Blurry Flurry of a Journey
What a blurry flurry of a journey. How DOES one go about explaining such things?
Northport->Beaver Island: Zephyrus flew under full sail power the entire day, even finishing off the day anchoring under sail power just after almost running into a very shallow shoal inside the harbor due to not having adequate charts for the area. Spontaneity has its flaws sometimes. Beaver Island was a pleasant surprise of duck crossing signs, a giggling drive-by of a clown-car-golf-cart stuffed with gleeful ladies, run down island men that are expert “stand-arounders,” houses that look like boats, along with many other unexplained phenomenon of an Island we knew nothing about prior to arrival...other than it's tree-chewing animal name of course. Next day was the BRIDGE CROSSING and into Lake Huron!!!!!!
Beaver Island->St Ignace: Despite all the warnings, we anchored next to the harbor. Now if you don't know what St Ignace is all about...let's just say St Ignace is to Mackinaw Island, as Cusco-Peru is to Machu Picchu. Basically it is the stepping stone for a HUMONGOUS tourist magnetic field. What I'm getting at, is a lot of ferries pass this area and we had the pleasure of experiencing all of their mighty wakes. This means treacherous rocking every 15 minutes from passing ferries a few hundred meters away. Leaving the boat to deal with it, we enjoyed an evening loitering on the front porch of a Bed and Breakfast listening to a street performer singing the blues. We also bought a chicken and ate most of it there while guests at the Inn saw right through our disguise. Ohh well, the rest of the evening we read different versions of Hunter Thompson under a public pavilion while mosquitoes nibbled at us. Finally ferry season came to an end that day and we slipped into bed to watch the first episode of James Bond. 
St Ignace->Les Cheneaux: Rain poured on us. Thanks to our handy-dandy dry suits, we plowed through it warmly and the dreary day eventually ended. {Fun fact: Corey’s beard is so long now, to hydrate when it rains, all he has to do is suck his mustache.} All day we looked forward to docking in Cedarville, to our first warm shower in weeks, to seeing a new place, etc…However when we came into the islands our depth sounder told us we were in 2.5 feet of water…which already freaked us out enough….and then we saw that not a single mast was in the harbor. This place was a mess of weeds, so without knowledge of the ACTUAL depth and not a mast in sight, we sadly turned away and headed over to Government Island. Although we were soggy, groggy and sad that we couldn’t get off the boat, about 20 sailboats were anchored here so we felt safely at home.
Les Cheneaux->De Tour: A LOOOOONG day. Longest yet. I choose to be permanent captain for the day so the engine stayed off despite almost no wind. We chugged along at an almost painfully slow pace hovering around 2 knots…but found plenty of ways to occupy our time. When we announced that we were eliminating time-worry-hurry from our vocabulary, that’s what we get sometimes. It’s funny that the slower you go, the more odd things you can do while driving (the boat)…for example: a guitar-playing duet, cooking, drawing, painting, writing…etc. No collisions necessary out on the open water. I invented an awesome meal (check out serene marine cuisine!) and continued to drive while Corey lay around…you know him! We pulled into a slip in De Tour just before night swallowed us whole…but ‘cha can’t beat a sun set under sail on open water. Finally got that shower we were looking forward to! Simple pleasures and stuff. Spent the better part of the next day on another porch in the shade and mingled with local UP cultures. Just like the good ole days.
De Tour->Harbor Island: A SHORRRRT day! Shortest yet. We motored at the slowest speed ever across the St. Mary’s River towards Drummond Island. Green islands began to pop up around us immediately after the crossing as if it was springtime and the island-blooming season was a-happenin’. We were elated to enter into this portion of the trip. It marks the start to a journey of island hopping in the Canadian waters of Lake Huron. A boater’s paradise, some call it. A small handful of sailboats were anchored quietly and with all our exuberant joys we surely disrupted the peace. Flying our American flag and all [so close to Canada you can only assume we were fulfilling the Americana stereotype.] So it started with our excessive laughing as we underwater-pencil-colored in ‘Nerve Cap’ [the dinghy] after a summer of a poor name-lessness …and it ended later with our dismay after realizing that the 20 minutes spent banging all the dry underbrush on trees making cool beats…had obviously echoed clear as a bell throughout the entire bay…surrounding islands…lake even? Whoops. Blame it on our youth I guess. 
Harbor Island->NORTH CHANNEL: Stupid motoring…I detest it. But we have to get from point A to point B somehow. Anyways, we had an uneventful day motoring to Meldrum Bay until……WE GOT THERE! My parents looked like the coolest parents in the world as they greeted us on their makeshift stand-up paddle boards with Canada and my previous boat from another life behind them. After an excruciating almost hour long wait for the customs check, we left the dock and rafted up to my parents boat. Rafting is when one boat sets the anchor and the smaller boat comes up to the side and ties to it. It was a moment of sheer happiness seeing the two boats together, the two homes with infinite sentimental value to me. My mom loaded us up with vegetables and sustenance while my dad filled us up with all his newfound facts and stories. Such a great peace.
-M
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