Haven't Crossed Our Wake Yet but Back in Lake Michigan!

After a few days on Mackinac Island, we crossed Mackinac Straits, left Lake Huron and arrived in the north end of Lake Michigan. It's hard to appreciate the scale of these lakes. As some of you know, Maine is larger than the other five states in New England combined and Lake Michigan covers 70% of the area of Maine. It's 307 miles long, almost the distance from Kittery to Fort Kent, and 118 across--a BIG lake.

But first, we really enjoyed Mackinac Island. Highlights included the wagon ride tour mentioned in my previous log, a horse taxi ride to and from the Grand Hotel where we had drinks and heavy hors d'oeuvres at the new Cupola Bar, and for me, an eight mile bike ride around the perimeter of the island (the Admiral rode the first three miles with me and then turned back).

But not all can be rosy and while we were at the Island, our shower sump pump failed leading to a frustrating afternoon digging hair and guck (technical word) out of the pump filter, impeller and float valve and struggling unsuccessfully to get the system

working again. That led to another afternoon replacing the float valve after we got to Harbor Springs. The system now works but I don't trust it yet.. Hopefully a new pump ordered on Amazon will greet us when we get to Leland and solve our problem if it comes back, at least for a while. This fall, I'll install a different, better designed pump.

In any event, on Wednesday, we left Mackinac Island, traversed the Straits of Mackinac, entered Lake Michigan, and made our way to Harbor Springs. NOAA forecast 10-12 knot winds from the west with seas of 1-2 feet. Luckily, we turned on SeaKeeper. NOAA definitely got the wind forecast right but leftover swells from the south piled on with the new waves from the west. In places, especially where Lake Michigan met the Straits of Mackinac, the waves pile up to a gnarly three feet and maybe even sometimes four. That's zero problem for Katahdin but it did prompt the Admiral to down a Dramamine and lie down in her I'm not feeling so great place.

Things smoothed out a bit as we headed down the lake and we enjoyed looking at the many sandy beaches that line the shore of this part of the lake. We arrived at Harbor Springs without incident.

I don't have much to report about Harbor Springs yet--an upscale boating oriented community--because I spent the afternoon after we arrived on my knees with my elbows in the shower sump and walking back and forth to the parts store to buy miscellaneous items I needed for the repair.

The two pictures below are from our walk to dinner.