Last Day - Mackinaw Island, Michigan USA - 6/30/06

This was, for us, two days of winding down, reflection and some private celebrating before we set off on the last leg of our trip, to Charlevoix.

We took a long hike around the upper Island and had, at our favorite lunch restaurant, bloody Mary's. Then Lisa did some shopping while Jim napped back at the boat. Then we had a "last night" dinner at the Iroquois Hotel to celebrate the end of "this" adventure. We toasted to a trip well done and to each other for making another dream come true.

Mackinaw Island, Michigan USA - 6/29-30/06

We left in somewhat rough waters but not too bad. We were surprised by how many empty slips in Mackinaw Island. They are usually full this time of year. We arrived late afternoon as one of our engines was acting up, we think from some bad gas we got a while back.

Mackinaw Island is one of our most favorite places in the world.

Presque Isle, Michigan USA - 6/28/06

We left Wednesday morning to cross Lake Huron. We got up about 5:00 and left our anchorage with a beautiful sunrise and mostly clear skies, calm waters for the most part but heavy fog a few miles out that lasted until we were almost on top of Presque Isle, MI.

A beautiful marina here. State of the art gas dock. Hardly any boats here though. We are excited now to be able to spend a few days on Mackinaw Island before we return home.

Penetanguishene / Lion's Head / Tobermory, Georgian Bay-Canada - 6/25-27/06

We spent one night at Beacon Bay Marina. Had a great dinner, at Scully's, in Midland with Rick and Mary, on the other Kismet, and left the next morning for Lion's Head Marina in Lion's Head, Ontario. Didn't do much as the weather was rather gloomy. Tuesday morning we left for Tobermory where we anchored in the larger bay. A beautiful, quiet anchorage.

Trent Severn Waterway-Canada - Big Chute Marine Railway and the LAST LOCK!!! - 6/25/06

Today we left our peaceful anchorage and headed for the Big Chute Marine Railway just a few miles up river from where we anchored.

We approached the carriage contraption that they load the boats on and they loaded a sailboat on the front side and loaded us behind them. The carriage begins moving up the hill, over a street, toward the hill that descends down to the water, even as we are still getting settled on the sling. 20% of our boat was hanging of the back end of the carriage portion of the chute. It was probably about a 5 minute ride to the other side.

When we were off the chute we headed for the LAST LOCK of our trip. We have gone through about 110 locks on this trip. It was an experience but we are glad they are behind us.

We headed through Detroit Severn Sound toward Penetanguishene and the Beacon Bay Marina.

Our New Boat?

Trent Severn Waterway-Severn Falls, Canada - 6/23-24/06

Our mission was to go off the channel today to find a remote anchorage, a few miles south of the Big Chute Marine Railway, for a couple of days. We were successful in finding the perfect spot tucked away in The Lost Channel.

It is quiet here except for the occasional fishing boat whizzing past. Last night we watched some otters working and sunning themselves. Saw the mosquitoes decend on our boat and heard the loons far away. Early this morning we had a lovely loon song just outside of our boat. This is what anchoring is all about.

Today we will take the dingy up the the Big Chute to see how it works so there are no surprises when it is our turn to go through tomorrow.

Trent Severn Waterway-Gamebridge, Canada - 6/22/06

The area after Fenelon Falls brought us through some very shallow and weedy water. Also along this patch we were in about 5 miles of canal that was similar to a small gorge with walls of rock on both sides and no room for any on coming boats to pass. It was a little tense.

We arrived at our second lift lock. Now we are old pros. The Kirkfield lift lock lowered us 49 feet. Imagine driving a boat into a lock and all you see in front of you is country side and the canal, you'll end up in, is 49 feet below you. Its like standing on the ledge of a small building. Then the tub is lowered down and only takes 2 minutes. We went through 3 more locks and tied up for the night along with our friends, Rick and Mary, on the other Kismet (Arcadia). So, in Gamebridge it was game night on our boat and that seemed appropriate.

Four more locks and 330 miles from home. We miss everyone there and are excited to be home again for awhile.