Day 159 - Back in the USA

The weather forecast was calling for gale winds on Lake Michigan on Wednesday and Thursday so we decided to try to make it to St. Ignace, Michigan today as we very well might lose a day to weather.  Unlike the forecast, today started out warm, partly cloudy and calm - with a beautiful sunrise.  We took the boat to Wally’s for fuel at 9:09 am and left Little Current harbor at 9:50 am, passing Boyle’s Marina and Spider Bay Marina (city-owned).  No one from the city ever showed up to take our money for the mooring, so it was a free night for us!

The North Channel is wide here, and its shores flatten out.  Manitoulin Island was to our south and the Canadian mainland was to the north.  More islands popped up in the channel.  We cruised north to the Benjamin Islands, noted for their “pink granite”.  We thought the color was more orange than pink, but the brighter the sun, the more pink it looked.  Whatever the color, the islands were beautiful.  There are many quiet anchorages throughout the North Channel and its islands.  Although most were empty now, we did see a boat here and there.  Two sailboats were anchored off Croker Island,  just south of the Benjamins.  It was a little tricky getting there.  The Captain had to maneuver slowly around submerged rocks that were on the charts.

 

It would have been nice to cruise more slowly along the Canadian mainland, but we had a long way to go so we sped through the channel to De Tour Passage, where we turned south to US waters.  We saw very few boats and again, I felt pretty lonely out here as I had in much of the Trent-Severn Waterway.  The whole area, from the Trent to the Georgian Bay and North Channel is more or less deserted after Labor Day.

The skies had cleared up and it was another warm day.  At 2:15 pm we entered the US and Captain Randy shut down the engines to call Customs.  We were hoping not to have to go into Drummond Island as we were registered with the SVRS and had filed a float plan.  However, the Customs officer on the phone told us to go into Drummond Island, which has an onsite Customs Office.  We did as we were instructed and docked at the Drummond Island marina’s fuel dock.  In a few minutes, a Customs Officer came on board, asked us a few questions, and we were free to go on our way.  We were docked for 15 minutes but it took us almost an hour to go into the marina and then back out to the Detour Passage.  We were back in the DeTour Passage at 3:14 pm and continued south to Lake Huron. 

We had come 100 miles already today and had another 40 to go to get to St. Ignace.  Two large lights marked reefs, the De Tour Reef and the Martin Reef.  Mackinac Island loomed ahead and soon we could see the Mackinac Bridge and the Upper Peninsula mainland.  We were safely docked at the St. Ignace Marina at 5:35 pm.  Dinner was a short walk away at the Mackinac Grille where we had whitefish and walleye.  It had been a long but good day on the boat with warm sunshine and calm waters.

 

 

 

 

Day 158 - The North Channel

The last week of our last leg of our Great Loop.  The day was glorious: bright sunshine and in the 60’s to start.  We left Tobermory at 10:40 am, heading north to the North Channel.  This channel is 120 miles long and up to 20 miles wide, from Killarney on the east to De Tour Village on the west, north of Manitoulin Island, the largest freshwater island in the world.

 

A series of small islands were in our path out of Tobermory.  To our port, Cove Island has a lighthouse at Big Point that marks the main entrance channel to Lake Huron.  To the starboard was a series of islands forming a reef called the Great Barrier.  The water depth goes from 200 feet to 20 feet.  The waves were 1 to 2 feet today so cruising around the islands and shallow spots was easy.

Fitzwilliam’s Island was to our port and we passed others such as Rattlesnake and Rabbit Island.  Dead ahead was Manitoulin Island.  A few cottages were tucked into the trees on the southern shore and we saw the soaring Nabakwaneing Cliff.  At 12:45 pm we entered the North Channel via Lansdowne Channel between Badgeley Island and Centre Island, a few miles west of Killarney.  There were some homes on the islands.  Looking north, we could see the northern shore of the North Channel with its magnificent cliffs.  To the east, we could see the Indusmin Quarry, where heavy machinery is lopping off the top of Badgeley Island.

 

We were hitting some shallow spots again, causing the Captain to slow to a crawl until he found the deep water.  The water was calm and a few puffy clouds appeared in the sky.  At Frazer’s Point we turned to starboard into the stunning beauty of Baie Fine Fjord, one of the few fjords in North America.  The Okeechobee Lodge, once and inn, now private, sits at the entrance of an 8 mile channel through the fjord to the Pool, a basin at the end that is a favorite anchorage for boaters.  The north side is more rock than trees and the south side is the opposite.  We cruised in about 4 miles before turning around.

 

 

It was only a few miles further to Little Current, a town of 1500 on Manitoulin Island.  We passed the Strawberry Island Lighthouse then went under the only bridge from the mainland to the island (getting out the feeler gauge just to be sure we could make it under).  We tied up at the town wall dock at 3:45 pm.  No one was in the marina office to check us in and there was no answer or voicemail when we called.  A young man was sitting on a bench playing guitar and singing, and occasionally someone walked by.  We did find a person at Wally’s Service, a fuel service on the town wall, and we walked over to talk to him.  Wally (at least I assume he was Wally) told us that he had not seen anyone from the marina all day and that “Maybe someone will show up, if not, enjoy your stay”.

 

Town consists of about 3 blocks of stores and a couple restaurants.  The town dock is fairly long and there was a North Channel cruise boat docked there.  A tiny park overlooks the harbor and has a WWI memorial, as I think every Canadian town we have visited does.  The guitar player was still singing – it was over an hour by now.  We crossed the main street and had dinner on the outside patio of the Anchor Inn.  The food and wine were very good, especially considering how remote this location is.  The harvest moon was beautiful as it rose over the channel.