Boyne Thunder

                                       Friday 7/11/2014

The day that we drove to Boyne City to put in our offer, we saw some huge boats being pulled into town. We asked our realtor what was going on, and he told us it was the Annual Boyne Thunder Event.

After leaving our realtor, we drove down to the park to get a closer view.

Cockpit opening for this boat.

The exhaust for the engine.

This is the 11th year for this event. There are about 100 high performance boats in the race.

This is a picture I took off the internet of a previous year as the boats approach the town of Charlvoix and head out the channel to Lake Michigan. (I wanted this picture to appear later in the blog, but it keeps coming into this spot, because I added it in after all my pictures).

This is another picture off the internet. I thought I had copied the previous picture but got this one instead. I tried to delete it, but then it deletes other pictures and script, so just go with it please.

All the boats were coming into town for the race that was held the next day.

This picture gives you a better visual of how big these boats are next to the large truck.

All of the boats were beautiful with colorful designs.

The next day the race started in the morning. The boats leave Boyne City, and race to Charlevoix. From Charlevoix the boats go out to Lake Michigan and head south to Northport and Elk Rapids in Grand Traverse Bay, then back to Charlevoix for lunch. After lunch they head north on Lake Michigan to Little Traverse Bay. In Little Traverse Bay they stop at Bay Harbor which is the small community west of Petoskey. Here we were watching the boats crossing over Little Traverse Bay to Harbor Springs which is directly across the bay from us. You could barely see the boats with the naked eye. I got this picture with my zoom lens.

The day was cloudy but warm for the race. Here the race went past a sailboat race in Harbor Springs.

At each stop the racers check in for their time and get a playing card. At the end of the race in Boyne City, they try to win a game of poker with their cards.

 
The poker Run Route is 150 miles.

 I got a picture of a helicopter flying behind one of the boats.

The helicopter got right above it for a minute.

This is another picture I took off the internet, since my pictures are not very good. Next year they will be going and coming back right in front of our dock. Since Lake Charlevoix is not as wide as Little Traverse Bay we will be able to see the race much better.

Once the race left Bay Harbor and going past us to Harbor Springs and heading back to Bay Horbor, there was a constant roar of thunder.

The Boyne Thunder is an event that brings in money every year for Camp Quality which is a camp for kids with cancer. The event also raises money for  Challenge Mountain, a local non-profit organization dedicated to enriching and improving lives for the mentally and physically challenged through outdoor recreation of skiing biking, canoeing, kayaking, and sailing for the participants.