We had quite a rain storm and wind event on Thursday night which was followed by the double rainbow.

  We left Friday morning on the first lift down, and were out of Swift Rapids by 9:10.  We proceeded to the Big Chute where we found Heart Tug and New Song on the wooden docks.

We visited for a bit and then we proceeded to lock down on the railway carriage.  We arrived in Port Severn around noon, and tied up at the wooden docks.  Around 3:00 we walked over to the general store and ice breaker for ice cream.  We brought back ice cream for the 3 lock staff. Heart Tug and New Song tied up on the wooden dock when they arrived. 

On Saturday Rick and Linda came for a visit and we went to lunch at the Grill.  David had arrived to do more upgrades on the boat, and had brought his Mom, Grace, so she came for lunch with us as well.  David worked most of the afternoon, re-wiring in the engine room. He took a break for supper, and continued on until well past 10:30.  There was one issue he couldn’t resolve with the new conversion box, so he reverted everything back to how it had been set up.

On Sunday,  there was a good wind, so we decided to stay at Port Severn one more day.  We did however lock through after 5, so we were at the bottom, in order to get an early start.

We left on Monday morning at 6:45 and headed to Victoria Harbour. We tied up at 7:45, and I proceeded to walk up to Foodland for some groceries, while Andy waited for a pump out and fuel.  By 9:15 we were on our way north west, we finally stopped at 2:45, and anchored near the Jones Island lighthouse, which is South of Parry Sound.  There was one other sailboat there. **

It was a hot day and I cooled off in the water a couple of times.  While sitting on the back deck we were swarmed by deer and black flies.

We left at 6:25 and travelled for about an hour, before we were hit by an incoming squall.  We pulled off the channel and anchored for about an hour while it passed.  We continue on and passed through the Hang dog reef around 10:30.  It was a little choppy, with a 10 plus knot wind.

We continued on and exiting Alexander Passage we had a good hour of rollers.  We made it to the Byng Inlet lighthouse by noon, and continued westward.  To get out some shelter from the wind and waves, we moved inland, and finally anchored  at 2:30 near Obstacle island in the French Rivers area.    Just before reaching our destination, we had to go through the Parting channel, which is the narrowest channel with the green and red markers almost on top of each other- so very challenging to get through.  A 72 mile day.

On Wednesday, we got up and started making our way back to the small craft channel.  The waves were predicted to be about 0.5 meters, the first 45 minutes, while we were in sheltered waters was OK, but after passing the Bustards, we were in open water on Lake Huron for the next 17 miles. The waves were approaching a meter to a meter and a half- very rough, and the waves were hitting us broadside at times. 

We had a few casualties- lost a 23L water jug, that fell on its side and went under the canvas, as well as a boat hook which was unsecured, and one of our fender holders,  shook free and also went overboard.  Luckily we  didn’t loose the fenders that were in it, as they had been secured to the railing. A very scary couple of hours for the admiral.  The captain did an amazing job of getting us through.  We were both thankful to reach the sheltered waters of Beaverstone Bay and Collins Inlet.  We continued on, and went through Killarney just after noon. 

We anchored in Covered Portage, with several other boats.  There were gusty winds in the afternoon, and our anchor dragged, so we repositioned it a couple of times, by night fall the winds had subsided.  In the late afternoon, Kate and Tom from Molly Brown, kayaked by and we had a good catchup with them.  We had first met them in Orillia a few weeks ago.

On Thursday morning we left the anchorage by 8:30, travelling  the 23 miles to Little Current.  We wanted to make the 11:00 opening of the bridge, we were there with 20 minutes to spare. 

Once through the bridge we called the Port of Little current for our docking assignment.  They originally had us on the town dock behind the Post office, but the new GFI power pedestal did not like our boat, and kept blowing the fuse.  The dock people reassigned us to the floating docks which still had the older type pedestals, and we had no problem.  Once we were tied up here, I set off to the laundry mat.  Between washing and drying, I checked out a couple stores on the main street.   On my return to the boat, I met Bill and Julie from Jubilee- loopers who also plan to circle Lake superior- we exchanged boat cards.  Once back at the boat, I found that Molly Brown had tied up in the next slip to us. Later in the afternoon we walked up to the grocery store, and bought a few supplies.  Leaving the store, a women offered us a ride back to our boat—which was very kind of her. We went to the Anchor Inn for supper, and had Pizza and wings. On our return Kate and Tom dropped by and we provided highlights for the North channel.  Molly Brown is on a tight schedule and needs to be back in Florida by early September, so their time is very limited.

In the morning, we set off shortly after 9 am.  We had planned to go as far as Spanish, to check out the marina, but Andy had noticed that the channel was very narrow and shallow- so we may just stop there sometime, while we are in the car.  We continued through the McBean and Whalesback channels and anchored in Long Point Cove, which had been recommended to us by Randy and Audrey.  We went about 45 miles and there were 5 boats in this anchorage by nightfall.

On Saturday morning we left Long Point cover, passing by Blind River, Thessalon, Bruce Mines and finally ending up in Hilton Beach on St. Joseph’s Island.  We had originally intended on only going as far as the Grant Islands, located between Blind River and Thessalon, but the rain started before noon, and the winds increased as the day progressed.  We arrived in Hilton Beach after 1:30, totally drenched, having gone 61 miles.  After tying up, we had lunch, and then went for hot showers at the marina.  Around 5:00, our friends Pat and Marcia Gillespie, stopped by for a visit, they live in the Sault, but have a camp near Bruce Mines.

We went for dinner at the Tilt’n Hilton, which is just across the street from the marina.  It continued to rain and blow throughout the night and into the early morning.

Around 8:30, we decided we were likely not moving for the day, so I went up to the boater’s lounge and did a couple loads of laundry.  We were both very impressed with how clean this marina is kept– immaculate! We spent the afternoon, looking over the plans for our trip around Lake Superior.  Andy called the marina in the Sault, to book us in for a couple of nights, as Tuesday’s weather does not look good for travelling. He learned that the Canadian lock, which is usually used for pleasure boats, is under construction, so we will be using the larger American lock to get into Lake Superior.  In the afternoon, it cleared up a little and several of the sail boats from the marina went out into the bay. Most of the boats in this marina are sailboats, the exception are  6 power boats, a couple of pontoon boats and a seadoo. 

We caught up on episodes of Coronation Street. In the evening,  I figured out how to access the marine traffic website- as I wanted to know how many freighters, are usually in the commercial channel.  When I looked, I took this  picture —we show up because we have an AIS system that sends and receives.

On Monday morning we untied and went to the gas dock for some fuel, as we weren’t sure if we had enough to make it to the Sault. We passed by the Samuel Risley, which was anchored and is a CCG ice breaker—I guess you can never be sure when it might be needed in these waters.  At one of the lighthouses, we saw workers doing some repairs.

  We started down the St. Joseph’s channel and eventually entered the commercial shipping channel.  There was a freighter behind us, called the Evans Spirit,  at a wider part of Nicolet lake, Andy pulled over and he passed us.  About 45 minutes later we met the CSL Assiniboine,  both boats, did not give off much of a wake- I was pleasantly surprised. 

We arrived in Sault Ste Marie at 12:30 and took on more fuel and had our waste tank pumped out.  Once we were tied up to the dock, we filled up our water tank, and had lunch. We went for dinner with Marcia at Lychee Thai, and then she took  us grocery shopping.

On Tuesday morning, we were awoken to a thunderstorm before 6 a.m.  The day was cloudy and overcast.  We walked over to the Station Mall, in search of advice on cell phone plans for the USA.  We checked with one provider, and they could give us a deal, but they wanted to upgrade our phones.  We ended up going to the Bell Mobility store- we explained we would be in the USA for about a month and didn’t want the Roam better plan which was $13/day for each day we either used the phone or text.  The Customer rep was very knowledgeable and offered Andy a plan for the USA and Mexico for an additional $16 per month immediately.  He also found that for only $1 more than the $35  that I was paying for no data, that I could get 60 GB.  So I signed up for that as well.   Andy with his new phone plan called over to George Kemp marina in Sault Michigan, and asked about stopping there in the morning, in order to go through customs before locking.  We were advised to come over around 10:00.

 So now we are set for the start of our big adventure of circumnavigating Lake Superior- it starts tomorrow, on the American side, weather permitting. Our plan is to be in Thunder Bay by July 24th, as we have rented a car to go back to Winnipeg for about a week for some medical appointments.