We cruised one hour to Mackinaw City. Once again the water was super calm. The only thing we had to deal with was the wakes from all the ferry boats. Also it was very hazy. We heard on the news that the haze is from wildfires in northern Canada. We stayed at the Mackinaw City Municipal Marina. Town is close by, but it is very busy & touristy. We really don't need to see another t-shirt or fudge shop. This marina is very busy with ferries coming and going all day. We should have stayed at the marina next door. It's brand new and very quiet, without ferry wakes.
We have had a front row seat in this marina to all the local Coast Guard action. Yesterday the Coast Guard towed in a 54ft Searay that hit the rocks near Mackinac Island. The boat had pod drives, and both were completely sheared off by the rocks. The boat was taking on water, but the Coast Guard responded quickly with a big water pump & towed them to the marina where they were immediately hauled out of the water. Both pod drives are gone, but there was no fiberglass damage.
Today we were listening to the VHF radio & we heard a call to the Coast Guard for a dive accident. They were diving the Cedarville Wreck which is in 107ft of water and not far from our marina. We could see the dive boats with binoculars. A diver got into trouble 105ft underwater. His dive buddy tried to help him, but couldn't. The buddy ended up running out of air and needed to make a very rapid ascent. He probably needs a decompression chamber, but should be ok. The other guy didn't make it. The rescue boat came roaring into the marina to get the divers to medical attention. We hate to see these things happen on the water.
Tomorrow we plan to head to Beaver Island.
Mackinaw Bridge, it's 4 miles long & 135ft high
Entrance to the marina
Coast Guard icebreaker on display next to the marina
Something is missing. Pod drives were sheared off & are now on the bottom of the lake.
Pod drive was attached here
No comments:
Post a Comment