Leg#12 — 9/20/14 to 9/25/14– Midland, Ontario, Canada to Bay City, Michigan, USA

This is not normal Looper travel country.  This is a leg to put the boat into winter storage back in the USA.  We did consider trying to keep the boat in Midland but after all the considerations decided to get it to the east coast of Michigan.  It will be cheaper, easier to start next Summer, closer to home and we don't have to fool with the paperwork to try to keep it on a work order in Canada all winter.  BUT, getting it there has its challenges.  We have been sitting at home watching all of the weather sites to find three travel days to make it happen.  All of the planning and we ended up starting out from Midland on flat seas only to divert to Lion's Head Marina on the way to Tobermory because of high winds and wild seas....I won't tell you how strong or how high!  We felt lucky to get a spot at the fuel dock and have help tying up.  I have told Ken to not show anyone the video's of the waves because no on will trust us to gauge the weather.  After talking to some of the locals, this weather was not on the forecast.  We are extremely careful and conservative....but sometimes things go wrong.  Whew! We are all tied up and even have electric for some needed heat.  We are ever grateful to Ted for finding us a spot to wait out this weather !

Next day, we walked into the small town of Lion's Head for a breakfast at Marydale's.  The water is calmed down so we are planning on leaving around noon for Tobermory at the tip of Bruce Peninsula.  From this spot looking out over Isthmus Bay, you can see the cliffs of Lion's Head Provincial Nature Reserve (where there used to be a Lion's Head visible) to the east and the Lion's Head Lighthouse.  Off to the left (northwest) you can see White Bluff and in the distance, Cape Chin.  Well, plans change.  We are staying here another night because of high waves !
We left on morning #2 at 7:30 heading to Tobermoyer.  The water was a little choppy but, hey, nothing like Sunday so all is great !  We passed the bluffs and then the turn east and Flowerpot Island.

FYI My pic's were not so great so I used internet pictures !

Flowerpot Island, Tobermory Ontario Just 6.5 kilometers off the coast of Tobermory lies Flowerpot Island, one of Canada’s most fascinating natural attractions. Flowerpot Island is famous for its natural sea stacks, the “flowerpots”, as well as its caves, historic light station and variety of rare plants. Accessible only by boat, Flowerpot Island is the only island in Fathom Five National Marine Park with campsites and hiking trails. It is a great place to spend half or a full day exploring the island, viewing the scenery, picnicking or swimming.

We got in to Tobermoyer around 10:30....in time for lunch at Leeside where we saw Ted, from Lion's Head, heading out with his gang to take the ferry to Manitoulin Island to go fishing for the week.  It's a small world even in Canada.

Beautiful sunset from Grandview Hotel.

View of Grandview upon early morning departure.

We spent the afternoon trying to get somewhere to check in to US Customs.  Don't like to talk bad about our country....but what a tangled mess trying to find out where we have to physically check in with our boat.  Finally, got an appointment with a customs officer for Apena, MI tomorrow.  So at around 5:00pm, we are now thinking about food and drink.  Off to the Grandview Hotel for spectacular sunset and great food.

Seventh Sun III sitting next to a Sculpture Boat !!

We left Tobermoyer at 7:30am for the 90 miles across to Alpena, Michigan.  These passages take much more preparation and consideration. The weather looks as perfect as it gets on this lake.  It was a little choppy considering the waves were supposed to be 0-2 feet.  We got into Alpena, without incidents, at 1:30 and went straight to the fuel dock to fill up for our longer treck tomorrow.  We strolled to downtown and had a nice lunch.  We visited a gallery of local artists and walked around a bit more before heading back to the boat.
We went to dinner at The Black Sheep Pub and lucked into an Open Mic Night where the first group of musicians was really good.  We left Alpena and traveled south the 105 miles to Bay Harbor Marina in Bay City, Michigan without a single interesting site.  We were a within site of land but everyone else must have stopped boating for the winter except a few fishermen were out on this perfect day.  We will be put inside in heated storage within the next two weeks.  The end to boating in 2014.

Leg #11 — 8/23/14 to 8/30/14 — Bobcaygeon, Ontario to Midland, Ontario

Off again, we drove from home on Fri­day night, stopped in Mon­roe, MI to sleep, and arrived at boat around 12:30pm.  A lot is going on at our house but we think we have it all orga­nized so that we be gone for a week to make this leg.  We need to get the boat to Bay­port Marina in Bay Port, Michi­gan for stor­age before, of course, Win­ter which is essen­tially by late Sep­tem­ber when Lake Huron may/can/will often be kick­ing up big waves.

Ken took the rental car back while I got things in order on the boat but when he got back he dis­cov­ered that the bat­ter­ies weren’t work­ing cor­rectly.  We recently had some work done and there were a cou­ple of wires that had not been recon­nected.  A call to the elec­tri­cian and a quick stop made all things well and we took off from the marina at 4:30pm head­ing to Fenelon Falls–about 15 miles and 1 lock.  Out into the Bob­cay­geon River and into Stur­geon Lake for a short hop to Lock 34 on the Trent-Severn Water­way with a lift of about 24 feet !  Each lock has it’s own page with descrip­tion go to:  http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/lhn-nhs/on/trentsevern/visit/visit6/lock34.aspx
We tied up at the upper lock wall for the night, took a stroll around town and ate din­ner at the Lake House straight across from the SSIII.  Kawarthan ice cream was at our fin­ger tips.…and then on our lips.…on the way back to the boat.

We had a rest­ful night in Fenelon Falls.  Well, there was some music with hoot­ing and hol­ler­ing down the way at a party, but some­how we/I slept.  I walked in the morn­ing and talked to the gen­tle­man water­ing the flower bas­kets all over town. You see I use these trips as “fact find­ing” mis­sions for my job on City Coun­cil.  This gentleman’s over­all cir­cum­stances, bud­get, equip­ment, etc. make flowers/flower bas­kets more plausible.
Today included reg­u­lar locks again but also the addi­tion of the Kirk­land Lift Lock for excite­ment.  It is sim­i­lar to the Peter­bor­ough Lift Lock except this time we were going down.  Some­how, this was a lit­tle fun­nier feel­ing.  You drive into the tub, tie off to the rails that run along­side and just wait, look around and take pic­tures.  There is usu­ally some observers even early in the morn­ing.  We had one other boat along this lock-thru but no unusual occur­rences except that we floated through the air in a tub of water !
We were hav­ing a per­fectly beau­ti­ful day when we must have veered slightly out of the chan­nel and a few loud, rocky, bumpy noises hap­pened.  I took over the wheel while Ken took a look in the engine room.  No water, more loud bumpy noises while I was steer­ing, still no water but back in the exact mid­dle of the chan­nel with a lit­tle vibra­tion.  We found the speed to travel with the least amount of vibra­tion and it was slowwwww……..
We went through the next 5 locks on the Trent Canal and crossed Lake Sim­coe, about 30 miles, and up the Nar­rows (should have a cra­zier name) to Bridge Port Marina.  Ken had spo­ken to them after the hit and made arrange­ments to go there for repairs.  We were sched­uled to get hauled out in the morn­ing.  Their sched­ule must have changed.…. because when we got there around 5:00pm, they hauled us out, changed the props, took a sea trial and put us back in by 8:00pm.

We appre­ci­ated the extra­or­di­nary work of Kyle McDon­ald and Chris.  We spent the night on their fuel dock and took off the next beau­ti­ful morn­ing for down­town Oril­lia and their munic­i­pal docks.
The town of Oril­lia is really worth the stop.  We are late in the sea­son but you can tell that they have a lot going on here.  Music and art fes­ti­vals were all over this summer’s cal­en­dar and you can see rem­nants of dif­fer­ent pub­lic art events lin­ing the down­town areas….very impressive.

We vis­ited to “must see” Mari­posa Mar­ket after a nice lunch at Big­Bay Brew­ery.  I vis­ited a few of the gal­leries and bought a cou­ple of things to take back home.  A very rest­ful after­noon and a din­ner at a restau­rant near the marina ended the day.
We waited for a small storm to pass through to head out the next morn­ing.  We were now on Couch­ich­ing (Koo-chi-chin) Lake… Lake of Many Winds… head­ing north­west on the Trent-Severn Waterway.
We had to blow a whistle.…well, we really used a blow horn since our boat horn is not work­ing, for an open­ing at the CNR Swing Bridge.  This was, by far, the nois­i­est bridge that we have encoun­tered on the Loop.
We entered the Cou­ch­in­ing Lock and departed at 10:16am.  The 15 miles to Swift Rapids is all at the 10mph/6kph speed.  This stuff should make us more patient…….
Swift Rapids was a beau­ti­ful park area around the lock walls.

Then we stopped and had lunch at Waubic Inn Restau­rant along the Sev­ern River and only acces­si­ble by water.
It was a great weather day and after some good fish (had­dock) and chips, we headed on down the water.
We stopped early in the day at the next lock, The Big Chute Marine Rail­way.  This is a high­light on this sys­tem because it’s the only lock of its kind.  The rail­way, or boat lift, car­ries the boats across land on from one body of water to the other.  It works on an inclined plane to carry boats in indi­vid­ual cra­dles over a change of height of about 60 feet (18 m). It is the only marine rail­way of its kind in North Amer­ica still in use.  The cur­rent car­riage was opened to the pub­lic in 1978, and can carry a boat up to 100 feet (30 m) long and 24 feet (7.3 m) beam.  It cost $3 mil­lion to build .….and it’s pretty excit­ing. We watched a few boats “take the trip” and calmed down about the idea.  We had been told that it was scary and so we thought that the boat tipped for­ward on the decline. The fact that the boat stays level while in the sling makes it a com­fort­able, though shaky sound­ing, ride down the hill.

00:00

00:05

We met up with a cou­ple, Al and Terry from Dream Stage, that we had met and talked to at Bay Port Marina in Oril­lia. They joined us for drinks after din­ner at the Big Chute Marina and we were given a fried but­ter tart from the chef to try.  OMG, it was absolutely wild…a but­ter tart, deep fried, with ice cream, whipped cream and choco­late sauce.  It’s his new menu item niche.  We walked back to the boat in the absolute pitch dark feel­ing our way around the pic­nic tables that took up most of the width of the dock.
Now we were off to Lock 45, Sev­ern Lock and the last lock of the Trent-Severn.  We tied up for the night on the upper lock wall.  We walked the area, saw a cou­ple of restau­rants, the water­fall and had lunch at This Damn Grill.  While eat­ing, I saw a woman try­ing to tie up to the lock wall from an express cruiser and fall into the water.  Since we were across the water, by the time that I got out­side to yell to the lock staff, the cap­tain was pulling her onto the swim­step.  Makes you remem­ber to always be care­ful, not hurry and don’t lean out over the water.  She could have really got­ten hurt between the boat and the wall.  Reports from staff said that she was okay but a lit­tle cold and wet.

Three beau­ti­ful objects…Ken, SSIII and flowers !

We had a very nice din­ner at the Inn at Christie Mill with another beau­ti­ful view over the water.  Tonight we man­aged to walk back and get ice cream with enough light to see our way back to the boat.
We made the first lock-thru, Lock 45, in the morn­ing and headed out through the nar­row and sharp angled Potato Chan­nel into Sev­ern Sound.

We were some­what sad know­ing that we were through with this sec­tion of the Loop.  It was a lot of work but extremely inter­est­ing and won­der­ful.  We met lots of inter­est­ing peo­ple and the Parks Canada lock staff were great ambas­sadors for Canada.  This was some of the more beau­ti­ful scenery.… more remote with fewer houses and the rock for­ma­tions were spectacular.

We arrived at Bay Port Yacht­ing Cen­ter early in the day.  This is a nice marina close to the town of Mid­land.  Ken got a ride from one of the own­ers, Mrs. McDon­ald, back to Oril­lia to pick up the rental car that would take us home the next day.  I walked into town to check it out and found a town full of his­toric murals and small shops.  We met up with Al and Terry from Dream Stage and all went to din­ner at Henry’s Fish House…great fish and chips again with a lot great con­ver­sa­tion on all of our com­mon inter­ests.  We went back to their boat for a drink, then home to get to bed early so that we could take off in the morn­ing.  (We did stop in Port Huron on the way home to check it out.….okay.)

This entry was posted in Journal on September 12, 2014. Edit