July 1, 2006

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!!!
Our curent position is: 44 59 18 North, 81 23 08 West.
We are anchored off the SW side of Garden Island, Stokes Bay, Ontario in Lake Huron. We arrived last night about 6pm. We had a great close reach all the way from Fitzwilliam Island; probably our best sail yet! The water in Huron seems even cleaner that Superior if that can be. The big difference is it is all rock. Rock shores, rock bottom (tough anchoring!), and rocky Islands. We will be sailing along in 80+ feet of water then all of a sudden it will go to 15! Most of the rock reefs are well marked.
The wind indicator decided to take a break on us. We think it happened during a thunder storm 2 days ago as that is when it went out. Bill took it apart today and will need to check in with Raytheon. While this is not necessary to have, it is very helpful and fun to check wind strength and direction. Today for example, we decided to lay over as the winds are predicted to 30+ knots and waves 4-9 feet with thunderstorms passing through. Right now the wind is howling out of the South and the hazy sun is still trying to shine.
So what do we do all day?
Usually I get up at about 0700 and start the coffee then go back to bed.. I start the timer when I hear the perking that is if there is water and coffee in the pot!! Unfortunately, I cooked an empty stainless steel coffee pot for 20 minutes on high yesterday! Either one of us will fill it the night before so it is ready to go...guess we missed the boat that time!
Next, we dinghy Jess to shore so she can do her business and we can do a little walking. This has not been great do to the rocky island terrain. In fact we haven't had a good walk for a couple days. Today we dinghyd in to Stokes to walk to the General store. This was about a mile each way so that felt good.
We try to get under way by about 0830. The miles we have been doing for most of the trip have been about 50 per day. Lately we have been able to slow down, this is nice. Once underway I will make breakfast. This may consist anything from Malto Meal cereal (Bill's brother John, was kind enough to get us a nice supply of this!), yogurt, fruit, or eggs and toast (place tin foil on the burner and toast).
Bill has been doing a great job navigating through all the little islands, markers, bouys, range markers and shoals. It is very difficult. Why don't they put big signs on all the islands to let us know which ones they are!!! Jess has been good but had a nervous shaky day when we were going through some storms. Marty has become more bold in his climbing about the boat and now finds the top of the dodger as a great place to view things.
We have met many nice people. In the town of Little Current on Manatoulin Island we docked by a couple on a 42 foot trawler built in the 70's. Beautiful! They have a home in Corpus Christi and one in Ontario. They invited us over and shared their stories of completing the very same journey we are on. In fact Jim reminded us: "it is about the journey not the destination".