Run east to Cheboygan

 May 31 -- Beaver Island to Cheboygan (55 miles)

We got a late start after getting up late and then checking in and visiting with the two old locals who run the township dock and visiting with the sailors docked nearby. The locals complained about the DNR website and how it is hard to use with just one finger, but they said things will get better when the college kids show up next week to work for the summer. They also said that their docks are sold out from mid-June all the way through Labor Day. We were lucky to get a dock at all (although our backup plan was simply to anchor in the harbor.)

We had another clear calm day for cruising, with land temps predicted to be in the mid-70s. During our run we went under the Mackinac Bridge, which is the unofficial dividing line between Lakes Michigan and Huron, so this was a big day. 

The bridge is five miles long, was build in 1957, and the center suspension span is 3,800 feet long. It is very cool to drive a boat under!

Before we reached the Mackinac Bridge we passed Grays Reef Passage, which is a channel through a long line of shoals extending west from Waugoshance Point that is used by the freighters heading up and down from the south end of Lake Michigan. The south end of the channel is marked by Grays Reef Light, which was built in 1936 and automated in 1976. Before this light was build the reef was marked by a lightship.

The north end of the passage is marked by the White Shoal Light, which was built in 1910 and also automated in 1976. Wikipedia says it is the tallest lighthouse in the Great Lakes at 121' (but this must be for the structure per se and not the height above the water because there are some lighthouses built on top of cliffs or hills). This photo was taken from about five miles away at about 20X magnification.

The ruined lighthouse off the end of Waugoshance Point that used to guard this passage was built in 1850 but was deactivated in 1912 when lights or lightships further offshore were brought into service. There have been on and off efforts to restore it, but with no success. It would be an expensive project for a specialized audience. 

Cheboygan is not a very big harbor. Just a dredged river with seawalls, but the county marina is nice and convenient to town. There is an out-of-service 1884 lighthouse just inside the pier. The county marina can be seen a few hundred yards up river. 

One really nice thing about Cheboygan was that they had very few midges. The guy at the marina said they peaked a few days ago. So we gave the boat a thorough cleaning. John did the outside and Janet the inside. The dead bugs had gotten so bad -- inside and out - -that it was starting to smell a bit. Yuch!

After the boat was clean, and we were clean, we went into town for dinner at a nice little place called the Nauti Inn Bistro. It was strictly a boomer joint, with a little boomer combo playing old boomer ballads. It was a great vibe -- and very good food. Here's our little boomer girl after...

We missed a rainstorm while we were at dinner, but caught the remains of a rainbow back at the marina. It's just above the boat with the flybridge at the far left.

Cheboygan is the home port of the US Coast Guard Cutter "Mackinaw". She was built by the Marinette Marine Corporation in Marinette, Wisconsin and launched in 2005. Her  primary mission is icebreaking, but she can also serve as a buoy tender.