Stats for Monday, July 23

Origin: Grand Bend, Ontario

Destination: Kincardine, Ontario

Statute Miles:  62.5

Average Speed:  10.5 mph

Time on the Move:  6 hours

The forecast for today was for smooth, flat water with barely any wind, so it was a perfect day to travel on Lake Huron! We headed out just about 8 o’clock and instantly knew the water conditions were 100x better than the day before.  WHEW!!

Toby drove for a little bit in the morning. Really, we have autopilot, so for these long straight trips we set that and then just keep watch around us. I gotta say, it’s pretty amazing!

 

 

With the water so much calmer we were all more relaxed and worked some “extra” things into our day. The kids played dress up for a bit which was adorable. Mike wasn’t sure if we should bring the dress up clothes originally, but after seeing their creativity underway, he changed his mind.

 

We fired up the generator underway to make a hot lunch. PIZZA– of course. Obviously it was a hit! We found that Jack’s pizzas fit in our small freezer and small oven PERFECTLY. It was like it was meant to be.  🙂

Later the water was completely clear and smooth except for this weird looking boat. He didn’t appear to be moving, so we kept course with the autopilot. Then, at the last minute he decided to cross right in front of us, and actually turn right toward us. We felt like our personal space was being crowded, and we wondered if he was actually a pirate. But he wasn’t. He was just looking for fish I guess.

We pulled into a beautiful harbor and got tied up pretty easily. We were super surprised to recognize the boat we were docked right next to named French Toast II. Mike and I debated where we’d seen it before, and sure enough, it was docked in our boat’s previous home marina in Ontario. We chatted with the owners a bit about our adventure and just when we were ready to start walking towards our first adventure, it started downpouring. Nothing new by now for this crew. We just popped up the umbrellas and kept on truckin.

We were docked right next to a beautiful lighthouse and that was actually our first field trip. It is the original lighthouse from 1880 which is still a working lighthouse but also a marine museum. We were amazed by all the of artifacts and knowledge they had to offer and the view from the top was amazing!!

Hayley got to try this old fashioned life jacket made of cork. HUGE!

Colin worked the crank to get this fog horn singing. COOL!

**I will work on getting videos in the blog soon!  So much to learn, so much to do…**

Our tour guide said the Anna Marie wreck still sits right in front of the beach that lines the harbor. On a clear day I guess you can see it easily, but we had slight chop blocking our view. Can you spot INNTW??

 

It was cool to watch this light spin around and around from our boat later.  What a great experience to get to go to the very top!

 

There is a legend of the Phantom Piper from this area that is fascinating. The story says that long ago a family left Goderich, ON headed toward Kincardine, but bad weather blew up and slowed down their trip.  Soon enough it was dark and stormy and the captain was having a hard time finding his way.  The father in the family (on their way to start a farm in Canada from Scotland) got out his bagpipes and started to play as a way to calm his family.  He played a slow sad tune because he was very worried about their fate.  Sure enough a fellow bag piper on land heard the tune and played a song in return.  The captain heard the song and used it to help guide his ship to safety.  The father then returned to the harbor often to play his bag pipes as a thank you for helping his family arrive safely.  Still today, a piper plays every evening from the lighthouse.  What a great ending to the day!!

 

 

Hayley enjoyed dancing to the music and telling us the legend.

 

Toby waved to the bagpiper several times.  He also approves of the beautiful sunset.

 

Tomorrow (7/24) we head for Tobermory!!  🙂  Thanks for following!!