Farewell Lake Superior

This morning finds us in Sault Ste. Marie, on the American side of the St. Mary's river. During our trip through Lake Superior we saw all kinds of conditions and did pretty much everything we will ever do except sink. Here is one of the Apostle Islands early in the morning. We found a stowaway on the boat the other day - a tiny little yellow warbler who helped us out by eating flies. Rob considered putting a leash on it to be our insect killer.

Not all of the shoreline we see is pretty. But, to us this means civilization and civilization means bars and beer. This big robot-looking thing is part of the old section of bridge crossing the St. Mary's River. Pat said it looked like something out of Transformers. Rob said it has a face only a mother could love.

A big freighter is a common site on the lakes but this is the closest we have ever been to one. They leave virtually no wake as they pass by. This guy was heading out towards Duluth. Pat kept a watchful eye on Tom and Rob as it would have been an easy spot to jump ship and head back to Duluth - on a much bigger boat..

Here we are going down our first lock. Rob was our expert pilot through all the bouys and channels and just nudged us up to the wall. The lock tenders toss lines to you and tell you not to cleat them - just let them slide through the cleat. Cleating this line as the water dropped out would result in an upside down Remedios in the middle of this lock. Pat got us insurance for this trip but it contains an Idiot Clause and I would then own the boat...upside down in the lock.

Here we are on Sunday morning June 20. It's not the prettiest place in the world but it really was nice to sleep in something that wasn't bouncing wildly and making all kinds of creepy sounds. We did a little laundry as you can see and will head out after filling the water and diesel tanks. As we go down the St. Mary's River to Lake Huron we will have to motor a lot.

We will be on the move continuosly in Lake Huron. Nights are three shifts - one is 9 to midnight, one is midnight to 3 AM and one is 3 to 6 AM. We trade off on different nights.