Georgian Bay to Kincardine

Spent  10 days in the North Channel (NC) and Georgian Bay(GB) before coming to Kincardine, Ontario on the east side of Lake Huron yesterday. Our longest trip in open water, 71NM, and more on this later.
While in the NC and GB it was foggy, drizzling and cold. It was beautiful as expected and a very short season. They don't really open up until July 1. All the docks were empty.
Upon entering Canada we discovered our GPS is only for the US, so we were navigating the old-fashioned way by dividers, parallels and the eye ball. We had a couple of scary moments: the first as we were going into a secluded (they are all secluded) island anchorage and this captain had the wrong two smaller islands (used for navigational aids) confused.  Between the two of us, we figured it out before running aground. We gingerly turned around and went out the way we came in and proceeded with the correct path in. There are rocks everywhere and it was not well marked.
Did we mention there was a lot of fog while we were there? Another day we were headed for the "pool" (which is at the end of Bay Finn's 10 mile length) and before arriving at the challenging part, the bay itself,  out of the fog pops a 100 foot  rock shoal!  BTW, all the shallow stuff up there is rock, so it is important to try to avoid hitting. We then navigated into the "pool", with the captain standing on the foredeck looking for rocks while the first mate steered us through. Happy to say we got out of the NC and GB with out touching.
Ate dinner at the Killarney Mountain Lodge which reminded the captain of the old Bay Shore Inn... some of you remember.
We really liked Killarney on the north side of the Bay and Tobermory on the tip of the Bruce Peninsula. We docked right downtown Tobermore with the grocery store for the town right across the parking lot from us.  A very pretty town and area. This was the first real grocery store for us since Traverse Bay Michigan two plus weeks ago. BIG DAY! And right outside our door!
The forecast for our trip yesterday was to have 2 meter waves going to 1 meter in the morning and winds in the 18-20 knots range. So we got up early and left at 6:50 for the 67 NM trip.  All was as forecasted
except the waves stayed with us most of the day.The first mate noticed the bilge pump going off in 15 minute intervals so she checked the bilge and we were taking back on the water the pump was pumping out. A new source... this time from the bow. We checked all  the thru hull seacocks up there and no leakage, so the first mate assisted the bilge pump for hours in getting the water out. While this was happening, the captain had his hands full steering with 6 footers coming off our aft quarter and HD reefed down with the self tacking jib flying us along at 8 and 9 kts.  At lunch time...here comes the smell of fresh baked bread, which the first mate had made for her belabored captain while feeling a little queasy due to the rough ride.  We saw land around 2:00pm and docked in Kincardine at 6pm. By this time the winds had gone away completely and the waves were gentle 1 to 2 foot rollers. Good news... once at dock the incoming water stopped so we could get a much needed rest for the crew.
Investigated the source of our water this morning and found that the anchor locker (which was in the water quite often with the wave action) is not totally water tight from the main ship. It is designed to discharge any incoming water through scuppers in the bow. Looking this morning, these worked, but not enough to  keep HD dry. We will add this to the list for our upcoming stop at the Tartan factory in two weeks.

Oh Canada..

After spending three fabulous days at Mackinac Island, where we biked, ate, shopped
and of course spent time at the Starbucks we are now in the
North Channel of Canada in northern Lake Huron.The fort at Mac Is. was
very interesting. Built by the British during the revolutionary War,
the US got it when the war was over only to have it taken back by the
Brits as the first act of aggression during the the War of 1812.
"Aggression" is a bit of a loose term. Seems that after we got
the fort back at the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, the Brits
built a new one on their territory 20 miles up the bay to keep an eye

on us. When the War of 1812 was declared, the Brits in their fort
heard about it first and set sail with a couple hundred Red Coats and
500 of their Indian friends under the cover of darkness and surprised
the 60 colonists soldiers who forthrightly surrendered before a shot
was fired. Seems that this particular fort never did work very well,
but it is beautiful in the summer.
We took a horse carriage ride up to The Grand Hotel all dressed in our
going to meeting clothes and were taken for another ride. "We
only have 5 course gourmet menu at dinner and you get it all for $75 a
person." Well, let it just be said that there was no love in those
tidbits, a good idea that would have embarrassed Applebees. Learning to
pay attention to Trip Advisor from now on!
Currently we are at dock in Little Current in the North Channel of
Canada. We have spent the last four nights at anchor off of various
Bays on the southern portion of the Channel and off of the Island
Manatoulin. The first night we were got in late to Meldrum Bay, had
dinner on board and dingied ashore to the Inn on the hill. We thought
we would see about coffee and dessert. What a treat, French owners who
served fresh made apple pie with the most succulent ice cream all
consumed in the comfort of the Inn's living room while surfing the
net.
Next off to Gore Bay where we were treated to a great grocery store-they let you take their cart to the marina and they take care of getting
it back from the ship's store where we replenished supplies and purchased our Canadian burgee (flown as a courtesy while visiting this
country).

Yesterday we made the transition from a month on Lake Michigan to
Mackinac Island on Lake Huron, our home for the next 3 or so weeks.

After our enjoyable time in Leland, Michigan we spent three nights at
anchor off Traverse City. Our hopes of refilling our Pelligrino

supply at Sam's didn't work out for us. We did the 4+ miles on ourbikes expecting to take a taxi back to HD with our plunder, only to find THIS Sam's no longer stocks our favorite beverage. We did find a

West Marine along the way as well as a Grand Traverse Pie Companyrestaurant, our favorite spot for superb home made pies in TH. Cin got thelocal favorite, cherry pie ala'mode and even shared!
On our way to Charlevoix we sailed under 160% foresail surfing to hull
speed and then some around 9kts. All fun and games until it was time
to reef in the sail to enter the channel to Round Lake and Charlevoix
and the winds had built 25kts. Our experiment of using the electric
winch to reef in the sail ended with a big BANG! as our reefing line parted

mid way through the job. Fortunately, the sail that was already reefed

held firm and we managed our way into the harbour. Bad timing, however, as
we had to wait 20 minutes for the bridge to open in a strong oncoming current in a channel

so narrow we couldn't turn HD around while we waited. The first mate performed
exceptionally well at the wheel while the captain finished wrapping up
the head sail. After anchoring in Charlevoix Lake in the very
protected Oyster Bay for the night we were able to switch the reefing
lines between the two jibs and were back in business.

The only damage was that one of the reefing blocks broke so we now
have just one for the two head sails and must switch between them depending

which sail is up. We are looking at Harken's new electric furling
units to alleviate this job, which is the toughest on board.

We spent two additional nights dockside in Charlevoix, our favorite port of call 

thus far on our trip. The marina is new and located right

downtown with a park separating the two. Cin found a bike shop two

blocks away and trialed new seats for our bikes while the Captain
finished repairs. Grocery store two bocks away so we restocked the
heavy stuff mostly water. Oh, and we found a bigger grocery store 2
miles out of town that had our coveted Pelligrino on sale. Pete made
three bike trips and packed in a total of 39 fresh bottles.

Great town, restaurants, coffee shops and people.  Definitely would

come back to cruise Lake Charlevoix, which is itself some 40 or so miles long
and has many towns on its' borders. Ernest Hemingway spent time here.

Next we sailed the 20 miles to Harbor Springs... which failed to live up

to our high expectations for all the hype we had heard along the way.

Although having the anchorage in the harbor to ourselves for three nights 

was nice, the place was like a ghost town the whole weekend!There were

no people and nothing was going on!  So, we took the dingy to Petosky

across Little Traverse Bay (about a four mile trip). Marvelous town!

We coffeed and shopped around.They even had a West
Marine and we got our 48" teak flag pole to replace the one that went
missing on our rough first crossing of Lake Michigan to Sturgeon Bay. Lesson
learned (everyday we are learning new teachings!)... this one will be
secured with a safety strap. 

Oh, did I mention the lake flies are  back with a vengeance!! Back to wearing the

green hairnet bag over our heads and taking turns at the wheel, with the other going

down below where you can open your mouth and not breathe in bugs!

As we write this we are docked at the marina in magical Mackinac

Island. After tying up and going for a run and shopping bike ride (guess who did
what) we donned our best dress and took a horse and buggy ride up to
the Grand Hotel for dinner. Although very beautiful and ornate with a lot of
staff attending to you, the expensive five course dinner wasn't up to
the surroundings.

We will spend two or more nights here and then head for the Canada's
North Channel and best fresh water cruising grounds in the world.
Two notes on the crew: The First Mate is adding the nautical nuances
of docking, sail handling and navigating to her current broad spectrum
of skills. She is finding that preparing lavish and very creative
meals already existed in her latent talents and all are enjoying this
discovery.

The Captain found out yesterday that while he has not felt the need to
run more than a few times in the last two months since retirement, his
conditioning is in marathon shape. My heart rate, which used to jump to
above 90% of max the 3 times a week I ran, now stayed near the levels

experienced while training for a marathon.
Only can guess that in addition to getting more physical exercise

sailing everyday, there might be stress in caverns of enterprise.

More after we experience some of Canada

Wisconsin Back to Michigan

We spent 10 days in Door Country due to the fine hospitality of the
natives, Pem & Susie, the expectation of getting the much dreaded
engine "low Battery" alarm fixed, and showing the first mate some of
the old ports of call.
While waiting for the alternator to be flown in over Memorial Day
Weekend, to hopefully stop the alarm from sounding at all the wrong
times, we visited Fish Creek and Egg Harbor. The same candy shop in
Fish Creek with the bath tub filled with "penny" candy is still there. I thought we saw a mail order from someone in London saying "Your candy selelctoin  is still brilliant, send the usual; mind that, send a double order as there are now two of us I'm feeding"
While in town we restocked our 25 year old balsamic supply augmenting
it with a raspberry blend for Cin's salads of summer.
We returned to SB to have the alternator installed only to find that
it was still piling up frequent flier miles and wouldn't arrive until
Wednesday. All for naught as it worked brilliantly while the
technician from Volvo was there and then the next morning, it was back
to normal-repeated alarms! Our plan is to embarrass Tartan while we
are there in Cleveland next month to fix it since we have fairly
reliable data that they, in fact, put all this together and were paid
to do same.
Well,...while the alarm kept us company, we were off to Sister Bay and
a massive invasion of lake flies. So much so, that as we left for
Jackson Harbor in Washington Island the next morning, the first mate
was spared the gruesome sight on deck and stayed below to make
breakfast. Live lake flies everywhere and the piles of carcases from
the night at anchor! Cindy loaned Pete her green mesh clothespin bag
to put over his head, to keep the flies out of his mouth! We smoked
north on an east wind and arrived at the quaint harbor to wait for our
weather window to cross back over the 60 miles to Leland Michigan.

Shortly after setting anchor in Jackson Harbor in cold and cloudy

conditions the USCG came by for a visit. We welcomed the input

 never having been boarded before and found that we were in compliance;

mostly. All our safety ewuipement checked out which made the Captain

proud and the first mate smile. Luckliy our only known non compliance was 

not having our "USCG Documented Vessel"  engraved plaque attached to

 HD and they missed pointing that out to us. Pem is haivng it made in SB and

we should have it the next time we are boarded.

Jackson Harbor was quite small for our draft so we anchored in 10 feet of
water several hundred yards from the SE shore which allowed only a
couple a boat lengths from the lee shore behind us, with 35kt winds!
Our Rocna anchor held and the wind blew relentlessly until after
3:30AM, when the captain finally closed his eyes for the last time
that night to wake to a gently forrested westerly wind.
We set sail for across the lake-destination Leland. A very different
trip than the one going west, we were becalmed with rolling 5 to 6
foot waves left over from the previous night, quartering us, and the
iron Genny took us most of the way to Michigan rocking and rolling the
whole trip! UNTIL... outside Manitou Island, 20 miles from shore, we
were greeted with a nice SE fresh breeze in the shelter of the
island (read; "no waves")...turning it into the kind of day a sailor lives for. Short but
a very, very nice finish to our day.
Leland lived up to its' reputation. An hundred year old fishing
village with some of the same wooden dock houses still in use. After
church we took on the task of ridding HD and the dingy of the lake
flies who were buried among us. Being the first warm and calm day
we've had, the captain also got started on the much needed varnishing
of the toe rail and rub rail which were showing signs of sun. Cin
explored the village shops for treasures. Returning almost empty
handed the first mate was enlisted to help finish the varnishing. (We
get a lot of unsolicited" beautiful boat" comments, so we wanted HD
not to feel self conscience with all the eyes on her)