Farewell Canada, Hello Michigan

Tuesday, August 11th felt like a milestone. We were able to sail most of the way to Drummond Island, MICHIGAN – back in the good old United States of America!

The U.S. Customs Agents come right to your boat to check you back into the country. We didn’t need to show our passports but many of the same questions were asked plus “did we have any citrus fruit on board?” Since we had the completed I-68 forms with us, we could have checked in by phone but we needed fuel anyway and this way seemed more official!

We anchored that night off Harbor Island, only about a mile from Drummond. We had a great 33 days in Ontario but it felt good to be back in the U.S. Paul decided he wouldn’t miss charts showing meters, fathoms and sometimes feet and the Canadian weather forecasts on the marine radio (no detailed information and the French portion seemed to be on whenever we tuned in). I will miss asking if I could have “two loonies for a twonie” for the washers!

The next day we passed the DeTour Reef Light and we were officially back into Lake Huron from the North Channel. The light marks the DeTour Passage where ships heading up the St. Mary's River would travel heading to and from Lake Superior. It looked very stately and the American flag flying proudly was a nice touch.
We anchored in the Le Cheneaux Islands, also known as “the channels” or “the snows”. Most of the islands are privately owned but Government Island is public land and has a great anchorage. We spent one night there and I can tell you the water is just as chilly here as it was in Canada – brrr! As of today we are once again able to use our cell phones. I think I’ll like not feeling so out of touch.

On Thursday we crossed the Straits of Mackinac, which has been a crossroads of the Great Lakes since 1670. It's located at the meeting of Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. We sailed around the north shore of Mackinac Island instead of the busy south side. We didn’t plan to visit the Island as we’d been there twice previously when our kids were on band trips. We got a glimpse of the Grand Hotel passing by but were able to avoid all the ferry traffic such as you see below.


We had planned to dock in St. Ignace since we hadn’t been there before but we found out through a few phone calls that in Mackinaw City, we’d have access to a diesel service facility. We were able to have someone look at the engine the next morning. Nothing major, we just needed to have the driveshaft re-aligned. We were having a lot of vibration at higher RPMs and hopefully this will take care of it.

It was fun knocking around Mackinaw City, lots of shops, lots of chances to buy FUDGE, which we did. We took a long walk up to the restored Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse. Here's part of the lighthouse with the Mackinac Bridge in the distance.

There’s a free museum telling about the building of the Mackinac Bridge, completed on November 1, 1957. Before the bridge, vehicles would take ferries from one peninsula of Michigan to the other. Now over four million vehicles cross the Bridge every year. Here’s “MIGHTY MAC” from a park on shore.


It’s really a majestic-looking sight and we’ll get an even better view tomorrow sailing under it. We feel we’re in familiar waters now since we’ve been here before. Ever Onward!!