This week we finished up our time in Canada. Although there’s way more to explore in the Georgian Bay and North Channel, we decided it was time to cross over Lake Huron to Michigan, and back to the good ol’ USA. We entered US waterways at 10:48 on August 6th and checked in via an app that allowed us to clear customs by filling out a form and having a brief video chat with a Border Patrol agent. Kind of cool to do it from the moving boat. Danny was a little bit sad to leave Canada behind, but we both felt happy to be back in the USA!
We’ve been in Drummond Island, Michigan since Tuesday and will travel when the winds die down. Our fleet has gone from 4 boats to 3 this week, our friends Susan & Greg on Lucky Me decided to stay in Canada and visit more towns. We’ve caught up with other Loopers we’ve met along the way and met some new folks as well, last night we hosted docktails aboard Done Diggin’ with some new and familiar crews. Our friends have friends who summer on the island, so we were able to do a little bit of touring with “locals”. The island is filled with pine trees and coves all along Lake Huron with cottages and boats all around. The population is about 1,000 in the winter months and at least triples in the summer. It’s been a good stop.
Many boaters and almost all loopers have boat cards made before setting out on a trip like ours; when you meet someone new you exchange boat cards. I recently got a book to organize them and try to write where we met on the back of the card. So far, we’ve collected 90 boat cards at marinas and docktails all throughout the trip. I don’t remember everyone, but many are boats we’ve traveled with and gotten to know. When we meet someone new we tend to refer to them by their boat name until we get to know them better. Danny and I are often called “Diggin’”.
What an incredible summer we’ve had so far. I’ve pulled together some “fun facts” and statistics of our trip so far:
- When we left Blind River, Ontario, our last Canadian port, we were at the northernmost point of the Great Loop and closer to the North Pole than to Fort Myers! Wow!
- We spent 40 days in Canada and traveled on 26 of those days
- We spent 22 nights in marinas in Canada, 11 nights on lock walls and 6 at anchor (7 if you count the one we “aborted”, which I don’t)
- Since leaving home on 9/23/18, we have traveled approximately 4,271 miles!
- We are almost halfway through our Loop. We started and will finish in Fort Myers hopefully in November and have traveled about 2,250 “Loop” miles.
Statistics aside, the best part of this journey has been the people we’ve met and continue to meet. I’m continually surprised at how different each boat, each couple and each person is, and that in spite of those differences we come together and have such a good time. There are SO many laughs….none of us take ourselves very seriously! The best way to share this part of the journey is through some of the MANY pictures I’ve taken, or one of our friends has taken and sent to me.
While waiting out the winds, we’ve done lots of boat cleaning – inside and out…living in such close quarters can get messy sometimes, and there were lots of spiders in Canada that wanted to ride with us every day!
When the winds finally do die down we’ll move on to Mackinaw Island, hopefully tomorrow. Sometimes it’s spelled Mackinac – but still pronounced Mackinaw….there must be a reason why – maybe I’ll figure it out when we get there. Meanwhile, the sun is shining, the wind is blowing and we are safe at port on our nice clean boat. More adventure awaits!
Thanks as always for following along our adventure!
Captain Dan & Cruise Director Jodi
