that is something to see when it is digging into the water. This trip should be the worst conditions we will see until the Gulf.  It is too bad it had to be on the second day.


 
Happy to be in Charlevoix Marina