Day 97 to De Tour, Michigan

      Today we leave St. Ignace and venture to De Tour Harbor Marina, De Tour Village, MI, which is a 44.2 mile trip. De Tour is a French word meaning "the turn" and the Chippewa Indian name for this area was 'giwideonaning' meaning "point which we go around in a canoe".  The locals pronounce it like the more familiar "detour" where traffic is re-routed around road construction.
      Before leaving we took on 105 gallons of diesel and did the obligatory pump out.  While at the fuel dock a Coast Guard boat came in and turned around and headed out.  We thought for sure we would be approached once we left, but we never saw sight of them after the marina. We have not been boarded and inspected since Day 3 just east of Beaumont, Texas so we figure that it is about time...

The day started with fog and visibility of about a half mile. We turned on the running light, set the fog horn and turned on the radar. We also proceeded at slightly under our normal cruising speed. At 8 mph it takes about 4 second for us to travel one boat length so with up to a half mile visibility we have plenty of time to avoid debris in the water and other boats. We headed north and then east to go around the north side of Mackinac Island where we began to parallel the main shipping channel to Sault St Marie and the Soo Locks. We saw several freighters on the AIS, but their closest approach was abut 5 miles so we never saw them in the fog. We could hear their fog horns as they approached. Around Noon, the fog began to lift, and we saw the Martin Reef Lighthouse, which is about 13 miles west of the De Tour Passage (photo above right). It is also about 2 miles north of the westbound ship channel here.

       Our next point of interest was the De Tour Passage Lighthouse where ships turn to head more north through the De Tour Passage (or channel). The light is 74 feet above the big concrete base. The lighthouse has been deactivated, but it is possible to book tours or even make an overnight stay. However, if the weather turned sour, it might be several days before you could safely leave the lighthouse...

     At the same time we also passed the lake freighter Manitoulin down bound from Lake Superior with a load of Taconite pellets (iron ore) as she was coming out of the De Tour Passage and about to make a turn (or "detour") to the west as she passed the De Tour Lighthouse. According to the information on the AIS the 664 foot long ship had a closest approach to us of 4.8 miles, and she was travelling 14.8 mph. As you can see, the fog has largely lifted, but a thick haze remains. The Manitoulin is a little unconventional as you can see that the crane/conveyor belt for the self unloader is mounted on the bow. The majority of the self unloader had the conveyer mounted near the stern.

      As we continued into the De Tour Passage, we passed a gill net commercial fishing boat working a net. The profile of the boat is shown in the first picture where you can see large doors on the side near the bow and stern and an additional door across much of the stern.

      In the close up view in the photo at the right the net is being pulled into the door on the stern. The net is going back out through the door near the stern on the far side. There is a pull on both the net coming in and going out. This helps hold the boat in a constant position relative to the waves. They can choose which doors to use depending on the direction of the waves to help keep the boat as steady as possible. I have seen these boats on the Great Lakes since I was a little kid, but I had never had a real close up view of the whole process until today...

      As we approached our marina in De Tour on the west side of the passage we saw a huge gravel company on the waterfront across the river. The quarry is out of sight in the background. Here we see huge piles of crushed limestone waiting to be loaded onto a large self unloading barge for transport to a steel plant. The gravel plant is on Drummond Island. There is a chain of islands in a row, and Drummond Island near the middle is the only one that is in the U.S.  It makes me wonder how and why they carved up these island to give only one to the U.S. while all of the others are in Canada...

     A short distance to the north (left) of the gravel plant is the Drummond Island Ferry Terminal for the ferry from the mainland at De Tour. The Drummond Islander III is on the right and the Drummond Islander IV is on the left (photo at right). The D. I. IV had just docked and unloaded. It returned a short time later with a full load of vehicles for De Tour.

      By this time we were ready to make our turn into the De Tour municipal Marina. The photo was taken from the flybridge of Lucky Us after we were safely docked. As you can see, the marina was not very busy. Here we are kind of off the usual path for boats touring the North Channel to the east, and only the pleasure craft headed up the St Marys River to pass through the Soo Locks into Lake Superior would be stopping here.

     This is a small town and we finally thought Lucky would have a break from all the crowds, ferry horns, and fireworks.  As soon as we had taken her to shore a lake freighter went by a gave a booming master salute which is 3 long and two short blasts of its horns.  Oh well, maybe our next port.

     I only have one scenic picture from the Village of De Tour, and that photo (at the right) shows and interesting wood carving called the pathfinder. With me for scale you can see that the carving really is much bigger than life.

      The marina staff recommended a local restaurant about two locks away for dinner. The photo at the left shows how I ended my day feasting on lemon pepper encrusted whitefish. It was just the right amount of lemon pepper and a bit of lemon juice. What a great way to end a wonderful day on the water. Well, wonderful at least when the fog finally started to burn off.