U-Haul

At least the boat made it home.

The truck is still in Clare, Michigan.  Not sure if we'll go back for it or not.

Deja vu all over again

At least we made it back into the USA before the truck blew up.  Again.

When we loaded the boat at Spanish, it was blowing out white smoke.

Then, in an all too familiar scene, it lost power, and we coasted to a stop along the road.

 

I told the tow truck driver that he could just take it to a salvage yard, but he thought he knew a mechanic who might be able to fix it.  I hate to pay big bucks (again) just to get it home so I can sell it.  I've spent way too much money trying to make this truck run.  Each time, I think "well that's going to fix the truck and it will run fine from now on."  New fuel pump parts, new EGR valve, new turbo, etc etc etc.

So we are stuck in Clare, Michigan.  Living at the Days Inn.  Hopefully, the local mechanic will look at it Monday.  The tow truck driver told us he had taken another Ford trUCK to him earlier today.  I doubt if we get home before Wednesday.  And the Days Inn thinks this is a holiday weekend (as was last weekend) so the price of rooms is jacked up like there was a NASCAR race in town. 

Back to Spanish

7-6-12

Before we left Kagawong, Pam wanted to tour some histerical sites.  One was the little church near the boat docks.  (We were going to look at it yesterday, but they had a funeral service going on.)

The church is noted for having a nautical theme. 

The pulpit is the actual bow of a wood boat that sank.

When we got to Spanish, we docked next to this cute boat.

The owners weren't here, however. They are due to arrive back tomorrow, to load their boat on the trailer.  We hope to leave early, and will probably miss them.  The boat's name is Kestrel.

Kagawong

7-5-12

We suffered through another bug filled night in Covered Portage Cove.  It was 82 degrees when I crawled in my sleeping bag at 10:30 last night, but I zipped it up tight over my head in an attempt to keep out the bugs. I’m about bugged out.

We motored about 40 miles today over to Kagawong.  

N 45 degrees 54.623 minutes,  W 082 degrees, 15.560 minutes.

We passed through Little Current and waited a few minutes on the swing bridge to open.  (We can fit under the bridge, but since it was only a few minutes, we waited in line.)  The bridge only opens once every hour.

There was a cruise ship tied up in Little Current.  The Yorktown is 250’ long and carries about 160 passengers.

We had met the people on Karen Anne while we were in Killarney.  They’re from Indianapolis, and knew several people we know—like Rollie and Jim at West Marine.

When we got to Kagawong, Pam wanted to hike up the trail to Bridal Vail Falls.  It was a scenic trail along the river.

But the falls were not exactly secluded.

We plan to motor back up to Spanish tomorrow, and prepare to be Ford Trucked on the way home. 

Grab Your Whistle !

 

Covered Portage Cove

July 4^th, 2012

We left Killarney, and motored a short distance to Covered Portage Cove.  In the right light, and from just the right angle, this looks like an Indians head.

The entrance to the cove is pretty tricky, but we were able to find our way in without a problem.

 

Since we’re so small, and our draft is less than most other cruisers, we’re able to go all the way into the shallow end of the coves to anchor. 

N 45 degrees, 59.929 minutes,  W 081 degrees, 32.783 minutes

There are five sailboats and only one other power boat in the cove with us tonight.  That’s pretty much the ratio of sail to power here in the North Channel.  It’s a great place to sail.  There’s always wind, and the anchorages are not far apart.  We plan to travel 40 miles tomorrow—our longest trip by far.

The other power boat looks like what we might be if we weren’t so cute.

The cruising guide says there might be bears in this area.  I’ve even read stories of bears swimming out to boats.  (I have my whistle ready.)

Bears

Haven't seen any bears.  But we've walked through several areas where bears hang out.  It's a little late, but I read that you should carry a horn or loud whistle when walking through bear country to scare off the bears.  I can just picture me trying to get a whistle out of the backpack to scare a charging bear.

Reminds me of the old days when I used to race sailboats in overnight races.  I would have the crew members wear a whistle and a flashlight on a string around their neck at night. If they fell off the boat in the darkness, I'd have a better chance of finding them.   So during one race--in the middle of the day--a crew member, Dan-O, fell overboard.  He managed to grab a stanchion, and was dragging in the water along side the boat.  My pal, the Dawg, looked at him and made no effort to grab him or get him back aboard.  He just said "hold on Dan-O, I'll get your whistle for you."

Hold on Mr. Bear, while I get my whistle out of the backpack.  I never worry when Pam's along.  I may not be able to outrun a bear, but I can certainly outrun her.

We're heading to Covered Portage Cove today, and then over to Kagawong tomorrow.  We might spend another night at the Benjamins after that, or we might go on up to Spanish.  We still have no schedule--and we're sticking to it.

Killarney 2

Like everyone who visits Killarney, last night we ate fish and chips from Herbert Fisheries converted school bus.

 It was raining this morning, and the forecast called for thunderstorms, so we decided to spend another night in the slip at the Sportsman's Inn.  Pam read in the town brochure that there was a lighthouse that we could walk to.  There was a road out to it, and a scenic trail "short cut."  We asked the one of the dock boys how long it took to walk to the lighthouse.  "30 minutes."  We checked the weather radar, and decided we had time for the "short cut."  I packed all the essential stuff (I thought) in my back pack and we found the beginning of the trail.  The first half (30 minutes) of the trail was through a low swampy wetland--right after a rain.  The one item I forgot to put in the backpack was bug spray, and we had both forgotten to put some on before we left.  So you might imagine how much fun that was.
The second half of the hour hike was spent climbing up and down rocks.

The trail was marked on the rocks with painted arrows.

Some of the arrows pointed off the edge of a cliff.  Either this was an effort to reduce the number of tourists or they hired my pal Jack Hale to make their path.  (Jack was our non-drinking "safety officer" on a trip to Kentucky Lake.  He said he knew a short cut from the restaurant back to the marina.  "Follow me boys" Jack said as he stepped off the edge of a cliff.)

We climbed up and down the rocks, and finally found the water, but still a ways to go to the lighthouse.

 After over an hour, we made it to the lighthouse.

It's overlooking Georgian Bay.

There was a road back to town, and even thought we were told the trail was a short cut, and it took us an hour to get there, we thought we would prefer to walk a little further and not feed the mosquitoes.  The trip back on the road took us 25 minutes.


 

Killarney

7-2-12
We ran out of water this morning, so we motored over to Killarney. 

 

It's a busy little town with some pretty nice cabins and boats.

This is what a "wakeboard boat" looks like here.  The guy in the back of the boat is putting on his board, and you can see the yellow line attached to his "tower".

We're staying at the Sportsman's Inn. Pam says it's too nice for me.

They even have a drive-in theater for boats.

Still at the Pool

7-1-12

Today is Canada Day

We enjoyed the pool so much, we decided to stay another night.

We saw in the cruising guide that there is another lake up in the mountains nearby.  Artist Lake.

It sounded interesting, so we dinghyed ashore again and started out to find it.

Turned out that the lake is mis-named.  It should be called mosquito breeding lake.  It’s a low swampy place that is so thick with mosquitoes, that if I stopped walking, I had to hold on to a tree to keep them from carrying me off.  A big tree.

As for wildlife up here, we haven’t seen anything we don’t see at home.  And, not as much as we see at home.   This deer waded into the water and ate some seaweed.

And yet another snapper.  I see these things everywhere I go. Other than Pam’s brother, Ty, I’m not sure they have any natural predators.

 

The Pool

6-30-12

Today would have been my father’s 100th birthday.

We wanted to go up Baie Fine to see what they call “The Pool.”  Baie Fine is about 9 miles long, and resembles a fiord.  I’ve pronounced it a hundert different ways, but it seems “Bi Fin” might be right.  Except for the shoreline, it reminded me of parts of the Ohio River in Indiana.  Both the shore, as well as the islands here would do more damage if you hit them.

There are cabins hidden along the shore.  This one had a suspension bridge over to the outhouse.

I was afraid that there would be a crowd in the pool.  Tomorrow is a holiday here--Canada Day, and there had been 14 boats anchored around us last night on Heywood Island.  I’d heard the pool is one of the most popular anchorage spots.   We got to the pool around 11 am to find it empty.  Almost everywhere in the North Channel is scenic, but this is exceptionally so.  Here’s the view from the boat.

I had read that we could dinghy over to the shore and hike up through the woods and maybe find Topaz Lake—a secluded mountain lake.  So off we went.  The trail up through the woods was similar to hiking up the hills at Pam’s family’s cottage on Lake Cumberland--times one hundert.

Finding and following the path was a challenge.  Since I had heard that there were snakes and bears in this area, I had Pam walk in the lead, and I made sure that nothing could sneak up from behind us.

On the way, we picked some wild blueberries for my oats tomorrow.

When we finally saw Topaz Lake, the climb was worth it. What a view.

 

By the way, when we got there, we found a group of girls skinny dipping in the crystal clear water.

Here’s their clothes. 

Unfortunately, Pam wouldn’t let me post photos of the girls.  I guess it’s just like that "clothing optional" hotel where Pam’s sister stayed in Key West.  No photos from that either.