Woke up early to weigh anchor and heard the call of multiple Sandhills Cranes which nest in the Harbor Island conservation area where we anchored.
Pulling up the anchor proved to be a deweeding affair. We had to pull up about 6 feet of chain at a time and take the weeds out by hand. Took us about 30 minutes to get the chain and anchor all in with stopping so often due to the fact of the weeds.
Anchor deployed, we left the anchorage to head west to meander through all the small islands north of Drummond Island. As we got into bigger water we could see two large freighters that were anchored awaiting entrance to the Soo Locks and enter Lake Superior. This is the closest we get to Lake Superior as we cross the main shipping channel and St Mary’s River which separates the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and St Joseph’s Island in Canada.
A little history lesson. Fort St Joseph, established in 1691 by the French to protect the St Mary’ River fur trade route. It was located on the southeastern tip of the island. The British used the fort to stage the first battle of the War of 1812. Remains from the fort are still being discovered thru archeological digs in the area.
Crossing the shipping channel, we enter DeTour Passage which separates Drummond Island with the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. There are a few homes and a mining operation on the Drummond Island side and the tourist town of DeTour, MI on the Upper Peninsula side. A ferry runs between Drummond and DeTour carrying tourists to the camp grounds and park trails.
As we leave DeTour Passage are greeted by the DeTour Reef Light marking the entrance to the shipping channel. We are now in Lake Huron.
Turning west, we cross the 30 miles of Lake Huron as we head toward St Ignace on the west side of the Upper Peninsula. We traveled close to shore so we could see the rocky forested shore and beaches, with a scattering of homes.
The clouds began to dissipate as we headed west. lake Huron’s sea were blessedly calm. Nice to know that the weather and the sea buoy can be accurate!
We past Martin Reef Light, a waypoint at about 10:00. We are now half way to St Ignace. With the sun coming out the waters of the lake are so blue!
By 11:30, we passed Goose Island and it’s Shoal, another major waypoint and we can now see Mackinac Island in the distance. We will travel around Mackinac today but will visit it by ferry and on the 16th stay at the marina there for the evening.
Traveling past Mackinac we head south to enter the break wall protecting the St Ignace Municipal Marina.
The water in the marina is so clear you can see the bottom and all the aquatic plant life.
We got our selves hooked up to electrical and water and checked in with the marina. They offered to drive us to the grocery and we jumped at the chance. With grocery list in hand we tackled that chore and succeeded in getting everything on the list, then tackled putting it all away.
History of St Ignace
St Ignace was established in 1671 by Jesuit Missionary, Father Marquette, which makes St Ignace the second oldest city in Michigan. (The city was named for St Ignacious of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit Order). Located on the western end of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula it was a prime location for trading. The French built Fort deBaude, here in 1683 and occupied it til 1701. The fort crumbled from disuse and archeologist are still looking for its remains today. The initial settlement and later the town that developed around it made its fortune via the fur trade, lumber, boat building, shipping, wreck salvage, ferries and fishing.
The town is known today for its lighthouse and lakefront boardwalk, the Ojibwa Culture Museum, Castle Rock, a 200 foot sea stack, tourism and its many ferries to Mackinac Island.
Back to our day - Decided to splurge and go out to eat dinner. We then walked through town stepping into the few stores still open. Then we walked back on the boardwalk that had signs relaying the history of the town along the way.
As we walked to the small downtown and we saw the Colonial House, built around 1900, which is today a hotel
and Anthony’s Rock a 50 foot sea stack just off its Main Street. Was interesting to learn that the sea stacks formed when limestone caves collapsed and pressure caused breccia to form which is harder than the rock around it. So as the surrounding rock eroded away, the breccia sea stack remained. There are many sea stacks all over the Upper Peninsula.
We walked the lakefront boardwalk on the way back to the boat and read all the signs that gave us insight into the history of shipping and trading in St Ignace and how the lumber industry money supported the establishing of the First National Bank here in town. First National Bank was one the first banks established in the US.
Then of course we had to have some locally made ice cream. Delicious!
Day 85. 2nd year. August 14. Lay day in St Ignace
Slept in a bit later today and then took on the laundry chores and defrosted the refrigerator. Sounds like fun!? We also purchased tickets for our ferry ride over to Mackinac Island tomorrow.
Chores completed we walked back into town to enjoy a pizza lunch. Was delicious. While we ate we watched the ferries go by.
We then walked through the Ojibwa Cultural Museum. Here we learned about the Native Indian tribes of this area- the Odawa, Huron and Ojibwa tribes and their interaction with the French fur traders and the Jesuit Missionaries, then the English and then Americans. We especially enjoyed the native crafts, porcupine quill baskets, elk horn carvings, birch bark baskets and canoes. Was fascinating to see how birch bark wigwams were constructed.
On our way back to the boat, we stopped in some of the shops of local artists and photographers.
Managed to purchase a few things for the grandkids and for our kids. Bill went overboard in purchasing post cards which necessitated his running to the post office to get stamps. When I say running, Bill actually had to run down the street to get to the post office before it closed for the day.
After dinner, we worked on the blog and our postcards and then hit the sack.