Well.... Yesterday may have been mainly lighthouses, but lighthouses are everywhere on the Great Lakes. The bike trip that the ladies took yesterday included the New Presque Isle Lighthouse. That lighthouse is in the center of the long peninsula that forms Presque Isle. As you can see in the photo at the right, it is therefore less spectacular from the water.
Our trip from Presque Isle to Cheboygan was a total of 57.0 miles and took about 7 hours. There was haze but no (early morning) patchy fog as had been predicted. We are very close to the Straits of Mackinac so we did go into a 1+ mph current for most of the last two hours.
We could go fairly close to shore in fairly deep waters thanks to a steep drop off several hundred yards off shore. The next really good photo opportunity was (you guessed it) the Poe Reef Lighthouse (photo at left.). The land in the background is Bois Blanc Island, which is quite long and forms the northern boundary of the shipping channel through the Straits of Mackinac. Our destination tomorrow is Mackinaw City, Michigan, which is just a 16+ mile trip beyond Cheboygan so we could see the beautiful suspension bridge over the Mackinac Straights near the end of today's voyage.
We did begin to see much more boat traffic, which was mainly larger pleasure craft that were probably beginning or ending vacations in the area. Anyway, most (all?) seemed to be really making knots (i.e. speed)... As we entered the channel at Cheboygan, we saw this beautiful red channel marker, which looked like a miniature lighthouse. Just to the right (west) of the light was a busy public beach. The channel was busy with lots of small boat traffic, which may have been related to a Salmon Fishing Tournament with $10,000.00 in prizes.
To get to the Cheboygan City Marina, we had to pass through a bascule bridge that opened on the quarter/three-quarter hour cycle. The picture at the left shows a sea-going tug-tanker combination. This view of the stern shows how tightly the tug fits into the stern of the tanker barge. In the picture we are headed up the channel about to pass these vessels. The wind was being funneled up the river, so we went around the tug-barge to get a wind break where we could "hang out" until the bridge opening. We had some river current toward Lucky Us and the wind from behind so I was busy during our 15 minute break (Note: you're supposed to feel sorry for poor me... ha ha).
While we were hanging out, we had a lovely view of some tugs moored at a dock on the west (right) side of the river. As you know, the tug pictures are added especially for our Grandson Will who really likes tugs (and trains).
I do not have a bridge picture because once the bridge started to open, it suddenly got very busy. The bridge had a vertical clearance of 9 feet when closed, but of course, two small outboard fishing boats with a height of maybe 4 feet had to pass through the bridge at the same time. Just to make it more exciting, they immediately increased their speed just enough to produce big wakes in the (narrow) 50 foot wide channel under the bridge.
Just past the bridge there is a dock/terminal for the Bois Blanc ferry, and just after that, we docked on the wall at the Cheboygan City Marina. It was a nice wall with a park and families fishing from the wall. Amazingly, the public restroom facilities in the park were among the cleanest of any marina that we have stayed at on our trip.
For some of us it was then time for a well deserved nap while the Admiral walked a block to the business district. The Admiral found some very attractive yarn spools for her loom room back in Texas. We had "light" dinners of salad and a shared appetizer, since we were going to a movie after dinner. We saw "Guardians of the Galaxy". It was enjoyable, but I guess that I was expecting more cute/funny than it seemed.
The last picture (at the left) shows the Admiral and Seaman 3rd Class (Ann) standing on the bascule bridge with the marina in the background.
A nice ending to a very nice day!
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