Leaving Baie Fine, we headed to Little Current, Manitoulin Island, to resupply, pump up and out. Our generator had acted up while in the anchorage and we stayed overnight to have a mechanic look at it while in town. It turns out that weeds from The Pool covered the water intake to the gennie and once they were cleared, it worked beautifully. Little Current has changed a lot since we were there 5 years ago. There is a beautiful new waterfront dock that extends 1800 feet with wide slips and beautiful facilities. Unfortunately the wireless network wasn't set up yet so we had to go The Anchor Pub to do some emailing. That was really rough since we are abstaining these days....AND of course I still have some great swamp land to sell you if you buy that one. Great dinner of fresh fish and a couple of pints pretty much took care of email. The mechanic told us that our Rogers stick would work almost as soon as we cleared the dock and he was right! Not enough juice provided by the gennie to boost the MAC fully for blogging but ok for email.
Left: Sunset on Little Current Bridge, the only bridge from the mainland to Manitoulin Island.
Next morning, off to Gore Bay to pick up a couple of things we couldn't get in Little Current. One of the best features of this port is that you can anchor at the bottom of the basin near a wildlife preserve. It is beautiful and the waters clear and calm. We were the only boat anchored in the bay that day.
Below: View from our anchorage; Gore Bay marina and the channel into the bay.
The next morning we were up bright and early to leave the bay and head to the Blind River area on the mainland side of the North Channel. The weather had changed and we had quite a wind on our stern, propelling us along at nice clip. It began to rain gently and the marine forecast indicated that the winds would become stronger through that day and the next. We decided (being fair-weather boaters) to press on a bit further to Thessalon and spend the night at the marina. By the time we arrived, the wind was roaring and it was rain was dumping down. I donned my wet-weather gear, got out on the bow and realized that the marina was closed for the day so I had to lassoo the cleats on the dock that was about a foot above the water. Bob did a great job of docking and we talked about a strategy, not knowing which slips were permanent residents and those that were transient We decided to pick a slip and attempted to get in a couple of times while the wind was shoving us off. I had my Annie Oakley hat on and was about to catch a cleat with my lassoo when two mariners from separate sailboats, came running to help us in. Alarmingly, the slip we chosen had an OPP boat in it so we were grateful for the assistance, not wishing to wipe out a boat belonging to our finest officers. We were in port for two days while the winds howled. We met three couples from the U.S. who had separate tug boats and who had participated in a Nordic Tug boat rendezvous in St. Ignace. They had come in to shelter from the wind as well and invited us to join them for a cocktail party at the pretty marina clubhouse. We had so much fun and learned a lot from them. They visit Ontario waters every year, loving the wilderness, the endless anchorages and the abundant wildlife. They stated that they haven't any really uninhabited places to boat in their area and love coming to Canada. This is one of the things we love most about boating. Everyone is helpful, friendly and happy to share their stories, both accomplishments and disasters. None of them care one bit what kind of boat you drive. Our friend Linda told us this 8 years ago when we bought our first boat from them and she is so correct. Whether you own a dinghy, a fishing boat or a yacht, the people are amazing and we (gratefully) meet very few who are objectionable.
Below: American tugs at Thessalon
Finally we had a clear forecast with light winds and we left for Sault Ste. Marie. We took the Canadian route and found it uninspiring and very shallow which meant we had to be vigilant to avoid running off course and aground. The photo shows clearly how close we were to 1 foot depths. At this point we knew that we would return via the St. Mary's Channel and run the risk of sharing the channel with the huge freighters that travel the waters....a brand new experience for us.
Some photo's of the Roberta Bondar Marina, Canada Day celebrations, including Tug Boat Races, fun ...all easily viewed from our slip and fun statuary around the boardwalk. Perrrrfect!!!
Here we are (left) in our slip, all snuggled up to a boat museum
We had a fabulous pancake breakfast ($5/pp) on Canada Day, onboard this barge in the harbour
Note the tree art in front of this home and Steve, the street sign is for you and your buddy Keith.
We heard that rubbing Roberta's nose would bring us luck. Bob was shy (sure he was!) and I had no problem polishing her hooter for her figuring that with those roots, no one would recognize me anyway!
Crazy tuggers!
We had three great days in the Soo and left through the U.S. locks (the Canadian locks are apparently constantly under repair) and into the shipping channel, 28 nautical miles to Lake Superior. We knew at this point that we wouldn't be anchoring in this lake since we had a very informative chat with a retired commercial fisherman who spent his life on Superior. He told us that it is quite a distance between anchorages and marina's and that marina's are reluctant to sell gas to pleasure boaters. They need it for locals. There is no charge to transit either the Canadian or U.S. locks and so we decided to poke our bow into this big lake and return the same day. Although the marine forecast was for great weather, we had barely returned to the Soo when we heard there was a "severe storm warning around Whitefish Bay on Superior". Whitefish Bay is where we entered the lake. We had a great cruise to the lake then turned around and shared the channel with 3 very large freighters. The lockmaster asked us if we would like to share the lock with one of them and we did...along with a Lock Tour boat. Note the number of people in the observation gallery.
That's Superior over our bow and what we thought was a boat ahead of us was actually the largest marker we have seen.
Returning, we shared the locks with the Ojibway
...and on the St. Mary's River, we saw an Osprey nest with someone at home, then met up with this enormous freighter. The channel didn't seem quite wide enough so Bob kept real close to the marker since we know they can't really see anything as tiny as us.
We spent the next couple of days anchoring between Snapper and Picture Island and discovered that the "up" button on our windlass wasn't working. Bob hauled in over 100 feet of chain plus the anchor and we headed to Blind River to get it fixed. We now have a shiny new stainless steel windlass that works like a charm. In the back of our minds runs the definition of "BOAT"....BRING OVER ANOTHER THOUSAND!!! We also remind ourselves that this lovely boat is 21 years old and that we are rebuilding her one piece at a time. The following photo's are of Blind River Marina, Bob going shopping for "guess what??" on the marina loaner bike, the cutest otter behind our boat in the marina, the beautiful anchorages we have visited, our shock at seeing a bald eagle sitting in a tree right beside our boat (he stayed there all day!) and the prettiest port to date....Spanish, where we are at this moment. What a province! What a country!!! Tomorrow we will leave for another 6 or 7 days at anchor. Having a fabulous time in the North Channel!
American boats like this are in abundance here!
We wondered why there were dozens of cormorants in the water then saw thousands of dead shadflies floating on the surface...yum, yum..
And finally....Spanish, a wildlife preserve and beautiful port with trails and a lookout over the marina and Whalesback Channel.
