Lake Michigan

We left Cheboygan, MI early in the AM to take advantage of the last good weather window available for crossing Lake Michigan.  There are wonderful ports and places to see on both sides of the lake, but knowing the prevailing winds blow from the west, it is more often calmer on the eastern Wisconsin side, than on the western Michigan side.

We bypassed Mackinac Island, which is famous for its historic restoration, it's picturesque vistas, fudge shops and no-cars on island policy.  But winds were coming and we had a long way to go.  We passed under the 5 mile long Mackinac Bridge, which is the longest suspension bridge in N. America and headed into Lake Michigan.

We tied up in Jackson Harbor on Washington Is. Wisconsin.  It is a very small place, with minimal services.  It was well protected however and we met some fine local folks.

A small museum and display of an old USCG boat was nearby.

During our 2 day stay we went for walks and admired the heavily wooded terrain and occasional flower.

 

Again Angie was rewarded by the display of barn quilt blocks.

We took a small 15 minute ferry over to Rock Island State Park.  Enjoyed some trail hiking

and viewing an old "recreation hall" for a former wealthy owner who had grand plans for building an estate on the island.  After he died, his heirs donated the island to the state.

After 2 days the winds died down and the waves subsided, we continued our journey.  Here is a picture of Angie preparing our egg and ham bagel breakfast while underway at 20 mph.  Mmm good!

We first stopped in Sheboygan, WI for the night.  They have a first rate marina with nice beach nearby and very well laid out.

We left early the next morning for a 70 mile run to Racine, WI.  They have a well recommended marina and the Milwaukee airport is less than 20 miles away.  We quickly set to cleaning the boat and preparing for departure early the next morning.  Our slip neighbors are also Loopers who are resting for a couple of weeks before continuing south.  I'm sure we will meet up again later.  Sorry, but now realize we never even took a picture we were so rushed.

So this concludes our Great Lakes leg of our Loop trip.  We traveled 1140 miles in 3 weeks, with only 12 days of actual boating, for an average of about 100 miles/day. More time would have been nice, but we're glad to have seen what we did.

Lake Huron

The weather called for calm seas so we moved quickly up Lake Huron.  We mostly ran at fast cruise speed of 20 mph and only stopped at marinas twice.  The black line on the map is the US-Canadian border.

Most of the coast was rural with farms and vacation homes near the water.  We did see some large commercial activity that looked like sand mining.

Our first stop was Harrisville Harbor.  One of many state run marinas that were created as ports of refuge where no natural harbors exist.  We cruised 130 miles that day, which was our longest ever (except for the overnite across Gulf of Mexico).

Upon walking around town, Angie was delighted to find a few examples of "barn quilt blocks".

Our next stop was Cheboygan, MI, where stayed at Walstrom Marine.  It is a full service marine center that also offers winter  boat storage. Nice folks and very competent.

The town was nice for walking and we had a great meal of their local whitefish.  Here is a piece of art in the park by local school kids,

and beautiful flowers on the sidewalk.

Lake Erie

Our calm start on an early Monday morning leaving Tonawanda, quickly turned to panic when we saw on the chart that there was another lock ahead.  Angie had just put everything away as we did not expect another lock until after Chicago.  Turns out the Niagara River is very fast flowing in this section so they built a lock and canal bypass.  Our guidebooks did not address any of  this so we were unprepared, but quickly decided to take the lock system as a safer option.  It was huge, some 700 feet long, but only raised us 5 feet.

With that excitement behind us we headed out into Lake Erie, our first Great Lake.  What we found was a delight.  After 300 some miles of  narrow canal with locks and bridges, we enjoyed the wide open space.

We spent the first night in Erie, PA at Presque Isle state park after traveling 95 miles.  It was a beautiful anchorage, very protected and peaceful.  The next day we cruised to Cleveland.

Cleveland was very impressive with a large protective breakwater, a lot of urban renewal, and marina right downtown.

We stayed at a marina right next to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.

And it was next to the stadium where the Browns play.  They had their first exhibition game the night we were there, and to much surprise, they won!

Angie's nephew Charles Kelly is the commander of a USCG ship based in Cleveland and docked a short walking distance from our marina.  He gave us a wonderful guided tour of the boat and all its workings.

There were many interesting aspect of the 140 ft ship that is primarily for ice breaking in the winter.  Here is Angie on the bridge getting tips for navigation on the Great Lakes.

 We spent the next day with Frank Romito catching up and touring the StoneAge facility.  Meeting little Frank and Cheryl.  The place looked great and they were very busy taking care of customers.  It has been 20 years since my last visit and the improvements were very impressive.

After 3 nights in the city, we were looking forward to anchoring out in the islands on the west end of Lake Erie.  But the wind picked up, some rain came in and we opted for a more protected refuge at Fox Haven marina on Catawba Is. near Sandusky.  We met some wonderful people to talk boating and swap stories with.  The waves grew the next day so we layed over.  Caught up on a few chores, my blog, and some emails. Walked to a nice little cafe for late lunch.

We left early Sunday morning headed for Detroit and Lake St. Claire.  The seas were calm and we traveled at 20 mph the whole way.  Dearborn is very industrial along the river.

But Detroit puts on an modern urban presentation.  The river was wide and few boats were out so our cruise was relaxing.

Lake St. Claire was busy with many boats out fishing, but the water was still flat for easy going.

It became very lumpy when traveling up the St. Claire river as it  was filled with Sunday boaters of every size, shape, and speed.  We chose the St. Claire Boat Harbor as our stopping point for the night.  Very nice and protected marina.  We left early the next morning when all was quiet.

So this ends our Lake Erie excursion and we now head to Lake Huron

Western Erie Canal

We flew back to Syracuse and drove up to Brewerton where Happy Daze was having some work done in the Winter Harbor yard.

 She was still on the hard, waiting for a new prop shaft and bearings.

So we decided to take a couple of days to go visit Niagara Falls.  A first visit for both of us.

This is a view of all 3 falls, American, Bridal Veil, and Horseshoe.

They shine colored lights on them at night.

We took a short helicopter ride for a magnificent aerial view.

Here is Horseshoe falls from overhead.

We walked over to the Canadian side and visited a flower garden park.

 They had very detailed miniature houses and even a model railroad in the garden.

We returned after 2 days and Happy Daze was ready to go again.  The Western portion of the canal was a bit smaller and we saw few other boats.  Many of the small towns have walls you can tie up to stay for free.

The Erie Canal Trail was nearby much of the way.

 The scenery was rural and very peaceful.

Of course there were signs of humans scattered along the way.

The locks were old and in pretty rough shape, with lots of icky stuff growing on the walls.  You can read Angie's opinion by the look on her face.

This stretch also had several low bridges that lifted to get under.  Sometimes the bridge tender was responsible for two bridges and had to drive a few miles to the next bridge!



My charting software was not very accurate on this stretch.  Luckily, there were few hard to see hazards, and it was difficult to get lost!

Out last locks #34 and 35 were in Lockport.  The were back to back and lifted us a total of 49 feet.

The canal ended at Tonawanda, NY.  We stopped there for the night on another free wall.  Had a great meal nearby to celebrate our 340 mile Erie Canal crossing!

This map shows the western portion of the Erie canal we just finished. Next we go into Lake Erie.