Whitefish Point to DeTour

September 18 - 19, 2016

It finally feels like we are making progress! We are eager to get off of Lake Superior but the weather keeps holding us back, almost taunting us with the truth that Mother Nature determines much of our travel destiny. This is a good day for her and for us.

We headed out of Whitefish Bay with the fishermen at 9:00 am in a light westerly wind. The weather forecast indicated a chance of showers in the afternoon. We tried to motor-sail but the winds were too light, so we settle in for a long day of motoring. Entering the St. Mary’s River around 1:00, we wound our way to the Sault St. Marie (Soo) Locks arriving by 2:00. As we approached the Locks the entry light was red. Dave radioed the lock master. A tour boat was already in the chamber on the westward side so we had to wait for them to clear before we could enter. It only took about a half hour to lock through. There were a ton of friendly people on the Canadian side who chatted with us and waived. Locking is not hard but you have to pay attention. The lock master instructs you to enter the lock and wrap your lines (one bow and one stern) around the vertical cable that holds you to the lock wall. You do not tie off; instead, you slide up or down a cable cable that hangs from the top of the wall, depending on whether you are rising or dropping in the lock. Today we are dropping. Several small children watched, with eyes as big as saucers, as we disappeared below the lock wall.

Beth Waiting to lock through at the Soo

Entertainment Tent at Roberta Bondar Park
Sault St. Marie, Canada

Power House ~ Edison Sault Electric Co.

The weather was perfect so we decided to continue on to Lime Island. We’d already covered 40 miles. Lime Island was another 35 or so. The trip to Lime Island took us through the west channel of Nebish Island. This is a cool place with a fast current. The narrow channel is lined by a rock quarry.  A rock wall holds the land back from falling into the channel. I have some friends back home who would love to get their hands on some of these rocks! The St. Mary’s River is lovely. We’ve seen so many beautiful homes. Hard to say if they are summer homes or year round.

Rock Cut Nebish Island

Rock Cut Nebish Island

By late afternoon we could see a squall to our west gaining on us. It was quite beautiful, like a fog curtain hanging from the rain cloud. We put everything that we could down below and tied everything else down, including ourselves in anticipation of a good hard rain! What we got was a warm summer drenching without wind and a beautiful rainbow once the storm passed. Poor Dave got swamped by the volume of water that dropped. We’ve been struggling with the weather, no internet reception, a camera that seems to be dying and suddenly there is a glorious rainbow emerging before us; a reminder to always look for the positive side of things!

Squall coming at us from the west

A very wet captain

When we rejoined the main channel we could see a Coast Guard cutter coming toward us. What a magnificent vessel! We waved and took photos. They were blasting toward the Soo locks on a mission to get home for the evening it seemed.

Coast Guard Cutter heading for the Soo Locks

It took longer than we expected to cover those 35 miles so we were docking at twilight, not day but not quite night; and NOT what we planned. When we got to Lime Island we could see that it was closed for the season. The island was deserted, the houses all boarded up and the outhouse removed. We were exhausted but managed a light dinner and a toast (beer) to our major milestone of getting off of Lake Superior! It took us 11 hours today, our longest day so far, but we did it!

Sunset off of Lime Island

Lime Island was once a fuel dock for passing tankers. The houses on the island were for the workers and their families; now available to tourists. There is a schoolhouse that once serviced 28 students! It is a popular camping and hiking island. There is a plover sanctuary off of the dockage area. We were surprised that these tiny birds had not left the island yet. They serenaded us all evening. We enjoyed their company much more than that of the mosquitoes! Tied up for the night, we knew we’d be safe here with the wind out of the south. As we’ve seen time and again, the wind shifted in the night and came out of the southwest which is the only direction that makes this port a bad spot to be sitting. We rocked and rolled all night long, neither of us getting much sleep.

Plover

Lime Island Welcome

Lime Island Cottages

Lime Island School

We rose early to make the 10 mile trek to DeTour Marina. When we got there, we tried to get fuel but the pumps wouldn’t work so we moved to a transient slip and settled in. We hadn’t had a full day ashore in some time so we took care of things like showers, laundry, cleaning Mystic and grocery shopping. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to get the rainbow video off my phone and finally realized I could upload it to My Drive on google then download from there. This felt like a big accomplishment!

We took a walk into town and I shot some photos around DeTour. There was a rain garden near the parking lot. As I walked by, something caught my eye. There were dozens of beautiful monarchs gathering nectar from the purple asters. I was amazed by how many were in the garden and I was filled with joy at capturing this moment. We walked through the tiny downtown of DeTour thinking we may stop for a nightcap. There is a local pub and a restaurant bar that looked intriguing. The dock hand, Daniel, had warned us that you never know when this place would be open. Inside we could see people at tables and at the bar but the "OPEN" sign was darkened. A woman standing on the deck smoking a cigarette looked our way and said, “Sorry, we’re closed for the night!” Weird! I guess that was what Daniel’s warning was about! Maybe she only serves locals. This is a town of 350 residents! You’d think she’d want our money. Oh well! We saved our money for a meal in St. Ignace. We know they like transients there!

Purple Aster ~ Monarch Butterfly

Passage Keeper