The Chicago Yacht Club's Race to Mackinac is one of the world’s largest annual offshore races, drawing top-notch sailing talent from around America and the world. Known as ‘The Mac’ to everyone in the region, the ultimate test of Great Lakes navigation starts each July just off Chicago’s Navy Pier. Passing through some of the most beautiful coastal waters in the world on the 333-statute mile (289 nautical miles) race route, the fleet faces the storms, reefs, calms and competition that truly make it "America’s Offshore Challenge".

2022 Boat Parade - Race to Mackinac by Paul Sager, on Flickr


Beautiful pictures and interesting/informative text… enjoyed both.


The total surface area of the Great Lakes is approximately 94,250 square miles (244,100 km2) -- nearly the same size as the United Kingdom, and larger than the U.S. states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire combined.

Chico 2


The Great Lakes are estimated to have been formed at the end of the Last Glacial Period (the Wisconsin glaciation ended 10,000 to 12,000 years ago), when the Laurentide Ice Sheet receded. The retreat of the ice sheet left behind a large amount of meltwater (Lake Algonquin, Lake Chicago, Glacial Lake Iroquois, and Champlain Sea) that filled up the basins that the glaciers had carved, thus creating the Great Lakes as we know them today.

Seadog tours


The Great Lakes contain 21% of the world's surface fresh water. The lakes contain about 84% of the surface freshwater of North America. They have enough water to cover the 48 contiguous U.S. states to a uniform depth of 9.5 feet (2.9 m).

Phantom


Except when the water is frozen during winter, more than 100 lake freighters operate continuously on the Great Lakes, which remain a major water transport corridor for bulk goods. The Great Lakes Waterway connects all the lakes; the smaller Saint Lawrence Seaway connects the lakes to the Atlantic ocean. Some lake freighters are too large to use the Seaway and operate only on the Waterway and lakes.

Maggie Mae


Only four bridges are on the Great Lakes other than Lake Ontario because of the cost of building structures high enough for ships to pass under. The Blue Water Bridge is, for example, more than 150 feet high and more than a mile long. Major ports on the Great Lakes include Duluth-Superior, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Twin Harbors, Hamilton and Thunder Bay.

Abino


Dispersed throughout the Great Lakes are approximately 35,000 islands. The largest among them is Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron, the largest island in any inland body of water in the world. The second-largest island is Isle Royale in Lake Superior. Both of these islands are large enough to contain multiple lakes themselves -- for instance, Manitoulin Island's Lake Manitou is the world's largest lake on a freshwater island. Some of these lakes even have their own islands, like Treasure Island in Lake Mindemoya in Manitoulin Island.

Spitfire


Lake Huron has the largest shore line length of any of the Great Lakes, counting its 30,000 islands. Huron is separated from Lake Michigan, which lies at the same level, by the 5-mile-wide (8.0 km), 20-fathom-deep (120 ft) Straits of Mackinac, making them hydrologically the same body of water. Aggregated, Lake Huron-Michigan is technically the world's largest freshwater lake.

Chicago Harbor Lighthouse


Started in 1898, the Race to Mackinac annually hosts over 3,000 sailors and covers 333 statute miles, starting from Chicago's Navy Pier on Lake Michigan and finishing at Mackinac Island, Michigan on Lake Huron.

Warrior Sailing


Images captured in this post come from a circa 2000 EOS 1v film camera and a circa 2015 EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6L IS II, mounted to a tripod. The film used included expired color film, and fresh B&W film with and without color filters. Details of the exposure, focal length and film type are included for each image using the URL link of the titles to their host Flickr pages.

Tall Ship Windy