Beaver Island , MI
August 15 - 17, 2019
We departed Mackinaw City at 9:05am on August 15, 2019, exactly one year since we started this adventure on our 37th Wedding Anniversary. On August 15, 2018 we traveled the southern end of Lake Michigan from Kenosha Wisconsin to Hammond Indiana. On August 15, 2019 we celebrated our 38th Anniversary by traveling 45 miles on the far northern portion of Lake Michigan through the Mackinac Straits to Beaver Island. We have taken the long way around to get here.
Our course from Mackinaw City took us under the Mackinac Bridge, west through the Mackinac Straits, south through Grays Reef Passage, then west to Beaver Island. The passage is well marked with buoys and light houses to guide the freighters through the reef between Beaver Island and the northwestern tip of Lower Michigan. The reef presents a hazard to shipping traffic and the charts mark numerous shipwrecks in this area before the days of radar and GPS.
We arrived at Beaver Island Municipal Marina located in Paradise Bay and the town of St James at 1pm. The trip had been uneventful, but Bo was still very happy to see the lush green grass near the marina. We make a quick tour of town and had our Anniversary dinner at the Shamrock restaurant.
Beaver Island has some interesting history including a fellow named James Strang who moved a large group of Mormon followers to the island in 1848. He declared himself king of his church (which included most of the inhabitants of the island) in 1850. While he stated he was only the king of his church, he exerted authority over others on the island sometime seizing property and physically assaulting them. He was assassinated in 1856 and his nearly 2600 followers were expelled from the island. The islands year-round population now is about 600 people. Regular ferry service from Charlevoix to St John provides transport to the mainland for island residents and transport for tourists visiting the island.
August 16th consisted of boat chores, planning the next leg of the trip and a little sight-seeing. Sue was determined to get a haircut (by someone other than the captain) and found someone within walking distance of the marina that could do the job. We had dinner on the boat followed by an exciting game of scrabble where we actually made good use of the entire board instead of having everything crammed over to one side (see photo). It’s the big victories like those that really top off a good day living on a boat.
St John’s Harbor in Paradise Bay is well protected from wave action, except when the wind is coming from the southeast. As luck would have it, the wind shifted to the southeast overnight causing waves to begin hitting our hull and cause substantial boat rocking. At 3:20am, Bo was up and registering a complaint to the rest of the crew. Sue took emergency actions to quiet the potential mutiny by sleeping with him on the couch the remainder of the night. Needless to say, neither Sue nor Bo were eager to undertake activities needed to support an early departure the next morning