8-30 Leland, MI

August 30, Leland MI

Ken crawled in the hot engine room and cleaned the water pump filter and dug out a pebble in the water line and low and behold the water pump is working again.  At one point he thought he was trapped in the narrow opening, but managed to squeeze out or should I say slide out since he drenched in sweat.  The tight space caused him to appear with a shredded tee shirt.  Ken is convinced that the people who design boats do not work on them!

Later that afternoon it was time to mill around the town.  We started at the Historic Fishtown with weathered shanties that are now turned into tourist shops.  At one time these working shanties contained nets, fish boxes, needles and spools of twine for mending nets, corks and leads for building nets, a scale for weighing fish and space for cleaning and packing fish.  Fishtown has been a working waterfront for nearly 150 years. 

Yesterday, at Northport we met Larry, Sherry and Ms. Peaches their toy poodle on Lady KK.  This is the first Looper we have been in contact with that is actually doing the loop this year.  We went to dinner with them at Riverside and enjoyed their company.  They plan to leave for the WI side tomorrow and we sill stay on the MI side.  Hopefully, we will met up with them again in Chicago.

 

  

The Janice Sue was build in 1958 and is the oldest active tug in Leland.  The Joy a trap net boat, was designed and built in 1981 by Ross Lang.  The tugs were restored by Fishtown Preservation in 2008, ensuring the continuation of commercial fishing in Leland. These tugs will leave at 4AM in the morning, weather permitting.

 

 

Nets, made of cotton until about 1950, had to be dried on net reels when pulled from the lake.  Repair work included repairing holes and adding lead weights and flotas.  This work was done when the nets were on the reels.  Cotton nets also had to be boiled in big pots with waterproofing treatment.  Reels are still used for repairing gill nets in Fishtown.

 

We bought some smoke fish at Carlson's in the heart of Fishtown. The smoking process uses a maple wood fire and lasts 3 to 4 hours. We wished we bought more once we sampled!!!

Point Betsie Lighthouse constructed in 1858, marks the all-important entrance to southern end of the Manitou Passage, a once-vital maritime shipping channel.

                                      

 Loop Dreams docked at Leland.