Saw this t-shirt advertised on-line-it will be my quest to find one…

 

On Friday morning, Pat joined us at the marina around 8:15, he was going to help us get through the lock.  He had also brought back the laundry which Marcia had graciously done for me.    Andy called the Canadian lock, to request a lock through.  The Canadian lock typically takes the pleasure craft as freighters are too long for this lock, lock hours are 9-9.

We passed by Roberta Bondar marina, and there were several boats tied up at the gas dock,

becbeause of high water their other docks have not been put in as yet. We reached the lock

and waited a few minutes, before getting the green light, and the lock doors opened.

Pat and I tied off while Andy shut down the engines, the lift was about 20 feet,

we were out of the lock by 9:40.  Once through, we pulled over to the port side, the lockmaster had told us that Pat couldn’t get off while we were in lock, as there was no proof where he had go on our boat.  As we were moving to the port wall, he called us over the radio to scold us but it was too late Pat was already on land.

We continued up the St. Mary’s river to Whitefish Bay. 

There was no freighter traffic and it was an hour or more before we saw a freighter coming towards us- American integrity- an oxymoron?

We continued for several hours and the wind increased and the waves became more than a ½ meter,

we also almost lost our gold burgee, as one of the tie-wraps broke.    We decided to stop in Pancake bay, and were anchored there by about 3:00 on a Sandy beach in about 15 feet of water.

We could see people walking on the beach, and even saw a couple people go in for a very short swim.  The wind subsided and it was a peaceful night there was a cell phone tower near the boat, so we had good reception.  There was also some traffic noise as we were close to the highway.

We left Pancake Bay at 6:00,

there were some swells initially, but it settled down as the day progressed.  At about 6:20,  Andy noticed a flag at one end of a fish net—we weren’t expecting nets in Lake Superior, but had previous experience with nets in Lake Winnipeg.  By the time we realized where the other end flag was- we had already crossed the net.  It must have been weighed down, as it hadn’t moved, and thankfully hadn’t attached itself to our prop.

After this we kept an eye out for nets- but didn’t see another one in our path.  We continued along the shore where it was quite calm.   We checked out a number of anchorages; Sinclair Cove- it was suppose to have pictographs- but I didn’t know what I was looking for

so just took some pictures of the rocks.

 

Beauty cove, as potential stops for our return trip.

Near the Lizzard Islands, I took a picture of the Trans Canada highway that was near the shore, on a hill.

That evening Andy’s brother had texted us that he thought he had seen a  boat on the lake at some point during the day—I would suspect it was us, as we hadn’t seen anyone else on the lake- except for a couple of small fishing boats.

At noon we passed by Indian Harbour, near Cape Gargantua, which could be another potential anchorage.  By 1:30 we had passed Old woman’s bay and were headed for Brule Harbour.  We were anchored using both a bow and stern anchor by 2:00.    We had covered about 74 miles, but had great weather.  In the afternoon we sanded and stained parts of the hand rail surrounding the boat.

On Sunday morning at 5:30, we left the anchorage and proceeded west- north of Michipicoten island.   The water was relatively calm near the shore, as the island was protecting us from the waves.

Once past the island   the waves started building, but we going in our direction of travel, so actually increasing our speed to 10.7 mph. The marine weather network, was forecasting an easterly wind and rain showers later in the day and continuing on Monday.  We decided to   stop in the well protected anchorage called Otter head cove.   We arrived at Otter head Island and followed the channel about a mile back into a secluded cove with 20 plus feet of water.  We were anchored there by 11:30.

One down-fall from this location is that because we are surrounded by hills- our VHF radio has no reception, likewise no cell towers- so we couldn’t get updated weather information.  This is one of the reasons we bought the in-reach- so that we could communicate via satellite where we are.   We relaxed in the afternoon, and both tried some fishing- but not even a bite.   We were entertained in the evening by a moose and calf that had come down to the water to eat, drink and play.   We watched them for almost 2 hours.

The last weather broadcast that we heard forecast winds on Monday at 20 knots ~40 km/hr, so we had decided that we were going to stay in Otter cove until Tuesday morning.   As the winds starting gusting in mid-morning, we moved the boat farther into the cove for more protection.   Andy made scones for breakfast, and I began the task of figuring out how to hang the salon curtains which I had made over the winter.  It took several attempts and 4 hours before I was satisfied with the way they looked.

We had several short rain showers in the morning, but after lunch, the rain fell continually.  The wind settled down a little but continued to blow, causing us to swing.

Tuesday morning we got up at our usual 5:00 a.m., it was drizzling and there was a heavy fog.  The fog had lifted a little by 8:30 and we started the engines to warm them up. I saw another moose feeding at the end of the bay in the rain

as I was lifting the anchor, he just watched.  We left Otter cove and went by Otter Island, once we were outside of the island, waves and swells began hitting the boat. We went down the shoreline for a couple of hours and then pulled into the east bay in Simon harbour.   We were anchored by 10:35, and had gone approximately 15 miles.

The  boat and it’s occupants were being banged around too much.   We kept watching down the bay but saw waves crashing against the rocks all afternoon and evening.  We set a second anchor later in the afternoon as we were swinging around a fair bit.  Later in the evening Andy saw a beaver near the boat.

Wednesday morning, we got up at 5:30 and had the engines on by 5:40.  We started out of the harbour and once again were being hit by swells on our beam.  Not pleasant.

It was about  40 miles to Marathon,  the captain took it slow and tacked  out into the lake and then rode the waves.  Although this produced a somewhat smoother ride, the admiral’s stomach did a few flips and her coffee came up.  I was then not very useful, as I could only sit still—very few pictures were taken during this time.   As we proceeded up the shore, we ran into several fog banks, which completely obscured the shore.  Everything was grey- the water, the shore, the sky—typical Ontario weather in 2019.  There is a tie up pylon – out there in the fog and Marathon marina is found behind it- can you see it?

This is what it looks like from shore without the fog.

We arrived at the Marathon docks at 9:53, Jerry Ferguson was there to help us tie up.  A lovely facility- brand new dock, with the Peninsula,  a great lakes tug, which in it’s heyday hauled pulp logs into Marathon.

Someone doing restoration on the Peninsula, stopped by our boat and will give us a tour later in the week.  In the afternoon, Elaine came and picked us up and  went to Ann and Mitch’s place so I could do laundry, and ordered pizza. In the evening, as part of the Marathon 75^th anniversary, we went to the moose hall, for “open mike”, the entertainers- a bunch of locals, sang a lot of older songs that were well know. Andy and Elaine, visited with many of the people that they knew growing up- between the bands sets.

One of the songs they sang was:

The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called ‘gitche gumee’
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy…..

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man’s dreams
The islands and bays are for sportsmen
And farther below, Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered

Everyone in the hall knew the words and sang along to this one.

It was great to be on solid ground, and the rolling seas from the last few days forgotten.There was a thunderstorm and rain when we returned to the boat, and the sun was just going down.

 

Hope we don’t get the gale force winds as we exit ‘gitche gumee’, after the weekend is over.

Gene replaced the other 6 batteries and we were on our way from Victoria Harbour by 11:00.  I had walked up to Foodland and bought a few groceries while he was on-board making the exchange and attending to some of the other instrument issues.  We travelled up the west shore of Beausoleil Island and joined one of the small craft channels.  We went through the canoe channel around 4:00 and continued on to Snug Harbour.

We anchored for the night in Regatta Bay around 7:00, there was one other boat in this bay.

On Monday we left shortly after 7:00 and passed Port au Baril, and then traveled through the hangdogs-  with the extra water and calm seas they didn’t look as ominous as  the other times when we had passed through them.

By about 10:30, I started seeing some wind turbines in the distance.  I didn’t remember them from our last visit to Georgian Bay in 2017.

By 11:00 we entered the channel leading into Byng inlet.   We topped up our diesel, I did laundry and then we went out to ice cream on the rocks for you guessed it– Kawartha ice cream.  We visited with Brook and Adrian who we had met in 2017, we also met Sylvie, from Lil-hideaway,a  Gold loopers that we had met in 2018 in Campbellford.  I took the hose out and washed down the boat and anchor, which still was covered in mud from our previous night’s anchoring.

We left the next morning at 6:15, it was another nice day,  we traveled though the protected channels, which is where the wind turbines are located.  We were told that the installation of the wind turbines somehow caused one of the forest fires last summer, so they are not yet operational.

We continued  through the channels  until we reached the Bustards around 9:00 and then we went past a lighthouse and out into open water past Killarney.

At 1:20 the lighthouse at Little Current came into view.

We waited until 2:00 for the swing bridge opening.

  We were parked  at the port of little current dock by 2:20.

The dockmaster, told us about another looper that had docked earlier—Sum Escape- Tom and Julie Van Hall—Andy had first met them in the fall of 2015 in Illinois, but we had crossed there path several times since.   After a stop at the LCBO and Turners for a couple more charts, we met Julie and Tom for docktails and a good catch-up.  Andy and I went to the Anchor inn for supper.

 

We left  Little Current at 7:00, it was overcast and felt like rain, sure enough in about 15 minutes we had a short shower.    We passed the Croker islands and the Benjamins,  the extend of where we had gone in 2017.   We continued on to areas that I had not seen before however the water looked the same, just some new  rocks and islands.   We passed through the Detroit cut

and continued on to the whale back channel. The water was extremely calm with little wind.  We had originally planned to only go as far as Blind River, but had called ahead to Thessalon, and found that there was space available there, but we needed to be there by 3:30 in order to pay and get dock assistance.

We arrived at 3:20- cutting it close.  After tying up, we walked into town in search of a hardware store and a postcard to send to my Mom.    While walking down the street to see if the bakery was open I saw this very ornate bench, carved as fish ends.

That evening we were entertained by the town’s fire pumper truck coming to the marina, three times to fill up from the lake.

We left Thessalon at 7 am, we passed Bruce mines and entered the St. Joseph channel passing this lighthouse shortly after 9 am. 

Saw this second lighthouse a little later.

I saw our first freighter in the other channel going towards the Soo  around 10.

We started passing in and out of the United States as we progressed up the channel, many American cottages on our port side flew the US flag.

We got to Lake George which was a very skinny channel at the south end with less than 10 feet of water in places. The North side of the lake was much deeper. 

 

We arrived at the Bellevue marina around 2:00,

and topped up our diesel and water- as both are not easy to get on Lake Superior.   Pat and Marcia came to the marina after 4 and took us to Wacky wings for supper and then a grocery store and finally a little tour of the Soo.  Pat is going to jump on board and help us through the Canadian lock tomorrow morning. and Marcia offered to do a load of laundry for me tonight.

We’ve  come almost 450 miles since leaving Buckhorn , it’s hard to believe we crossed Georgian Bay  and the North Channel in 5 days.    We will have more time  to explore on our way back after the gathering in  Marathon.

I’ve been off work for 2 weeks now, and am  finally starting to relax.  This will be our last night at a marina- as they don’t exist  where we are headed.  Marathon has a dock that we can tie up to so no anchoring while we are there, but we will be putting  our anchoring skills to the test before that .     The adventure will continue tomorrow morning  as we enter into Lake Superior– I’m really hoping for some heat and no wind for the next few weeks.

 

We got the OK from the doctor, and left from work on Wednesday as planned and made it to Fort Frances.  We spent Thursday night in Sault St. Marie and connected up with Pat and Marcia Gillespie, who will take us to re-provision once we get there and assist us with the Sault Lock, which we checked out that evening after crossing the border.

We arrived in Buckhorn around 2 pm Friday, and our boat had already been launched.  The electronics technician was still working the upgrades, and said it would be a couple more days before he was finished.

After having Kawartha ice cream,we drove up to Bancroft and spent the night with Brian and Helen.  On Saturday we did some  grocery shopping for the trip and drove back to Buckhorn filled the fridge and I unloaded the car.  We drove back to Bancroft for the night. On Sunday morning we met Brian and Muriel for breakfast before returning to Buckhorn again.  There was still a lot to be done and Gene, said he would return Monday morning. Monday was a dreary day-  We took the boat out for a short trip which involved driving around in circles  to calibrate some of the instruments.  While doing some testing in the morning Gene determined that some of our batteries were defective, so we decided to change out 6 of the 12 batteries for new ones.  While looking through some old boat bills, I ascertained that the batteries were likely 9 years old, and had surpassed their life expectancy.  The batteries arrives at 2pm from Peterborough and were in the boat and hooked up by 4.

Gene left in the early afternoon after hooking up the radar, anchor light and putting the new screens in place in the lower helm.

Brian and Helen had arrived in the early afternoon and we went for lunch, Helen then returned to Bancroft, leaving Brian to be an extra set of hands to get us through the locks.

On Tuesday morning, we moved over to the fuel dock and filled up the tanks with diesel.   We then set off – headed for the lock in Bobcaygeon, we wanted to be there for the 10 am opening.  We were out of this lock by 10:17, and continued through Fenlon Falls and Rosedale.  On Balsam lake- the highest point on the Trent Severn,  we were met by the familiar boat of Glen Cavers, our boating  friend from our 2017 travels in Georgian Bay.

He drove past, reminding us that we were coming to his place for supper that night.  After the Kirkfield lift lock, we were told by the lock staff that we likely had enough time to do one more lock.  We passed through  Canal lake, which was a little choppy

and the hole in the wall bridge.

 

We made it though the Bolsover lock and tied up below on the blue line by 3:50.  A five lock day.  Glen came by at 4:30- to check out the electronics and take us back to their place on Balsam lake for supper.  Julie had made a wonderful meal, and share some olives, Ouzo and lemoncello, that she had recently brought back from Greece.  What a treat.

She also had numerous Kawartha Ice cream flavours and cherry pie for dessert.  Were we ever spoiled.

After dinner we went down to her studio to see her latest art projects, pictures made with silk and different wool, she had self-taught herself by watching you–tube videos. Such talent!!

Not to be out done, Glenn showed us his latest project- a harmonograph, he said he had made one when he was in high school, and this was his latest attempt.

I have a signed copy of the output—each one is unique.

I remember a spirograph that I had in the early 70’s that could create something similar- but not nearly as sophisticated.  An amazing night- I can hardly wait to be retired, so I can learn all kinds of new stuff.  Glen took us back to the boat by 11:00.

On Wednesday,we  left Bolsover, and headed for Talbot, Portage, Thorah and Gamesbridge, these 4 locks are in within 2.5 miles, so very close together.  One lock crew operated 2 of the locks, so had to drive to the next one, once they had closed the gates.  Many of these locks were having upgrades and construction work was going on around them.

  We reached Lake Simcoe at 11:45 and started the 15 mile trek across it followed by the 10 miles along Lake Couchiching.  We arrived at the railway swing bridge shortly after 2:00, a train was crossing it, so we had to wait for it to pass

before the bridge tender could swing the bridge open for us.  We reached Couchiching by 3:00 and tied up.  This was the nicest  weather day of our trip so far.   Andy was having a few electronics issues so was in constant contact with Gene, to figure out the solution.  That evening we watched some workmen taking core samples from inside the couchiching lock.

On Thursday, we locked through Couchiching at 10:00 and continued on down the Trent.  The hamlet swing bridge was under construction, so didn’t have to stop for it.

Going across one of the lakes Brian pointed out a tree on the shore, that actually wasn’t a tree- it was actually a cell phone tower—Only in the Muskoka’s and Algonquin park would they disguise a cell tower to look like a tree.

We got to Swift Rapids by a little after 11:00 and the lock gates were open for us.  We continued on to the big chute marine railway and arrived there by 1:00.  Helen was meeting us there so that she could share in the big chute experience and retrieve her husband.  We were out of the Chute by 1:50, and said goodbye to Brian.

We continued on and arrived at Port Severn at 3:00, We were out into Georgian Bay by 3:15, and headed for Beausolei Island at Cedar Spring, where we had stayed several times in the past.  Unknown to us, because of high water- the docks were unavailable and likely closed for the season.

So we anchored out near this location. Overnight  a storm blew through, making us very uncomfortable.  At 5:30 am we headed north to find shelter in Ojibway Bay, where there was dock space available.

Once again we were having power issues and got a low battery warning on the Radar and GPS. Andy was in touch with Gene, and we ran the generator for several hours.  We decided that we likely had to change out the other 6 house batteries, so Gene was going to order them and meet us at a marina on Sunday to change them out and address some of our other isssues. The winds continued for most of the day, but died down mid-afternoon, and we met our dock mates for drinks. Early Saturday morning the rain started and continued for most of the day.  Andy helped me finish putting up the curtains in the master stateroom.   A break in the rain and wind, allowed us to leave Ojibway bay and make our way to Victoria Harbour, arriving at 6:30. It looked like  a storm had  just blown through.  The plan is for Gene to come here tomorrow morning at 8:00 and solve some, if not all of our electrical issues, so that our trip can continue.

 

 

I had a busy fall, we had added a couple of additional tests to the Harvest sample program, so a dozen more technicians were required to do the added work.  I spent a lot of my time interviewing and filling out paperwork to make this happen.  In the end we test 8800 samples in a 4 month period- crazy days- I worked 10-12 hour days for most of it.  The good thing was that I accumulated almost 27 extra days of vacation. So the plan is to use them in June and July for a trip to Lake Superior “On Business”.  One of the reason’s for this destination is that Marathon, on the north shore, where Andy grew up is having their 75^th anniversary of the town, and Andy wants to go by boat.

Andy has been prepping for this trip since Christmas, as he got the Bonnie Dahl book: Superior  Way in his stocking.

He also order a chart book and individual charts for the north shore of the Lake,  and had marked them up with the best places to anchor or hide from a storm.  Santa also brought us “marriage saver” blue-tooth headsets – which should cut down on the need to yell at each other while on the boat.  The shoreline  is very remote, and not a lot of pleasure craft or marinas are available on the route that we will be taking.  Andy contacted a couple of boaters from “Last Dance” , members of  AGLCA  that had been on Lake Superior in the summer of 2017 for some advice, and received some very useful information. Since cellphone coverage and internet is likely going to be unreliable, I bought Andy an InReach Mini for his birthday—it is a satellite communicator, that we can send out  text messages, track  our course as well as sending SOS  messages to the proper authorities if we get into trouble.   You can follow our progress on Mapshare using this link: https://us0-share.inreach.garmin.com/BYK46   and password: T&A2019

Andy had a fair bit of time to do research this winter as he was in recovering from hernia surgery in January.  He had been suffering since the previous April, so the surgery was long overdue.

We had made the decision to upgrade all the navigational electronics in the boat. So all new Garmin- plotters, screens, sonar, radar, autopilot and radios for both helms are to be installed.

I did my part for the upcoming trip by sewing new curtains for the salon and master berth- I’m hoping the measurements that I took last summer were correct, or I’ll be piecing them together with pins.

Andy drove to Ontario with a load of stuff for the boat during the second week of May to meet with the electronics guy, and confirm what we wanted replaced.

The long weekend in May we drove the 500 Km up to Swan River to visit my family.  It was also the occasion of my mother’s 89^th birthday.  On the Sunday afternoon, we took a short trek into Saskatchewan to check out the garter snake pit near Fort Livingstone.

 

– It was a family affair, my Mom and both my sisters went, we tool 3 cars and a dozen people including all 5 of my great nieces and nephew.  Everyone touched the snakes

—they were everywhere slithering through the grass.

We went back to Swan River, had dinner at a restaurant and then went back to my sister’s for Birthday cake.

 

The  birthday girl!

We returned to Winnipeg on Monday.  I planted the garden a week ago with tomatoes  that I had seeded indoors in late March, and had transplanted them a couple times into larger pots.  I knew I had a lot, but when I finished planting them, I counted 29.  If we have a bumper crop- I’ll have plenty to give away this fall.

So that leaves 3 more sleeps in Winnipeg, until we leave.  We plan to be all packed up Tuesday night, and Andy will come pick me up from work on Wednesday and we’ll travel  as far as Fort Frances for the night at Andy’s sisters’.

We do have one circumstance   that could hamper our plan.  Andy has an appointment with his hernia surgeon on Wednesday morning to discuss the next surgery.  The January surgery didn’t go as well as it should have, so Andy will be having hernia surgery #3 sometime soon.  It will be the doctor that decides whether this trip happens.

If we get the green light the plan is call Buckhorn to splash the boat on June 6^th.  We will spend June 6^th in Sault Ste. Marie and arrive in Buckhorn late on June 7^th.  Once unpacking, provisioning and getting acquainted with the new electronics is complete, we will start through locks on the Trent Severn,  cross Georgian Bay and the North Channel with the goal of being as far as Marathon by June 23^rd.