7-9-18 – 7-10-18 Shipwrecks and a Forest Fire

7-9-18 – 7-10-18 Shipwrecks and a Forest Fire

We left the Marina close to noon and planned to only travel up Lake Charlevoix to find an anchorage.  That lake is huge.  It took us about an hour and a half to travel from one end to the other.  We had a long travel day the next day, so we anchored on Oyster Bay close to Lake Michigan.

Dave Wolfe told us there are two shipwrecks in this bay.  You can see them on Google Earth.  Once we dropped anchor out came the snorkel gear and off we went ship hunting.  We found them quite easily.  There were mostly wood planks etc. but was still interesting nonetheless.  The one near the nature preserve had more to see. We saw lots of small panfish taking refuge within the wreck.  One thing that surprised me, was the moderately sized pike sitting stock still in the weeds.  We swam right over him a couple times and he never moved.  I never envisioned a Pike hiding out like that.  We found out that there are 6 ships buried there. It was the graveyard for old ships.  They were brought there and sunk on purpose. It was a great way to spend the afternoon.

Here I am struggling to get into the dinghy from the water. I have some strengthening to do before we get to the Bahamas. I did it so easily then.
What a snorkel face.

The next day we had about a 10-hour day to get to Hessel, MI in the Les Cheneaux Island area.  We crossed under the Mackinaw bridge, which is always a thrill.  And of course, we threw a penny in the water while under the bridge to assure safe travels.  In case the copper mines dry up in the UP they can start dredging under the bridge for all the pennies that have been thrown.😊

Our destination was Hessel in the Les Chenaux Islands.  We watched the wind patterns and picked our anchorage, but once again the winds shifted and were not favorable for that side of the land.  Not to mention it was predicted to be 10 knots but, we were recording nearly 30 knots of winds.  To add to it there was a forest fire up wind of us. So the potential of a rough night at anchor and smelling heavy smoke all night drove us on.  We drove another hour into a more protected anchorage with no smoke and had a lovely night along with several sailboats seeking the same refuge.  The next day we didn’t really feel like back tracking back to Hessel especially knowing we can come back this way and possibly spend more time there. Onward to Sault St. Marie.

Thanks for reading,

Karen and Scott

m/v Last Call

Unique Random Photo of The Day:

If you steal your mother’s phone and take dufus pictures of yourself, you will find yourself as the “Unique Random Photo of The Day” Just saying.