7/2/17: We made the decision to stop at Grand Bend rather than go straight from Goderich to Sarnia. Storms were predicted in the afternoon, and we didn’t want to chance being on the open lake due to how quickly it can get rough. Stopping at Grand Bend also broke the trip in half, saving about 20 miles to Sarnia. When we first arrived at Grand Bend, the first thing we thought was “What a freakin’ zoo!!”

Before leaving Goderich, we were warned by John, the guy in the slip next to us, that Grand Bend was a carnival. He had nothing good to say about it. In his own words: “I have nothing good to say about Grand Bend”. He urged us to consider a direct sail to Sarnia from Goderich. But the weather looked iffy, and we didn’t want to spend another day in Goderich (one can only climb 171 stairs so many times before saying “Enough!”). Besides, it would allow us to see one more place along the way.

When we approached Grand Bend, we were greeted by jet-skis, motorboats galore, and lots of sailboats. We could also see many people on the beach (we didn’t yet know how many). As we entered the breakwall going up the river, we saw a constant stream of water traffic going in and out of the lake. We pumped out, moved to our slip, took a shower, and decided to explore the town.

Our slip was on the opposite side of the river from town and the main beach. We walked up the road next to the river, crossed the bridge, and were met with chaos. The main road in town leads to the beach, and had thousands of people walking up and down each side. There were restaurants and gift shops the wole way. Thousands more were on the beach; it was shoulder to shoulder. By this time, there were dozens of people on jet skis, another 30+ power boats, and numerous sailboats going up and down the shore. There were people swimmimg, playing volleyball, walking the beach, sunbathing, and even para-sailing! There was no parking anywhere for the hundreds, if not thousands of cars in town. When we walked back, the stream of traffic coming into town was as far as you could see in all directions. It was, as John said, a carnival.

We are still glad we stopped to see how many Canadians celebrate their holidays, but this town was not our idea of a relaxing place to go. Did we enjoy it? Yes. Would we come back? Most likely not.

Pics of Grand Bend