Made my Reservations

I'll be up there August 1-5 so long as the lake allows us to get there! Getting a reservation at Grace Memorial is no joke. You really gotta want it :)

You got that right!! They started lining up outside the harbor office at 11:00 AM on May 14th and camped out overnight. (They have a fun party night). By 9pm there were about 30 people in line and at 6 AM another 20-30. At least you can get the kick off to Harbor Days on Wednesday night the 4th, which is a great night!

I am in slip 211 if you happen to make it.
Wolf's Den
 
You got that right!! They started lining up outside the harbor office at 11:00 AM on May 14th and camped out overnight. (They have a fun party night). By 9pm there were about 30 people in line and at 6 AM another 20-30. At least you can get the kick off to Harbor Days on Wednesday night the 4th, which is a great night!

I am in slip 211 if you happen to make it.
Wolf's Den

Will do. I started my speed-dial campaign at 7:58AM and finally got through at 8:40AM...
 
The planning is done and I have all the reservations now I just need the weather to cooperate. Here is the itinerary.
So I'm sitting here enjoying a refreshing NW breeze, smelling the burgers from the Dixie Saloon, and watching the Fudgies come and go on Shepler's while reading your itinerary. Looks like a great trip. We moved to a place on the river in Cheboygan a year ago so we can eliminate the 500 gallons of fuel on each end of your trip when we want to play in the Straits.
20210608_144624.jpg
 
So I'm sitting here enjoying a refreshing NW breeze, smelling the burgers from the Dixie Saloon, and watching the Fudgies come and go on Shepler's while reading your itinerary. Looks like a great trip. We moved to a place on the river in Cheboygan a year ago so we can eliminate the 500 gallons of fuel on each end of your trip when we want to play in the Straits.View attachment 106816
Is that Mackinaw city marina?
 
I was looking for the information on the text system for the weather buoys on the Great Lakes and I found it. 866-218-9973 is the number you text to. https://glbuoys.glos.us/ gets you to the list of buoys. Text the number of the buoy you want and you get a return of current info including wind and sometimes wave state. A great quick system for real-time weather info out on the lake.
 
The planning is done and I have all the reservations now I just need the weather to cooperate. Here is the itinerary.
We will be in port austin the same time you are the 5th through the 8th.
 
Doc O Rock, looks like a great trip. I have been trying to get a reservation at Port Austin but you can't make a reservation for anything over 40 feet. They can fit you on the wall, but they said that is first come / first serve and that is a pretty long run to not have a spot reserved. We will be in Port Sanilac on July 3rd, then Presque Isle on the 4th and 5th, heading to Mackinaw Island on July 6th.
We will miss you this year at port austin ,i had a hard time getting three nights togeather myself.
 
On the way up, we are stopping in Mackinaw City. Which marina should we use? Mackinaw City marina, our the Straights marina?
Dont look to hard i just had to cancel my reservations .The wife has back issues that are flafing up so i packed up her stuff and brought her home. I dont know what to do with the rest of the week now. I will probably head back to the boat and just sit around. this sucks.
 
So I thought I would update my experience. We left LSC on Monday the 5th and ran to Port Austin. When we left the lake was like a tabletop, same for the river and the beginning of Lake Huron. By 4:00 when I turned around the Lighthouse at Port Austin. it was blowing. /after I entered the harbor I called the marina only to get a return from someone in the area that the office closes at 4. Ok, I can find my own slip. We planned on spending the day there to see friends, so we took it easy on Tuesday. Wednesday until Friday it stormed and blew from the north, and by Wednesday night I had every piece of string I owned out to hold the boat. By Friday the Admiral had had it, and I know better than to disagree. We made Lexington in another blow but on the stern in 4 footers and It was fun surfing down the big ones. Lexington on a Friday night is good fun with the music and they had a huge crowd. The weather forecast for Saturday night and Sunday was for more storms so we left for home on Saturday. A friend of ours took pity on us and said "Use my house in Charlevoix", so we decided to clean up, wash clothes, and drive up on the following Thursday, for 10 days. On Monday I decided to head out to the marina and clean up the boat and make sure everything was ship-shape. After I powered up the boat I hit the bilge pump and low and behold I had oil on the water. I opened the bilge hatch and I could see oil on the slight bit of water there. My mechanic is an easy 5-minute walk from the boat, so I went down to see him and he came over after about an hour. Now I'm one of those guys that feel if I have it I should use it, and that goes to my generator. So I run it when I'm moving. We found that there was a slight leak from the oil filter gasket. So he changed the oil and put a new filter, and put down oil pads. The next day I came back pulled the oil pads and gave the bilge a clean.

So God gave us lemons and we made lemonade and I thank God that I found the oil in my home marina and not in an unknown marina. I could imagine oil on the water, the fire department being called, and a full-blown hazmat incident.

BTW we had a great time in Charlevoix and even rented a pontoon boat from my buddy Arron at Summertime rental at the South Arm Marina. And it was also Venitian Week so we saw all the sights.

Maybe next year.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
112,945
Messages
1,422,737
Members
60,928
Latest member
rkaleda
Back
Top