6/28/17 – 7/1/17: Our next stop on the agenda was Bayfield. Bad storms and high winds were predicted (again) for the next few days, and Canada Day was the forthcoming Saturday. This year marked 150 years since Canada united all of the provinces into a single confederation, so this year was a special celebration for Canada. We called Bayfiled for a transient slip, but because of the upcoming holiday, none were available. We called Grand Bend, a little further south, but they were also booked solid. We found dockage in Goderich, 30 miles north of Bayfield, and decided to stop there for a few days before proceeding to Sarnia.
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Archive | June 2017
Kincardine
6/26/17 – 6/27/17: Because of the constant inclement weather so far in our trip, we’ve been spending many more days hunkered down in marinas than we’ve intended. Needless to say, we were eager to make a little more forward progress. Our next stop was Kincardine, about 25 miles south. We saw a small break in the weather early one morning, and made a break for it. When we arrived at Kincardine, we were happily surprised at the quaint town.
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Port Elgin
6/24/17 – 6/25/17: We were eager to get to Port Elgin, as we had already spent 3 nights in Tobermory riding out bad weather and were ready to move on. We checked the weather for the next day, and saw that it would be sunny but a bit cool, winds in the morning around 10-15 knots diminishing in the afternoon (and further south) to 5-10 knots, and waves predicted to be 2-3 feet. It seemed liked favorable conditions for our 55 mile journey. We left Tobermory, and do you think the wind and waves were as they predicted? We will give you one guess.
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Tobermory
6/21/17 – 6/23/17: We left Baie Fine early in the morning, as we had about 53 miles to sail. We took one last look at the hills and cliffs of Baie Fine, and wished we had more time to spend here. The wind was steady at 15 knots, and the waves were between 3 and 6 feet the entire trip. It took 31 days, but we finally made it to Tobermory.
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Baie Fine
6/20/17: All the cruising guide books we’d read, and everyone we talked to along the way told us that before we leave The North Channel, we had to go see Baie Fine. So we did. And we were awestruck.
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Killarney
6/17/17 – 6/18/17: We motored the 3 miles from Covered Portage Cove to Killarney. Killarney is a very (very) small town located along the channel between the Ontario mainland and George Island. Just before we entered the channel, a sea plane landed in front of us, and we followed it into town!
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Covered Portage Cove
6/16/17: On our way from Little Current to Killarney, we decided to anchor for a night a a bay called Covered Portage Cove. It was a beautiful anchorage, but we had one of our most difficult times anchoring since owning Shanti.
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Little Current
6/14/17 – 6/15/17: We left the sheltered bay of South Benjamin Island, and made our way towards Little Current. Not only was the journey there windy and wavy, we never expected that we’d spend two nights there, trapped in a slip!.
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South Benjamin Island
6/13/17: Our second anchorage in The North Channel was at South Benjamin Island. There were several anchorages, but we chose one according to the forecasted winds. As we pulled in to the bay, all we could both say was “Wow”!
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The Turnbull Islands
6/12/17: The Turnbull Islands are a group of Rocky islands about 35 miles east of Thessalon. This was our first of two anchorages planned before a marina stop at Little Current. The anchorage was beautiful, but maneuvering in caused us both a little anxiety.
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Thessalon
We left Milford Haven, dragging a cloud of mosquitoes behind us. The day started sunny, warm, and calm, but we knew there was some rain on the way. Thessalon was about 15 miles away (2.5 hours), and we thought for sure we’d beat the rain. We were wrong.
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Milford Haven
6/9/17: We spent most of our day in the shipping lanes of the St. Mary’s River. We were headed to Thessalon, but planned to do a quick overnight in Milford Haven, a secluded bay that we read was a good anchorage. Sometime during the day, Kate glanced at the chart and commented, “Do you suppose it’s a problem that it’s right next to a bay called Mosquito Bay?”.
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Sault Ste. Marie
6/5/17 – 6/8/17: The morning we left Whitefish Point, we had more dense fog. We waited for a while to see if the fog would lift, but by 8:30AM it was still “pea soup”, so we decided to leave, as we had about a 6 hour day ahead, including our first set of locks. We would be in the shipping lanes about 1/2 the day, and we then realized a second great investment we made: RADAR!
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Whitefish Point State Harbor
6/4/17: On our way from Grand Marais to Sault Ste. Marie, we planned an overnight stop at Whitefish Point State Harbor, as the distance would have made for a 12+ hour day. A short time after leaving Grand Marais, we both agreed upon one thing: one of our better investments was an automatic fog horn.
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Grand Marais
6/3/17: We wanted to get to Grand Marais before 3PM as there were storms forecasted. It was about a 6.5 hour journey, so we got up around 5:30AM. The forecast for the morning called for winds of less than 10 knots and waves calm to 1 foot. We learned that even NOAA can be just as wrong as the TV meteorologists.
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Munising
6/1/17 – 6/2/17: We left Marquette on a beautiful sunny Thursday. The forecast called for 20% rain. We thought, “finally a day without rain”. That thought lasted about 10 minutes, as we hit every 20% rain area between Marquette and Munising. And, true to form, as we rounded the last corner before the marina, behold, the sun! As we looked at the town from the bay, we weren’t sure what to expect.
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