Stats for August 7, 2018

Origin: Marianne Cove Anchorage in Baie Fine

Destination: Little Current

Distance:  16.4 miles

Speed:  7.7 mph

Time on the Move:  2 hours 7 minutes

 

We left Marianne Cove after putting away ALL the boat toys (we’ve heard we win the award for most water toys out when we anchor–I’m not surprised!) and having lunch. We were going to make the short run to Little Current that afternoon to get hooked up at a marina and relax a little. The trip to Little Current was beautiful. It is the same everywhere we go around here, little tree covered islands all over and huge rocks jutting out of the blue water just every where you look. It makes me not want to go down below or take care of chores underway because the scenery is so beautiful. Plus, we’ve only been doing short trips, so it doesn’t get boring underway which is great.

One exciting thing about heading to Little Current is that we had to time our arrival just right to pass through a swing bridge that was built there in 1913, providing the only road to Manitoulin Island still to this day. (That fact is crazy to me!). So we passed under the Blue Water Bridge, but we haven’t had to go under or pass through any others yet on our trip. It is ironic because the bridge was a big event for all of us because it is new, but on some stretches of our journey we will deal with bridges all the time and they will become normal or annoying I imagine. But today it was nothing but exciting. We hit the bridge in perfect timing for the 3:00 opening. The bridge swiveled to the side, and we passed right through with about 10 other boats. It wasn’t all that special, but the novelty of it was great.

 

After we tied up, I heard that the laundry mat was open 24 hours a day and I was thrilled. After anchoring for a week and dealing with wet swimming towels and wet rain towels and clothing, we had some major laundry to take care of. Mike got a marina cart and we loaded up 6 loads of laundry to work on.

We enjoyed dinner right across the street (with free wifi!!) from the laundry mat while our clothes were being taken care of. Then later I went and folded everything while Mike grocery shopped. Sure enough, we met up at just the right time on our way back to the boat–me pushing the laundry cart and him pushing the grocery cart. Imagining what we must have looked like had us cracking up. Honestly, the marina is pretty large in this town and it is well-known provisioning spot, so I’m guessing they are pretty used to this sight around here.

That night we were treated to clean sheets, delicious cookies from the grocery store, and a gorgeous sunset over the harbor that seemed to last for hours and hours.

The next morning we planned to take care of some chores you can only accomplish with wifi, including purchasing massive amounts of Amazon goodies as well as new phones and accessories and shipping them all to my mom who we’ll see next week. I took the kids to the playground (where they met a new friend–hi, Elizabeth!!) while Mike did the ordering (and we also met some very helpful people at the coffee shop who shared lots of info about the North Channel). Our ultimate plan was to move on and hook up with our friends in another marina about 20 miles away, but the wind picked up throughout the morning and it didn’t look like a great day to travel. Plus, the lure of a good strong dock and temperamental wifi were pretty strong, so we decided to stay put another day.

This gave us a chance to check out the swing bridge up close. We walked across the bridge just for fun (made me want to hyperventilate) and to say we’ve done it and watched it spin from a special spot along the water (complete with a water snake sighting). After that we had ice cream, bought a couple of forgotten groceries, hit up the LCBO (beer and liquor store), did some window shopping, took care of random boat chores, checked boat school off the list, and posted a few blogs to round out the evening.

 

As we looked at our plan for the next day, we realized we’re starting to feel crunched on time to hit our goal of making it to Mackinac on 8/15 to meet my brother, Brad, and his family. Mike came up with a great solution, and we went to bed knowing we would have a packed day the next day complete with a mid-day field trip. Thanks for following along and reading about our adventures!!  🙂