Drummond Island, MI
August 10 - 12, 2019
We departed Blind River at 8:35am for our 46-mile trip to Drummond Island. The weather was Sunny with a light breeze. It was cool enough that we both wore jeans, socks and flannel shirts. We had a bad feeling we have come too far north.
The bright sunshine had us warmed up by 10am. The wind began picking up around 12:30 and a few clouds were forming as we wove our way though some small islands along the south side of North Channel. We docked at Drummond Island Yacht Haven at 1:50pm and Brian was off to the little phone booth at the marina to clear customs back into the US. Clearing customs was quick and easy using an App on a cell phone called CBP ROAM. The process works well as long as you had filed the right information when departing the US. We were ready to settle back into our US world by 2:15.
Drummond Island marina is a small family owned operation. They had a couple curtesy cars available for use which turned out very handy getting to local restaurants and the grocery store. The facilities were a little limited and we could only get one 30amp power hookup.
We noticed a large yacht from Kenosha named Nancy D. Her owners were not around, but we learned that they frequently come up here for a couple weeks every summer.
The Marina had a lot of grassy areas, so Bo was happy. The shoreline was lined with large rocks, so Bo also had a chance to do some water exploration. We went into town that evening for great dinner at Esther's Authentic Mexican Restaurant.
Our next day at Drummond Island (8/11) was spent doing boat chores. Sue hit the marina laundry to do some of the bigger items. Brian did some electrical trouble shooting to find out why the engines turned over really slow when we left Blind River. He found a dead cell in one of the main batteries. While we could always use the generator battery to help start the main engines (with jumper cables), we needed to find a main battery replacement as soon as we got to a more populated location. A couple phone calls later, we found a boat yard in Mackinaw City that had the battery we needed in stock and was located near the Mackinaw City marina. Our next destination was now set.
We borrowed one of the courtesy cars to make another trip into town. We passed by the IGA (with Big Foot at the doorway) and caught dinner at Northwoods restaurant. The evening was spent preparing to get underway in the morning for Mackinaw City Marina located at the south end of Mackinac Bridge.