We just arrived in Sarnia after a long and fascinating journey through northern Canada. I am not sure what I can
say about this adventure. I am glad to be home or as close to home as I have
been in over a month – a very, very long month.
Here are my observations:
- The North Channel is a series of big rocks with
trees on them. Period. Seen one rock you’ve seen them all. I didn’t understand
why some of our Looper friends sped through it. I do now.
- Kermit put a huge 8” hole in the swim platform
while docking in Kinkardine. I didn’t realize that swim platforms are hollow. I
know now that they are. That is what happens when you come in to a dock on
plane (way too fast for you non-boaters).
- It is still cold. We have had some warmer days
where it got up to 70 or 75 degrees. We even went swimming three or four times.
We washed our hair in the lake a few times during these swims. The water was
not bad, probably in the 60s. Some days the water and the air were the same
temperature. Odd. Oddly Canadian I suspect.
- Restaurant food continues to be worse than home
cooked food. I enjoy our own cooking on this boat so much more than anything we have had so far. We keep trying but mostly eat on the boat.
- Entertainment consists of books (everyone
reading a lot) with movies in the salon on two occasions. We saw “Gravity”,
which drove Maeo in her cabin from sea sickness. Won’t that girl ever stop
twirling? And we saw Emperor about the days after the Japanese surrendered to
the US after WWII. Both excellent flicks.The sound system is awesome on this boat.
We left the gang in Kagamon ONT, home of Manatoulin
Chocolate – evidently a big deal up here. Dave and Nancy on Miss Nancy are
heading to Green Bay WI to see some customer/friends before heading back to
Sandusky. It is not as far a trip as you would think. They should be back in
Sandusky in August. I can’t recall where they keep their boat but we definitely
plan to look them up. Dave and Nancy have a 44 Tiara that they keep in Sandusky
but they live in Chattanooga. Isn’t that fun? They said they love the Great
Lakes and the rivers are a little boring. That wasn't our experience but then again we don't live there.
The Sigmunds and Feldmans returned their charter boat to
Gore Bay after our stop in Kagamon. We saw them again the next morning after
they got off the ferry in Tobermory.
We continued on with the Bates on our boat and Bill and Eve
on Just BilEve to Tobermory, then to Kinkardine and Bayfield. They stopped in
Port Huron and we stopped in Sarnia, across the river in Canada. We will check
in to the US tomorrow to get fuel at 4.09 at Desmond’s Marina in Port Huron vs
6.00 Canadian here in Sarnia then we will head home.
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| Little Current is Little |
Highlights of the days you didn’t hear from us:
After Baie Fine we went to Little Current for a day, hung
out, and went to two grocery stores to provision. Why two grocery stores? Why
not. Not much else to do. We had lunch and dinner at the only restaurant in
town (or so it seemed) then Kermit played Left, Right Center with the gang
while I went to bed. I seemed to have picked up a cold.
We visited the place at the Anchor Inn where they run the 9am radio broadcast for boaters traveling through the North Current but no one was home.
Kermit replaced the house battery that was worn out,
contrary to assurances when we picked up the boat that all batteries had been
replaced. Every night at anchor for the last few days we got less and less
service until we knew we needed to do something. Little Current was the last
straw. We docked at Boyle Marina so Dave could get some work done on his
transmission and generator. We were on the end of the outside wall of the dock
behind Just BilEve and Miss Nancy. The charter boat, Panacea was on the inside
with windows open taking in all the generator exhaust we could spit out. After a
short time of this a protest rang out on the dock causing Kermit to march to
the marina office and order a new house battery. I am not the only one whose
nerves are getting frayed.
These diesel batteries are huge and expensive, not
like the batteries for the old GK that could be purchased at Auto Zone. Two
fellows carried it down the rickety dock and on to the boat. By the way, these
are the ricketiest docks I have ever experienced. It was like walking down one
of those trick bridges at Cedar Point. The fellows helped Kermit change the
battery so we could safely keep everything functioning. Bill Gribble loaned us
the use of a 50/30 amp splitter so we could plug into shore power and recharge
the battery.
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| Kermit and Katherine |
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| Kermit |
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| Julie and Paul |
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| eve and karen |
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| Dave and Jim |
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| Julie and Katherine |
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Just BilEve entering the anchorage
at South Benjamin |
While Kermit was in a great mood after the battery incident
we decided it was way past time to have the naming ceremony for the boat.
Perhaps Neptune was sending such crappy weather and questionable experiences
because we annoyed him in some way. So we hurried through the ceremony,
unveiled the name and drank some wine before heading over to dinner. Thank goodness
that is done.
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| Rocks at South Benjamin |
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| Just BilEve at anchor in S. Benjamin |
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| Maeo taking a swim at S. Benjamin |
Next a short trip to anchor at South Benjamin Island. I
stayed in bed all day with a cold while Kermit, Paul, and Maeo went on a dinghy
ride and hike all around the island. They said it was beautiful. No pictures.
No critters. Lots of rocks with trees. This time we had power because Kermit
replaced the house battery.
Then Kagamon on Manatoulin Island, the largest island in
North America or something special like that. It is the home of Manitoulin
Island Chocolate and Bridal Veil Falls. I rested up at South Benjamin so I
could get to see the falls. As it was I got a little dizzy on the walk. This "town" is old and proud and seems to be filled with hippies. We saw a lot of visitors here. I am glad we stopped.
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| Kermit dressed the part |
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Katherine and Paul with a
photobomber |
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| Eve went all the way |
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| So did Maeo |
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| We put our clothes back on - too cold |
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The whole gang - Jim, Karen, Paul, Maeo, Katherine,
Kermit, Eve, and Bill. Ron was taking the picture
Not sure where Julie was! |
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| Kermit walking along the trail |
These falls
are really pretty. Some of our crowd went swimming in and under the falls. I
suited up but chickened out. Maeo said it was cold when you got in but you got
used to it. Kermit and I decided not to get too wet. It sure was pretty and so
was the walk along the river on the way back to the marina.
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| pulpit at the little church |
We stopped at the general store, the church that has a polished up boat bow as a pulpit, and the
museum. Evidently the big deal here is that Daniel Dodge, son of the famous
Dodge car family, bought a place up here in the late 1920s when he was 17. He
fell in love with the local telephone operator and married her when they were
21. On the second week of their marriage, on their honeymoon in Kagamon, he was
fooling around with dynamite, because what else is there to do on your
honeymoon, when a stick exploded in his face. He didn’t die right away. They
bundled him in a powerboat to take him to Little Current but he fell out of the
boat on the way over. They have an entire wing (rather… room) in the museum
devoted to the young Mrs. Dodge who married twice more after inheriting
millions of the Dodge fortune. Quite a story!
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| Katherine, Tanya, and Kermit |
The best part of Kagamon was running into a fellow looper,
Tanya in Annabelle. Kermit saw the looper flag on this cute little tug boat
docked next to us and naturally he knocked on the boat to say hello. Turns out
this Tanya is the same woman we met in Bald Head last year while we were on our
loop! She connected with me by email about working on the loop then we arranged
to meet for dinner. We had a lovely reunion!! She plans to be back to Southport
NC by Christmas. Since she is less than 32 feet she does not have the same
travel and insurance restrictions as we did so she can get home faster. What a
pleasant surprise!!
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| An action shot of traveling on a boat |
The next morning we left Kagamon early for a long day of
travel to Tobermory. We stopped in Little Current for fuel on the way where we
met a nice couple on a sail boat with the cutest beagles. It was a long journey
to Tobermory in rain and clouds. We ran on plane during some of it but some
parts were pretty flat so we could go slowly.
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| Flower Pot Island |
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| Lighthouse at Tobermory |
Almost at Tobermory we passed Flower Pot Island. This place
has some really neat rocks sculpted in a way that almost look like heads. There
is an Indian Romeo-Juliet type tale about two Indians that fell in love from warring
tribes. They ran off to this island but the local god took offense and turned
them into stone where they stand today. Maybe, maybe not but the local god
doesn’t seem to mind the tourists that visit on ferries daily from Tobermory.
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| Paul getting the electric line out |
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| and feeding it through Just BilEve's boat |
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| Rafted off of Just BilEve |
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| Divers checking out wrecks right at the shore |
We always wanted to visit Tobermory but it is just too far
to make in a 10 day or even 2 week boating vacation because something always
happens to the weather to mess up the travel. So we were really excited to get
here. This is a harbor of refuge, actually the only harbor in many miles so
they stack up the boats when the weather is bad like it is now. It looked like Put-In-Bay
on a holiday weekend. We rafted off Just BilEve at the gas dock. During the
middle of the night four sailboats came in and rafted together off the other
end of the gas dock.
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| The sun came out just in time!! |
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| Nice restaurant... finally |
The town is teeny, like the other towns we have been visiting
but this one has really amped up the tourist quotient. Lots of shops and art
work. We bought at wedding present at one art gallery. We saw the wrecks close
to the shore where people were snorkeling and diving. We had dinner at a
wonderful restaurant along the water. Best food of the trip. Naturally it
rained but Maeo talked to some folks who loaded us all up in their truck and
took us back to the boat.
We left early the next morning after a trip to the grocery
store for the long trip to Kinkardine. More clouds, cold and rain. Kinkardine
was where we had the disastrous docking resulting in a hole to the swim
platform. The boat hit the corner of the dock that I snapped the locking
mechanism off the glass door on the side when I fell. So, not a good boating
day. All four of us were mad at ourselves. We scattered like bugs until
everyone calmed down. I grabbed the laundry and disappeared returning cleansed
like the laundry two hours later.
To commemorate such a wild day, Kermit decided that the beard he had been growing all trip was probably the problem so he shaved off the beard. It took some time, as Maeo likes to say, but now he is clean shaven again!
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| Lots of Amish here |
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| Kinkardine is very quaint |
The next day was better. We had a blast going to the farmers
market at Victoria Park. This one table was selling these beautiful hot pepper
plans that start purple, then turn white, yellow, orange and finally red. We
didn’t buy one but we thought Maeo would. She didn’t. I walked with Eve to
visit some of the stores. She found this antique (junk) store in the back of
this big Victorian house. Eve was excited to buy some copper cups to use for
drinks. I was thrilled to play with the dogs and cat.
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| Cool pepper plant - should have bought one for Danny |
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| Can you see the piper? |
The bag pipes played at sundown the second day. Too darn
cold the first day. That was a nice way to end the evening.
Then Bayfield the next day. We visited here before. Lots of
people think it is the best town on Lake Huron. It is cute. We walked to town,
noting the house where Rusty took a huge poop when we visited last.
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Maeo and Katherine enjoying a night cap;
as Paul says, "just pour them into bed" |
Today we went all the way to Sarnia, about 50+ miles in the cold and rain. It stopped raining when we got close to the Blue Water Bridge. Thank goodness. We are all tired of the cold and rain. We walked around Sarnia, saw the sites, found the pawn shop then walked back to the marina. Paul showed us this interesting museum called Stones and Bones filled with taxidermy and rocks. Maybe tomorrow. Not sure though.
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| Off to bed we go |
Our plan is to go to Detroit tomorrow then Sandusky on Friday. I can't wait to get home!!! This has been a long trip.
