Finally the North Channel

July 11th Harbor Island, Mich.
We left St Ignace on the 10th and motored to government bay in the Les Cheneaux Islands. They are a bunch of finger Islands that you weave in and out of following a channel that was dredge last year and is still being done. One of the locals told us it was part of the stimulus plan money that is how it is being dredged. Just about and hour after we had the hook down we seen this boat coming in flying a BIG MSU flag. Only one we knew that would do that was Pat and Craig. On Island Time. What a refreshing time is was to see some familiar faces and to spend some time with them. We had a great dinner with them as we both put things together and had a great meal on Island Time. Then when we got back to Mutalfun our water pump for onboard water seemed to quit working. Sheee’s 9 o’clock at night and we got to get ready to leave in the morning, I said na it can wait till the next day. Well It is one of those mystery’s that you can not explain. I took it all apart and cleaned it and found nothing wrong but our bow water tank seemed empty. It holds 42 gallons and I know we could not have went thought that much water in 2 days. I got the pump working as I switched over to our other 2 tanks just to make sure and all was well. So what do you do when your in good clean Lake Huron water, refill your tanks. I got our water meter out and checked it and it was better then what we got at St Ignace.
So we continued on to Harbor Island passing up through Detour passage and passing one of the bigger light houses in Michigan. As we were rounding it I looked and wholly smokes, out pops a lady at the top of it.
It must be like a bed and light house thing as there were 3 others on it also and the only way to get to it is by boat or swim one heck of a long ways. Once we go into Harbor Island which is very protected from the winds every way but the southwest. Well we had some strong gust for a while out of the sw to around 25 kts but it was from a passing storm system that was to our west a bit. A few boats picked up and left but, hey were getting use to bigger blows as it only lasted about 4 hours then it died down so it was like glass through the night.

While the blow was going on we watched a Catalina 25 come in and it had sails and lines hanging in the water and all over the boat. It looked like it was someone around 30 yrs old so I thought he could handle it once he got anchored. After we had fixed dinner I had a couple from a anchored boat come over to us and told us that person on the boat was 19 and was a camp counselor and had a 2nd boat that was out and around in a 2nd cove and maybe had run aground. On that boat was the 2nd 19 yr old and in the group was 7 13 yr old boys that this was a 2 day sailing adventure for them. The 13 yrs olds were on shore and had built a fire. I was standing by on call for help from the couple that had went over to access the trouble. The 2nd Catalina had ran aground and we worked to get it off and reanchored. Between the couple and myself we got the boys all back onboard the boats and managed to drive there boat over to the 1st Catalina 25 and anchored them both off of 2 anchors and tied to each of the boats to each. They were very grateful for the 3 of us adults helping them out. I told them that this would be a story for them to remember and they all said oh yes it will, but one thing I noticed they were all very polite young boys. I was just glad they were all safe and sound.

July 13th Between John Island and Dewdney Island N/C
We left Vidal bay in a north east wind and a heavy haze, almost looked like rain coming. Once again we motored into the wind of 10 kts and a few rollers as we crossed over to the north west side of the north channel. As the morning grew so did the sun as we could look to the north east and seen a line of lighter clouds and sun coming. Yea! We had only about 20 miles to cover today and after the last few days it has been a warm welcome of not getting up and covering 30 to 40 miles. Jeannie and I are now at a point we can set a few days and only travel 10 to 15 miles. We were finally able to make radio contact with Dick and Mary on Grand Slam. We had planed on going to Trunbull Island but looking it over I was not so sure about getting into it as it is our first time amongst the rocks and cliffs. As Dick and Mary were leaving there and going to the Benjamin Island so we changed course and went over to John Island. This was our first real taste of seeing the rocks and cliffs. We finally did a dingy trip amongst the rocks and coves as there is so many places to go as we even seen a loon on a nest. It is so cool to hear them at night and in the morning What a treat it is to see all of this as I know t here is more to come. Even Buster had to get out and see some of the area. So we took him ashore so he could scout out some new area and what a time he had.

Were still not sure about his swimming so were being careful with where we let him wander off to. One thing we do love though is our ice maker. Once I got the inverter tweaked in we have yet to be with out ice.

July 15th. We are now setting in the Benjamin Islands and it just keeps getting better. I told Jeannie that if it stayed warm all year long here I would rather stay up here. For the ones that have not been up here in the North Channel it is hard to explain. Now we know that all of you that have what you have been telling us. WOW! We finally met up with Dick and Mary on Grand Slam and had a great day on the 14th with them as we went on a 3 hour dingy cruise out and around the islands and over to Fox Island. That was rather neat also. We found 3 boats tucked back into Fox Island and spoke with one of them that was from Pennsylvania and comes up here each year. We had a small storm come through in the early hours this morning (15th) but nothing bad. We knew it was coming as Dick has XM weather on their boat and that is a nice addition. With out the internet we are not able to tell what is on the way so we have to revert back to what Columbus had to do when he was sailing,. Look at the clouds and read them. It gives you a good idea what is coming. We have learned to do that over the years of sailing so it does help some. Oh well can not have sun and fun all the time.


July 18th Croker Island Ont.
After setting over in the Benjamin Islands for a few days we decided to move over to Croker Island, It was a mere 2.5 miles getting over there, That is one of the nice things once you do get up to the north channel,
You never really need to travel far to get to some other anchorage. Something we have finally noticed is that usually boats will start leaving mid morning and then about 3 or 4 pm they start arriving into anchorages. Each island has it own uniqueness and Croker had it’s own. Where we had anchored was a sandy beach wish is hard to find up here amongst the rocks. So Naturally I had to go and see what it had to offer. Ah what I found up in the woods was my own private outhouse. So naturally I had to go and use it, Hey one less dump in our boats head. I tried to get Jeannie to use it but she is not yet quite back to nature. Lol