We left the Harrisville Municipal Harbor at 7:55 am in a light offshore breeze under very grey skies. Also, it was even cooler than yesterday morning at a brisk 56F. Even with the windows closed on the flybridge, I had a golf shirt, sweater, sweat shirt and fleece jacket on to keep warm. The weather prediction was for a slight chance of rain in the morning with increasing chances as the day progressed, but we stayed dry for the whole trip. Out voyage to Alpena, MI was 31.1 miles, and we arrived at the fuel dock for a pump out in less than four hours. As long as we stayed within 5 miles of shore the prediction was for seas of less than 1 foot. A few miles north of Harrisville, we passed the Sturgeon Point Lighthouse. The lighthouse (picture at right) marked several low islands off the shore and other shallow "reefs". There were two other areas with similar shallow areas often over one mile from shore. Thus, we stayed several miles offshore to avoid the shallows, and that distance also accounts for the grainy, long distance view of the lighthouse. With the offshore breeze the further that we got from the shore the higher the waves. However, "higher" in this case still meant less than 1 foot. For the last 13 miles we crossed Thunder Bay to Alpena, which sits several miles inside the bay on the north side. As we crossed the bay, the waves increased slightly to 1.5 and occasional 2 foot high.
The channel into Alpena split after one set of red/green channel markers into two channels. We took the port (left or west) channel to the Small Boat Harbor and downtown Alpena. The channel markers at the entrance through the breakwater were so big that they actually looked like small lighthouses (picture at left). There may be a good reason that they are so big because Thunder Bay bills itself as the graveyard of ships. We saw an ad for a glass bottom tour boat that cruises around 12+ wrecks within 5 (?) miles of Alpena so there may well be some truth to the claim.
My usual shot of the marina is at the right. I chose this picture not because its of high quality, but rather the reserved parking sign is for the US Coast Guard. Not sure that I have ever seen one of those before... We are right downtown with two movie theaters within 3 blocks. Whooooop! In fact, we went to a showing of "Lucy" at 4:00 pm. Both of the theaters are owned by the Carmike chain and are old theaters that have each been subdivided into three smaller screens. We are going to be here for three nights so my guess is that we will see at least 2 more movies. We got the matinee prices for the seats, and the combo of a large popcorn and large soda were $5.00 off with both having free re-fills. Quite the deal!
On the way back to the boat we passed the City Hall, which is a classic older building. We only went into one store, but the Admiral could not resist going into the Public Library for a Friends of the Library Book Sale that had just started...
What really attracted my attention at City Hall was this somewhat more modern canon on the front lawn. The small plaque says that it is a memorial to the USS Maine (sunk in Havana Harbor just before the start of the Spanish American War). The plaque said that it (the plaque) was made from metal salvaged from the Maine, but it did not state the origin of the canon, which was presumably the Maine (?).
Our friend Ann M. will be joining us on Thursday (today is Tuesday) for as long as 10 days. In the meantime, we will be enjoying R and R as well as a little maintenance on Lucky Us.
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