WE DID IT, finished the loop

Well I am pleased to report that Solitude treated us so well on the entire trip.  I think that it is certainly in part by the way that Erwin took such good care of the boat and was very good at the regular maintenance.

As you can see by this next picture, Lake Michigan welcomed us back with extremely calm water.

Here is a view of the famous Sleeping Bear Dune.

Here is our first view of the home port harbor of Muskegon, Michigan.  It surprised us that we felt strange approaching the harbor.  It has been 23 months since we left here.

Erwin's mom and dad with my sister Lonnie greeted us and took some pictures of us returning.

Here is Solitude coming down the main channel at Muskegon Lake.

Here is a closer view of the two of us.

It was almost surreal coming into our home port after such a fabulous journey.  We have so many memories of the trip.  We have covered the following:

• almost 7,000 miles
• 115 Locks
• 17 States
• 2 Countries (Canada and US)

Most importantly we have had the support of our families, our friends, and all of our many followers.  We felt the love and support over the entire trip.  We have met some of the most amazing people along the way.  It has also provided us with some new life long friends.  We have had good days and bad days, but we both agree that it was well worth doing.  We have even had folks ask us if we are still together after a trip like this.  We are pleased to say that we still are together and are looking forward to our next adventure.

Here is a picture of us coming into our marina at Harbour Towne.

And last, but certainly a final photo, here is us at the boat, back in the slip.

THANKS AGAIN TO ALL OF YOU!  We had a wonderful time and hope you enjoyed following us.

Georgian Bay and the North Channel

After we had finished all 45 of the locks on the Trent-Severn Waterway, we were ready to be in the open water again.  We headed into Georgian Bay which is a large body of water just like the Great Lakes.  We did take the secondary channel which was another adventure waiting for us.

The Canadian Waterways are very well marked and for a very good reason.  As you will see from our pictures there is a lot of rock.  Rocks, rocks, and more rocks.  This was a little unsettling to us as we have gone aground many times during this adventure, but the rocks do not forgive like sand and clay bottoms.

This is one of the beautiful sunrises that we enjoyed as we cruised the north country.

As I said, the waterways are very well marked.  These are some of the markers that we saw along the way.  They have shore markers which are a board with a symbol that will help you locate the buoy in the water which is typically just off the shore marker.  The shore markers are anchored on the tops of rocks.

All of the lighthouses are constructed the same and they are not different like we are used to here in the United States.

The markers are so close that it was difficult to tell from a distance if there was room for our boat to pass through them.  Here is what they looked liked as we passed.  Does not look wide enough for a 12 foot wide boat, huh?

Some of the navigational aids were not the conventional ones that we were used to seeing.

We were very happy to be closer to home and the sky was so blue and the rocks were a pink color that was really neat.

Some of the passages were quite narrow and we thought you might enjoy seeing our view.

So this is what the landscape looked like from the boat.

Check out the cottages and houses are built on the rocks.

Just so you have a prospective of the size of the rocks, check out these teenagers sitting on the rocks.

The sunsets every day had this beautiful purple glow to them in the north country.

We had a few challenges traveling in another country, but for the most part other than the currency, all of the groceries were the same.  I had to be sure to have Tooneys and Looneys to do the laundry, but interesting all of the packaging is in French and English.  Check out the milk cartons, not plastic jugs.  It would be great to have this option here in the U.S.

When is the last time you purchased Sealtest milk?  Remind you of being a kid?

All and all we could have spent a lot more time in both the Georgian Bay and the North Channel, but we were both ready to head for home.  Here is two of the anchorages in the North Channel.  The first one is at South Benjamen Islands and the second is at Beardrop.

We went for a hike on shore, check out the size of the boulders along the way.

We made it back into the U.S. and checked into U.S. customs at Drummond Island.  Here is the lighthouse on the way to Detour, Michigan.

Here is one of the northern lighthouses which reminded us that we were getting close to home.  This one is by Grey's Reef.

Trent - Severn Waterway

We left the Erie Canal system and traveled the Oswego Channel which is 24 miles long.  Here is a picture of the bridge across the canal.  You can only pull into the lock part way until the water goes down, then you can clear the fixed bridge!

Well we have had a wonderful time exploring on the Trent - Severn Waterway.  It was a lot of work because it has 45 locks.  Some of them are hydraulic, but the majority of them are run manually.  The lock staff are super and help with anything you need.  It kept us really busy on some of the days because we would go through 6 to 8 locks in one day.  You don't travel a lot of miles, but you are busy.  The locks are open from 9 to 4 so you have to plan around that also. 

At the end of the day, you can pay a camping fee to tie on the wall either above or below the lock.  It really is a great system.

As your boat travels from the USA into Canada or visa versa, you have to check in with customs.  The boat arrives at a designated marina and the captain takes all of the necessary items like passports, boat registration, insurance documentation, etc. with him to check in.  We checked in at Kingston, Ontario.  Here is a picture of Erwin calling in our information.

While the captain is calling in to report, the boat flies a yellow quarantine flag.  Then after you receive a clearance with customs, then the US boats fly a courtesy flag with the familiar maple leaf.  Here is our flags before and after.

We stayed at Fraser Marine in Trent to get our provisions and we had a lovely free concert in the park.  Here in Canada they have free concerts by local musicians just about every week.

We were greeted as all boaters by this welcome sign at the beginning of the Trent-Severn waterway.

The lock systems are for the most part manually operated.  They do have some that are hydraulic, but this is a picture of the lock man opening the lock gates.  They push this and it reminds you of when you pushed a merry-go-round as a kid.  It keeps the lock personnel busy all day.

One of the interesting features of this waterway is that you pay a fee to use the lock system and then if you want to you pay a camping fee and stay on the wall at the locks.  Here is our boat at Campleford.

We traveled on to Peterborough and anchored at Little Lake.  Our cruising guide gave us the spot and told us to anchor clear of the spray from the waterfall.  It actually was over 70 feet high and all lite up at night in multi-colors.  It was beautiful and a nice surprise.

There are two lift locks in this system, one in Peterborough and one at Kirkfield.  There are two large pans and they are counter-balanced.  You drive the boat into the pan and the hydraulic lift then moves the pans in opposite positions.  So your boat goes up or down just like a lock.  It is like a giant bathtub.  It is also kind of scary with all that water and the boat at a high level and moving to the low level.

Here is Erwin talking to one of the other boats in the bathtub.  Look over his shoulder and see how high up we are!

We also met some great folks from Canada.  As we traveled through locks we talk to the other boats while the lock is moving you up or down.  We met Dave and Julie and talked with them through several locks.  We then stayed on the wall in Bobcaygeon and they had a few friends that joined them as well.  We stayed a couple of days and they were so kind to invite us over and have a few drinks and some food.  It was such fun getting to know all of them.  So here are our new Canada friends - Dave and Julie, Mark and Tammie, and Bill and Deb.

As we travel further north, the wildlife changes.  Here are a pair of loons with their young ones.

One of the places we stopped was Kirkfield.  Here is our boat on the wall there.

One of the most exciting locks was the "Big Chute"  It is a railway system that moves your boat out of the water and over the land, then back to the water again.  Can you imagine?  We thought it would be scary, but it was really cool.  The lock staff are so well trained that they make it easy.  Here is a picture of the boat as they are about to pick us up out of the water and then a shot of the rail system as we left.  The boat is carried on the yellow slings that you see.

We then traveled through one of the interesting bridges.  This one is called the Hole in the Wall.  It is like threading a needle.

The scenery changed again.  Now the markers are on the rocks, really.  The channels are narrow and you looked for those big, hard, rocks under the water and stay clear of them.

OK, that is it for now.  We are headed to the Georgian Bay and then the North Channel.