After spending a great day in Gore Bay, we set off for another anchorage. We were slow getting out of the harbour, as Louise had some online stuff to finish. Watched the Pervis leave for a fishing trip first thing in the morning. As the boat passed by you could see them rigging the long-line. All the protective doors were open, which showed a surprisingly large interior work area. Really rugged-looking boat.
Once we left the dock and got underway, I practiced using some routing tools on our chartplotter. Today's run would take us 30 km across the North channel, and I wanted to make sure I knew how to use the feature. At the half-way point, I think we set a record for the furthest we have been offshore so far on the trip, at least 15 km from any land.
This shows how our chartplotter screen is laid-out. The panel on the left shows a long-range version of the chart. The panel to the right of it shows a short-range version of the chart. Both of these panels are set so that the direction our boat is heading at any given time is up. Our boat's position is indicated by the little black boat-shaped cursor, which drags a track behind it showing a record of where we have been. The short-range panel shows a grey "route", which is the course we want to follow that we have programmed into the plotter. By staying within this route, we know where to go without having to always check the chart ahead. Keeps things safer because we spend our time watching where we are going instead of trying to figure out where we are on the chart. We also can check our planned course carefully before we leave so we don't run into any nasty surprises on the way. On the right are some instrument readouts. The reading at the top "SOG" is speed-over-ground. I prefer this readout for speed over our speedometer as the GPS plotter gives us our actual speed, not just our speed over the water. I also work in metric for speeds and distances (km/h and km) instead of nautical miles because that is what I am used to. Using paper charts, nautical miles are best because nautical miles best match the map scale (minutes of latitude), but electronic charts allow you to use what you want so I use what I want. Note that I find it easiest to understand depths in feet, so we have a mix of metric and imperial units on the display. Under the speed is a local time display. The next panel "COG" is course-over-ground, which is set to give our heading in degrees magnetic, our course relative to magnetic north. If you are working on a paper chart, it is usually easier to use degrees true, which gives a bearing with respect to the true north pole, however when we are underway, the magnetic bearing is nicer since it is easier to match with the autopilot settings, and with our onboard compass. "STEER" tells you how close we are to being on our desired course. There is always a bit of wiggle in the boat, so we set the autopilot to steer within +/-2 degrees of where we want to go. the STEER indicator tells you the current autopilot correction. "DTW" is distance to waypoint, which tells us how many km until our next turn (are we there yet?) and "TTD" gives how much time until our destination, based on our course, speed and route (don't make me stop this boat!).
Along the way we listened to a mayday on the VHF (you usually only get to hear the Coast Guard side). About 3/4 of the way across the Coast Guard came on the radio to issue a wind warning for the North Channel. Huh? The forecast did not look bad for where we were going, but best to be sure. We changed the channel to the great lakes VHF marine weather channel to hear that the warning was for mid-lake only, and was to start late in the afternoon. Should not be a problem for us, as were were heading to an anchorage on the north shore, and expected to get there shortly after lunch.
We came into the anchorage at Beardrop harbour to see a huge area with only 3 other boats. Our anchor set on the first try, and we got settled in for the day. Louise went swimming, while I read, then she watched Olympics on TV while I napped. Rough life.
During the day, several boats came into the anchorage, including one sailboat that had trouble anchoring. He tried 5 times to set his anchor before getting set, and was having lots of trouble with his windlass. First time on this trip we have seen someone having difficulty setting an anchor, and it happened 5 times to this guy. By nightfall there were 11 boats in the bay. The winds increased steadily over the day, and peaked around 8 pm. We could see some big waves in the main lake outside the anchorage, and all the boats were swinging on anchors, however the winds diminished quickly around 9.
The next morning the winds had clocked a bit and everyone in the anchorage was now facing north. Again we took our time in the morning, Louise went swimming while I got the boat ready to cruise.
Our morning view at breakfast.
As we had done the day before, I practiced using some nav tools on the chartplotter. I experimented with a few more settings and adjustments, and got a better feel for how the system worked. Along the way we saw lots of sailboats actually sailing! I know, but so far most of the time when we see a sailboat it is motoring. Today there were lots of sailboats, and almost all of them were using sails.
We got to Blind River and got docked in pretty smoothly despite the windy conditions. Guess we are getting better. I did some cleaning in the engine room, and tracked down the source of a small leak that has been bugging me for a while. Easy fix once I found it, but finding it was a bit of detective work. In the end, I zip-tied some paper towel to areas I suspected might be the source, and this eventually paid off - although I went through a couple of iterations first.
Massive drive-on breakwater at Blind river.
The docks at Blind River are brand new and high-end, similar to downtown Montreal in design.
We went out for dinner at the 17 Restaurant, which is on highway 17 here in Blind River. It was a bit of a walk to get there (1.3 km) but we did it. The food was really good and it was super-cheap! If you are in Blind River we highly recommend it. It is an old-time diner that has been restored. The owners have kept it in really nice condition. Today was a beautiful day, so we were surprised to not see many people around. It is a nice long weekend Saturday, but nobody seems to be doing anything. Guess the heat keeps people inside, however the restaurant was packed.
We passed some more commercial fishing boats on our walk, so I took a few minutes to look them up while we were waiting in the restaurant. The commercial boats here are very distinctive - they are called gill tugs. The fishing style is gill netting, and the design of the boats is unique to the Great Lakes. The boats are fully enclosed so they can fish year round. At one time there were over 600 of them on the lakes, but today they are only used on the Canadian side. Some people have even bought old ones to re-fit as pleasure vessels.
The next morning we had a long ride ahead, so got started early. Just as we were ready to start the engine, Eevee decided she wanted to explore the boat. She does not always want to do this, so we let her out and she immediately climbed the stairs to the flybridge and sat in the drivers seat. Soooo we waited a bit and got underway a bit later than we had planned.
She is making us wait to leave, its a cat thing.
The conditions started off a bit bumpy, but by mid-morning the water was flat calm. Along the way we passed some gill net fishing buoys, one of which I had to maneuver past. These things are fairly small, and once you see them they tend to be close.
We were in-and-out of rain all morning, but as we approached Hilton Beach the sun came out and it got hot. The water here is a kind of aqua-green colour, really cool.
We got into Hilton Beach marina and then walked around to see what was there. At a small coffee stand called Mad Jacks they had live music. A woman was playing various songs on a tenor sax.
We bought some ice cream cake ($$$) and sat listening to her play. It was really enjoyable. At one point she asked for requests, but we could not think of anything so we told her to just play what she liked. Nice way to pass the afternoon.
The marina here had a nice boater centre, including a small library. I guess when the weather is bad, you have something to read.
That evening we had dinner at the local restaurant. Really old-school-cottage-diner kind of place, then retired to the boat to watch Olympics.
The next day was our crossing into the U.S. We got up and got all our paperwork together so we would be ready when we got in. We had a reservation at Drummond Island Yacht Haven, which is an AGLCA sponsor, so we could take our time before leaving. The night before, Louise went through our fridge to get rid of any fresh produce. She found a package of haskaps, and rather than throw them out, she broke out her heating blender and made jam out of them. Very sour.
Makin jam! The blender also has a heater, so you mix your stuff and press go and it makes jam.
Works really well for making soup too.
In the morning, Louise double-checked the fridge to make sure we did not have anything prohibited, we emptied our garbage, and got underway. Eevee found a nice sunny spot to hang out. She manages to sleep on every chair we have over the course of a day.
Pretty smooth running at first, but we were travelling with the wind and the following waves built up as we went. Eventually the waves built up enough to start grabbing the stern and yanking it around (broaching). The last few kilometres required constant steering corrections.
The girls got some sleep along the way.
Here you can see our position on the chartplotter as we entered the U.S. The horizontal red line is the border. The border here is in the middle of the water, so going through customs is a little different than entering the country by car. Although we have crossed the border, we do not check in with customs until we either tie to a dock or anchor in U.S. waters. Normally your first destination after crossing the border by boat should be a marina that has a customs office, however nowadays you check in with customs using the CBP-ROAM app. You enter all your info and declarations into the app, and then you do a face-time call with a customs agent once you tie to a dock. In some cases, they may direct you to a specific location for an inspection, these are maintained at various locations around the great lakes.
When we got to the marina, we tried calling the marina on VHF a couple of times with no answer. Eventually another boater got on the radio and told us the marina was closed for 2 hours for a memorial service. We came into the marina anyway, and tied up at the gas dock, figuring the marina staff would find us when they returned to work. After we got tied up, the first thing we did was to check in with U.S. customs using their ROAM app. We were approved, and got our cruising permit to transit to Florida! Turned out having the marina closed worked well for us, as we could sit on the gas dock waiting for customs without any pressure to move. As soon as we were approved, I put up our courtesy flag. There is a flag etiquette on a boat, especially when you visit another country. You fly your home country flag from the place of honour, which is normally the stern of the boat. When you are in another country, you are supposed to also fly that country's flag as a sign of respect. This flag should be at specific places on the boat, which are designated according to a special hierarchy. The first choice for the courtesy flag is often the bow, but we fly our looper burgee there. Our next choice was up high on the boat, if not possible to be centred, should be on the starboard side. Our radar arch did not have a good centre location, so we are flying the courtesy on the starboard floodloght support.
Once the memorial service was over, the staff came back to work and we got filled up with fuel and set up in a slip. Had some issues with shore power, as the outlet near us was not working, but we eventually figured it out.
First time we have been in a marina with covered slips. Have seen them here and there, but never stayed this close to them.
Around 4 pm the wind really started to pick up. It was howling through the halyards on the sailboat next to us, and we could see whitecaps in the bay outside the breakwater. The boat was rocking in the slip, as the wind blew us off the dock, and then our ropes pulled us back in. We didn't need to use AC as the winds were blowing through the boat and keeping us cool, in fact we had to close the windows after a while because it was getting a bit to cold. We left the forward hatches open in the sleeping area so that we could air everything out. While this was happening, Louise and I planned out our next few days and got set up with some marina reservations. They have an online system here that you have to use for most marinas. The weather is supposed to get really nasty this Saturday, so we wanted to make sure we would be somewhere protected when the weekend rolls around.
Starting to see mega yachts fairly regularly. Over the years we have not run into many boats this size, but ever since Midland it seems like there is at least one in every marina. This one looked to be in the 70 to 80 foot range.
Just after supper a big boat came in to get fuel. He radioed to the harbour to let them know he only had a single engine, and that he was single-handing the boat, so would need help docking. As he came into the harbour, all you could hear was thruster noise. Most larger boats these days have bow thrusters, and many have stern thrusters. These are small propellers that move the bow or stern sideways. They make boat handling much easier, but really should only be used to fine-tune or correct. However, the last few years we have seen many boaters steer their boats using thrusters. Apparently the new boat dealers teach this as a fast way to get people started who buy big boats for the first time. Anyways, this guy was constantly using thrusters. He made it onto the gas dock and got fuel, but after he was full they adjusted his location on the fuel dock. I suspect that he was not planning to stay, but the conditions had deteriorated so much that he had to wait out the wind overnight. To adjust him on the dock, all they needed to do was to move the ropes, however he again used maximum thruster action, just to hold the boat near the dock while they moved him.
Waves hitting the breakwater. They don't look like much in this photo, but the waves were slammin pretty good into the rocks.
We are here for the night listening to the wind howl. The plan is to leave early tomorrow morning for Mackinaw City, which will be a 6 hour trip. The winds are supposed to die off overnight, so fingers crossed. We are planning an early start so hope the forecast is on-target.
Boat name of the day: Heeling Power
