Seventh Sun III - WELCOME to our site as we travel the Great Loop. We will be beginning the Loop f

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.