Sunday, July 2, 2023 Tobermory

Today was the day of our big trip to Tobermory. It’s about 70 miles and 8 hours through the open waters of Lake Huron. A quick weather check indicated we were good to go, although Environment Canada had a comment about fog dissipating in the afternoon. I did not like that. Peter pulled out at 6:00. I followed shortly behind although I had to wait for a fishing charter boat to pull out first.

Initially the seas were totally flat. Here is what Voyager looked like underway.

It got a little cold so I turned on the heater. Kerry made us buttered toast before she smiled and headed for the V-berth. Marianna called to tell me that she had a blueberry scone for me from the Raven, but that she forgot to give it to me and that Peter ate it! He denied knowing it was mine, but said the second one was tastier than the first for some reason. Then Peter sends this radar image showing Annie on AIS with an X over her saying that was because he unfriended me! I pointed out that he was the one who should be unfriended as he ate my scone. But I let him know I was enjoying his cappuccino with whipped cream, butterscotch, and chocolate stripes.

We picked a great day to travel. Little 1’ waves built up off the starboard bow for a couple of hours but they were of no consequence. Later it smoothed out again. A light fog settled in for awhile so I turned on the radar. It was nice traveling next to Voyager. Marianna did her usual good job of getting us a spot at Tobermory. Here's our boats listed as arrival's on the dockmaster's board.

It can get crowded there and I saw other boats headed there too.  While underway, I spent some time reviewing anchorages in the east end of the North Channel. Kerry got up around 11:00 and made a nice fried chicken lunch for me, served with my daily lunch beer.

The trip today was only 67.2 miles. I thought it was further. It took us almost 8 hours at an average of 8.5 knots. Sometime while in Tobermory I will assemble our inflatable kayak. That was a gift from Jimbo too, as was the ice maker.

We bought fuel and pumped out when we arrived. Kerry drove the dock buys crazy by washing the bugs off Annie while they were servicing us. Gotta love a crew who keeps a clean boat! We were back to our usual 3.3 gallons an hour usage. If I calculated MPG correctly, it was 2.41.

Carla the Harbormaster here is really nice and seems to like us. When I walked into her office she said, “Annie.” She remembered us from past visits. It is crowded here, but she gave us a nice dock. Unfortunately it only has 110 power which went out a little while ago. I’ll call in the morning and see if they can get it going or if we can move to a 30 amp dock. I was surprised to see the Chi-Cheemaun arrive. I thought I had seen it still in the Sarnia shipyard. obviously I saw a different boat.

The grocery has moved from the harbor to about 1 mile out of town. Carla offered Marianna the use of her truck to go and get groceries and provisions. Marianna accepted and we all spent our first hour here in the grocery. We need to provision for our first anchoring in the North Channel, and get some water for some serious ice making.

Peter and Marianna accepted Kerry's offer of a shrimp pesto dinner cooked on Annie. They arrived about 6:00. We had cocktails on Annie’s upper deck and dinner down below. Kerry made her shrimp pesto linguine dinner which we all enjoyed. She loves to make pasta for Peter because he enjoys it so much. For dessert we had one of our last Rosemary’s brownies. This time Kerry dressed it with butterscotch and chocolate syrup and topped it with whipped cream. It was a new taste and very delicious. We will be sorry to have eaten ourselves out of the generous supply of brownies from Rosemary that we left with. 

Items on tomorrow’s agenda include laundry, assembling the kayak, going by Jane’s Zaharias’s cottage to take some pictures for her, shopping, and hopefully getting the power going. Oh, better put showers on that list too. We hope to make ice for a large part of the day once we get power. We will stay here another night and then likely depart for our first North Channel anchorage.