Lake Michigan

The waters of Lake Michigan are bordered by four states, and include Michigan, Wisconson, Illinois and Indiana.For most cruisers a trip on Lake Michigan includes a run down the lake from the Strats of Mackinac to Chicago as part of the Great Circle Route. What we did was the eastern shore from Harbor Springs, MI to Ludington MI and then crossed over the lake to Maniotwoc, WI and continued down the western shore to Chicago.

We arrived at Harbor Springs on August 18th , tied up at Stafford's Pier, had lunch at Dudley's Dock, shopped the great little stores, bought a Petosky stone and turned in pretty early. We seem to wear ourselves out in the little towns!!! The harbor was quiet and very pretty.

The next day we moved on to Leland and found it to be so different from what we have been experiencing. Leland Harbor was constructed by placing a breakwater diagonally along the shoreline with openings at both ends. The town is located just a couple of blocks to the east of the marina. Within a few steps of the Marina is a re-creation of a fishing village right on the water complete with dining, fish store [where we purachased white fish to cook for supper - yummy!!], cheese shop, wine, ice cream, and just about anything else you might want. Leland Mercantile was an awesome place to purchase groceries so we stocked up. We actually stayed a couple of days and wished we could have stayed more. It is definately one of those places to which we would like to return.

John was able to put battery and alternator temperature sensors in and fix the compus light. Both are great accomplishments that are making the journey easier.

Frankfort provided an opportunity for John to get another "high fade" haircut. The Marina is right off the main street on a beautiful park with a natural spring fountain. The next morning we awoke to the alarm at 5:00AM and a heavy rain storm that caused a sail boat to be towed in by the Coast Guard with a terribly splintered, broken mast.

We therefore delayed our south departure but were underway at 8:15 for Ludington in heavy swells that diminished as we entered the deep water. This is no small gift because we have found Lake Michigan no lady to take for granted. She can be intimidating at times.

We layed over in Ludington several days, rented a car to "do" Walmart, eat at Hamlin Huse, visit Pere Marquette Memorial and the beach where we met a Charter boat captain with his german short hair pointer who retreives like a lab in the Lake Michiagan surf. 0n Friday the 23rd we drove to South Bend and visited John's parents graves, Notre Dame Basilica [where Dad always wanted to go to mass as a boy], 1826 Donald Street[ to see the house that Dad built and John and his family lived in when he was a child], and then passed by Saint Joseph Hospital where he was born. It was actually a pilgramage. We prayed at the graveside and the Basilica and felt a real presence of Dad and Ada. It was difficult to leave. We placed a beautiful angel and plant on the headstone and then added some small pebbles as we left that we had found on the beach.

0n Saturday the 25th we drove to Alma, MI for a family reunion of Julie, Jake and Mitch's new family. We were so very pleased to be included and really enjoyed the whole family. They are a great bunch - warm, loving and fun to be around. The boys are absolutely awesome and spent some quality time catching John up with all their interests and adventures. The whole experience left us joyfilled and hopeful that we will do it again in the near future. Thank you, Wayne and Julie!!! Grandad and "Grandma Gail" loved it!

Next blog we will share our "crossing" and hopefully, bring us up to date. As we write this ,we are sitting on the boat in Chicago looking out at Soldiers Field.

Moving Right Along!

The North Channel provides protected passage between Manitoulin Island and 0ntario's southern shore.It runs fom Killarney in the east to De Tour Village in the west, 138 statute miles. Created by glaciers in the not too distant past, while geologically young, the North Channel has some of the oldest rocks in the world exposed on its north shore. Many of the rocks in this area are more than three billion years old. The shoreline is rugged and sparsely populated.

From Killarney we went to Baie Fine. To say tht it was a unique experience just doesn't seem to express it fully. Gail actually cried because of the overwhelming beauty that you experience as you enter the Baie. We cruised the entire ten miles and entered The Pool at the end. It is probably the closest thing to a fjord in which most people will cruise. 0n a scale of one to ten, this was, hands down a ten experience.

We found a very secluded anchorage, took the dingy ashore and went "rocking" [as in "shelling"] We are bringing home a fair amunt of stones! John climbed a few huge mountains of rock to pick some wild flowers which we used to construct a wreath for a ceremony in honor of Jim LeRoy since that was the day of the memorial service for him which was impossible for us to attend due to our isolated location - we had no way possible at this point to rent a car or get to a plane. We prayed and then floated the wreath in his memory. Ironically, a huge 0sprey gave us an air show just after we finished. It was very moving! That night, we stretched out on the bow and witnessed the most magnificent sky of stars we had ever seen. As we traveled from this magical place the next morning, we spotted a black bear on the shore as we were leaving. Needless to say, we stopped and took a few pictures! What a treat! This place will long linger in our memories!

We passed through Little Current Bridge and arrived at anchorage in 0ak Bay inside 0ak Point.

Blind River was our last stop before reentering the United States of America at Drummond Island Yacht Haven. We were glad to be in US waters again, had no difficulty clearing customs and spent more time than we had anticipated at Drummond due to weather. Gail was able to use a pay phone to call her Dad on August 13th for his 98th birthday. In her excitement to have a phone connection ,she called him at 5:00 am his time on the other side f Canada!!!! We departed Drummond on Gail's birthday which John celebrated in grand style with goodies from the Drummond Marina Gift Shop!!

Saint Ignace was our next port of call - named for Saint Ignatius of Loyola because Father Marquette SJ traveled, spread the faith and was burried there. John has just completed reading the journal of Father Marquette detailing his journey with Joliet to discover the Mississippi River for europeans, and his last trip to the country of the Illinois Indians, from which he never returned. It is really neat to read about the early explorer's experiences in the very waters of Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, and the Illinois and Mississippe Rivers that we are travelling.

While we were at St. Ignace, we visited Mackinac [pronounced Mackinaw]Island. This island is the gateway from points east to Lake Superior via the Saint Marys River and the straits at Sioux St. Marie, and Lake Michigan through the straits of Mackinac. Every explorer and fur trader that travelled west came via Mackinac Island. In more modern times it is celebrated by movie and song. A famous scene from the movie "Somewhere in Time" with Christopher Reeve was filmed on the porch of the famous Grand Hotel. Today you have to pay $12 just to walk on that celebrated porch! We spent the day sampling the famous fudge, taking a horse drawn carriage tour of the city and visiting the fort. The tour was by horse drawn vehicle because that's the only kind of vehicle allowed on the island! Horses, bicycles and shanks mare are the only modes of transportation. It really takes you back to another era to see rush hour on main street, and not a car in sight.

Aug.5 Fron Tie Island forward

To arrive at Tie Island you leave the channel and proceed through the deep-water channel behind Northeast and Tie Islands. It is small and beautiful. We hooked quickly only to be rehooked by another boat and taken for a Nantucket sleigh ride. No harm was done other than a torn anchor bouy and, once it was over, we had a good laugh. 0nce again we were treated to a show by the gulls as we sat topside and watched a beautiful sunset.

Departing Tie Island

At 6:30am on August 6th we departed Tie Island. [Gail keeps saying she has gone back to "convent time" because she gets up so early and goes to bed sometimes before the sky is dark!!!!] As we cruised we used the sail to good advantage to balance the helm and the autopilot had an easier time steering in brisk wind from the port quarter.

Killarney hosted us for several nights while we waited for good seas and winds to travel the North Channel. It was founded in 1820 and lies on the north shore of Georgian Bay, north of Manitoulin Island, in the lee of George island. It was once a busy commercial fishing village and not until 1962 was the village accessible by road.

This is a boat unique to the Great Lakes, a Great Lakes Fishing Tug. This one has been converted to other uses, but the basic design is a fishing boat with enclosed decks to protect the fishermen from the severe Great Lakes weather.We saw this one in Killarney

We tied up at Gateway Marine & Storage. It was the perfect choice! The Marina had a bakery filled with yummy breads, pies and the most delicious sticky buns in the world. There was also a small restrurant that served all three meals. John thought the blueberry pancakes were the best ever. Their laundry was so easily accesable that even that chore wasn't difficult. No trip to Killarney would be complete without a trip to Herbert Fisheries' Mister Perch, the world famous fish-and-chip takeout restaurant housed in a bus at the public dock where you can dine at picnic tables overlooking the harbor.

Sunset at Killarney

0ne bonus for us was spending some time in conversation with the people who were docked next to us. They have a sailboat named Spitfire and their dingy is Tiger Moth.. John immediately recognized those names as names of planes and of course struck up a conversation right away. As they were talking about the area, it seemed that they knew an awful lot about the area and were more than willing to share their experience and knowledge. It turned out that they were the people who write the guides:

Georgian Bay

The most striking feature of the Georgian Bay is its topography. Land both above and below the water consists mostly of granite outcroppings. The surface of many islands is a very thin soil over hard rock. Rugged pristine landscape abounds. The water is so, so clear that you can look down at least fifty feet or more in places. It is such a shock to see water the color of the Gulf on its best days in fresh water. It is as if you are looking into a fresh water spring. At times, it is the color of green grapes. We are just fascinated with it. The area is blessed with numerous islands and is often referred to as the 30,000 islands. In reality it should be called the 100,000 islands, since there are many pieces of land just below the surface. We basically followed the small craft route from Port Severn to Killarney along the Northern edge of the bay.

0ur first stop was Pentanquishene at the Bay Moorings Yacht Club. Believe it or not, it was VERY hot. We felt we were in Florida, rather than Canada. 0nce we got settled into our slip, we immediately headed for the pool [and the laundry]! Gail’s question was, “Can we spend the night in the pool tonight?” It felt wonderful and was worth the fee of the marina!!! We didn’t even leave the marina and saw nothing of the town..

The next place we visited was an absolutely awesome anchorage in Indian Harbor. Anchoring itself was a feat because the bottom was soft silt. 0nce secure however, we had a delightful dingy ride over to the magnificent rocks to explore, returned for a refreshing swim and then sat topside on Monarch to enjoy a breathtaking sunset.

Sunset at Indian Harbor

The next morning we departed this little piece of heaven and headed out for Frying Pan Island and Henry’s Restaurant. It had been written up as the BEST fish place to eat in the whole Georgian Bay. Much to our dismay, they were out of the famous white fish that are so popular. Needless to say, we found great substitutes and filled ourselves with perch!

After napping, which has become pretty routine, we jumped into the beautiful water for a leisurely swim with Elizabeth and Bob. Hanging on floaties in Georgian Bay is GREAT!! 0nce again, the water is unbelievable. You can see your entire body underwater.

An Anukshuk pointing the way to Point Baril

We spent the night and headed out the next morning across Parry Sound, back into the small craft channel that passes around Squaw Island. We eventually arrived at Point Au Baril. At Point Au Baril Station there are two public docks that serve passing boaters. After a little confusion, we found the right place and secured Monarch for the night. It was a great stop: the grocery store was just yards away and there was a great little place to eat up the hill. We actually “dined” in the yard surrounded by flowers and hummingbirds! The homemade ice-cream was t die for!!! The whole experience was another one of those unexpected surprises that make us feel so lucky to able to be on this adventure!

Point Au Baril Lighthouse

August 4th our home for the night was Sandy Bay. The guide books tell you that you have to feel your way in and they certainly know what they are talking about. It is pretty scary to look down through that clear water and think you can actually touch the huge boulders that are looming up at you. It is very difficult to determine the depth. It makes us feel like real pioneers. Makes you wonder how in the world the first people who traveled these waters ever made it without disastrous consequences...

Departing Sandy Bay

Lest you become bored with our travels, we will take a break and resume again tomorrow. This “catching up” is longer than we thought it would be!

Bobcaygeon to Georgian Bay

We have finally rejoined the modern world! Hopefully we will be able to reconstruct our travels from Hasting to Saint Ignace. We have often been in such remote areas that it was impossible to get wifi connections and we kept very limited notes. John has spent a great deal of time today putting our pictures in the computer and they should help jog our memories.

First off, most of you heard the news about the tragic death of John’s nephew, Jim LeRoy. We have so appreciated your kind words of concern and consolation. Thank you for your prayers, emails and telephone calls. Please continue to especially pray for his wife, Joan, and his son , Tommy.

Yesterday, we received more sad family news. Virginia White’s sister died unexpectedly while she and Marco were visiting her. 0ur hearts and prayers are with them as they journey through this difficult time.

After leaving Bobcaygeon, we went t Lock 35 and spent the night at Rosedale and then headed out from Balsam Lake to Lake Simcoe. At Balsam Lake you are more than 840 feet above sea level and at the highest point in the Trent-Severn Waterway. It is the point where you begin to lock down for the remainder of your trip on the Trent-Severn Waterway. We found it much easier because all you had to do is hand the lock people the line. They were all so helpful and cheerful that it made locking a happy experience.

0n the west side of Balsam Lake the Trent-Severn Waterway enters one of those narrow rock cuts. To top it all off, the trip through Mitchell Lake is full of stumps and very shallow. We found that if we stayed in the middle of the channel, we didn’t have any trouble!!!

At Lock 36 we were at the Kirkfield Lift Lock. This is more thrilling than the trip up the Peterborough Lock. The lift structure is not enclosed and you get the feeling of “hanging out there”. You actually proceed out into a pan suspended nearly five stories in the air!! Actually it is absolutely fascinating. We both wished that our fathers, who are interested in technology, could have been there t experience it with us. They would have loved it!

0rillia was the next overnight stop before we headed into the Severn River. The Severn is banked with low lying farm land that gives way to breath taking granite rock formations. It is heavily forested and isolated. Quite beautiful!

0ur next big adventure was Lock 44 – The Big Chute! If you don’t see it , it would be one of those things to which you would probably say, “no way!” It is truly amazing! You pilot your boat over land to a body of water below the pool at Big Chute. It is a railway lift that can carry 110 tons and vessels up to 100 feet in length. With its complex system of straps and rams it can carry a combination of boats up and down on each trip. !

This is probably enough for this printing. Next time we will begin with our adventures on Georgian Bay – probably the highlight of the trip so far.

Hastings & Peterborough

Sorry-- but we thought this might happen, and probably will again.

We had no coverage for our air card in Hastings, and could not connect with the wifi at the marina across the river. So no blog.

We spent an additional day in Hastings due to a cold front passing through stirring up the weather.

While we were tied to the wall in Hastings, we heard a bunch of yelling on a passing boat. Looking outside we were surprised to see Adirondack, a Monk 36 go by with all four on board waving and yelling.

This is the first Monk 36 we had a chance to look at right at Palafox Marina in Pensacola. We saw it there and asked if we could take a look. Jeff and Sally were the people who put us in touch with Dave, the man from whom we purchased Monarch. Many, many moons later, after visiting the Bahamas, and then continuing north on the Hudson and Lake Champlaign and the canal then later down the Rideau Canal, they have caught up with us on the Trent Severn Waterway. We had a joyful reunion and later enjoyed a couple of bottles of wine with Jeff and Sally and Bob and Elizabeth off Slow Dance. Good fun.

We all left Hastings on Thursday morning and here is a picture of Adirondack leading the way to Peterborough.

Leaving Hastings we left the through hull fitting valve closed which meant no cooling. Bad news. The engine overheated a bit until John tore down to the engine room and opened the through hull. No damage.

We have, however, had problems with the engine not starting at the first push of the start button. Suspecting a weak solenoid, we had both solenoids in the start circuit replaced in Peterborough. The delightful and extremely well informed mechanic also inspected the water pump impeller to see if the short stint without water had damaged it. It was fine.

Here's a picture of the bay in front of the marina here in Peterborough and the fountain which has the light show at night.

We pushed our dock cart, ( a gift from Sheila and company) twice to stock up on groceries, take the laundry into town and load up on fresh veggies from the farmers market. Gail had been longing for some ragatouille for a long time and tonight was the night!

Last night there was a concert in the park right next to the marina, so we had front row seats, right from our sun deck for an evening of Beatles music, a light show at the fountain, concluding with a fireworks display. Cool!

Tomorrow we start off with an ordinary lock, followed by the Peterborough Lift Lock. You can get a good picture and explanation of the lock by clicking on the following url.

http://www.cruising.ca/trent/docs/L-21.html

Then we will probably continue through 6 or 7 more locks, or until we get tired. We would like to spend tomorrow night at anchor if possible.

We found the above url by doing a Google search for Peterborough Lift Lock, but it looks like it might be an on line cruising guide for the Trent Severn Waterway. Might be you could follow our route on that link!

Well anyway, we have to take a good look at the charts for tomorrows adventure. I suspect we will not be able to blog for several days, but our phone seems to be getting pretty good coverage.

Thank you Marco and Virginia, and Gail Thomas for checking on us. It was so good to hear from you!!

Yea! We're back on line.

On Monday July 23 we left Peterborough and arrived at Lakefield, Ontario. The next day, Tuesday, we motored to Lovesick Lock, near no town and sp;ent the night on the island park with the animals. We were warned that the raccoons might invade the boat, but they didn't. We took an island walk through the woods and finally got our feet into the water.

Today we are in Bobcaygeon, Ont. It is a lovely little village, and we stocked up on baked goods at Grandma's Bakery, some groceries, and of course an ice cream. Gail glanced at a few shoes on sale but refused to buy $110.00 shoes, even if they were 10% off! Imagine! Makes you grateful for Bealls!!!! We did visit one art gallery and the artist once resided in Orange Beach! There are a zillion boats here. It looks like all of Canada is on vacation. One of our big surprises is that it is very warm. As we log this, we have the air on because the boat got very, very hot during the afternoon while we were out roaming the town.

And finally, this picture is for you, Sean and Kate. It reminded us of our great time with you at Wakulla springs. We're guessing you would both like to try this one!

Campbellford, Ontario

Here we are in Campbellford, Ontario, tied up in a park next to a 20 foot replica of the Canadian two dollar coin. It turns out that the "toonie" bears an image of a polar bear created by an artist local to Campbellford.

That's the toonie to the right of Slow Dance, the boat belonging to Bob and Elizabeth Robinson, a delightful couple we have met in several marinas along the way. They hail from Gulfport, MS, and we expect to be seeing them often along the way. That's Monarch behind Slow Dance. This is where we are sitting now writing this post.

Yesterday, when we left Trenton in company with Slow Dance, we had a leisurely sail on our first day in "The System," as locals call the Trent Severn Waterway. We transited 6 locks and found both the locks and the lock keepers more friendly to pleasure craft such as Monarch than we did on the Erie.

In between the locks is a quite different story. We passed through several stretches of very narrow passages between vicious looking rock ledges on either side. In addition, many stretches are choked with very heavy weeds. Some trawlers ahead of us on the system have experienced over heating problems in engines from clogged strainers in the engine cooling water intakes. We have tried to follow the path of previous boaters and avoid the worst of the weeds, and check the strainers each morning and have had no problems in this regard.

We stayed at a lovely spot last night in the tiny town of Glen Ross, tied up to the wall just before lock 7. We hoped to be able to get some ice at the convenience store mentioned in the cruise guide, but the lock keeper informed us the store had gone out of business. He then proceeded to hand us a bread bag full of ice from his ice maker.

We joined the Robinsons at a picnic table next to the lock wall for cocktails about 5 pm. Later we were joined by a single-handed boater in a large trawler headed back the way we have come. He was heading in our direction ahead of us when his first mate/girl friend was called home to Maryland due to a serious illness in her family. John was obviously hungry for some company, so he brought a bottle of wine over to join our happy hour. We had a good time until bed time.

As you can see from the picture, which we took at 6:30 this morning when the mist was still on the water, in addition to being a fine gentleman, the lock keeper has a green thumb with the flowers at his lock!

Shortly after this picture was taken we heard a series of loud splashes. It seems a couple of dozen Canada Geese were locking through! They must have landed in the full lock chamber, then when they came to the closed lock gates, they climbed over and leaped into the river below. Some spread their wings and kind of glided, others crash landed like a pile of bricks!

The lock keeper later told us that last spring some of the geese had hatched broods above the lock. When they were out of the nest, he found them in the full lock chamber honking loudly. So he locked them down to the river below. They must have gotten used to this route from their old nesting ground, and still lock down by simply jumping off the high side when there is no lock keeper to lock them through.

We set out at 8:30 this morning and took a slow leisurely cruise through some very beautiful country and some very narrow rocky passages. The river was like glass and we saw a lot of wildwife and many lovely cottages.

We were feeling pretty good about our success so far until Bob talked to a friend of his several days ahead of us. He said, "Well you have enjoyed the easy part, from there on it gets much narrower and rockier."

We expect to take our time, however and be very careful. We will start when the locks open at 8:30 in the morning and stop around 2 pm for our afternoon nap.

Today we hit the high points of Campbellford, the bakery for bread and cookies, and the chocolate factory which makes the chocolate many of you have bought from your children and grandchildren in their annual fund raising activities.

Tomorrow we set out for Hastings, Ontario.

Happy Birthday, John McVay! We have thought about you a lopt today and hope you have had a happy day!!!

It is great to be back "on line", we have missed visiting with all of you and reporting our whereabouts! Don't know when we will be able to be on again so just keep checking!