Mackinac Island, MI

Saturday, August 28, 2010

045-51.000 N
084-36.900 W

Ahoy from Mackinac Island, MI!

I'm happy to report that we're back in the USA! Not that we didn't like our time in Canada, but it's nice to have US TV, non-roaming cell phone service, and we're free of HST, which is the 13% tax that Canada adds on to everything. But as the Canadian's like to say, they have free health care...yeah...FREE....We were also surprised at how expensive things were in Canada. You would have expected that things would have been priced relatively the same, give that the two currencies are basically at par, but goods were just more expensive in Canada. What was really surprising was how expensive it was to go out and eat given that raw food pricing was very similar. Anyhow, we're back!

Oh, and for you boaters out there, get either an I-68 card or a NEXUS card as well as a customs sticker for your boat. This allowed us to check into the US via phone. It took 5 minutes and couldn't have been simpler.

From Sault Ste. Marie we headed to Mackinac Island with a stop at Lime Island. When we were headed up the St. Mary's river we saw that Lime Island was a state park and supposedly had a lot of history associated with it. There were cottages that you could rent, camp sites and historic sites to visit, so we thought that we'd pull in and investigate on our way back. After tying up to the freighter dock and putting out lots of fenders to protect us from wakes, we set off to explore the island. Unfortunately we only found the ruins of some lime kilns and the tanks that used to refuel freighters of old. It wasn't worth the stop, but hey, if you don't check, you'll never know. After that we pulled into a marina in the town of DeTour, which was very nice. It's a small town without a lot of attractions, but the town had botanical gardens which were quite beautiful and worth the walk.

We left DeTour and headed 36 miles to the west and kept or fingers crossed as the forecast was for 10-20 kts from the NW with much higher gusts. Luckily the winds were on the lower end of that for most of our passage and picked up to about 20 kts just as we arrived. Good timing!

Mackinac (pronounced Mack-a-naw) Island is situated in the Mackinac Straits, which connects Lake Huron to Lake Michigan. It's a relatively small island, roughly 3 miles long by 2 miles wide. It has a wonderful climate, crystal clear water and a huge portion of it has been preserved as park. Historically it was a major center for fur, fish and other trade and has been the source of many battles for possession over its history. Today over 1 million visitors come to the island on a yearly basis.

A key attribute of the island is that horseless carriages (aka motorized vehicles) are not allowed on the island. Transportation is done by foot, bicycle or horse. There's a non-stop parade of horse drawn carriages hauling people around the island and all deliveries are done via horse drawn carts/wagons. We got a good lunch when we saw the UPS guy getting off of a wagon with packages in hand! The resorts seem to have gotten approval to use horseless lawn mowers, but it appears that they have to run them at very low speed to keep the noise down to a minimum. It's really quite lovely, but you do have to watch where you step!

To get all of the tourists here there's an endless parade of ferries that haul people from Mackinac City and St. Ignace. On the hour and half hour and fleet of ferries arrives, making the marina a bit wakey. From what I can tell, most of the tourists spend their time in the downtown purchasing fudge, eating, renting bicycles or taking a horse drawn taxi to see the island. That was fine with us, as we spent most of our time hiking around the island on the myriad of foot and bike trails that crisscross the island.

There are two major attractions on the island: Ft. Mackinac and the Grand Hotel. Ft. Mackinac is situated on a large hill which provides beautiful views of harbor and straits. We were surprised at how much there was to see and do, as we were there for almost 4 hours, but that included lunch overlooking the harbor. From there we hiked to Arch Rock, Sugar Rock, Point Lookout, Skull Cave (don't get too excited) and then to the Grand Hotel. The Grand Hotel was built in the 1880s and immediately became a destination for the rich and famous and significantly altered the character of island. It's a magnificent structure, but unfortunately we didn't visit the hotel as they charge non-guests $10 to visit the grounds. It still draws people from all over the world to its restaurants and rooms.

From here we're headed to Mackinac City, which is only about 8 miles away, so that we can explore the historic sites there and wait for the winds to subside so that we can move S along the MI coastline.

-- Geoff & Sue

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For the cruiser:

Lime Island: The depths along the dock were 8-10'. The dock was a high cement wall with rings imbedded. Watch out for wakes from freighters!

DeTour: Very nice staff and good docks. They claim that they're basically never full. They charge the standard MI state marina rates.

Mackinac: Another state run marina, but this one is full most of the season. Luckily we were there on the shoulder and got in without any issues. Unless you brought your dinner jacket for the Grand Hotel, you'll be eating in the restaurants down town. We can't recommend any of them for dinner, but lunch is OK. Have lunch at the fort and enjoy the view. Note that bikes are expensive to rent, so bring your own if you can.

Log ID: 1383