Lay Day at Marquette Bay

This blog will chronicle our (Pat and Patty Anderson's)

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 120 - July 29, 2017

We had chosen Marquette Bay and pushed ourselves to get here yesterday because it is the best anchorage close to Mackinac Island. It is only 12 miles from here to Mackinac Island, and we wanted to make the cruise to Mackinac Island short in case of rough conditions.  This gave us a lay day, a day off from cruising by choice, not because of weather!

We used most of the day to good advantage, doing some long-deferred boat cleaning! I will not kid you, it is still not as clean as the folks who have the big yachts and spend half their day every day in a marina with their brushes, rags, cleaning fluids and what-not! I guess when you have a big expensive yacht, or if you are going to sell your trawler at the end of your Loop, you are highly motivated to clean it daily! We have had Daydream for twelve years, and have no intention of selling it. We also are planning to have Bitter End Boatworks detail it again when we get back. Still, we are living on it for maybe four more months, and we do have a modicum of pride of ownership! So we cleaned what we could! 

There is a small private beach at the far end of the big sandy beach where I have been taking Baxter, and we have enjoyed watching the family play there today! They have it very nicely set up with chairs, a swinging chair, some small boats and a flagpole. There is no cottage visible - it must be a little ways up in the woods, because we can hear them when they are not at the beach. We are pretty sure they were playing lawn darts. Who remembers Jarts lawn darts? I think they were taken off the market because the metal tips of the darts could really hurt you if they went astray! I never got hurt, and my Dad really loved playing Jarts! There were several couples, some kids and three dogs. The dogs raced up and down the beach. The littlest one really went lickety-split, maybe a quarter of a mile from the beach to the adjacent private dock and back! Baxter would have loved playing with them!

Nice private beach at Marquette Bay

A week or so ago, I used the Michigan State Parks and Harbors online reservation system, and we have reservations for Sunday and Monday at the Mackinac State Docks. This, we are told, may well be the highlight of the entire Loop! We are excited to get there!

For those tracking our progress, Monday, July 31st, will mark the end of our first four months since launching on April 1st, the nominal halfway point!