![\"Miller](\"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2020\/06\/IMG_6758-e1592322883726.jpg\")
<\/a>Miller Ferry makes a splash in Lake Erie Island region. (Photo courtesy: MillerFerry.com)<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cWhen people come up from the cities and they\u2019ve been grinding it out all week and the first thing they see is our gateway with the \u2018Avenue of Flags\u2019 and then crisp blue and white awnings along the docks they get excited to begin their adventure by coming aboard,\u201d said Captain Chris Shepler, the current president and grandson of the service\u2019s late founder William.<\/p>\n
Shepler\u2019s Mackinac Island Ferries have been floating folks on the 24-minute ride from Mackinac City and St. Ignace to the island for 75 summer seasons. When Shepler\u2019s launched their first boat of the new season, Shepler chose, symbolically, the SS Hope from their seven-ship fleet to pull away from the dock and issue, via the ship\u2019s horn, the official International maritime salute of \u201cthree longs and two shorts\u201d which blasted through the morning fog.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur captain\u2019s days start by checking the weather. What is the visibility like? We steam out past Major Shoal, which is a shallow part. Halfway across the strait the water is only 18-feet deep so there are two buoys there to mark the shoal which runs northeast to southwest. It\u2019s usually wide open from Mackinac City to the shoal before we may hit the fog of Mackinac Island. The pilots also have their radar on and they\u2019re listening on the radar for freighter traffic. They know the size, speed and direction of every boat out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shepler has nautical chops.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was a kid in Harbor Springs I joined \u2018Little Harbor Sailors.\u2019 I had a dream of sailing in the America\u2019s Cup and it came true. I made the team with the \u2018Heart of America\u2019 out of Chicago for the races in Freemantle, Australia and then sailed professionally around the world for a number of years.\u201d<\/p>\n
The operation of the Miller Ferry to the Lake Erie Islands is a family business, as well. And while the Shepler family is building a new boat \u2013 the William Richard, named after Shepler\u2019s father \u2013 the Miller Boat Line also will soon add a fifth boat \u2013 the Mary Ann Market \u2013 to their four-boat fleet. Miller\u2019s vessels range from 40-feet to 96 feet and can carry up to 26 cars and 600 people from the north end of Route 53 45 miles east of Toledo on an 18-minute crossing to the Lake Erie islands including South Bass Island\u2019s \u201cPut-In-Bay.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is something special about a boat. Just the thought of being on the water has everybody looking forward to sitting on the upper deck with a little bit of breeze and seeing seven or eight islands along the ride plus seeing the seagulls and fishing boats,\u201d said co-owner Billy Market. \u201cAn occasional 30-40 mile wind makes it a much more interesting ride.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though Market runs the Miller Ferry Company with his brother Scott and his sister Julene, Billy said a few times a month he still gets his hands on the helm. Their parents bough the Miller Boat Line in 1978 from the family who founded it in 1905 as an ice harvesting, charter fishing and water taxi business.<\/p>\n
Put-In-Bay\u2019s party and music reputation has it characterized as the \u201cKey West of the Midwest,\u201d but Market says the island is also family-friendly.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have your choice. You can also get a quarter mile out of town and sit on the beach and skip stones. We also have the Perry\u2019s Victory International Peace Memorial commemorating the Battle of Lake Erie. Take an elevator to the top and you can see the surrounding islands, Cedar Point, and 40 miles all the way to Detroit and Toledo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once on land day or overnight trippers to either Middle Bass or South Bass islands do not need a car as golf cart rentals are readily available dockside. There are also taxis and some just choose to walk. Mackinac Island does not allow cars but instead offers horse-drawn carriages.<\/p>\n