Leg 6 of our 2022 cruise up north
(to read about Leg 5, Northport to Garden Island, click here)
After waiting on weather a few days earlier, then making slow progress in light winds after, we hoped today to put in a bunch of miles. Fortunately, the forecasted southwest winds at 15-20 materialized a little after sunrise today, with hazy but otherwise sunny skies.
Since we were now near the north end of Lake Michigan we mostly wanted to go east, and southwest winds make for a great broad reach. Initially we had too much wind for the spinnaker, so we sailed with the jib and main out of Garden Island Harbor, east near the shallows past Beaver, Garden, and Hog Islands, then on through Grey’s Reef. Our speed was a nice 7.5 to 8.5 knots with fairly flat water and not much heeling… a fast, comfortable ride.
For those of us that sail in the southern two thirds of Lake Michigan, we think of the Big Lake as being wide open water with little in the way of navigational hazards. That’s not really the case at the north end, especially east of Garden and Beaver Islands. Grey’s Reef runs between Waugoshance Point and the Beaver Island archipelago, with shallow water for many miles offshore. Fortunately, there’s a very well marked shipping channel through it all, and much of the area is well surveyed. Having a good GPS and chartplotter at the helm on Priorities definitely makes navigation much easier than when I used compass bearings and headings years ago! We sailed across the channel, then along the relatively deep section (mostly 20 feet deep) past the abandoned light house at Waugoshance Point.
We sailed under the big Mackinac Bridge, and were now on Lake Huron! Nearby were St Ignace, Mackinaw City, and Mackinac Island. While they’re all nice places to visit, it was only early afternoon, and we wanted to press on further east.
However, we hadn’t pumped out our holding tanks since departing Milwaukee 6 days earlier. All the Great Lakes are a No Discharge Zone, so holding tanks (sewage) has to be pumped out at a fuel dock. When we’re anchoring out most of the time, the most restrictive issue for us isn’t food, diesel, or water capacity, it’s holding tank capacity. When cruising the North Channel, a holding tank pump out location can be a day to two away, and combined with any weather issues can really complicate a cruise. This season we have been using both heads even though there’s only two of us aboard (yeah, “his and hers” heads… we’re not roughing it!). Using both heads means we’re using both holding tanks, so we can stretch the amount of time we can go between pump outs. 6 days since last pump out isn’t too bad, and we could stretch that another two or so, but at the 6 day point we pump out if it’s convenient.
St Ignace makes for a convenient stop near the rhumb line for fuel and pump out, so we briefly stopped at their fuel dock. We also got a splash of diesel fuel… 15 gallons… and this was the first time we refueled this season! We like to sail, not motor! One of the dock attendants mentioned they had just serviced a large powerboat with a fuel bill of $4300. Wow. I’m not mistyping that extra zero.
We continued past the very pretty but touristy Mackinac Island, with all the ferry traffic buzzing by, and there was even a cruise ship docked. Later, the wind lightened, and we flew the spinnaker the last 10 miles to Government Bay in the Les Cheneaux Islands of Michigan’s U.P. We anchored around 8pm, which made for a long 11 hour day, but we covered about 60 miles.
Thunderstorms and rain are forecasted for tonight and tomorrow, so we may be here a while. Government Bay is a nice harbor, with protection in all directions. Nearby there’s a public island with hiking trails to keep us occupied if we get stuck here.