The calmness of the waters unfortunately didn't last for long - around 4 am they picked up and by 8 am were worse than the previous day. We had looked at the forecast the previous evening and thought staying put the next day as the seas looked a bit rough, but the roughness of this harbor overnight incentivized us to rethink our plans. We were planning to head west through the Straight of Mackinac and the updated forecast indicated that after we passed the Straights, things might be calmer.

Other boats seemed to be casting off and leaving this morning - so at least it was a feasible plan, so we decided to cut short the Mackinac Island visit by one day and head out to Charlevoix. It was way too rough for us to put the dinghy on the rear davits in the the slip, so we cast off and put the dinghy on in the middle of the harbor. We headed out into the swells of the Straights - it is always disconcerting to feel the boat being pushed by massive amounts of water in a direction you cannot control, but luckily the swells were going in the western direction we were going and it was like surfing. Going east would have been impossible.

Once through the bridge, the swells coming off of Lake Huron eased a bit, and now we were in the 1-2 waves of Lake Michigan - an entirely manageable state of affairs. We headed off west turning south south west at White Shoal lighthouse towards Charlevoix. With the exception of Little Traverse Bay, the further we got into the wind shadow of the land mass of Michigan, the effect of the east winds on the water diminished up until we arrive at the Pine River channel.

Pine River Channel; Welcome to Charlevoix; Round Lake of Charlevoix

At the end of the Pine River channel, we waited for the bascule bridge to open and then moved over to the Charlevoix City Marina - where we were warmly welcomed by the staff in the calm waters of the protected Round Lake.

After tying off, we went and had lunch at a restaurant we saw while waiting for the bridge to open. As it turns out, the restaurant was designed by real estate developer / architect Earl Young, famed for his "mushroom" houses in and around Charlevoix in the 1950's and 60's. There was an exhibit of his life and work on the lower level - he was a real estate developer who had a keen sense of the use of stones, particularly local striated stones to build houses out of various types and cut of stone capped by organic wavy roofs. We took a walk through Charlevoix and saw some of the examples of his work.

Weathervane Restaurant with its Boulder Fireplace (Earl though the stone looked like a road map of Michigan)

Some private residences designed by Earl Young.