Just four miles from our coach is the village of Hessel.
Without question, its claim to fame involves wooden boats. The Les Cheneaux Islands Antique Wooden Boat Show is held in Hessel on the second Saturday of August, with this year being the 36th annual event. It is the largest such show in the US, with 8-10,000 people attending to view about 150 boat entries.
There’s already constant activity in the village and marina, because many families own summer homes scattered among the 36 Les Cheneaux islands, and boats are the only way to reach them!
But there is clearly an over-supply of moorings….because all the boats for the show need some place to tie up for the day!
Look what we found yesterday: the large Chris-Craft boat with the sea foam green sides alongside the dock, stopped by for a few hours. It is owned by some of the family that own the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. The small, open boat with hand tiller and hand controls for the engine with the same green sides was the tender for the larger boat. Notice the US nautical flag on the tender…particularly appropriate on such an antique boat!
And notice the slick-looking all-wood runabout: it has three rows of seats…one is waaaay in the back, behind the inboard engine!
These glorious boats were being used for the day’s activities, and were not all polished up to show off.