Island Hopping

• Horseshoe Island
• Washington Island
• Beaver Island
• Mackinac Island

We made our way up the lake to Sturgeon Bay, WI and stayed for a couple of days just to relax a little and complete some boat tasks. Then on to Peninsula Bay State Park were we anchored in Nicolet Bay for the night. This was a task we needed to do to check anchoring systems and some other stand alone systems on the boat. Everything worked well. After launching the dingy we when to Horseshoe Island and walked the perimeter. Not much to see, it was just something fun to do.

Next stop Washington Island, WI. This Island is located at the top of the Door Peninsula. The Visitors booth used to be on wheels so they could roll it around town. We rented E-bikes for the first time to try them out. Dorothy and I are considering purchasing electric bikes for the rest of our trip. They are really nice especially on the hills. We rode to some of Dorothy’s old family vacation spots. Schoolhouse Beach, Sand Dunes Park and Jackson Harbor. At the end of the day we had gone about 25 miles all over the island. My behind was sore, but that’s probably too much information.

There is always some boat project to do. I worked on the riser for our upper helm seats. This will give us better visibility when driving.

Next is big hop across to Beaver Island. The trip was 92 miles and took us a little over 9 hours. Dorothy and I take turns driving and relaxing on long passages. Beaver is always a fun little Island with a lot of interesting history. Including Piracy and a theocratic monarchy with a self appointed King. In looking through my photo files it seems I did not take very many pictures on Beaver Island because of the heavy fog. This is looking east towards the harbor entrance. Taken from our dock.

Here is a photo from the web. We stayed in the harbor on the lower left side.

On to the next Island. We had to pass under the Mackinac Bridge. Always impressive from the water and even more fun when a Great lakes Freighter is in the area.

Round Island Lighthouse, this is the finish line for the Chicago to Mac sailboat race.

Mackinaw Island was a little different for Dorothy and I this time. We are usually on the Island because of the sailboat race, Chicago to Mackinac Island. This race runs every year during the month of July and takes anywhere from 3 to 5 days to complete. The Island is swarming with sailors having a good time. This visit was a little calmer on the streets, although there was still a lot of day tourists who came over via the ferry boats. Dorothy and I remarked to each other, we did not know anyone on the streets. During the race we could not walk 100 feet with out knowing someone to talk to.

The one person we did spend time with was my son Garrett. He came to the Island on his new boat. It s 2021 Ranger Tug. This was his first big travel adventure on the water.

We spent time biking around the island, visiting Fort Mackinac, eating fudge and dinning out.

The bike ride around the Island is about 8 miles. This year there was a bit of a detour into the inner Island, the high lake levels have caused complete washout of the road along the shore on the north end.

On to Detour, MI and the entrance to the St Marys River.