Back to the USA



Our plans changed a little. We did go to Blind River and spent the night in the Marina there. We took the bikes into town and did some exploring. This was the biggest town we’d seen in a long time – they even had a Kentucky Fried Chicken, which Clay had to check out. Once again we met some wonderful people and received more local knowledge so we decided to change our plans. We were told about a group of islands southeast of where we were that isolated and beautiful. Feeling nervous about leaving the quiet little anchorages we’ve been experiencing we decided to take that route and if we wanted to head back to our planned route we could. The next morning we headed to East Grant Island. It was a beautiful spot, but the wind was up quite a bit, so we never got to shore. In the morning the wind was coming from the northwest which would give us a great sail to Drummond – which we did. We had an excellent sail – surfing on the waves. We arrived in Drummond shortly before noon, had a speedy check in with customs and decided to run with the wind. We ran into some friends we’d made along the way on Adagio that were headed to the Les Cheneaux Islands. Another wonderful sail we arrived in Hessel early in the afternoon. On our way in the channel we got to see some nice cottages with beautiful boat houses and meticulously polished wooden boats. Some of them had two and three. Evidently Hessel was the original distributor of Chris Craft boats. We anchored and rowed into town to explore. To our pleasant surprise, they were having their annual wooden boat show the next day. There were acres upon acres of varnish. It was a real treat for Clay – and I enjoyed it too.





On Sunday we pulled anchor and headed for Mackinac Island. The wind wasn’t favoring so we motored the entire way – but it was a short jaunt and we arrived in time to go visit the old fort and historical old town. For those who haven’t experienced Mackinac Island, they have done their best to keep the island flavor – there are no motorized vehicles allowed on the island with the exception of fire and rescue vehicles. You can walk, ride a bike or take a horse drawn buggy ride. We did a lot of the first two. The wind really picked up and going through the Straits of Mackinaw was not a good idea in those conditions. We ended up staying on Mackinac for three days. We had plenty of time to explore, so we rode our bikes and made a complete circle of the island. On Wednesday morning we headed for the “bridge”. I needed some prescriptions refilled and the only Walgreen’s near the water was in Petoskey. This was a little off our planned route, but it was a necessary stop. The marina was kind enough to let us tie up while we went to shore to the pharmacy. Once again we had a hike, but we found a West Marine on the way, so it wasn’t quite so bad. With prescriptions on board, we head back out and got to Charlevoix in time for dinner. Charlevoix is a really quaint little place, very popular vacation spot. After asking one of the dock hands where the nearest place was to get propane, he handed us the keys to his car – how nice was that? We stayed two days – explored Lake Charlevoix and attended a concert in the park. Next port – Frankfort.