The Blog That Never Was 7-13-10

In 2005, we bought our Looper boat, Baby Grand, in the Chesapeake and took her 1,500 miles to Lake Superior in 23 days using only a hand-held GPS and paper charts. For the past 2 days, we have been traveling to the Trent-Severn Canal and using the same charts with our old penciled course lines visible. We return here with more knowledge and technology, and if we were really nostalgic, we could have done a one day 110 mile slog at 8mph like we did in 2005 from Oswego to Trenton.

You won’t see any blog entries from that trip. We only had time to send cryptic emails to family and friends periodically to let them know that we were ok. What a trip it was…much harder than the rest of the Great Loop… fraught with challenges and excitement….

We picked up a bad load of diesel in Rosedale on the Trent-Severn Canal, our engine started shutting down in Lake Huron and we had to change fuel filters every day often in 2-3 foot seas. We weren’t sure if the engine would totally shut down so always looked for a place to do an emergency anchorage hopefully not on rocks. Our toilet broke back on the Hudson River but we were able to do a unique porta potty set-up. Our autopilot broke probably protesting the grueling 12 hour days.

Our steering mechanism hub between the flybridge and cabin steering slipped so we lost the ability to turn left just before entering a narrow rocky channel followed by building gale force winds on Lake Superior. It was even scarier as I thought Bob had also fallen overboard as their was no motion from the flybridge wheel while I tried to steer below. Luckily the waves pushed us more to the left side as we entered Ontonogon, but there in the middle of the channel, was a dredge boat which we cleared by not breathing for a few minutes. We kissed the ground when we landed and stayed put for 3 days until the gale exhausted and called our employers with a very unique excuse.

They say what doesn’t kill you, makes you strong and this is true in our case. We couldn’t believe what we had been through and what we had handled together. We developed a can-do attitude and got hooked on adventure but please not so much.

Last time we did the Trent-Severn Canal of 240 miles and 44 locks in 4 days in t-storms; this time we will take 10-12 days. Life is pretty easy right now.

1,000 Islands in the St. Lawrence River 7-11-10

We were last here in 1968. Bob and I had been dating a year, lived in downstate New York and wanted a summer vacation adventure. Problem was that I was very Catholic back then, thought that a lightning bolt would surely strike me dead if I ran away with Bob, and the knowledge of it would definitely kill my Irish Catholic mother. I am happy to report that love triumphed over guilt and we headed north to the 1,000 Islands for a weekend rendezvous. I had never been camping before and brought a huge suitcase of coordinated outfits and a 20 lb. bouffant hairdryer! I can still see the wide-eyed look of amazement on Bob’s face as he was tried to figure out how to tell me to jettison the baggage without spoiling the romantic mood.

Most of the islands are now private but Parks Canada has established a 20 island park with camping, docks and some mooring buoys. The hard rocky bottom makes it difficult to anchor here so boaters are all competing for dock space and mooring balls. We entered the fray on Friday morning and finding a dock was like a quest for the Holy Grail. We found some docks being saved by jet skis and other docks completely full by 10am. We rounded the corner of Camelot Island, saw a sailboat leaving a mooring ball and quickly snagged it.

Camelot Island is a delightful spot with a hiking trail, coves for dinking around, a picnic shelter, compost toilet, regular docks and a dinghy dock. Morning is announced by songbirds and an owl heralds bedtime. Just jump in the fresh cool water and get refreshed on a hot day. We did not have to slay a dragon here but did have a snake onboard. My Lancelot deftly used a boat hook and threw it back in the water. Do we go back in the water now? I can report that when it’s hot and you do not have air conditioning, you will overcome your fear of snakes.