Under The Bridge
July 26, 2026
We left Beaver Island after three days of bobbing around – in the slip during the Concerning Wind to Too Much Wind (see Marcia’s wind chart for details). The marina had bicycles free for marina guests and we took advantage of this to explore the island by bike – rode to the hardware store, out to the lighthouse and around the point, and out to dinner at the Shamrock. I also did laundry and read a page turner of a book, American Dirt by Jeanine Cummings. If you want a captivating book from start to finish that illustrates the plight of immigrants/immigration/deportation and the heart wrenching reasons why people leave their home to seek life somewhere else, this is for you. It’s a story of resilience and perseverance.
This morning we set off at 8:00am for St. Ignace. We had a slight breeze (again refer to the wind chart) so we spent a rather relaxing day motoring in 1-2′ waves through the Straight of Mackinaw and under the bridge. There was some fog which obscured the bridge until we were within 3 miles. We took lots of photos. What the photos leave out is the bee hive like buzz of the traffic on the bridge which looked like matchbook toys until we were quite close. Then the moment we started to go under the bridge and while we knew we’d clear it with our mast, there was a momentary panic was our mast actually going to clear? Indeed it did – thankfully. It feels like a milestone in our cruising. We passed under the Mackinaw Bridge! It may seem silly to some, but to us it was like our personal Cape Horn experience.
After crossing under, we turned toward port and headed to St. Ignace Marina and tied up. We walked to the Family Fare because we were tragically out of Tonic Water! We enjoyed walking along the coast through Veterans Park and Beach out to the store.
One of the things about cruising is we miss seeing familiar faces and our friends. We meet a lot of great sailors and cross paths with folks. We had a nice visit from Ken, Jen and Josh Dunn they are camping in St. Ignace and stopped in. We also heard that other friends have been in and out of town.
So friends, we are having a great time adventuring around – and we are looking forward to seeing you in the fall!
