On to Lake Erie!

On may 24, 2017, we re-provisioned in Sarnia, then motor-sailed down the St. Clair River. It was a new experience to be sharing our waterway with so many big ships. We eventually found a nice anchoring spot north of Fawn Island, out of the way of the shipping lanes.

In the morning, we woke up to mist and fog, so made sure our electronics were working (AIS and radar) and set off. It is surprising how useful a Chartplotter with AIS and radar can keep a boater out of trouble!  But we had to pay careful attention here, because before Lake St. Clair the river has the deep shipping channel, and then very abruptly, shallow water. Not fun for a long-keeled sailboat. We sailed across Lake St. Clair to Windsor, where we desperately needed to do some laundry! It took us 3 hours to complete, but it was a “rain day” anyway. We had 2 new dry bags to ensure laundry wouldn’t get wet on a dinghy ride somewhere exotic, and searched for them as they would come in handy today.  We searched high and low, in every nook and cranny, with no luck. So, we used the old soccer team trick, and brought green garbage bags to keep our newly laundered dried clothes dry.

May 26, 2017, we motored down the Detroit River past Windsor and Detroit in better weather.  People here have nice homes (mansions) on the river.

Nice houses in Windsor...

Downtown Detroit

The Casino in Windsor

The Ambassador Bridge

and more ships

Then they had bigger homes in Amherstburg – it made us laugh, since we went by in our little floating home.  We took a short cut in a shipping channel, and made it to Lake Erie by 11:00, so we set sail for the largest island on Lake Erie, Pelee Island!  We anchored in the North Bay near Scudders Marina with good protection from the forecasted easterly wind. It was warm here!

The next morning, we inflated the dinghy, mounted the outboard and went into town. There wasn’t much there, other than the marina, a restaurant, and a co-operative store, but we had our spare but empty 10lb propane tank refilled. Afterwards we explored the beaches on the north point of Pelee Island – ours were the only footprints – nice! 

The shallow waters were teaming with large fish, and everywhere birds were singing!

Around the corner was the beautiful Pelee Island light house, which was built in 1833, and abandoned in 1884.

May 28, 2017, we left Pelee Island with a promising weather forecast, bound for the very distant Rondeau Harbour between Point Pelee and Long Point.  Winds were on the nose all day, and soon the weather warnings were announced by the Coast Guard – first a squall watch, then thunderstorm warnings… We dropped the sails, and gave up tacking down the lake for gunning it for a rare safe anchorage in this part of the lake.  We made it in and dropped the anchor just as lightening was pounding down around us, and the pouring rain began! Another 11-hour day. The anchor held, and afterwards we were rewarded with a beautiful double rainbow!

Sailing the West Coast of Ontario!

We spent an extra day in Tobermory to relax and go over the boat carefully after the near gale we sailed through getting here.

Turning westward from Tobermory and around Cape Hurd, we sailed down Ontario's "west coast", as the local radio stations refer to this area.  Nice north wind helping us fly today!

The sky when we left Tobermory. The north wind cleared the clouds.

We made it into a rare anchorage near Oliphant for the night.  The next day, we continued south and saw hundreds of huge windmills, the largest nuclear generating station on Earth, the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, and into Kincardine.  We had time to walk around downtown a little, and had fish and chips at the Erie. Very quaint town!

The Kincardine Marina

The beach beside the marina in Kincardine

The Kincardine lighthouse

Sunday we made it to Goderich. More windmills all day.

Our view at the dock at Goderich's Maitland Valley Marina

Monday we had wind on the nose again and tacked until the winds died. We made it into Grand Bend - good thing the lake levels are up this year. One of the nicest sunsets we've seen so far! Windmills on land all day.

Sailing down the west coast was days of endless sand beaches and hundreds and hundreds of windmills. And beautiful sunsets!

Tuesday May 23, 2017 we motored in no wind to Sarnia.  One of our milestones: the first ever bridge we went under with our boat. In fact, it was two bridges, the twin Bluewater Bridges between Sarnia, Canada and Port Huron, USA.

Approaching Sarnia and the twin Bluewater Bridges

On our boat under the first bridge(s)

So far we sailed 260 nautical miles, and that is the end for the first of the Great Lakes, Lake Huron.

We began our trip!

Sunday May 14, 2017

Best Mother’s Day present ever!! We left the North Channel Yacht Club at 10:30 to begin our trip! Club Members lined the dock to say their farewells; it was extremely overwhelming. We had a great sail easterly to the Benjamin Islands where we anchored for the night all alone – this never happens here.

This is the climbing rock at South Benjamin Island.

Monday May 15, 2017

We continued easterly which took us through the port of Little Current on Manitoulin Island, a hub for boaters in the North Channel. The town allows free day use of the docks to provision, enjoy the restaurants, shopping and even has free hot showers.  One of the few swing bridges is located here, and opens on the hour to allow boaters through.

We continued easterly to Heywood Island to anchor for the night.

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

We left Heywood and tacked our way easterly until we could move south around the northeastern tip of Manitoulin Island.  We got to Club island where we anchored for that night. The water here was crystal clear.

Wednesday May 17, 2017

We sailed to Tobermory today with up to 32 knots of wind (60 kilometers per hour). A little bumpy LOL, but we did it.

When we arrived we utilised their free town docks to buy a few provisions and anchored in Big Tub Harbour home to the sunken ships. Yikes

A very busy winter is behind us!

In northern Ontario winter is not a time to hibernate, rather can opportunity to get ahead on a number of projects. The winter of 2016/17 was no different: preparations for the trip of a lifetime took a lot of careful planning and coordination. Repairs and maintenance to our canvas, purchase of spares, lining up required vaccinations, thinking about safety, safety, safety.

We purchased a 4-person life raft, a ditch bag, and an EPIRP. We hope we never have to use these things, but have them " just in case". We also bought a ParaTech sea anchor for weathering storms at sea. We lined up insurance, and made numerous preparations to transition from our life on land to the life at sea.

Finally we launched our dear VATA on April 21, 2017!!

But spring is taking her time in 2017, and we've had many cold nights.