Daydream's Great Loop: Marquette Bay, Marquette Island, Michigan

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

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 119 - July 28, 2017

No track today! Today was a different cruising day from yesterday! We first had to cruise from Pilot Cove to De Tour Passage, maybe 20 miles, in the North Channel. While we crossed the North Channel from Turnbull Island to Drummond Island in nearly flat water, today the North Channel treated us to two foot plus waves. Fortunately, the wind was from the east, and after we had gone north a little bit and turned west, we were basically surfing a following sea. It was calmer, as you would expect in De Tour Passage, which passes between Drummond Island and Crowe Island, but soon we emerged onto Lake Huron!

It was another 38 miles on Lake Huron to Marquette Bay. Huron also treated us to big waves, probably two to three feet, but again, we were mainly surfing the following sea, and while it was exciting, we have been in worse! It was worth it though, since we were treated to a wonderful anchorage in Marquette Bay!

Screenshot of Marquettte Bay anchorage

Marquette Island is the largest of the 36 islands in the Les Cheneaux archipelago of northern Michigan, We entered from Lake Huron by the West Entrance, and turned right so we could tuck into the very protected southeast corner of Marquette Bay. If we had proceed up the waterway, we would have come to Hessel, at the far end, which is home to a famous wooden boat festival.

Marquette Bay is quite a large bay, and has only a few cottages around it. It also has a nice sandy beach with no cottages and no "No Trespassing" signs, which I take to mean it is accessible to the public! Baxter loved running up and down the beach, and I let him go, since there was really no place there for him to get into trouble!