Tugboat Annie's 2025 Return To The North Channel

I woke up too early today and couldn't get back to sleep. Different sounds, I guess. Flags flapping, docks creaking, water slapping the hull and I thought I heard thunder. I checked the radar on the phone to see if I needed to close up. No rain was imminent, but it did appear we would have midday rain. Darn. We plan to walk to the grocery, do some shopping and I hope to do a little boat cleaning before we leave.  We are getting near the part of the vacation I have been concerned about - that is getting the dingy out, inflated and towed safely from place to place. We also will find out if the choice of an electric motor was a good one or not. As I said before, Kerry is already experiencing range anxiety. At least all screw ups will be unknown to the Orros unless we tell on each other - which is what usually happens.  The Chi-Cheemaun Car Ferry visits Tobermory daily I took on a couple little tasks after coffee, cappuccinos and donuts with Peter. First, I checked that the windla...

We left the dock at 5:29 this morning. The alarm had gone off at 5:00 AM. I must admit it was hard to get up and going. There was plenty of light between the rising sun and the marina lights, so casting off was no problem.  I had retied the one line that could have caused us a problem last night. There were no waves on the lake, just a rather large swell from the NW, and the wind was minimal. The darker water indicates wind ahead I made tea and coffee for us before we left the harbor. Kerry made big PBJ sandwiches for us once we were on course to Tobermory. Later we had a nice fish sandwich and a cold beer for lunch. It's odd how the speed of the boat can change even though the engine speed is constant. One time you'll be making 8.1 knots, then when you look back later and you could be going 8.7 with no apparent change to sea or wind conditions. Peter experiences the same fluctuations. Also odd is seeing 400+' water depths. I'm used to seeing 40'. It was very empty ...

It's going to be about 15 degrees cooler today than yesterday, but no rain is expected. The forecast winds for tomorrow and now higher than they were. I would say they are at about the max for us to travel. The trip to Tobermory is long, and we will be in the open waters of Lake Huron, so big waves can build. Fortunately a favorable south wind is forecast. I'll be interested in Peter's take. We had a small hatch of mayflies last night. Peter stopped over for cappuccino and donuts. His assessment was similar to mine, in that, while not ideal, it looks like we could travel tomorrow. Also, Canada Day is Tuesday, so we think it could be better to get there on Sunday. We agreed late day observations will be needed to confirm it's a travel day. We paid for one more night's (tonight's) dockage.  We took off on our bikes to hit the hardware and grocery stores, and Jean's restaurant for Peter's breakfast. It was pretty cool so I went back for a heavier sweatshirt...

It was a nice change to wake up this morning and see some blue sky through the V-Berth hatch. It's been very cool and gray the last couple of days. A quick weather check showed a high today in the low 80's, sun and clouds, rain holding off until happy hour and high winds on Lake Huron for today and tomorrow. Sunday looks looks like it could be a travel day North to Tobermory. Here's hoping. Kerry cleaned and straightened the main cabin last night before she turned in. She had my coffee cup and an orange sitting out on the table for me too. How sweet!  Peter came over for his morning cappuccino. He was out of powdered white donuts, but still welcome- just not as welcome. His review of the weather was the same as mine, that is, probably good to travel on Sunday, and that today is a nice day to take off on our bikes to the hardware and grocery stores. We set 11:00 as the time to go.  Kerry and I walked downtown.  Like most downtowns, Kincardin has a few empty storefronts, fe...

  I went to bed last night thinking we were here until Saturday. When I checked the weather this morning it occurred to me that there was a window this morning that we could use to travel to Kincardine before the winds picked up. The Orros were thinking the same thing. So when I sent a text to Marianna saying I thought we could travel she and Peter agreed and said they had reached the same conclusion. We had to wait until Marianna could reach the marina to be sure there were docks available as we would be three days early. Annie pulled out at 8:45, following Peter out into the lake. The winds were SE at 12, but forecast to diminish for the next few hours. The wind did diminish as we sailed on. The forecasted storm came through too. Lots of heavy rain, but I did not hear any thunder. Voyager disappeared as visibility dropped. I turned on the radar and navigation lights. After about 1/2 hour conditions improved significantly. Peter sent a picture of his chartplotter screen with a rad...

It started to rain shortly after I went to bed. I had to get up and close some windows. It had cooled down nicely and the air conditioners were shut off. Later I opened them and it was pleasant all night. That is until about 6:00 AM when it rained again. No more rain is expected today. I am pleased to report that major progress was made in my TV watching today. I was able to get Direct TV on my Chromebook. Last night it would not load. So now could I connect the Chromebook to my TV? Two years ago I bought a USB to HDMI adaptor just for this purpose. Could I find it - no. But, Peter had such an adaptor. I was able to connect the Chromebook to the TV and can now watch all of our Direct TV channels without tying up my computer. Amazing progress in 1 day.  Peter came over for his morning cappuccino today. He brought little white powered donuts and whipped cream with him. He was able to connect to Spectrum TV using the Express VPN app I purchased yesterday, so progress on his part too. ...

I woke up early today and listened to NPR for an hour or so before I popped up. A quick weather check verified that it was still a nice travel day. There was no wind and minimal current so I was able to disconnect all the extra lines I put out and remove all our fenders before we started our departure process. Bayfield is 50 miles away. The high is 80 in Bayfield today which will be a nice change. Kerry made us toast for breakfast. We left the dock about 8:05 and were through the second bridge by 8:30. The bridge tenders are excellent here and very considerate of boaters. They try to minimize our wait. Boaters need to wait in place in the narrow river between 2 bridges. It can be challenging at times with wind, current and other boats.  On the way to the Bluewater Bridge we passed the lightship Huron, now a museum. Peter and I have visited it before. It's staffed by volunteers who served on the ship when it was in active service, so it's a really interesting and informational v...

Peter came over for his cappuccino at 8:00, bringing a plate of little white powdered donuts.  He's stepped up his game, but I am a little deficient as I don't yet have whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles to make the cappuccinos perfect. We had a mini Skipper's Meeting and decided that tomorrow may be an OK travel day. We'll decide later today.  Kerry was up at 8:30 to walk to CVS. It's supposed to be 96 today so we wanted to get an early morning start. We needed thank you and graduation cards and some cosmetics to keep Kerry beautiful. To our surprise, the store is really a short distance from the marina and a very quick walk.  Then we were off to the Kerr Albert Office Supply Store which has a post office in it. Kerry hoped to get tracing paper too, but they, or a second supply store, did not have it. We mailed thank you card to the cousins, and a congratulations card to our nephews daughter who graduated high school.We walked through the marine store on the way...

Kerry and I both checked out the water level throughout the night. It seemed to be OK. With the diminishing wind, and with the lines we were able to add on the aft starboard side, Annie was riding about a 1' off the dock and in no danger. As I write this, the water level seems to be halfway between it's high and lows of yesterday. At one point yesterday, it appeared that it would be easier to get on Annie by stepping up on the upper deck that down to the regular deck.  I invited Peter over for a cappuccino, the first of the trip. He accepted and said he would bring over little white powdered donuts. OMG, I had not even thought of my favorite cruising treat, powdered white donuts. Neighbor Pat, when she was alive, would always send me on a cruise with a fresh bag. They were delicious! Peter found a graph showing the change in water levels on the St Clair River at Port Huron. Look at the big drop on June 21st.  Apparently it's only 6 inches from the lowest water level ever re...

It was a beautiful cool night without the threat of rain (finally) so we slept with the windows and doors open. and a little breeze blowing through our cabin. So nice. Making coffee is always the first task of every day. Today I added opening the bike bags to let out the moisture I knew would be in there from all the rain. (Shortly later, I had to close them again because of more rain.) Posting yesterday's blog came next. Again, it reminded me how thankful I am to have Starlink. There is no wifi in this marina and getting a cell phone signal to use a hotspot was always challenging. I'm also using our ice maker for the first time on this trip. The water is low this year, very low. At the gas dock, I could hardly climb up off the boat to the dock. At our dock, we are way below the walkway. But the biggest indication are the dock poles themselves. I don't recall ever seeing the round pole at the bottom of the mail wood dock pole assembly. You can see where the water usually is...

We did our last visiting this morning with the cousins. Georgina's grandson and girlfriend arrive late last night so we got to meet them. Cousin Marty was taking sister Marty to the airport at 10:15, so we decided to depart at 10:00 so he could help us leave, which he did. It's always sad to say goodbye, but we were looking forward to what is ahead of us. Cousin Marty, assisted by Donna, was a perfect host. Considering that he live alone, he really tolerated this group of invaders really well.  We cast off at 10:10 with a dock full of goodbyes. Navionics and Marty both said we should take the North Channel to get to the St Clair River. It was easy to navigate, but is pretty busy and we had to be alert to steer through the wakes of passing big boats. I would hate to travel through it on a weekend. We passed the North Channel Yacht Club, a place we have heard of many times but never visited.  12.5 miles into the trip we passed the Algonac Harbour Club, one of our favorite places...