Yup, it is confusing with two spellings (Mackinac and Mackinaw), but the locals all pronounce both of them with the "Mackinaw" spelling...Mackinac Island and the Straits of Mackinac (and bridge over the Straits) all use the Mackinac spellings, and everything else is Mackinaw...
It is perhaps very fitting that we departed Mackinac Island in the company of a classic wooden yacht. We never got that close to her while there, but she is a well loved and lovingly cared for "woody". However, just to rub it in she quickly outdistanced us. In the background is St Anne's Catholic Church, it has had a presence in the Straits of Mackinac since the arrival of Jesuit Missionaries in the 1670s, and parts of the present church date from 1780. Sadly it was closed the day that we tried to go there due to a malfunction in the sprinkler system that flooded large parts of the church, but it was due to reopen the day we left.
Another parting view is shown in the photo at the right. Up of the hill is Fort Mackinac, along the waterfront are ferry docks, and at the left of the picture is a long ferry dock with warehouses (not in picture) for goods coming to the island. The back side of the warehouse is the start of the main shopping district that extends off to the left. Part of the marina where we stayed is in the foreground in the center and right.
We also had a great final view of one of the many classic old, Victorian hotels that are on the island (photo ar right) and contribute greatly to the historical nature of the island. We had a great time here, and it will definitely rate as one of the highlights of our second Great Loop!
Now it is time to make a turn and head away from the past. Today our destination is Mackinaw City
Marina. This is a whopping 7.4 mile
trip, so less than an hour of travel time. We left at mid morning and arrived less than an hour later.
We will be staying there for two nights.
On the trip over we had another great view of the bridge over the Straits of Mackinac (photo at left). However, the real reason for this photo is to show the great weather. The sky was clear and blue, and the wind was 4 to 6 mph, which produced little more than ripples on the water. However, with 6 or more ferries departing and arriving every half hour plus lots of pleasure craft our "smooth" ride was constantly interrupted with wakes from every direction.
We did get a close up view of one of the Star Lines water jet powered ferries (photo at right) with the spectacular (artificial) rooster tale. The rooster tale gives these ferries a very distinctive look, and since you can see them from miles away, it is also probably great advertising... My quick calculation is that they go at least 25 mph, and they do our nearly hour long trip in 17 minutes. It is fun to watch them race past us, but we could probably travel for a week on the fuel that they burn on just one trip.
Once at our dock in the Mackinaw City Marina we went ashore to the office to check in and take Lucky for her obligatory walk. The marina shares the entrance and main channel with one of the ferry companies, and they blow one long blast on their horns as they are ready for departure. Lucky could do without that "strange" noise. After getting back to the boat, we had a very light lunch as we were headed for a movie at 2:00 pm. On the way to the movie we stopped at the marina store, which had a very good inventory of boat "stuff", and we made several purchases for on going projects. The movie theater is in a large mall directly across the street from the marina. The mall has an interior park like mall with a small concert area as well as beautiful landscaping, and the theater is at the far end (of course) so we passed all of the fudge shops, t-shirt stores, etc. We saw "BFG" that stands for Big Friendly Giant. The movie was okay, but the popcorn was above average, which made a big difference in my movie experience... After the movie, we exited the mall and walked back to the marina down the main shopping district. We mainly window shopped, but my favorite store was our stop for ice cream. I tried the black cherry ice cream, and I am definitely hooked on that. It is full of locally grown black cherries, and it has a strong cherry flavor without being sweet.
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