Down Day in Ontonagon

Day10, August 9

It rained hard last night and is still raining as we begin to stir about this morning.  In the past several rains, I have been amazed that the boat is finally quite tight without significant leaks.  HOWEVER, this time the rain Gods found holes that we didn’t know ever existed.  The foot of our bed got wet, clothes in hammocks along the side of the bed got wet, cushions in the salon got wet – It was just wet.

After breakfast, we headed for some luscious showers- you know the kind with really high pressure that drills and massages your back with wonderfully hot water.  As we have traveled around the country in this boating adventure, we have seen all types of showers and we have come to learn to appreciate the really great ones. 

Back at the boat, the rain was such that we spent the day reading, straightening up the boat and relaxing as you can only do when there is nothing else to do!  After lunch, we donned our “Frogg Toggs” rain gear and moved the boat to the fuel pump and took on 10 gallons of fuel in our big tank.  On our trip from Black River, we had run that tank down so we changed over to our reserve tank as we pulled into the marina.  After filling the tank, I decided to switch back to the main tank and as I was removing the reserve fuel line from the motor, the end of it popped off and fell into the water.  So much for a back-up fuel system.  We needed to find a new end for the line.

Later in afternoon, we decided to head to town to try to find an end for our fuel line.  The first place we stopped was a marine shop.  The young owner, Tim, was working on a fork lift and I enquired as to if he did all types of maintenance and he said that he was just cleaning up the place so that he could sell it.  He indicated that he originally had a Mercury outboard franchise that had been established by his father.  He became excited when he talked about his dad and the history of the business.  His dad and my dad shared similar experiences as Mercury mechanics.  Janine noticed a plaque on the wall that recognized his dad for 50 years of service in the Mercury trade.  He also told of his dad being a hydroplane racer.  He said that since the paper mill had shut down and been demolished, his business had dried up.  He was a really friendly guy who seemed genuinely excited that we had come to his shop.  I ask about the parts and he said that he no longer had any and there were none anywhere close.  He reconsidered and went to a box that had some old used parts and pulled out exactly what we needed.  He went to work to repair our line and when we asked the fee, he said that we owed him nothing.  We left a twenty dollar bill on the workbench.  He seemed pleased.

Ontonagon Historical Museum



From there, we headed to the local museum.  It was an amazing eclectic structure considering the town.  The building was painted bright blue and pink on the outside and was chuck full of antiques and memorabilia of the industries that no longer exist.  The curator was working on a player piano that he had recently acquired and although he was very busy, he proudly walked us through the now obsolete copper mining industry in the area.  I am sure that he would have spent more time with us but he was off to a board meeting that was being held in the middle of the museum. 



Lynns Harbor Town Cafe



We dined this evening at Lynn’s Homestyle Café and were pleasantly treated to a really good, simple meal and friendly service by a young waitress who was working her first day on the job.  A really neat thing about the décor of the place was the hand-painted border of pine cones and needles that surround the entire place just above the wainscoting. 



As we walked back to Damn Dink, we passed a building that had 4x8 foot panels that were pictures of the main street of Ontonagon dating back from probably the 1920’s to recent times and we were impressed by the changes that had occurred.  It was obvious that in the past, this had been a very prosperous town but now that all of the mining and logging industries had moved out, there was really nothing left to spur the economy.  A conversation with the harbor master confirmed our thoughts.

Back at the boat, it was cold so we lit our little alcohol heater and then more reading and bed.