Lake Huron

7/22/08

Left Lake Erie about 7:30 this morning. We went up the Detroit River and stopped in Windsor, Ontario instead of Detroit. We decided to not stop in Detroit for two reasons. First of all we decided to head up the Canadian side of Lake Huron so we might as well check in with customs now and stay on this side. Second, we have heard that Detroit is not the nicest place to stop. Actually, we also heard one horror story from someone who stopped there so it was not on our agenda. This was sort of a long 60 mile day of dodging big ships but otherwise not to exciting.

7/23/08

Today we went from Windsor to Sarnia, ON. The first 20 miles was Lake St. Clair where it was quite windy, usually about 25kts with gusts to about 30. I am estimating everything because our wind instruments will not be able to be fixed until we take the mast down. So, a cool, wavy, wet day. The next 40 miles was the St. Clair River which was another day of avoiding large ships.

Good thing Rolf has that book “How to Avoid Large Ships” or we wouldn’t get through this. Sarnia is nice but the biggest event for the day was laundry and you don’t need details of that other than to say we changed marinas so the machines would be closer to our slip.

7/24/08

We officially entered Lake Huron this morning. We had a beautiful sail 60 miles from Sarnia to Bayfield, ON. This is Kathy grooving to the tunes while under sail.

Sarnia is a darling town. We had to walk quite a ways uphill to get there through woods with a babbling brook, All very picturesque. These towns are on the Niagara escarpment so there is usually quite an uphill walk from the marina to get to them. We are feeling closer to home with the looks of everything but there is still a difference in the accent that we can hear.

7/27/08

On Friday we powered the 40 miles to Kincardine, ON. We had enough leftover seas that we had to put the main up to dampen the rolling but the wind was light so very little sailing. The weather forecast didn’t look too great for the next few days so we planned to be weathered in here a while. As you can tell by the name, this is a Scottish town. They have a tradition that every night in the summer the phantom piper (bagpipe) plays the pipes as the sun goes down. It is a beautiful tradition and sounds mournful as they do with the sun slowly sinking down. There is a legend that someone was lost in the fog and played the pipes sadly. Donald Sinclair heard them and played in answer helping the vessel find safe harbor.

On Saturday we checked out the town and did a little shopping. I was surprised they don’t have any plaid t-shirts. But I could have bought a kilt if I wanted to. The town is also the home of the renowned Kincardine Scottish Pipe Band. Every Saturday night in the summer they have a parade down Queen Street. They are celebrating the 100^th year of doing this. It is a simple enough idea but great fun to participate.

The band starts at the park and marches down the street in full regalia. As they start down, anyone from the town can join in following behind them. So about half the people watching the parade get up and walk behind. After they get to the grocery store they stop in the parking lot and “rest” for about 10 minutes and then turn around and go back. That is the whole thing. It starts at 8 and ends about 9. It is great fun to see all the kids walking and marching and the little ones in strollers being in the parade. They are having a ball.

Then people start lining up at the ice cream shops.

The next big event is they have a reunion called the Old Boys and Old Girls Reunion every ten years. Those who are invited are residents, both past and present, friends, acquaintances and those who are only strangers once. They have weekend long festivities. It sounds like a lot of fun.

7/27/08

This is the lighthouse in Kincardine taken from the deck of Norske. The "phantom piper" plays the sun down from the top balcony every evening.

7/28/08

We did get to leave Kincardine today and headed the 80 miles to Tobermory. It was a little windier and wavier than we originally expected from the weather report but not to horrible. We did however have the wind on the nose again so had to motorsail. We are once again back in fresh whitefish territory so we indulged ourselves. Rolf was also impressed with the car ferry to Manitoulin Island. Both the bow and stern open up to let cars on and off. The difference is that it looks like a regular bow but the whole thing flips up instead of having the usual door that drops down.