Charlevoix, MI

Sunday, September 5, 2010

045-18.960 N
085-15.420 W

Ahoy from Charlevoix (the Beautiful), MI!

I'm a bit behind on my logs, so I'll try to get caught up...When you last heard from us, we were in Mackinac Island where we had a great stay. From there we made a quick 8 mile jump to Mackinaw City during a brief respite from the heavy winds that have been buffeting the area. We went to the newly built, Straights Harbor Marina, which was wonderful. I can't say that much about the city as it's really, really touristy with lots of tee-shirt and fudge shops. It's at one end of the Mackinac Bridge, which is the world's longest suspension bridge and it's also one of the major ferry ports that takes people to Mackinac Island, so you can understand why it has so many motels and shops.

We had thought that we were going to get stuck there for a few days waiting for a weather window, but one appeared the next day. As a result there was a mass exodus from the area by boats that were trying to head south. We wanted to make it to Charlevoix, MI and that was a 52 mile trip. We had to go 19 miles W up the straits of Mackinac and then 33 miles S to Charlevoix. The trip up the straits was a bit bumpy due to the wind and funky currents and when we turned the corner, we had the wind right on the nose and seas much larger than predicted, but thankfully the winds dropped towards the end of the trip and the seas got much nicer. But we were both happy to get in.

Charlevoix is a beautiful city with very nice shops, restaurants and a first class marina. We planned on staying their for 3 nights and renting a car to explore areas that we wouldn't get to by boat. Well, the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray, and this was such an event. We expected to get a rental car first thing in the morning and then head to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, which is on Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula of MI. Unfortunately we didn't get the car until after 11:00 and then we didn't recalculate the time to get there, so we didn't get to the NE end of the park until mid-afternoon. Then we discovered that the 48 mile road that ran through the park was closed at our end and there it was going to be a 60+ mile drive to get to the other end. As a result we only got to see a small portion of the park and we didn't get to take a boat tour, which is the only way to get to see the most spectacular views of the rock formations. Oh well...360 miles later we were back in Charlevoix.

We were quite surprised to find that some old friends of mine from the MA area were going to be in Charlevoix at the same time that we were. This was actually the second time on this trip that we almost intersected with Mike and Donna Kenney. In this case they were traveling with their sons and Mike's parents and were on their way to Mackinac Island. We had a great time at dinner catching up with them.

The next day we headed S to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, which features massive sand dunes which overlook Lake Michigan. We also got to hike the Dune Climb sand dune, which was designed by some maniacal person such that as your walking up the dune, it curves away at a rate such that it looks like you're going to be at the top in just a little bit, but you never get there. I also swear that you slip back half of each step that you make, so the climb was a bit taxing, but I (note the singular) enjoyed it...

Our plans to leave after 3 nights were foiled by Mother Nature and yet another gale system. There was one day when we could have moved to a nearby marina, but we realized that out of all of the places that we could get stuck, that Charlevoix was by far the nicest, so we ended up spending a week there along with a lot of other cruisers.

From here we had hoped to visit a couple of marinas in Grand Traverse Bay, but the gales have kept us, and lots of other people, from moving. Instead we're hoping to move down the coast to Leland, where we'll make the jump to the W side of Lake Michigan. Wish us luck!

-- Geoff & Sue

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For the cruiser: We can highly recommend both the Straits Harbor Marina and the Charlevoix City Marina, both of which are State of MI marinas. As a result they're priced at $1/ft + up charge. Plan to eat on you boat in Mackinaw City, but there are lots of options in Charlevoix. We can highly recommend the Grey Gables. We rented a car from Budget for $39/day with 150 miles/day.

Log ID: 1384