Mackinac Island to Hammond Bay Harbor
I haven't been able to post anything for the last few days as I've been in places with very weak cell signal, let alone luxuries like wifi.
I stayed on Mackinac Island a few more hours. I walked up to the fort first, and was pretty much by myself. I got a cannon shot demonstration (they shoot it every full hour during the day), and walked around the battlements. Mackinac was a strategically important place for much of the 1800s.
On the way up the fort I saw a strange structure - a tree bark chapel. Apparently this is a replica of some chapel the missionaries here built to convert the natives. Those missionaries and explorers were seriously nuts, travelling the lakes in canoes. Compared with that travelling on the Caprice is the height of luxury.
My propane situation was getting a little tight. So far on this trip I hadn't found anywhere to refill my 10 pound aluminum tank, and the little one-pound bottles tended to be very expensive. Here they were $6.99 (in Chicago you can find them for $2.50-$2.99).
I next rented a bike to go around the island - there's an asphalt road all the way along the coastline which made for a quick circumnavigation of less than an hour. The flies and cold got to me a little though, and after lunch on the Caprice I got out of there.
I headed south across the strait and then ESE along the coast. With brisk following winds but manageable waves, this became a very fast sail, often reaching Caprice max speeds. This boat is made for those kinds of conditions. I decided I couldn't stop now and continued down the coast towards Hammond Bay Harbor. I briefly toyed with the idea of even going further to Rogers City, but that would have been a very long ride. When I had to turn into the wind outside the harbor to lower the sails, I realized that wind velocity had gotten pretty high, one often doesn't notice when one has wind and waves from the quarter.
Hammond Bay Harbor was deserted, apart from one forlorn docked sailboat and fishing boat. Nobody to be seen anywhere.
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