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

Restart 2015–Leg #13 — 5/19/15 to 5/26/15 — Bay City, Michigan to Owen Sound, Ontario,Canada

We drove to Bay City, Michigan and arrived in the early afternoon. We had lunch and looked around town a bit. We had a few issues with the boat that were able to be taken care of that evening and took off the next morning for Port Austin around 9am. Smooth waters made for a nice trip and we arrived at their brand new floating docks in the early afternoon. Most of the establishments had limited hours as their busy season has not started yet but we managed to find food and drink, twice, and then a hardy breakfast the next morning along with some locale hospitality.  You really can't provision before you head into Canada since there are restrictions on food, etc. so we just keep eating out.
We headed out around 10am to cross Lake Huron to the east coast town of Kincardine and were able to check in to Canada Customs with our new Nexus Cards from the phone at the Kincardine Marina. Yeah! It was just like being back in BC….Canada has their systems in better order when it comes to finding your info in their computers ! The water was easy and beautiful….and 0’ or 1’ and below…..that’s our new signal to move. We both still have last fall’s trip into Lion’s Head fresh in our brains…1’= 2’, 3’= 6’, 4’=8’….that’s Lake Math ! Also Lake Feet are not softened by swells, they are big chops ! But the last two days have been beautiful even if it has been a bit chilly.

A local mural depicting the history of this port.

Kincardine is a nice small town with a great downtown area. Had fish, chips and beer for lunch and got a ride out to the drugstore that had medicine for the irritation in my eye….small townspeople are very nice and helpful. We had a nice dinner overlooking the water, again, and enjoyed the evening.

Seventh Sun III hangin' out in the marina !

Our new flag pole hand made by Rick Suess. If you remember, somebody stole our flag and pole from downton Ottawa on the canal !

The weather, water weather, was questionable in the morning so we hung around reading all of the forecasts. Ken talked to the fishermen coming and going, and not going because of the weather. We decided to take off at noon because the forecast was “gentle enough”, it was going to be worse tomorrow, and we would just stick our nose out and see how the waves were. It started out a little choppy and was supposed to get smoother as we headed north. That didn’t happen and the last couple of hours were quite rough. Not Lion’s Head Rough but still the kind that everything goes flying and any normal person would get seasick. When we finally turned east into Georgian Bay toward Tobermory, things slowed down and we could relax a bit. Into the harbor after 5:00pm, we tied to the fuel dock for the night, whew ! We had dinner at the pub down the walkway, really early for us, and headed back to rest. We stopped in Tobermory last year on our way to Michigan and spent a couple of days. It’s early in the season right now so things are slower and quieter than usual…..also a little “chilly” but, again, beautiful.
We took off very early since the water was better before noon. I found that I had more “odd” symptoms since I discovered the eye irritation and swollen spot in front of the same side ear. I have little blisters on the inside of my lip….something is going on. I’m in Canada on a boat going to a small town and the water is starting to kick up. I tried to call my doctor at home for advice but after thinking, talking, thinking…..we decided stop in Lion’s Head for fuel, and maybe the night, and see what I could do. I ended up letting Kate, the nice “dock masteress”, drive me to the local hospital emergency room. Just what we were thinking….funny blistery things all on one side of the body….shingles. Luckily, they had an anti-viral for a day until I get to Owen Sound and a pharmacy. It is really amazing how things do work out. We had a nice dinner at the Lion’s Head Inn and went back and joined the local boaters at the “Yacht Club” (really a little boaters lounge at the marina) for drinks, snacks and a lot of boat stories, with varied accents, from a very friendly group of mostly Georgian Bay sailors. Our late night out -- 11:15 !

Beautiful Lion's Head Scenery

Beautiful Lion's Head Scenery

Panoramic of Lion's Head

We left really early--6:45am and got into Owen Sound around 10:30am and found our slip.  We met one of the owners and got the low-down on the marina.  It's kind of far from town so Ken put the dinghy down and we took off for parts unknown.  We hit the pharmacy for more Canadian drugs, boy does that hurt, and had lunch at a coffee shop.  Town is quiet on Sunday. We took a relaxing and pretty ride down the little river through town and saw some interesting sights.

We left really early–6:45am and got into Owen Sound around 10:30am and found our slip.  We met one of the own­ers and got the low-down on the marina.  It’s kind of far from town so Ken put the dinghy down and we took off for parts unknown.  We hit the phar­macy for more Cana­dian drugs, boy does that hurt, and had lunch at a cof­fee shop.  Town is quiet on Sun­day. We took a relax­ing and pretty ride down the lit­tle river through town and saw some inter­est­ing sights.

Tulip Days !

Local Art

Unusal local art up high

River bridge

Back to the boat for a rest until time to head out for din­ner.  We stopped at the Metro but still didn’t buy many provisions–I guess because we’ve leav­ing soon. We kind of got swarmed with gnats and other bugs and hid out inside the boat for the afternoon.
We headed into down­town for din­ner and ate at a Chi­nese restau­rant for some­thing dif­fer­ent from all the pub food we’ve been eat­ing.  The weather has turned nice and warm.…and some­how the bugs went away.…probably because of the wind.
It rained quite a bit dur­ing the night and the recently repaired hatch over our bed leaked and Ken thought that he had wet the bed.  4:00am and we are up chang­ing from wet to dry bed linens…with stuff  lay­ing all over the boat to dry.  The head hatch also joined the leaky fun !  Flash­light, trash­bag and bungy cords went out with Ken to make a cover in the rain and darkness.…I laid com­fort­ably in the other side of the wet bed until I smelled the cof­fee brew­ing.  Later in the morn­ing dur­ing a short lull in the rain, I went into town and took a walk.  I went into a local art co-op and found some­thing small I just had to have.  It is always nec­es­sary to sup­port the local econ­omy.  Later, Ken and I took a drive on the scenic route to Wiar­ton where Wiar­ton Willie is sculpted and on dis­play in the part near the old train sta­tion.  After some ice cream, we drove the fast way back to the boat for an lazy after­noon.  We had din­ner one of the three rec­om­men­da­tions and, oh well, we are so spoiled when it comes to food.  Yet, full enough to head back to the boat in an absolute down­pour.  Tomor­row we’ll head home in a rental car.
We did a quick visit to the har­bors in South­hamp­ton, Port Elgin and Goderich with a nice lunch there at the Park House Restau­rant.  I would like to spend some time nos­ing around Goderich as it looks like a nice town with inter­est­ing places to stop in.


This entry was posted in Journal on May 27, 2015. Edit