Lake St Clair to Petoskey.

[Doc O Rock]

I started the thread originally, and we are planning on doing it again this year. Some of the changes, we'll give the island a miss. I've been there many many times and staying in the marina as an adult just didn't quite live up to when I used to stay there as a young sailboat racer. We will stop at many of the same harbors, and maybe a few new ones. We are planning now and will make reservations for Charlevoix soon. Hope to see some of you out there. If you haven't done a trip like this, make a plan and do it. There aren't monsters out there.

 

[techmitch]

Here's the real deal, Great Lakes area starts page 25
https://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/publications/docs/distances.pdf

Great post Woody, thanks for the link/doc.
I'll take yours also Mike, PM coming.
Can't have too much information.

 

[Gofirstclass]

I looked at the one Woody linked to. If mine has an advantage over the one he linked to it's that mine is all on one page. Woody's is much more complete than mine is.

Easy to laminate if you want, easy to keep on the helm, quick references all on one page.

 

[Woody]

I looked at the one Woody linked to. If mine has an advantage over the one he linked to it's that mine is all on one page. Woody's is much more complete than mine is.

Easy to laminate if you want, easy to keep on the helm, quick references all on one page.

GFC, download the PDF, print which ever pages you need when you need them. There's Pacific coast and even Columbia river mileage charts you might make use of.

 

[Brent Nutting]

I started the thread originally, and we are planning on doing it again this year. Some of the changes, we'll give the island a miss. I've been there many many times and staying in the marina as an adult just didn't quite live up to when I used to stay there as a young sailboat racer. We will stop at many of the same harbors, and maybe a few new ones. We are planning now and will make reservations for Charlevoix soon. Hope to see some of you out there. If you haven't done a trip like this, make a plan and do it. There aren't monsters out there.

If you guys plan your trip around the 4th of July week, we will be up in Port Austin and Caseville. Cold beer will be on hand.

 

[Captn TJ]

Show me a GL boater who's ready to get out of boating "because there's not enough time", "we've done it long enough", "it's time to do something else" etc., and I can probably show you someone who hasn't taken a boat trip to the north channel.

Having said that, the east end of the north channel is a surprisingly long way from The Mac, and "channel" is a misnomer IMO. That's a big, formidable body of water. Worthy of seeing for sure, but it's more than a simple stop-over/side-trip.

The North Channel and Georgian bay are several trips. Tough to see the highlights in one trip. We've done Meldrum to Tobermory a few times and still missed a lot.

 

[bmay1909]

I've been working on planning a trip to the Charlevoix area. This will be our first long distance trip. My question is what happens when we cannot make it to our next port in time for our reservation (say we are stuck in port for 2 days due to weather)? The state harbors done seem like they have There's not much listed online as far as the State website goes. Any help/suggestions would be appreciated!!

 

[Woody]

I've been working on planning a trip to the Charlevoix area. This will be our first long distance trip. My question is what happens when we cannot make it to our next port in time for our reservation (say we are stuck in port for 2 days due to weather)? The state harbors done seem like they have There's not much listed online as far as the State website goes. Any help/suggestions would be appreciated!!

Harbors modification and cancellation policy

• Reservation modification and cancellation policy
  • The original reservation fee is non-refundable.
  • Changes and cancellations cannot be made more than 5 months in advance of arrival date.
  • Cancellations made any time after processing this reservation until close of business the day before your scheduled arrival date will result in a refund of fees paid minus the non-refundable reservation fee. If you cancel on your day of arrival or later, you pay a $10 cancellation fee and forfeit the first night’s camping fee as well as the fee for each night that has passed.
  • Reservations are held until 5 p.m. on the scheduled arrival date. If arriving after 5 p.m. on the scheduled arrival date, you MUST contact the Harbormaster to notify staff of late arrival. If you're late, and you fail to call, the reservation will be cancelled as a no-show with the loss of a two-night fee.

https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-350-79119_79145_81215---,00.html

 

[bmay1909]

Harbors modification and cancellation policy

• Reservation modification and cancellation policy
  • The original reservation fee is non-refundable.
  • Changes and cancellations cannot be made more than 5 months in advance of arrival date.
  • Cancellations made any time after processing this reservation until close of business the day before your scheduled arrival date will result in a refund of fees paid minus the non-refundable reservation fee. If you cancel on your day of arrival or later, you pay a $10 cancellation fee and forfeit the first night’s camping fee as well as the fee for each night that has passed.
  • Reservations are held until 5 p.m. on the scheduled arrival date. If arriving after 5 p.m. on the scheduled arrival date, you MUST contact the Harbormaster to notify staff of late arrival. If you're late, and you fail to call, the reservation will be cancelled as a no-show with the loss of a two-night fee.

https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-350-79119_79145_81215---,00.html

I guess I should of went 2 steps further on the state website.

Thank you!

 

[Ezsteps]

I started the thread originally, and we are planning on doing it again this year. Some of the changes, we'll give the island a miss. I've been there many many times and staying in the marina as an adult just didn't quite live up to when I used to stay there as a young sailboat racer. We will stop at many of the same harbors, and maybe a few new ones. We are planning now and will make reservations for Charlevoix soon. Hope to see some of you out there. If you haven't done a trip like this, make a plan and do it. There aren't monsters out there.

Doc, we will be in Port Austin on the July 4th and 5th (same as Brent), then East Tawas the 6th and 7th, then across the lake to the Canadian side. Let us know if you're going to be there the same time.

 

[Boatguy49036]

Great info everyone. Planning our first big trip to the same area this summer from Marblehead, OH. I snowmobiled over the “Ice Bridge” this winter to Mackinaw Island. Looking forward to a stop there by boat this summer.

 

[Mark Schallip]

Take lots of pictures. Sound like a good tripHave been to Bay Harbor, Harbor Springs, and Petosky. It has been by car though. A good trip is up Detour passage on the St Marys river to Sault St. Marie.The islands are pretty and the water is smooth.

 

[RollerCoastr]

At the risk of sounding like a Garmin sales rep, is everyone familiar with the trip planning resources from Garmin? I think the jury is still out on whether the Active Captain online cruising community will survive corporatization, but so far so good? The activecaptain.com website is a fast and easy way to use charts online. The user review and info database of the original Active Captain is still intact and can provide very useful/legit info.

Back when I first started cruising, I had to rely on the cruising guidebooks that read like real estate listings: "this charming port oozes old-world charm..." = crappy docks, overpriced fuel pumped by someone who hates boaters for ruining his summer Saturdays. Walk a mile past the piles of coal to the only restaurant in town for bad food...

The ActiveCaptain website is free to use, even if you don't own Garmin equipment.

Garmin owners have two more options. I personally don't use the ActiveCaptain App to create routes, but it's an option, and the portability of it can come in very handy.

I'm hoping Garmin continues to support their computer application called Homeport. It's free, and is supported on both Mac and PC platforms. The application doesn't include maps, but instead it accesses maps you already own for your Garmin devices. Garmin devices have an option to copy the internal maps to an SD card for use in a computer, but you can also use a Vision card, and even a copy of a Vision card, or download your registered charts using Garmin Express.

Macs make it very easy to mount "volumes" stored on the actual hard-drive that contain map data. This eliminates the need to keep an SD card inserted in the computer, and allows for simultaneous use of all of your charts.

One of the other reasons I like Homeport is for tracks. After the trip is done, the GPS tracks can be transferred into Homeport as a digital log. The boater-geek in me enjoys looking at the data later and remembering the trip. Each breadcrumb can show how well the auto-pilot was tracking, the current time, position, course, speed, fuel flow, fuel used... Sometimes the tracks trigger more memories than pictures do!