Where did I leave off? Almost home

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.

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.

Kermit and Katherine 

Kermit

Julie and Paul

eve and karen

Dave and Jim

Julie and Katherine 

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.

Rocks at South Benjamin

Just BilEve at anchor in S.  Benjamin

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. 

Kermit dressed the part

Katherine and Paul with a
photobomber

Eve went all the way

So did Maeo

We put our clothes back on - too cold

The whole gang - Jim, Karen, Paul, Maeo, Katherine,
Kermit, Eve, and Bill. Ron was taking the picture
Not sure where Julie was!

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.

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!

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!!

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.

Flower Pot Island

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.

Paul getting the electric line out

 

and feeding it through Just BilEve's boat

Rafted off of Just BilEve

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.

The sun came out just in time!!

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!

Lots of Amish here

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.

Cool pepper plant - should have bought one for Danny

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. 

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. 

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.