Mackinaw City to Beaver Island, MI

Crossing Lake Michigan, open water cruising

Grays Reef Light

A difficult decision today, west wind blowing really hard, this morning rain storms blowing through, but the forecast for the winds to moderate toward the end of the day. Tomorrow, east winds not usual for this time of the year and better for a Lake crossing. The next several days south winds either east south or west south not great for a crossing. We cannot do a crossing in one day but it does not appear we will have two days, one to move south and the second to move west. Consternated most of the morning and checked with loved ones, decided to start the crossing knowing we might get stuck at our next port.

Rather than going south we decided to move to Beaver Island 35 miles from Mackinaw City and mostly due west. Since the wind and waves were to moderate toward the end of the day we decided to leave at 1:30 for a 5 hour cruise to Beaver Island. We arrived by 7:00 a bit later than planned but the first 12-15 miles we were pushing through 3 ft. waves that slowed our progress. The autopilot took us through the heavy stuff and performed well all day.



Lighthouse for sale, fixer upper

At one point we identified an abandoned light house and a 58 ft. marker on the horizon, there was also a barge that was moving through the offset channel area. But there was an unidentified object on the horizon, we looked at the chart and looked at the water. We identified it must be between two other markers we could identify but what was this strange object? Well a bit of further investigation revealed that it was the tug pulling the barge, but because they are 600 feet ahead of the barge they appear to be separate objects. In this case 600 feet was three barge lengths or 8 tug lengths. It appeared they were separate objects. The puzzle solved we went back to our routine.

Nice Little Marina

 So all in all a good day, began our crossing and enjoyed the travel. Tomorrow we get up early; it will be a long travel day.

Neighbors relaxing