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September 4

We've been back in Toronto since August 19 and naturally caught up in "getting back to normal". Following our night in Ashtabula we headed to Erie for a couple of days, then directly across to Port Colborne. We were luck to get quick passage through the Welland canal along with two other sailboats. Not difficult but still tiring, standing in the sun for several hours minding the lines.

Southern Cross berthed at Erie Yacht Club. We sailed under the bridge, wondering where we would end up! I'm sure the yacht basin was there before the hotel/convention center was built.

To complete our voyage we did a bit of Lake Ontario cruising, stopping for two nights at Dalhousie Yacht Club and one at the Oakville Club.

Great to be home but we are already planning possible future trips. The North Channel is our number one pick.

Stormy Lake Erie

Right now I am watching the  Olympic closing ceremonies (well it must be a rerun since it is 8:00 pm Sunday here is Ashtabula Ohio). We are at a small yacht club for the night. For the last four days the weather has been rainy and windy. We stayed at a lovely club in Mentor for two days to avoid 25 knot winds. However a number of intrepid racers finished the Falcon cup race at Mentor, down wind in record time. Mike spent a couple of hours watching them all come in and then joined the after party for a beer or two!
That afternoon there was an outdoor wedding that really was washed out but went ahead (there was a gazebo but it really did not cover everyone - apparently 250 people.) Don't know why they did not go for plan B inside. People had to be ferried the short distance from one side of channel to other, and back, so they were lined up in rain. Absolutely dismal! 

We've had no issues with the sailing on the lake - the chop has been rolly but we've dodged quite a few rain clouds and not been close to any thunderstorms while on the water.

leaving port on the way to Mentor.

Heading east towards Mentor

the sky behind us - it was sunny soon after we arrived!

 Mentor yacht club

The end of the race. Next challenge is to get through the narrow channel 

We are now looking to the final stage of our journey..east and then across Lake Erie to Port Colborne and through the Welland Canal.

Another week

Yes, a week  has passed since my last message. We continue to move right along. The sun and storm gods continue to favour us as we have missed high winds and storms that would have kept us in port. We had a fast sail from Tobermory to Kincardine that was quite rock and roll. After dinner we strolled Kincardine's main street purusing a terific variety of cars, all spit and polish. Some were very old, lots of 50's and 60's and some from last year.  My car never looks nearly so shiny even as it emerges from the car wash; guess I need to get buffing.

Kincardine marina and yacht club

Next few days have included a wind-on-the-nose motor sail to Sarnia Yacht Club. There, from our secure cockpit vantage we took in a nearby storm that included lots of thunder and beautiful sheet lightening. Next stop  was the Bayview yacht Club near Detroit-past Canada cup competitor.

Travelling from Sarnia through the St Clair River, Lake St Clair and then the Detroit River and into Lake Erie requires following the freighter channel, so not much sailing, especially since the wind was always in our face. so far, Lake Erie has been benign - now at a little yacht club in Lorain, a bit west of Cleveland.  The sky looked very black north of us! It is always a little funny seeing the city buildings on shore look quite close but knowing that it will be an hour or two before we actually arrive.

Bayview Yacht Club junior regatta

Here is what I wrote this morning before we left Put-in-Bay, one of several islands off the south shore of Lake Erie southwest of Pelee Island. Besides the usual summer community amenities (if bars and tourist items count as such…) there are a couple of wineries and a 300ft column commemorating the 1813 naval victory of Commodore Perry. We sampled a little wine (but did not buy..) and took the elevator up to the top of the column for great views. The visitor centre had extensive displays of the battle, and historical background on the war. The column is also intended to celebrate the continuing peace between the US and Canada, one of the important outcomes of the war, they point out. Interestingly, now sailors on both sides of the border in these areas say they do not go to the other country, or even cross the line while sailing; it is simply too much hassle, especially getting into the US for both nationalities. We have crossed back and forth between the two countries a few times now and every time we phone customs with our Nexus cards we get slightly different requests, but always gain entry!



Put-in-Bay harbour. Do you see our boat?



on top of the Perry monument

Tobermory

Arrived yesterday after a mostly motor from Killarney. We are staying today because of large storm that looks to be tracking right across lake Huron where we want to go. It is windy and cloudy here today but should be fine for sailing tomorrow. We have some long stretches coming up to Kincardine and then Sarnia.

Great ice cream in this town! Lively place - the usual clothing stores (MIke bought a new hat), art galleries of various merit, a well stocked grocery store (Ontario fruit and Ace bakery bread) and fish and chip places (good dinner last night).


Sailed past Flowerpot Island





Little Tub Harbour - important refuge from bad weather



from Killarney

We are sadly saying goodbye to the North Channel and will be going to Tobermory tomorrow - the open water. We explored such a small part of the area that we are talking about when we might return for a lengthy stay. After a day and a half of cloudy and rain, the sun shone warmly for the rest of the time. Some great sails, splendid anchorages, swimming, dinghy exploring, gazing at our surroundings - wonderful.

Protected anchorages (here in south Benjamin) mean no cell phone coverage. Mike has to catch up, from the edge of the flat earth as he tells people.



Killarney Mountai nLodge - the dark cloudscame and went all day with only one shower, and then a rainbow.


We have the boat moored at Killarney Mountain Lodge and we are curretly in their large bar area making use of wifi. Killarney is a smaller place than we expected, barely a grocery store, no bank; there is an LCBO in the channel (park your boat...) and an OPP. Now in height of summer there are plenty of large motor boats, and sailboats.

Today we hiked 8 km on a trail around George Island, which forms one side of the channel. It was lovely but long with all the ups and downs. We'll see how our legs are tomorrow when we're climbing around the boat! Here's some photos from the island..

Locking through from Lake Superior with a Sault Ste. Marie tour boat

We have now entered the North Channel and are at Thessalon.  It was a great day lots of sunshine and great wind in the afternoon.  The first half of the day was back down the St Mary's river this time with the current that added between 1 and 1.5 knots to our speed.  We cut through a narrow channel (called the trickier one in the Ports book). After that we had 15 to 17 knots of wind on the beam and blasted across the North Channel at 7.5 to 8 knots to Thessalon. A great little marina.

three Hour Cruise??

To Lake Superior... and back

We departed the Sault Ste Marie marina just after 9am yesterday, July 22 and went through the Canadian lock with no problem other than the exhaust fumes from the large cruiser just in front of us.

We motored most of the narrow river channel and then put up the sails. Although it was a north-west wind we sailed past the Gros Cap light and out into Lake Superior doing 4-5 knots close hauled. There were a few”go fast” boats at the light with one daredevil jumping off the top of tower.

Mike caught the entry - splash at lower left

The winds died to nothing  so it was easy to motor into Goulais  Bay for an afternoon swim (colder than Michigan, for sure!)

One corner of Lake Superior on a quiet summer day

We anchored overnight...lovely evening and starry night. Winds and cloud in am suggested an early start. In the trip back to the Soo we had wind and waves down to no wind and back up again. We are glad to be tucked into the marina with gusts in afternoon to 25 knots - brilliant sun, though.  Tomorrow we head east towards the North Channel.

small town surprise

the bay at Frankfort

Southern Cross secured

July 10:Frankfort is one of the harbours we visited along Lake Michigan; nearly all occur up a short channel from Michigan to a small bay or lake. These have generally been formed in places where a river has cut through the sand dunes that form the lake side. It was all very sleepy looking with few folk around. We tied up at the marina but anchoring would have been fine as well. Strolling Main St was quite a surprise with interesting shops tempting both of us to buy: shoes, sweater, t-shirts, etc, as if we did not have enough on board. But I needed white sandals! We had not seen the “Lake Michigan – no salt, no sharks, no worries” T’s before and had to have one. The highlight of the town was dinner at a restaurant called The Fusion. It was packed and served great Asian food that was completely unexpected. It was Fabulous, some of the best anywhere we thought. Probably part of the charm was that it was so unexpected.

Town gardens between the water and Main St

July 21 already!

Can't miss seeing these channel markers. Note the birds (mostly cormorants).

Six days since last post - yikes. We have travelled from Charlevoix to Beaver island to Mackinac and now are in Sault Ste Marie for three nights. The Roberta Bondar marina here is just across the street from the government building housing the Northern forensic lab. It seems a bit strange to be seeing things from a tourist peerspective - I used to visit the lab at least twice a year while QA manager. It's been fun catching up with the lab folk and hearing the latest.

Partial view of the lab from our boat..top floor windows on the left. Ship Noranga  is a museum.

Still good weather overall - cloud and a Tstorm this morning soon blew through and it was a sunny day for watching a parade and catching the sights of the local fair.

Mike took the day off the water to drive to Wawa to check out some business.



sunset over town ofCharlevoix



Hey sailor, tell us about the winds!

Sunday, July 15:

So far we have probably motored more that we have sailed.  When I was researching this trip the wind rosettes for Lake Michigan showed July and August winds mostly from the south southwest or west with and average speed of 10 knots. Well it hasn’t turned out that way. First the heat wave has made many days with almost no wind. I’ve flown my Code 0 more times already than in the past two years.  Second the winds have been from the north northwest and northeast so we have been tacking a fair amount. We did have one day with 20+ knots that we had to push into. This lake gets bigger waves more quickly than Lake Ontario. The good thing is that we have had very calm, and long, evenings to explore by dingy.

We have had two good thunderstorms: One on our way to the Columbia Yacht Club where we were going into Burnham harbour to get fuel and could wait for it to pass; the second today (July15) when we were anchored in Round Lake at Charlevoix. Both times it bucketed down with rain. Today it occurred overnight and the early morning so we only delayed our departure for Beaver Island by an hour.

Its been a bit frustrating that the wind has been very light so consistently and mostly from the wrong direction. But that has meant that we have been having the most gorgeous weather for visiting all the places along the lake. Mike

Also on the plus side, there are no worries while we are travelling, reading, watching the passing scene, snoozing - and we can swim off the boat anytime for instant refreshment.

Today was almost calm when we started out from Charlevoix but we had at least half time sailing on flat seas about 5 knots under sunny skies. who could ask for more - no need for crashing waves! Louisa 

South Haven

July 3 and 4: leaving Chicago for South Haven-around 6amDT. Winds lighter than expected and almost aft. .  Some sailing and much time motoring. These conditions made it very hot and there were the same biting flies that we get on Lake Ontario but there seemed to be many more!! Some excitement on the VHF as we listened to the conversations from a fisherman and the Coast Guard who had found a man in the water. An 18’ boat had sunk with 3 others on board only one wearing a life jacket. Eventually they were all found. The conversations were interesting as the fisherman could only identify his position by depth of the water, the Coast Guard did help him find his position on a GPS he had..

South Haven (official population 4,403)  was a great comfortable marina; fortunately there was a breeze coming down the river to keep us a bit cool.

There were fireworks the evening we arrived, starting at 10:30. Michigan is on EDT…at western fringe so sundown is not till 9:15. For hours it seems, there was a constant parade of people headed for a good spot and it looked like thousands turned out-families loaded with chairs, strollers, coolers and bunches of teenagers, everyone happy to be there. We had great view of the 30 minute show from the marina deck – quite spectacular. Did you know there were smiley face fireworks?.

View from end of our dock-found a godd italian restaurant just up the street

 

Chicago Highlights

June 28-July 2:



View from our boat



 The boats in the downtown harbours (I do have trouble spelling it ‘harbor’) are pretty well all at moorings. At Columbia we transients tied up along side the main dock. The wide dock also serves as the launching spot for junior club sailing. I was surprised to see the kids jumping in the water right at the dock, and playing in the water near their boats. However the water certainly looked clean and we saw no floating junk anywhere around. Of course Chicago does have the lake flowing into the river. The first night we had a good dinner in the Club’s elegant dining room that used to be the first class lounge overlooking the harbour.

formal reception area-stairs kead to dining and bar/lounge

 

There is a nearby great market (Whole Foods type place with large area for beer, wine etc) so we provisioned well!

It was very hot during our 3-4 days there so we didn’t do quite as much as we might have. The grass was all brown but one city block of Millenium Park is lush gardens, grasses, trees and summer flowers.

 

Shopped the Mile. Saturday night we watched the regular but spectacular Navy Pier fireworks from end of pier by the club. Early Sunday we strolled through the Art Fair in Grant Park. Lots of interesting arts and crafts but I settled for a pair of earrings – more portable and we didn’t see any larger pieces that we could not live without! Lunched at the Purple Pig – tapas type dishes, most, made from all parts of the pig. Delicious! In the afternoon another violent thunderstorm went through, centred south of us. It was mostly wind and some heavy rain where we were (in the grocery store at the time) but it south of Chicago very hard and lots of people were without power the next day.

On Monday we visited the Museum of Science and Industry a fantastic place that has fixed up one of the buildings from the 1893 Columbian exhibition. The building is immense and has lots of interactive exhibits  -  we took a tour of a captured German submarine was absolutely fascinating, and horrifying to think how the men lived aboard. The video of how they transported the submarine to the site and then lowered it into its own exhibition hall is a story itself.

Riverwalk tour – fun with a knowledgeable and amusing guide. Since I had just finished reading Devil in the White City, I could show off some of my Chicago bits of info.

We love Chicago and started planning our next visit.in more temperate times…maybe join the throngs of people cycling around the city.

Heat wave and beyond

Here is a catch-up post--> As I write this it is July 6, a Friday and we expect the heat to break by tomorrow night. Have I mentioned the heat? For anyone in this part of US or in Southern Ontario, you will know the temperature has topped 95 most days since Jun 27.  However our salvation has been the boat’s air conditioning! It makes the boat quite comfortable. When we first got Cross we briefly thought of taking out the A/C; we would have freed up quite a bit of space and reduced weight to make Mike happy racing.  However, it also includes heating, which we know is sometimes handy (for heat or just drying the air a bit). Without the A/C this trip, I think I would still be holed up in some cool Chicago hotel.

 

Saturday at White Lake Yacht Club - lovely old club house, friendly people-music on the patio. Notice how high the docks are - water is low. The docks are like this everywhere, with sturdy posts.

Sunday, July 8: White Lake to Ludington

  We sailed passed extensive and large dune systems At this one we could see all-terrain vehicles and a track marked out...taken through telescope setting on camera.

  Monday, July 9. Since the sun went down it is actually approaching cool. The last two days have been great sailing and today spent the day at Ludington State Park, cycling there and out to an old lighthouse (1867). Sun, bright blue skies, puffy little clouds, good breeze, perfect. it seems the entire length of the eastern shore of Lake Michigan is beaches and sand dunes. This park is all dunes, local history of logging and shipwrecks.

Mike on a bike - 20 miles is a long way for us, and it was uphill and upwind on the way there.

The sign said "Shipwreck 1859". There's Mike but the ship is long gone!

 

Chicago

Now I am back on line, it is catch-up time (today isJuly 8). The first post was a test and this one has taken me ages..will play with design more as time goes by (maybe!)!

June 18-19:Cross has left her home at RCYC, had a truck ride and is now at Crowley’s Marina in South Chicago.

June 25-26: The great crew at Crowley’s stepped the mast and tuned her well. Southern Cross was in the water when we arrived Wednesday June 27. Crowley’s is a large working marina located in an industrial area – a huge shed and tarmac to hold all manner of boats, and hold the heat. The trains went by on a bridge very close to us, and seemed especially frequent at night. We found a couple of nearby ‘restaurants’ (Mexican and burgers) and a Walgren's several long blocks away to buy some breakfast and lunch essentials.

June 27 -28: It was satisfying and not too taxing to put the boat in shape, unwrapping (lots of towels and tape had been used to prevent any banging), cleaning off all the road dirt and Port Credit seagulls leavings and finding spaces for all our stuff. It is magic how it all fits in…now where did I put that??

June 29: Chicago put on a great sound and light show for our arrival Friday. We started out about 10am motoring in sunshine headed for fueling at Burnham harbour. By the time we were tying up a major T-storm was hitting Chicago just to the north. We got a lot of rain but soon weather fine to continue to Columbia Yacht Club in downtown Chicago.



Two Canadian boats in Chicago Abegweit and Southern Cross. Abegweit is the former PEI ferry and now the Columbia YC club house.

 

 The interior still has all the wood and brass fittings.