9am I went to the marina store and bought a new bulb for the dinghy fuel line. The old one was dry rotted and ready to come apart. And what should be waiting for me but the pulleys. UPS had just delivered them.
Went ahead and replaced the pulley on both engines. Put the spare belt on the starboard engine and kept the old working pulley and old belt as spares. Both engines are now operational.
The forecast was calling for gale force (30 mph) wind and waves of 4 to 6 feet. But the local observation was 15 MPH wind and waves of 1.5 feet. So we decided to see how much progress we could make.
Our target was Rogers City, 50 miles away. Mackinaw is 100 miles from Alpena, way too far for rough conditions. We headed out around 11:30. It was a little bumpy for the first 7 or 8 miles. Then when we got past Thunder Bay Island it got really windy and we saw 2 foot waves.
Turned North and did OK until we made the turn West near the top of the mitten. Then we hit the full force of the wind with 6 foot waves. We had gone about 20 miles and were close to Presque Isle. A big (over 6 foot) wave sent us up pretty high. I had to drop off plane and slow to about 8 mph. We were about 7 miles from Presque Isle by then. So we decided to head there instead. Once we got in the bay, the waves calmed down but the wind was still howling. We got into the marina and our well with some help from the marina staff and got settled in.
Went to Old Presque Isle lighthouse. Then took a walk on the breakwall. There is a small party store and a restaurant here, but not much else.
Forecast for tomorrow is the same, really windy and serious waves so we'll be hanging out here 1 more day.
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