DeTour Village–Lake Huron–St. Ignace
Hoping for fair winds and following seas, we left DeTour Village Marina at 6:30 and headed to St. Ignace. Our smoothest day on the water for quite a while, this 38 plus mile leg seemed to go more quickly.
Looking back on Huron 
Looking ahead on Huron
Forecasts call for a day or 2 of somewhat calm seas, and then several days of stronger than normal winds. We’ve been told that Lake Michigan can get pretty angry when the winds get up. Our plan is to enjoy marinas as much as necessary in the coming days because anchoring out options are very limited, not to mention the unpredictability of weather preempts the idea. Marinas along the East coast of Lake Michigan are generally every 20 miles or so, and well protected. This gives boaters an opportunity to tuck in for the unexpected weather pattern changes that make a beautiful boating day turn sour very quickly.
After getting settled into the St. Ignace Marina, we caught a ferry over to Mackinac Island. Sandy, in our buddy boat, has had Mackinac on her bucket list for a long time. Being Labor Day weekend, we soon discovered Mackinac was on many people’s bucket list. Beautiful weather and a long weekend was enough motivation for families to make this their destination for the last weekend of the summer.
We enjoyed a carriage ride tour of the island with our guide, Paul, from Transylvania (Romania)! Many attempts at humor and a couple times successful, we learned that Mackinac has many lilac trees, 72 varieties. Also, there is 1 doctor on the island, and 4 veterinarians. Paul said it’s better to a horse than a person on Mackinac (and the crowd roared with laughter). The governor of Michigan has her summer home here and is known to be friendly to all the common folks as they tour. We did not see her, nor get invited in for tea.
Arch Rock, as it is known, is made from limestone, like the entire island. Experts say that wind and water erosion will eliminate this formation in less than 50 years.
Fancy barn. Not large enough to keep all the horses used for transportation on the island, however.
After finishing the carriage tour and carriage museum, we were dropped at the Grand Hotel. Three hundred plus rooms, the 600’ long porch was quite spectacular. A fancy party on the 2nd level kept us commoners on the ground level, admiring the high class cocktail and evening dresses, wondering what the life of the rich and famous is all about.
“Peg” (aka Amanda), on the right, takes in the spectacular Grand Hotel.
The long day was starting to take its toll on my peg-legged partner, so we caught a carriage taxi from the hotel back to the launch point for the water ferry.
The water ferries throw huge rooster tails as they transit to and from the mainland. Not sure why, unless it’s fun, or so they can be seen more easily by other boat traffic.
After disembarking, we stopped at the Driftwood Grille, had dinner, and caught a shuttle back to the boat. I watched Auburn come from behind to squeak out a win over the Oregon Ducks, and 30 seconds later, I was out like everybody else. We packed as much into this day as possible.