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?”.

For about 20 miles of our 43 mile day, we were in close sight of the laker “Rt Hon Paul J Martin”. When we first left the marina in Sault Ste. Marie, it was just leaving the US locks. It took about an hour for it to catch up and pass us, but then slowly crept ahead. A little while later, it slowed down, and we caught back up to it. We were just starting to pass it when it sped up down the river. We lost it around one of the bends. We saw several more, going both up and down river. It’s inconceivable just how big those things are, and quite a sight when you are sharing a channel and are only about 250 feet away from them!

We left the shipping lanes after about 4 or 5 hours and turned northeast, into the North Channel of Lake Huron. We decided to anchor at a bay called Milford Haven, as we were still several hours from Thessalon, and the marina would be closed by the time we got there. Milford Haven is a long, narrow bay in St. Joseph’s Island, and would provide good protection from most winds. It was quite scenic and remote, but all the mosquitoes from Mosquito Bay next door must have migrated here, as they were horrible. We had hundreds of them in our cabin, and were swatting them all night. We are still swatting them today, as we are writing this (now in Thessalon).

However, it was also our first day travelling with sun and with temps above 50 so all in all, we enjoyed the trip a lot. Ok, now back to mosquito swatting.

Pics of Milford Haven