Day 72 – Tuesday, August 3, 2010

45° 46.714’ N
084° 43.308’ W
Mackinaw City, Michigan

First of all – HAPPY “25th” ANNIVERSARY – to Sherri & Mark!

Leaving DeTour

De Tour Lighthouse

Today was a slow and tedious day. We didn’t see much for five and a half hours due to haze and fog! Within a few miles of the harbor just past the light house that sits in Lake Huron, we could see shadows about a mile off even though the sky and shore line had disappeared from our sight. The feeling I had reminded me that as a young boy we would make tents out of bed sheets. While in the tent every thing was bathed in white light but you couldn’t see any thing on the out side of the enclosure, that’s the way it was most of today! As we came closer to the mainland the sky came into view but not very much of the shore line. Once in the harbor it was like a different world. There wasn’t any fog, rain or any unpleasant weather to be dealt with. With blue skies over head, we rode our bikes into town and had pizza and a few beers before calling it a day.

Mackinaw Island

Tomorrow John’s boat will be lifted out of the water and have the port prop and shaft checked. There seems to be some type of problem and its time to get it repaired before something major breaks!

We will stay with John and Barb until their boat problem is diagnosed tomorrow and if repaired tomorrow follow them into Lake Michigan via the Straits of Mackinaw! Once in Lake Michigan we will part company for three or four weeks. They will tour part of Green Bay and the Wisconsin shore line before crossing over to the Michigan side and entering the Illinois River. Barb and I will head south down the coast of Michigan and steer for the Illinois River. We will leave the boat and return home for a few weeks, while having some work done on the boat. We plan to rejoin the Flints somewhere on the Illinois River before heading south to the Gulf of Mexico. We haven’t decided if we will enter the Gulf at this time due to the oil problems!