From Mackinaw City to Chicago

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Mackinaw City, MI
Municipal Marina
August 14, 2010

Mackinaw City only has a population of 800 or so people. During the summer it is crowded with tourists. The townspeople have made the best of its location as an access to Mackinac Island. The island has been a tourist attraction since the days of the Fort, which ended in the 1880s. Three ferry companies in Mackinaw City seem to do a brisk business. On the main street of town one tourist shop crowds the next one. In the evening there is live music from a stage not far from my dock attracting the crowds. The most interesting attractions are a retired icebreaker a few yards away from my dock and the replica of the old fort somewhat out of town..

The Fort on Mackinac Island is worth a visit. On the island t automobiles are banned. The numbers of bicycles that people bring or have an opportunity to rent must be in the thousands. For people my age and the obese, which are not few, horse drawn carriages are popular means of transportation. There were hundreds of carriages with differing levels of comfort. The driver of the Grand Hotel carriage wore a black suit with white bow tie and top hat. I did not make it to the Grand Hotel but made the strenuous walk up to the Fort located on top of the hill. I just arrived in time to watch a drill of the local militia, which enlisted the spectators to participate. At the full hour the soldiers set off a series of cannon shots. The quarters of soldiers had been restored and we could see the ”luxury” of their lifestyle.

Apparently many of the soldiers were not able to read or write, some hardly spoke English so they were encouraged to attend school on post. When it was voluntary hardly anyone attended so the post commander made it mandatory. The officers’ quarters were spacious and luxurious. During the final years of the fort here was a lively social interchange between the officers and the guests on the island.

During the war of 1812 the US lost the fort to the English. The British fort had been just a few miles away across the border in Canada and they had heard of the declaration of war before the Americans. Thus they could surprise the Americans with an overpowering majority of soldiers and armor so that the post commander with his forty soldiers had no choice but to capitulate. As part of the peace agreement the fort was returned to the US at the end of the war.

During the last years of the fort water closets were introduced. Apparently it took quite an effort to teach the use of toilets to soldiers who had been used to outhouses. The commander had to threaten the soldiers with court martial and to take away the water closet privileges in order for them to learn the use of such a modern convenience.

The sun shone brightly as I sat down for lunch in the fort restaurant overlooking the Strait of Mackinac and the port with many boats and ferries coming and going. The landing and take off of a parasailors and colorful kites made for an interesting scene.

After the weekend the weather turned. In the middle of the night we experienced strong winds and a heavy shower.

Mackinaw City, MI
Municipal Marina
August 17, 2010

Horst Pagel, my new crewmember arrived in time. We have kept in contact throughout the years since we first met in the Presbyterian congregation both of our families attended while we lived in Dallas. Horst was a wood technologist and he lives with his wife in Longview, Washington. During the last years we had met only for short visits on my way south to California and during those opportunities I had enjoyed his wife’s German cooking. Horst and Eva immigrated in the fifties from Germany so that we have a lot in common. I realized that Horst did not cook and had little boating experience. During the first day he received a mostly theoretical introduction to docking and I showed him how to place a line around a cleat. Since he was a smart man he learned quickly. Horst thanks to his wife never had a need to learn how to cook. He assured me however that he was good in doing the dishes.

The weather turned dismal during the day after Horst’s arrival when we were planning to throw off our lines and head from Lake Huron to Lake Michigan and further on south to Chicago. Since my arrival the marina welcomed new guests and several of these were Loopers.

On Monday morning every one stuck their heads together and the consensus was that with seven-foot seas it would be best to stay in port. During the next few days the weather did not improve and only on Thursday, four days after our planned departure did we throw off our lines. The night before we had a rainstorm that filled my pail of completely with water, thus it had rained about eight inches. The 40#-dinghy was so heavy we could not lift it but the modern drain mechanism allowed the water to escape once we had figure it out.

During my layover in Mackinaw City - a total of seven days - we talked to several other Loopers who came through Mackinaw City. One cruising couple from Canada had a boat named Q’s End. I wondered about the significance of this name. The owner asked me if I ever read the Ian Fleming spy novels or watched the 007 Bond movies. Apparently the chief of the British Espionage service was known as Q. The captain of Q’s End had the same position in the Canadian Secret Service before he retired. The Geigers had just begun their Loop several days ago and were eager to hear my experiences.

On Sunday I had attended a church service. The minister preached on “worrying”, a most appropriate topic for me who often worries a lot. I therefore decided not to worry about the bad weather and how it would affect my schedule.

In church I met a nice lady who took me back to the marina in her van and after Horst’s arrival invited us to her house for a cup of tea. She lived in a beautiful condominium near Cheboygan, half an hour’s car ride from the marina. Since we could not leave on Monday she offered to drive me to the next Penney store, which turned out to be about sixty miles away in Sault St. Marie near the Canadian border. Since I had lost some weight I needed a few new shirts and shorts. We decided to invite her for dinner if we had another day in port. I turned out that we had two more nights: one night she cooked a delicious chicken dinner for us with all the trimmings while we took her to the best restaurant in Mackinaw City the next night. Her husband had been a Dutch Reformed minister who had died in a car accident two years earlier and she had been born in Holland. She told us that our accents made her feel good.

Leland, MI
Municipal Marina
August 20,2010

Early on the Thursday morning of our departure we had seen a thunderstorm on the weather radar and let it pass before we left Mackinaw City because the forecast was for three feet seas and favorable winds. Most Loopers followed us toward Potesky, a run of about 45 miles.

The weather report was correct this time. The seas were tolerable enough so that the autopilot steered the Marilsnick most of the next forty-some miles. We passed under the Mackinac Straits Bridge, which connects the main part of Michigan with the UP, the Upper Peninsula and Canada. Initially the seas were a little rough but then our ride became smoother and we made in about five hours into the port of Potesky. Like most municipal harbors it has a nice modern marina with wonderful facilities. Horst and I prepared some of the leftovers our benefactor Irene had given us and we had another delightful meal. Later several of the other boats from Mackinaw City joined us.

For the next morning the predictions were good again and we left at 8 AM. The skies were dark but fortunately we could wind ourselves through areas of rain and we watched fireworks of lightning in the distance. We made it into the Port of Leland, another exemplary marina as we are now almost used to in Michigan. The price for docking the Marilsnick is also identical in all municipal ports we have stayed: $42 per night.

Frankfort, MI
Jacobson’s Marina
August 21, 2010

When we arrive in Leland on the 20th the weather report for the next two days was calling for seas up to six feet and intermittent thunderstorms. The bad weather began after about 9 PM and I got up several times at night to check the lines and the fender. The wind in the harbor caused waves that kept banging the touch rail of the Marilsnick against the dock.

The skies were still dark the next morning. Since we had decided to stay in port after receiving the weather report the previous night we slept in. On the dock I found out that the weather would not be prohibitive to us leaving. The seas were “only” between two and four feet and there was only a slight chance of thunderstorms. We decided to change our mind and to leave and found the sea conditions as predicted. The ride was up and down but the wind was coming from the southeast and thus blew against us. The spray went against the windows but the ride was tolerable for the next few hours.

The scenery along the coast of Michigan consists of a chain of hills all covered with forests. We missed seeing the famous Bear Sand Dunes because the visibility was somewhat impaired. We did not see the entrance to the Frankfort harbor until it was only a couple of miles away.

Frankfort has nothing to do with the German towns both named Frankfurt. It was named after a man named Frank who built a fort around his house. We found a small nice town with a main street lined by trees on both sides that ended on a wonderfully sandy beach. There were stores of all kinds and several places serving ice cream. After a “docker”, a lunch and a nap we toured town, which took less than an hour and I think we saw most of it.

Manistee, MI
Municipal Marina
August 22, 2010

Again the time of a possible departure from Frankfort the outlook was grim: 20-knot winds from the north and four to six foot seas. A couple of boats more courageous than the crew of the Marilsnick left and reported that the seas were really tolerable at maximally four feet. Even some small fishing boats had left. Instead of taking a shower Horst and I agreed to give it a try. When we left the protection of the breakwater the reports proved to be correct. The seas were definitely not higher than four feet and although we were thrown around a bit as it is typical for following seas the Marilsnick handled well. There was a lot of radio communication from the open lake to the skippers left in the port and most of them followed and felt comfortable also.

We arrived at Manistee shortly before noon and found a comfortable harbor. The facilities were under construction so that I had to take my shower onboard. The e-mail connection is tolerable.

A few nights ago we had a little scare. Horst woke me up to let me know that he heard a noise that he heard never before. He is a little hard of hearing so that the noise must have been significant. It seemed to come the bow area of the boat. I turned all electric circuits off but the noise persisted. Now it began to worry me. We checked the fans in the engine room, that had at one time been giving us a similar concern but the noise persisted. I checked Horst’s stateroom from where the noise seemed to come and finally went to his bathroom. There was the culprit: an electric toothbrush in a plastic cup vibrated and caused our grief. Horst had not gotten it to work earlier and now the darn thing had begun to work on its own. We slept well the rest of the night.

While we were on our way to Manistee we observed a fisherman net a significant catch. Horst insisted that it was at least a twenty-pound salmon.

Manistee is one of those cities that flourished during the end of the 19th century. Most of the buildings downtown were built in that era. Some stores were nice but there were many empty storefronts also. During the time of the town’s boom there was regular boat traffic for goods as well as passengers to Chicago. Today there is commercial flying between the towns. How times have changed!

On Sundays I always enjoy reading the New York Times. In the last edition a column by a black writer tried to call the attention of African American leaders to the tragedy of young black males who rarely graduate from high schools and more often then not have served a jail sentence. He felt that it has to be the responsibility of the African American community to address this problem.

Another article dealt with the fate of members of congress who have accepted money from lobbyists only to reward them with a vote for the lobbyists’ clients. We are setting a poor example for the countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq where we complain that corruption runs rampant. We are just a little more sophisticated.

Holland, MI
Eldean Marina
August 25, 2010

The docks of Manistee are lined along the harbor entrance and the river, which leads to Lake Manistee. While the docks were acceptable the facilities were not. The toilets were Port o Potties and the showers also were housed in Port o Potties-like containers, not attractive. The construction of a new building for these facilities was in progress and we received a 40% discount on our moorage making it the cheapest during the whole journey.

We walked through town crossing the river and found a wonderful grocery store that had everything a cruising customer needed. The town itself had seen better days but just like many others was trying to remain attractive or better to become again attractive for visitors.

While trying to fall asleep I suddenly heard a a strange noise. It was a faint humming sound that did not seem to come from the boat. When I got up to the deck I saw a huge metal wall passing by on the river not more than fifteen feet away. It turned out to be one of the giant self-loading ships that have plied the Great Lakes since the 1940s. I could not believe that such a giant ship could make it through the narrow entrance first, then through the river negotiating the turns. It was moving extremely slowly. Apparently it loaded limestone somewhere and delivered it to cement factories in some port along the shores of the Great Lakes. Although I tried it was impossible to get a decent photo of the giant. However the next morning we were rewarded when the ship came through in the opposite direction. It was not much deeper in the water and not enough time had passed to load the ship so that we wondered why it had made this difficult trip into Manistee Lake. By the way the name of the ship was “Manistee” and it was 620 feet long!

Our next stop was Pentwater. Pentwater had a nice harbor with several Marinas and a town center catering to tourists. The name supposedly arose from the lake that was penned in when the settlers arrived. However the lumber industry opened the access and part of the lake became a port, which today serves no longer industrial purposes.

Later in the afternoon several other Loopers appeared whom we had met in Mackinaw City and Frankfort. Later on our way to Holland - they were traveling to Grand Haven - we overheard that one of the boats named Mariel lost one of two engines. The subsequent radio conversation was a great example how Loopers assisted each other. One of the boats, the Magoo, stayed with the Mariel, the other captains tried to give advice that unfortunately did not alleviate the problem while two other boats went ahead to Grand Haven to find a mechanic and then stood by during the docking process that the captain of the Mariel dreaded since he was running on only one engine and obviously did not have a bow thruster. Since we went on to Holland we did not hear the outcome.

We decided to go to a marina in Holland, MI, which had a boatyard where we could get a mechanic to change the oil and do a few maintenance things on the Marilsnick. The weather for the next few days was predicted to be bad so we went almost 67 nautical miles in one day (121 km, 75 statute miles). At the end of the day I had some stress because we could not find the fuel dock and the harbor mistress did not answer the radio call. So the repeated communication had to occur through the telephone. When we approached the dock no attendant was there but appeared when we were almost tied on.

Chicago, IL
Belmont Marina
August 27, 2010


Supposedly Holland is a nice town but the marina is too far away from its center so that we would have to believe what is written in our guidebook, namely that. it was settled by Dutch immigrants and still celebrates its Dutch heritage that there was a tulip festival, a wooden shoe festival and other celebrations with “Holland” as a theme. But we did not have to settle for the guidebook information.

A nice gentleman working on his sailboat in the slip next to us offered to show us the town and to accomplish some shopping while we were at it. Holland was thought to be the happiest town in the US according to a survey taken a few years ago. It still seems to be this way. It has the Dutch influence in that many houses are small with a detached garage but show the loving care of their inhabitants. The streets are all clean and downtown is most attractive. When we arrived a photo shoot for wedding attire was taking place in the middle of town. We had a morning coffee at the “Konditorei Alpenrose”.

The biggest name in town apparently is a Mr. DeVoos, the founder of Amway. A huge compound was being built at the shore of Lake Watawa and the biggest racing sail boat I have ever seen was being hauled out for the winter in our marina. This marina used to be the factory of the famous ChrisCraft boatyard. The Eldean family purchased the buildings and converted them into a boat yard that is kept in similar shape as the Shepler’s in Mackinaw City.

We decided to fill up our fuel tank and ask a mechanic to do an oil change. We relaxed the day and carefully observed the weather that had been pretty rough. One night Jim Nethery, our new friend and chauffeur joined us for dinner at the marina restaurant. It was an exquisite meal.

Jim worked for TWA for many years and when the company was downsized and finally closed. As an HR (Human Resources) person he had become an expert in telling people that the company did not need their services any longer. However he found it rewarding finding new employment for them and thus began a new career as a consultant for companies who laid off personnel.

One night I cooked a vegetable soup and Jim joined us for dinner. The next morning he threw off the lines for me. It was a little tricky to get off the dock because my bow thruster was not working. The mechanic unintentionally had pushed a safety switch. One we were on our way that problem was remedied.

The forecast was for one to two foot seas and winds up to 15 knots from the south. While the wind direction was correct the wave prediction was clearly wrong: they were up to five feet high. Normally seas such as this kept us in port but we decided to press on because South Haven our next port was only 24 miles away. We were glad when we finally found our dock. It was confusing since there were three municipal docks.

Four other Loopers had already docked in South Haven and they complained just as we did about the poor weather reports. We met a German fellow by the name of Dieter, who had restored an old 46-foot boat who proudly displayed all the original features.

The other Loopers invited us to Happy Hour. It was the first time on this whole journey that I accepted such invitation since sometimes the drinking is a little to heavy for my taste. But this was not the case for the South Haven Looper group.

The weather prediction for the next day called again for one to two foot seas outside South Haven and Chicago. Again this was false. The seas were again up to six feet high and calmed down only when Chicago came into view, i.e. after about six hours into a lively journey. Fortunately my friend Horst took everything in stride. He was a most agreeable partner.

Approaching the Chicago area we had to negotiate two different sailboat regattas before we found the entrance to the Belmont Marina. It was a huge commercial marina located only a few miles from the town center.

Horst and I had a “docker” and celebrated the successful and harmonious end of our segment. His daughter who lives in Chicago later joined us for a delightful Italian dinner.

Belmont Harbor is located just north of downtown Chicago. After docking I realized that we are in a wonderful residential area just west of Michigan Avenue. At night the high-rise building let up and we had a great view from the Marilsnick.

Another segment has ended, # 11. Again I was lucky to have a cool partner with whom it was a pleasure to cooperate. He will leave and Wolfgang Helbig, a minister and Rudolf Klingner a friend from medical school days will join me.

Joliet, IL
Cicy Dock along Illinois Ririver
September 1, 2010

The days in Chicago were busy. Saturday night was party time at dock F. there were mostly smaller boats and sailboat which stayed in their slips and partied. Strangers offered food to me but I was tired an turned early. At around 11 PM someone knocked on my door. I had fallen asleep but could not overhear the knock. People across the slip wanted me to join their party and offered me a piece of birthday pie. In my undies I had opened the door so they understood that I was beyond partying. However I accepted their cake and the cake and went back to bed.

The next night Horst’s daughter invited us to a party at one of her girlfriend’s home. The ladies were all single and young and lively and when another couple from Mexico joined us the evening was complete. Alex, the husband had a boat and thus he was interested in seeing the Marilsnick. He took me home.

On Monday Frances Kuchuris, a good friend from many cruises who lived in Chicago had invited me for lunch. She lived on Michigan Avenue in the center of Chicago and from her 35th floor apartment one has a perfect view of a beach on the lake and the lake itself. She invited me for lunch at the Drake Hotel. Since at 92 years of age she is not comfortable walking her chauffeur took us in a 12 cylinder Mercedes 600 across the street to the hotel.

We had a quiet lunch together and reminisced about our travels and the people with whom we traveled. One of my most memorable experience with Frances was my first visit to Rome. We knew it would almost impossible for me to see the most important sights of the holy city in a day but we nevertheless attempted it. We hire a car with a driver who picked us up in Civitaveccia and as we entered Rome a professional guide joined us and showed us the city. I was somehow touched by the ancient Rome and concluded that Martin Luther’s reformation was justified when I saw the Catholic Rome. It was a most memorable day. Another wonderful visit with Frances was to Pisa.

In the afternoon Frances asked the driver to take us to the bakery. She has such a great sense responding to wishes before they have been expressed. She had not been at the bakery herself for a while and surprised everyone when we arrived. As we stepped out of the car near a huge industrial building she was welcomed like a queen. At the building entrance pictures of the eighteen overseas bakeries had been displayed. In the lobby a series of clocks showed the local time in these bakeries that stretch from Asian to European countries. The agreement with Mr. Krock, the founder of MacDonalds to bake the buns for the chain was sealed with a handshake and this agreement apparently still is honored.

At the corporate offices located in the same building as this, the first bakery built by the Kuchuris family. Frances’ son Frank had just returned from an overseas business trip and was happy about his mother’s surprise visit. He arranged for a young man to give us a tour through the bakery. The young man’s grandfather had already worked for the company. We began from the delivery entrance where the ingredients were delivered daily, some by rail, then continued to the storage areas to the production line as we could follow from the rising dough to the packed crates with buns. Most amazing was the quality insurance to which several of the 180 employees and several machines were devoted. One of the demands of MacDonald apparently is a perfectly shaped and perfectly baked bun. It was a fascinating experience to look behind the scenes of such a complicated enterprise.

Frances had waited patiently while we toured. Frank and his daughter treated her as the soul of then enterprise and that’s exactly what she seemed to be. Her son is also a real people person. His skill to make anyone with whom he deals comfortable and who is trusted by everyone has made the company successful. When Frank’s dad died not a single bakery had been built overseas, this all happened during Frank’s tenure. His father however had build four or five bakeries in the US. The company is still totally owned by the family.

Being tired Ray our chauffeur took me back to the boat where I could relax and reflect about the visit although the temperatures were in the 90s.

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