We left Alpina, Michigan (for the second time) at 8:15 am headed 40.5 miles to Presque Isle State Harbor. We had gone a 1/4 mile the first time before we realized that we had forgotten to turn in the bathroom keys. Fortunately, the Dockmaster came out and reached out for the keys so that we did not actually have to dock again. We had to back track a few miles to actually exit Thunder Bay, and as we were doing that the Fish & Game Warden decided to pay us a visit. All that he wanted was to see our registration and documentation certificates (picture at right). A nice guy just doing his job with as little inconvenience as possible.
As we rounded the northern corner of the mouth of the bay, we passed the Thunder Bay Island Lighthouse. There are a series of small islands and shoals that sort of connect to the mainland. The bed rock shoreline illustrates the dangers around this northern part of the entrance to Thunder Bay.
We did not know it yet, but today was going to be a day full of lighthouses.
A few miles further north we passed the Middle Island Lighthouse. Once again, the lighthouse marked a bend in the shoreline and more shallow areas just off shore. We were able to turn toward shore after passing the shoals and got close enough for some lovely views of the lighthouse. The shoreline appeared to be a natural berm of larger rocks that had been piled up by the waves. You can see how light the wind was along with a pretty clear sky. The remainder of the trip was pretty barren coast with not much change in the heavily wooded shoreline. We spent about the last hour in light (?) fog. Once again we could see large power boats passing us in both directions at high rates of speed. When we got to the marina there were two large (about 50 feet) power boats at the fuel dock. There is no guarantee, but judging from other new arrivals, these were probably two of the ones that passed us. THEN, they decided to wait for the fog to lift before going further. Sure enough, about 3 hours later they roared off at high speed...
Presque is literally French for peninsula, and Presque Isle had long since been a harbor of refuge from storms. Now, the state of Michigan has built a heavily protected boat harbor for pleasure craft. The breakwater is about 12 feet high on the lake side, and you can see how clear the water is. We could see the bottom quite clearly in 10 feet of water at our dock. We did not spend a lot of time staring at the water, but we did see one large fish. I estimated it to be about 30 inches, but remember that fishermen lie...
Once settled into the marina, we learned that the store across the street had free loaner bikes. Thus, we did not have to even unload our bikes from the boat to visit the local lighthouses. So, we set out to visit the Old Presque Isle Lighthouse. It was a flat ride on a trip of about 0.4 miles, and much to our surprise, the loaner bikes were in nearly new condition. The old lighthouse was only 45 steps to the top, which made it an easy climb. The bad news was that the lighthouse was not tall enough to project over the local forest so it proved fairly ineffective. It was completed in 1840, and the last light keeper was appointed by President Lincoln. The tapered lower 2/3 of the lighthouse was made of native stone with the top being a straight cylinder of brick. The picture at the right shows the Admiral and Seaman 3rd class (Ann) at the top. Yes, after taking the picture, I did climb up to the top.
The picture at the left shows Ann with the Fresnel Lens for the light. The lighthouse and the keeper's house had been very nicely restored. The last light keeper had four sons who all became light keepers. I suppose that after growing up here they were used to the life of isolation.
I must admit that at this point that I wimped out when it came to riding another mile to the New Presque Isle Lighthouse. The new lighthouse, which was built in 1870, is more than 3 times as high as the old one and definitely solved the problem of the nearby trees.
The prize for the best picture of the day goes to.... Well, it turns out that both of the ladies took about the same spectacular view of the stairs looking up.
The last picture for today is of the original 3rd order Fresnel lens, which is on display.
Like I said earlier, today was BIG on lighthouses, which was fine with all of us.
We finished the day off with a lovely dinner at the waterfront restaurant at the marina. Then we went back to the boat and got ready for a short evening and then sleep, wonderful sleep...
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