I'm back!

I hemmed and hawed for the past couple days about coming north.  I'm healing a leg injury so the status of that was playing a part of the decision, then there's the midge fly issue.  I called the marina and due to the wind, the flies were gone.  I decided that was good enough and left a cold, rainy, southern Michigan.

But the promise was that conditions would improve as I traveled north.  What a difference 250 miles makes.

Cold, sunny northern Michigan...

...and a hang on to your hat kind of wind blowing off the lake.

It was a bit choppy across the Straits toward Mackinac Island...

...and the bridge.

It wasn't terribly rough as the water is somewhat protected from most any wind, but the ferry riders were being warned of a wet ride for those on the top deck so there had to be a serious chop out there.

I noticed a new sight as I arrived at the marina.  Seems Shepler's has a new ferryboat in the driveway.

They're building some kind of temporary structure over the hull to protect it while it is painted and equipped.  It's like a big Erector Set.

It has three props.  Bet those aren't cheap.

The hull looks to be a little bigger than the boats now in service although it can't be any longer in order to be able to turn in the marina basin.

Probably just seems bigger because it's all there on the pavement.  It is to be christened the "Miss Margy" according to what I read.

I took a stroll out to the end of the pier and noticed the same line of sailboats that sat there all last year.  Some of those boats have registrations that are over 10 years old.  Such a waste.  They'll deteriorate until they're junk.

So, this is what I've been waiting for after 40 years of work.

Sunday evening, the weather turns clear and calm after a weekend of rain and wind and I have the run of the marina.

Doesn't get any better than that.

Forecast is for calm water for a few days.  Think I'll do a little boating.

Same day second post.  Don't expect that to happen too often but it's early in the season and the sky finally dried out enough to have a little fun.

After early morning fog, a bit of drizzle and chilly temperatures the clouds parted here in Mackinaw City.

I puttered all day and finished setting up the boat.  It's all ready to go.

The pleasant weather was apparently the ticket to set off the midge fly hatch.

That's not smoke over that ferry boat.

It's a zillion midge flies.

 

This is the critter.

It resembles a mosquito but is harmless other than getting on everything.  Fortunately, the hatch occurred over water for the most part and didn't affect me here in the marina very much.  The story from the locals here is that the hatch won't be as severe as it was last year.  Hope they're right.  For all the bugs that appeared this afternoon, they've disappeared just as quickly.

With the boat ready, the temperature rising and the wind calm, I decided to go take a lap around the bridge this evening.

There's something about being under the bridge that is just cool.

It's a view a lot of people never see.

I was dragging a few lines while on the tour and actually caught a lake trout.  The first fish of the year.

I released it.  It was crazy fat.  I'm guessing full of eggs maybe?  Anyway, it was a nice bonus to a pleasant 90 minute outing.

The lake was just so perfect.

It's not that calm too often.  

Not sure how this stacks up to other locations around the lake, but I took a walk out to the gas dock this afternoon and noticed the price of fuel here this year.

That's 89 octane pure gas.  A much better price than the $5.00 per gallon that it was when I put the boat away last fall.  

So that's it.  The fun begins.

News Flash!!!

Boating season is on!!!

After a day and a half delay, I found my boat and moved it to the summer slip in Mackinaw City.   The delay was due to a lost tooth crown first thing Thursday morning (original launch schedule day) and thus a wait to see the dentist to get patched up.  Unfortunately, the solution to that issue seems to be a tooth implant.  Can't wait for that fun to begin.

Anyway, back to the boating.  I arrived in Cheboygan, loaded the necessary equipment into the boat for the 15 mile cruise to Mackinaw City, then had the marina staff help me spot my land vehicle at Mackinaw City and returned to Cheboygan to run the boat north.

To say it wasn't a scenic cruise on the lake is a bit of an understatement.

But I found my way to Mackinaw City without running into anything and pulled into a foggy marina.

Here is a 12 minute, moderately boring snip of the 1:15 minute excursion.  It's actually a real nice cruise when you can see beyond the bow of the boat.

Everything on the boat appears to be in good working order...knock on teak...and I'm in the summer slip.

Now back to "work".

South of the 45th parallel, it's downright balmy and the yard is filled with the scent of lilac.

The lilac hedges hum with the sound of the bees.  I actually caught a couple in flight in the top photo.

North of the 45th parallel, it doesn't look quite so inviting.

The lake is rolling and half the bridge towers are in the fog.  But fear not...I'm launching this Thursday!  Cool but calm is the forecast so I'm taking the plunge (not literally, I hope).

Plan is to drop the required gear off at the boat on the way north through Cheboygan, then spot the car in Mackinaw City, return to Cheboygan, hop in the boat and fish/cruise my way back to Mackinaw City.

Stay tune for that exciting report!

Only 10 short days to launch...

...but this is almost too hard to take.

Saturday, the Straits looked like this.

And just to rub it in, Mother Nature dished up a repeat performance for this morning.

I figure in 10 days the temperature will drop several degrees, the wind will kick up and the April showers will commence that have been missing.

On the plus side, the lake level is up 15" over this time last year.

The countdown continues.