Thursday, August 12 Location: Leland, Michigan

Arrived back into the USA, cleared customs in Drummond, Mi. and are now travelling south on the east coast of Lake Michigan. Below is a summary of our travels through Georgian Bay and the North Channel.

Leaving Port Severn (the smallest and busiest lock on the Trent-Severn Waterway) we traveled through the South Channel using the small craft route beginning at Roberts Island.
Monday, 26 Jul - We anchored off Gilman Bay

Tuesday, 27 Jul - stopped at Parry Sound for groceries (courtesy car to and from).
Anchored at Pointe au Baril on tues and wed due to expected high winds.

Thursday, 29 Jul- anchored off Henvey Inlet – had difficulty with our anchor – would not hold and
Moved Tadpole closer to the inlet for the night. Evening storm came through, and our anchor held.

Traveled through Cunningham Channel. Entered the North Channel at Killarney….traveled through Collins Inlet, – a route with many rocks throughout.

Friday, 30 Jul - made a lunch stop at Killarney. Tadpole docked at a private dock, separate from our traveling companions due to limited space , paid the owner a few dollars to stop for an hour or two.

Had fish and chips at Herbert Fisheries – an old red school bus selling fish and Serving fish and chips with fish just caught out of the lake. The best we’ve had!

Left Killarney and anchored at Covered Portage Cove. Beautiful. Joe took me on a dingy ride as we have not yet put the motor on our dingy.

Saturday, 31 Jul - It was on to Little Current – a very busy harbor. Stayed 2 days. It was Hawberry Festival weekend plus Civic Holiday on Monday. Sunday was complete with a parade through town, a day long street market with vendors selling foods and snacks and art work, clothing. There was a boat parade and fireworks in the evening. The town turned out for the fun and so did we.

Mon-Thurs 02-06aug Left Little Current with Joyce and Joe (Takitez) for the Benjamin Islands. Luc and Jocelyn stayed behind for some mechanical work on Blue Max.

Anchored near the south Benjamin Island and stayed 4 days, first, to wait for Blue Max, then another few days due to the weather – a cold front was moving in creating high winds with significant gusts. We put out an additional anchor for a strong hold and opened the bridge windows to lessen the drag of the boat from the wind. We slept with one eye opened while the wind gusts whipped around Tadpole. Each time one of the boats anchors came loose, any boat that would notice would blow his horn to alert all the others. A red sailboat had quite a bit of difficulty anchoring – his anchor coming loose 3 times- and each time, they were away from their boat, having gone off on their dingy for a trip to shore and/or a visit to another boat. They returned very quickly to secure their boat. Fortunately, our worry was for naught.

The Benjamin Islands are beautiful and a very popular anchorage for the locals and also one of our favorites. Smooth, colorful, mountainous rocks made up of solidified granite, quartz, and many other types of rock that were carved out by 2000 foot thick glaciers over 70 thousand years ago. The exposed rocks are over 1 billion years old, the oldest on the universe.

We walked around the huge boulders several times during our layover, getting our exercise and watched the sunset from the west side of the island. I tried out Joyce’s kayak, paddled it from their boat to ours with the current and Richard pulled me back to their boat which was against the current. It was fun.

Depth around the glacier area can drop from 10 to 200 ft, created by the glaciers downward pressure.

Friday, 06 Aug Traveling westbound in Whalesback Channel, passing through Little Detroit (announcing our passage with a securite) and on to our next anchorage in a cove called Bear Drop (lat 46 10/ lon 82 40) which follows the coastline and the trans-Canada highway 17.

The winds are still gusting, but not as bad. The temperature this morning is cool, in the 50’s, making a jacket feel very good.

Arrived at about noon, and took we all took a dingy tour of the anchorage. We followed that with a chart study at Blue Max and noticed Tadpoles anchor was dragging due to the increased wind and pushing us very close to Blue Max. Joe kept her away from Blue Max by pushing her with his dingy while Luc and Richard starting her engine and pulled up the 2 anchors that had lost their hold due to the very high wind gusts. It was a very stressful time and one we really hope not to experience again. She is now moved to another location and hopefully secure for the night.

It is our last night with Joyce and Joe (Takitez) and we had planned a final happy hour with them, but….did not want to stray from the boat until the winds lessened, unfortunately, too late for us to get with the group.
They are continuing with their son, Michael, to Gore Bay, then home to Goderich, On.

Our route will take us to Thessalon, On., then Drummond Island where we will clear customs, then on to the Straits of Mackinac. 5-6 days travel, weather permitting.

Sunday, August 8 Spent Saturday in Thessalon. Spoke to one of the boater’s that was anchored By us in Bear Drop. He said the wind gusts had measured up to 35knots.

Our departure for Drummond Island was delayed this am by rain and fog, but Underway at noon and cleared US Customs without delay.

Monday, August 9 Docked at a new state marina in Mackinaw City and Richard and I took the ferry to Mackinaw Island for the rest of the afternoon. No cars permitted. People Get around by foot, bikes, or carriages – some horse drawn. We made sure to Dodge them all.

Tuesday, August 10 Had to delay our departure to Petoskey until around 1100am after the fog lifted,
Arrived later than we like – about 630pm. Had dinner on board, then, walked Around the city while waiting for my sister, Jacque, to arrive from Kalamazoo by bus. Hope this newest crew member is a fast learner as we plan on putting her to work – go swab the deck, mate!!!!