Mackinac Island to Thessalon in Ontario

Mackinac Island to Thessalon track.

Left M.I. on a bright blue morning. Arrived in Thessalon, Ontario, Canada at 4pm. Made a fuel stop at our last U.S. stop in Drummond Island's Yacht Haven marina at 1:20pm.



Arriving in Thessalon we see that this municipal marina was closed for the season. I called Canada Customs from the outside pay phone (they have a free 800 number, thank goodness) and after 10 minutes we were all checked into the country and issued a customs number 20092450274 that we have to display on the port (window) on the boat. So we 'scored' one freebie--no charge for this marina with 30amp power and water. A good start as we entered Canada.
After a short walk into town, we were able to change $50 cash into Loonies at the bank and we bought a few items in the local grocery store. James did get hungry after our regular dinner aboard Pecan so we got him a pizza from the local pizza shop/bakery/breakfast diner in town.

Charlevoix to Mackinac Island

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Charlevoix to Mackinac Island track.



Left Charlevoix at 8:30am; temperature 50F and winds outside the harbour 15 knots lightening to 10 knots later on. We had 2 to 4 foot seas out of the SW on our run north out of Charlevoix in Lake Michigan. A nice true sea trial for our Rossie. We kept the speed to about 12 knots; any faster and the boat was a bit squirrelly with the waves hitting us on the port stern quarter. Bumpy ride but the foredeck and windows all remained surprising dry of spray or 'green' water.

Pulled into Mackinac Island at 3:30pm today. Weather upon arrival was 65F, winds west at 10 knots.





No cars on Mackinac Island. Only bikes and horse drawn carriages.


Tamara and James rented bikes for a bit less than the 2 hours it took them to ride the 8 mile circumferential road.



Rich is sorting out the 30amp power cord at our slip.


The Grand Hotel.

Launching Pecan and off to Charlevoix

Northport to Charlevoix track.

The big plan for our maiden voyage is to take Pecan under it's own bottom back to Florida via the Great Lakes and the Canadian waterway and canal system (Trent-Severn, Rideau, and the Richelieu-Chambly) on through Lake Champlain, the Hudson river then down the east coast intracoastal waterway. We'll see what we can do now that we're leaving so far north at the virtually the end of summer....and the beauty of this is that if the weather changes or something goes awry we can always get the trailer (of course, we'll need to have a suitable tow vehicle first!).

After applying anti-fouling and loading her up with stores, we proceeded to get Pecan launched this afternoon. After topping of the fuel tanks at Northport marina, we headed out of Traverse Bay at 2:30pm for the 20+ mile run to Charlevoix. Weather had cleared to a bright sunny day in the 60s with light winds although this morning was chilly with frost warnings for inland northern Michigan counties. Rich drove the rental car to the Hertz location at Traverse City's airport and took the Northport connector bus ($3.00) for the 27 mile up the west side of Traverse Bay to Northport.


Jeep pulling Pecan out of storage shed.


Pecan lifted out of wheeled cradle.


Tamara applying anti-fouling to the bare spots on the hull where the cradle pads held her and to areas around the waterline for additionally protection.


Video of Pecan launch.


Goodbye Northport Bay boatyard.


Charlevoix; marina location at the red arrow.


Tamara and James at the entrance channel to Charlevoix.


Charlevoix municipal marina. This has to be the best outfitted and maintained public marina. Half a dozen clean and private shower stalls; kitchen; TV lounge; Wifi; and a fountain with water jets synchronized to their piped outdoor pop music system.

Satellite Beach to Traverse Bay

Ok, perhaps you're wondering why we would tow the trailer back home to Florida and leave the Rossie (as they're affectionately known) up in Michigan. Simple. Since we still have a good month or two before chilly/drizzly weather arrives then why not take advantage of the indian summer weather patterns and bring Pecan home via the connected waterways of Canada and the US. James has decided to join us for part of the journey--he needs to be back on campus on the 15th of September. Mike needs to be back at the end of August so we'll coincide the start of this journey with getting him back to school first.

We arrived back in Traverse Bay on Augsut 29th, Saturday morning, after 2011 miles of driving our one-way Hertz rental SUV since leaving Satellite Beach on Tuesday, August 25th. After dropping Mike back to school for his senior year at Penn in Philadelphia and we also stopped along the way in Fairfax, Virginia for a visit with Rich's Mom, and in Rochester Hills, Michigan for a visit with Tamara's grandmother, Aunt Patty, Uncle Jim and cousin Sheila.


I made this six foot fenderboard for use on Pecan when going thru the locks up in Canada. Here you can see the board tied to the roof rack on the Hertz rental SUV.
Based on a forecast for rain this weekend, we canceled our plans for Northport Bay Boat Yard to move Pecan out of inside storage for the weekend so we could put anti-fouling, flush the water tanks, and generally get the boat loaded and sorted out. Fortunately, the boatyard allowed up to work inside on Saturday to get some work done on her.


NOAA chart snippet showing Northport


Pecan is inside the storage shed noted by the "X".


James outside storage shed at Northport Bay Boat Yard on a rainy day.


We arrived at the boatyard at noon on Saturday and promptly got started with cleaning the hull bottom of any waterline scum and dirt and masking the boottop. We then started rolling on a coat of Micron CSC anti-fouling paint. While the can says the paint is white as you can see from the photos it actually applies as light gray--fine with us.


More work underneath Pecan.


Masking tape just removed the freshly painted bottom. Pecan is all ready for launching on Monday, weather permitting!

Sea Trial, Purchase and Storage

After about a year and a half of dabbling with the idea of cruising in a powerboat--did you read the "What's This All About" link on the left side of the page?--we got serious about buying.
We even got a little C-Dory 16 cruiser to 'test' the waters, so to speak. Photo above is our little cruiser anchored in the Indian River off Melbourne. We trailered the C-Dory all over--from Cumberland Island, Georgia to Stuart to Homosassa Springs and loads of places in between.
So, we sold the C-Dory about 3 weeks ago in anticipation of finding a Rosborough RF-246. We considered the bigger sisters of the C-Dory 16--the C-Dory 25 monohull and the 25 foot Tomcat multihull--but opted instead, after viewing several, to go for a Rosborough.
Scouring the internet, specifically: yachtworld.com, ebay.com, craigslist.org, boattraderonline.com, oodle.com, we found a number of RF-246s. Ultimately it was a combination of superb condition and great pricing that had us signing a contract to purchase the well outfitted Pecan up in Traverse City, Michigan on June 30th.


Red track is the drive from Satellite Beach to Traverse City; blue track is the drive back, towing the empty Shorelandr trailer. Details on all that transpired below.

Ready for the sea trial.

Color change denotes bottom abruptly going from 60+ feet to 8 feet.

Manitou out sailing with charter guests.

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Out on Traverse Bay, Michigan. July 15, 2009. Winds S 15-20 Knots.

Jay Kraft, of Bay Breeze Yacht Sales, was kind enough to haul Pecan up the bay to Northport Bay Boat Yard; thank goodness he has a Chevy HD2500 Silverado Duramax pickup!

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Pecan has just been lifted and the trailer is getting pulled away. Travellift operator says that Pecan shows 8,000 lbs. on strain gauges (although he also says that this reading could be off by 1,000 lbs.)

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Loading Pecan on wheeled cradle for inside storage.

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Pecan getting pushed inside.

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Pecan in Northport Bay Boat Yard's inside storage shed.

Stored away until we join us her in August.