Day 159 - Back in the USA

The weather forecast was calling for gale winds on Lake Michigan on Wednesday and Thursday so we decided to try to make it to St. Ignace, Michigan today as we very well might lose a day to weather.  Unlike the forecast, today started out warm, partly cloudy and calm - with a beautiful sunrise.  We took the boat to Wally’s for fuel at 9:09 am and left Little Current harbor at 9:50 am, passing Boyle’s Marina and Spider Bay Marina (city-owned).  No one from the city ever showed up to take our money for the mooring, so it was a free night for us!

The North Channel is wide here, and its shores flatten out.  Manitoulin Island was to our south and the Canadian mainland was to the north.  More islands popped up in the channel.  We cruised north to the Benjamin Islands, noted for their “pink granite”.  We thought the color was more orange than pink, but the brighter the sun, the more pink it looked.  Whatever the color, the islands were beautiful.  There are many quiet anchorages throughout the North Channel and its islands.  Although most were empty now, we did see a boat here and there.  Two sailboats were anchored off Croker Island,  just south of the Benjamins.  It was a little tricky getting there.  The Captain had to maneuver slowly around submerged rocks that were on the charts.

 

It would have been nice to cruise more slowly along the Canadian mainland, but we had a long way to go so we sped through the channel to De Tour Passage, where we turned south to US waters.  We saw very few boats and again, I felt pretty lonely out here as I had in much of the Trent-Severn Waterway.  The whole area, from the Trent to the Georgian Bay and North Channel is more or less deserted after Labor Day.

The skies had cleared up and it was another warm day.  At 2:15 pm we entered the US and Captain Randy shut down the engines to call Customs.  We were hoping not to have to go into Drummond Island as we were registered with the SVRS and had filed a float plan.  However, the Customs officer on the phone told us to go into Drummond Island, which has an onsite Customs Office.  We did as we were instructed and docked at the Drummond Island marina’s fuel dock.  In a few minutes, a Customs Officer came on board, asked us a few questions, and we were free to go on our way.  We were docked for 15 minutes but it took us almost an hour to go into the marina and then back out to the Detour Passage.  We were back in the DeTour Passage at 3:14 pm and continued south to Lake Huron. 

We had come 100 miles already today and had another 40 to go to get to St. Ignace.  Two large lights marked reefs, the De Tour Reef and the Martin Reef.  Mackinac Island loomed ahead and soon we could see the Mackinac Bridge and the Upper Peninsula mainland.  We were safely docked at the St. Ignace Marina at 5:35 pm.  Dinner was a short walk away at the Mackinac Grille where we had whitefish and walleye.  It had been a long but good day on the boat with warm sunshine and calm waters.