We left Mackinac Island in the company of Believer, Kelly and Deb's boat, and headed northeast across Lake Huron. We stopped in the Les Cheneaux Islands (French for "The Channels") and anchored in Government Bay for lunch and a nice nap (my kind of travel!). Then on to De Tour Village at the entrance of the St. Marys River into Lake Huron.
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| Leaving Mackinac Island |
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| De Tour Reef Light at entrance of St. Marys River into Lake Huron |
We thought we would anchor overnight at Lime Island, but after we dropped our anchors on the east side of the island, away from the freighter channel, a 25 knot wind blew up from the north and threatened to drag the boats at anchor. Kelly felt this would not do! We pulled up the anchors and drove around Lime Island and tied up at an abandoned loading dock on the west side of the island, well protected and a great place to spend the night.
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| Abandoned loading dock at Lime Island |
Lime Island was a freighter refueling station at one time, but this operation is now abandoned. What this island now has is the largest colony of Common Terns in the Great Lakes. These birds (sterna hirundo) live in colonies and they migrate to Atlantic coastal Florida, the Carribean, and South America. When feeding they hover over the water and dive underwater to catch small fish. In the past over 6000 breeding pairs lived in Michigan, but now there are only 1600 pairs and they are listed as a "threatened species". The small piece of land where we tied up for the night was actually where a number of terns were nesting. The area was protected by an electric fence to keep out predators. The birds were very protective, dive bombing anyone who got too close to their nest.
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| Common Tern, from Wiki |
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| Common Tern sanctuary |
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| Tern eggs, mother is nearby |
Lime Island also has a nice boardwalk through the woods overlooking the water with platforms for remote camping. There are also some huge fuel tanks left from the days when freighters stopped here to refuel. While tied up overnight at the Lime Island loading dock, I awoke in the middle of the night to see what appeared to be a small city floating by- a huge freighter all lit up! It seemed awfully close to us but we were protected from its wake by the small spit of land which we were docked against.
