Marquette to Grand Marais, and Sault Ste Marie Michigan, 2015

We had a good weather day so we left Marquette early in the morning about 7 a.m. to try and make our way to Grand Marais. There was only one port where we could get into for protection if needed. Munising. Everything was perfect for a days travel.

Miner's Castle 

Sail Rock

We did go in behind and around Grand Island so that we could see some of the famous sights. Miners Castle Point, Sail Rock, and the much talked about Pictured Rocks. Pictured Rocks was the first National Lakeshore Park designated areas. To be protected. The rocks have red, white, blue and green areas. And for a very imaginative/creative eye pictures can be depicted.  The coloured areas are created by different minerals. Red from iron, blue and green from copper and white from lime. This has to be the most beautiful part of the entire Lake Superior shoreline. Lots to take in.














The weather was still good so we decided to push on for Grand Marais. What's another 4 hours. It was such a beautiful day. May as well get some miles under our keel. There was still one more amazing natural vista to behold. As we made the turn towards Grand Marais the Grand Sable Sand Dunes made their appearance. These sand dunes extend for six miles along the shore. They have to be 300 feet high. One pint of interest in connection with these dunes is the Devil's Slide, once used in logging days to transport logs down the dunes to the lake where they were then floated via log booms to the mill at Grand Marais. The pictures don't do the dunes justice.

Grand Marais had a small and very busy grocery store that we were able to get some things that we needed for the galley. We finally found summer on Superior. It was very warm and Jim decided that he needed to swim, at least once in Lake Superior and this could be our last night on Superior. The water was a chilly 64 degrees. Burrrrrr. Chilly.

Had a little visitor to the boat. Quite aloof. 

While we were having cocktails at a picnic table a small power boat came along the dock. They had been fishing and caught their limit of lake trout. 4 people on board, so their limit would be 20 fish. They opened the cooler to show us. Beautiful. Peter spoke with a local who said that he normally would get his limit in 2 hours time.

Sunday dawned with another beautiful day. We best get on our way. Original destination was Whitefish Bay Point Harbour, but we arrived about 1 pm, and the weather was still holding so the decision was made to proceed another 4 hours to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. We arrived about 5 pm.


Customs and Border Patrol, always a challenge. Even when you do everything you have been told to do, you can still get into trouble.   It turned out that we had been given some bad information from the Customs girl at Isle Royale. She had told us that she was only able to clear us for the Isle Royale area, and that we would need to clear US Customs again once we arrived in Salute Ste Marie, Michigan. We called and Customs met us at our boat. They proceeded to tell us that we were in "Violation". We should have been told to go directly from Isle Royale to a Customs Office. There are only 4 on all of Lake Superior; being Duluth, Grand Marais, Grand Portage or Sault Ste. Marie We were to go directly to one of them without stopping anywhere else. The rule book was definitely not created with boating distances in mind. There is no way you can make any of those destinations in one day. Customs were very good about and understood that we did not know about this rule so they gave us a letter outlining our violation and the letter said if we did this again that there could be a $5,000. or $10,000. charge.

Unfortunately for Jim and Linda, because they had been travelling with a "foreign" boat that was in "violation" they too had to clear U.S. Customs. Linda told the officer that they had been boating with us for 5 years and we did not seem foreign to them. The officer said he understood.

After dinner we went for a walk to explore the area and see if we could find some ice cream cones. Success.

Hopefully looks like boat is carrying the building.

Monday morning it rained for most of the morning. The skies cleared shortly before lunch so we decided to do some more exploring and have lunch out. Jim needed to find a post office to mail a letter. With that completed we were on the search for a restaurant for lunch. Which one, which one. There are many to choose from. We decided on the restaurant that overlooked the locks and went upstairs so that we would have a good view of boats locking thru. We were fortunate that one boat was locking during our lunch. Ice cream cones all around. What summer day is complete without an ice cream cone.

After lunch we went to the lock visitors centre, watched some videos, and then we went to the raised viewing area as one of the 1,000 foot lake boats was coming thru. These boats are beyond huge. It takes 22 million gallons of water to lift one boat in the lock. And it only takes about 15 minutes to raise the boat up from the St. Mary's River into the Whitefish Bay/Lake Superior level. About 21 feet.

Karl's Cuisine Restaurant.

There was a second boat preparing to come thru the lock right behind the one we had just seen. It was time for dinner and a restaurant named "Karl's Cuisine" had been recommended to us and we thought we would try it. The restaurant building itself was the shape of a great lakes boat. It was a family run business. They had a 40 acre farm also, and they made their own wine for the restaurant. We tried a bottle of their red Zinfandel. What a delight. The meal was outstanding. Everyone enjoyed their meals. A good recommendation.

Some shopping on the way back to the boat.

Tuesday morning had been declared laundry morning. We plan to tour the great lakes boat, the Valley Camp Museum boat. It is right beside the George Kemp Marina where we are staying.

After the museum, the plan is to fuel the boats and make our way across the St. Mary's River to the Bondar Marina. They have a courtesy car and they will take us to the local grocery store for some much needed provisions. Thunder Bay was our last grocery shopping trip.

With clean clothes and a full larder we will be ready to make our return trip thru the North Channel and Georgian Bay. It had been a very rushed trip up the west side of the bay to get into Lake Superior as quickly as possible. Now the plan is to enjoy the east shore.

Wooden Lighthouse near Munising on Grand Island.