Second Day in Lac La Belle

Day 17,  August 16

We slept in this morning until about 7:15.  We were both awake sometime during the night while a rather intense thunderstorm and rain blanketed our area. 

Wendell and Audry Carlson

After breakfast, I went to the home of Wendell and Audrey to jump on their Internet connection so that I could publish the 4 blog pages that I  had composed but had been unable to send out.  A visit to their home is truly an adventure.  Wendell was out helping a neighbor build a deck so I had the pleasure of sharing experiences with Audrey.  At one point, she asked if it had ever had bagels and locks or a dill preserved trout.  When I said that I hadn’t, she brought me several pieces of this wonderfully prepared fish.  She explained how she prepared it.  She also bakes various types of breads for Wendell, herself and some neighbors.  It was truly a delightful two hour visit.

Tied up in Lac La Belle

As the day moved on, the wind, that was predicted to build to up to 35 knots, began to blow.  I laid down for a rest after lunch and realized that our placement of the boat was wrong for the wind direction and force that we were experiencing.  We were tied tightly to a finger dock that was positioned directly across the wind.  We were on the downwind side so we weren’t crashing into the dock, but we were jerking around most uncomfortably.  It turned out that there was enough room between ours and the next finger dock to allow the boat to swing around and face into the wind.  I used the long main sheet to slowly allow the rear of the boat to swing around until it was parallel with the main walkway on the dock and we were able to secure the boat. The boat then rode more peacefully.  We will appreciate that this evening for sure.

The weather for the rest of the day was not very nice.  We had windy rain squalls interspersed with bright sunshine in a very cloudy sky.  The marine weather radio was reporting waves up to 11 feet on the main lake not far from where we are.  The forecast for tomorrow looks no better.  So, we will be here for at least one more day. 

Mail boxes for Lac La Belle

But there are things to do here.  Wendell wanted us to be sure to see the mailboxes for this area.  Just up from the marina is a row of at least 100 mailboxes along with package lockers and post office mailbox.  He says that they make the news in one of the papers of one of the larger cities at least once a year. 

Also, this dock is used by fishermen and we have seen a number of kids and  families come to fish.  One such family consisted of a young girl, her brother and her father.  The kids were around 6 or 7 years old and really into their fishing.  Their father was putting pieces of worm on the small hooks that were a part of the kid size rods and reels they were using.  They were catching fish every 3 or 4 minutes.  They were 3 to 5 inch perch and the kids were having a blast catching and throwing them back.  The family is from Chicago and the father has been coming here to stay at a family lodge in Eagle Harbor since he was a youngster.  It turns out, that he is an avid sailor, although he doesn’t have a boat.  He crews on racing boats out of Chicago and has participated in the Chicago to Mackinac race.  We had a great time sitting on the dock, taking the little fish off of the kid’s hooks and talking about numerous topics.

On the way back to the boat, I ran into another interesting couple who have traveled all around the US and Europe.  Their most recent adventure and Bucket List accomplishment was to visit the Boston Pops on the 4^th of July.  What originally caught my attention was her sweatshirt which was advertizing the fact that she had “Walked the Mac” and a picture of a bridge on it.  I asked her if it was the Mackinac Bridge and that it would have to have been at least a 5 mile walk, and she confirmed that she indeed made the walk and it ends up being about 7 miles. 

After dinner, we decided we needed to go for a walk to stretch some muscles but the weather seemed quite threatening.  We packed our rain gear in a backpack and started walking.  We got about a 10th of a mile from the boat when the sky opened up.  We turned around and about the time we got to the boat, the rain stopped so we continued walking for about two miles.  The most interesting thing that we saw, besides the beautiful wooded country, was an adult bald eagle.  It was sitting high in an old pine tree screaming.  We also could hear the calls of at least one young bird.  Earlier in the day, we had seen at least 3 young birds circling around the “mountain,” Mt. Bohemia, that adjoins our little cove.

Back at the boat, a game of Scrabble and bed.  It is really windy.  Weather forecasts are talking 40 knot winds – that’s 46 miles per hour!  We feel secure tied to this brand new dock.