North Star on the Great Loop Journey: Mackinac Island

Preparing for the trip

Captain Jerry has been making the final preparations to North Star, our 32 foot Cape Island down east trawler. We are anxious to leave our landlubber lives behind and begin our long awaited journey around the Great Circle. Join us as we travel 10, 000 kilometers: through the historic Trent Severn Waterway; the pristine waters of Georgian Bay; the North Channel of lake Huron; and hop from beach to beach on lake Michigan. We will visit Chicago and begin our trek along the rivers: Illinois; upper Mississippi; Ohio; Cumberland: Tennessee; Tenn-Tom Waterway and the Black Warrior. We will have transited through 68 locks at this juncture. We have chosen the inner route from Mobile Alabama to Tarpon Springs Florida and the shorter Ocheechobee Waterway to reach the East coast of Florida. We will skip over to the Bahamas to wait out the winter before heading North on the Atlantic Inter Coastal Waterway.
The 10 years of researching and planning are finally at an end and we invite you to come along on our adventure.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Mackinac Island

Mackinac Island is a must see. A quaint little island community in the straits of Mackinac that separates Lake Huron from Lake Michigan. In the winter there are about 500 residents and in summer, 15000 people visit the island daily. You can take a fast catamaran ferry from the mainland in Mackinac City or you arrive by boat. There are no cars allowed, you either walk, ride your bike or get around by horse drawn buggy. We rode our bikes along a fairly flat street which circles the island for 12 km, a beautiful ride. Last night we went walking the downtown streets and visited the little touristy shops that sell Tshirts, local craft and such. The island is famous for its fudge. There are many fudge shops that will let you sample their selections, apparently all the different makers have their very own recipe. There are some beautiful homes that have been converted to B&Bs and hotels, really quite nice. There is a little bit of a horsey odour but they do clean up frequently throughout the day.
Today we will stay at this interesting marina. The docks are really high because there is a surge at times from the ships and ferries going by, we did not experience this but there is some bouncing during the day from the traffic. There does not appear to be enough showers for the number of boaters here but we did not have to wait, you pick your time.
A major percentage of the island is a State park so there are nature trails and paths to explore. We will ride and walk around these today. They have so many bicycle racks everywhere, I have never seen so many bicycles in one area.
Note: Apparently if you download Google Chrome you will be able to add comments to our blog, thanks for that information Sue.