It was cloudy and raining when we lifted anchor and started out. Ben, Keith, and I were the first ones up. The waves were minimal and Ben said wind up to 14 knots today, but it wasn't a problem. After we got past the islands and into more open water of Lake Huron, we had to turn about 100 degrees and then the waves started coming from the side and became less comfortable. It continued like this for most of the trip. Ben got the radar overlay on our chart and it was cool to see the storm we were in and how close we were to clearer skies.
We tried making a reservation for the Mackinac marina a few nights ago, but they said due to the Chicago Yacht Club's Race to Mackinac they would be booked. Ben figured we'd go pump out and see if he could sweet talk his way into a transient slip for the night.
When we got to the pumpout dock, the marina was completely empty. Ben figured someone had to have canceled due to the storm on Lake Michigan last night. The guy who came to pump us out told us that the Mackinac marina gets a check for $27k to hold all of the slips for any finishers of the Chicago Mackinac race, so there were no openings. Clearly that wasn't us (no sails). He told us we could try to anchor (keyword: try- lots of rocks = hard to get anchor to hold) and use slip 11 for our tender for island access.
Chicago Yacht Club's race to Mackinac has been happening for many years- this was the 115th run of the 289 nautical mile race! The winner this year, Maverick, beat the previously held record for 22 years by just over an hour due to the conditions this weekend. Maverick set the new record at 22 hours, 24 minutes, 23 seconds. During the race, there was a successful recovery of a man overboard last night. The man got picked up by another boat, but then wasn't allowed to finish as a competitor due to the rules of the race.
After pumping out, there was an open space behind the breakwater and we dropped anchor. I have never seen the anchor chain bounce as much as it did here! Good thing we were the only boat here because Ben kept slowly pulling the boat back as I kept watching the chain to see if it kept bouncing. It was evident that the bottom of this anchorage is all rock! Eventually, we got the anchor to grab. Ben and I were worried about the anchor and the legitimacy of the grab if we got a shift in the wind, since we were so close to the breakwater and other shallow rocks. Ferries were in and out of the marina area every 30 minutes and their wakes were monstrous, despite being behind the breakwall. I asked if we could bust out our second anchor, unsure if that would be helpful. Ben said it would definitely provide peace of mind.
Lori, Keith, Ben, Moose, and I helped get the anchor out, line unraveled, and anchor with 10 feet of chain set up so that we could hand the anchor to Ben and Moose on the Chicken and they could motor it over and drop it where they wanted, with the end of the line still on the Cartermaran and out of the way of our actual anchor. It all was efficient and well-executed! The boat was very secure.
We got ready, got on the Chicken, and went to slip 11. Although there are roads, they are not for cars! Mackinac allows transportation by foot, bike, or horse only, so there are no cars on the island. This was pretty cool to see. There were so many horse-drawn carriages and bikes everywhere. (And yes, you could see and smell lots of horse poop on the roads!) Parking areas are designated for bikes in spots that line the sidewalks outside of the shops, and there are no parking zones as well. I even saw a few police officers taking pictures of bikes parked in no parking zones! I wonder what the fine is for that and how the bike is traced to a person.
Everyone was hungry, so mission 1 was food, mission 2 was fudge (this is the fudge capital of the world!), mission 3 was bikes. We stopped in the visitor's center and got a magnet and postcards. The Grasshoppers got a patch for their collection.
I looked up best reviewed places to eat and found a lot, all nearby because the island is just under 4 square miles. We decided we'd just walk and see what we found first. Winner: The Pink Pony, located in the Chippewa Hotel. The wait was about 20 minutes, so we researched bike and fudge places while we waited. Once we sat at our tables, we could see the roof of our cockpit and the antennas from the table. There was a big yacht anchored or trying to anchor next to us. We wondered if they were successful on the first grab!
After linner, we went to Joann's Fudge (highest rated) and Ben bought SO MUCH FUDGE. Every week 10 TONS of sugar is imported by the 13 fudge shops on the island! I saw a few chocolate treats I wanted since I don't like fudge and added that to our tab. Our total purchase in the store was $70, but hey- we got a free tote. SMH. Roo and I enjoyed our small chocolate treats as we walked down Lake Shore Drive to the bike rental place.
We found out Roo is too short to ride a tandem bike, but could ride in a little trailer behind one, so we rented 4 tandem bikes and a bike trailer for the 8.2 mile loop around the island, knowing we had to be back in 2 hours or less since the shop closes at 6 pm.
The shades of blues, creating an ombré look in the water, was amazing and so beautiful. It blows my mind how blue the water is here. It is Bahamas blue, but this isn't the Bahamas! We were so glad the weather cleared up from when we were anchoring. We stopped and parked our bikes at the Arch Rock trailhead and climbed 207 steps to the top to see the breccia rock arch. Both families are used to seeing the sandstone arches in Utah, and this one was different because it was more rocky looking and there was so much greenery surrounding it.
Continuing on the 8 mile loop, we were 3 miles in (plus a hike) and Lori kept telling us it is okay to slow down (it had only been 30 minutes) and that we hit 9.4 mph at our fastest point. Ben decided that wasn't enough and he (jokingly) wanted to hit double digits, but we slowed down quite a bit. The 4 tandem bikers had fun racing, high 5-ing, giggling, and biking with each other and swapping partners. (My rose for the day.) I'll always remember this adventure with these people!
The trail follows along the shore all the way around the island. There are quaint houses along the back side of the island, which made me wonder what life is like living on an island like this or if the houses were VRBOs and occupied for a week or so at a time. (Island population- people who live on the island year-round- is 500ish people.) Along the way, there were several spots to stop and enjoy Lake Huron waters. A lot of people were swimming and taking pictures.
As we were coming around the southern part of the island, I saw a school, which I assume it was PK-12 since it was the only one we saw. I looked it up and saw it currently has 63 students and 16 staff members- including principal/superintendent, administrative assistant, cook, counselor, maintenance, special ed teacher, and teachers for preschool, grades 1-6 (one teacher for 1st grade, one for 2nd and 3rd combined, and one for 4th-6th combined), and middle/high school. Curious about grades 4-6, it said there were two 5th grade students and four 6th grade students. What a class!
We also passed a library and then we were back in town, on the southwest part and soon passed the Pink Pony, the visitor's center, and completed the circle at the bike shop. We returned the bikes 1 hour and 35 minutes after we got them.
We walked back to get a few cold drinks at Doud's (America's Oldest Grocery Store). Everyone was wiped out from pedaling and balancing on a bike with someone else, in the sun with a high of 75°F, but it felt much warmer!
Then, we wanted to find stamps (on a small island on a Sunday!) and a pen for our postcards and got both at Little Luxuries. Roo wrote on both cards and we did a little more shopping before walking (by the fire station) to the post office and dropping off the postcards.
By this point, Moose was a disaster and super hangry, so getting back to the tender and onto the Cartermaran was a priority. He ate and went straight to bed. He didn't even do Garden Time with us- he fell asleep so fast and we weren't too far behind!
❤️
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