Has it been that long?

After 38 days First Light is anchored in US waters—Maud Bay in Michigan to be exact. We dropped anchor here and cleared US Customs. An event that was hassle free and very professional. I suspect that was due to a combination of the Customs Officer doing the work and Deb's preparation. We had nothing onboard that would raise a Custom's eyebrow.  As always when dealing with officialdom, answer what they ask without embellishing. Be polite but don't try to be too friendly. Do what you can to make their day easier so they will not make yours harder. And, in my case, let Deb do the talking while just standing nearby and smiling. My anti-authoritarian streak rides far too close to the surface way too much of the time. I'm sure deep in the annals of psychology there is a name for my condition. (Other than “pain in the ass”.)  It was also made easier because we used the Customs app. Well before 1300 I was pulling down the quarantine flag and hoisting the American Flap back up to its rightful place.

Bye bye Sault St. Marie! It's been a wonderful visit.

Sunrise at Roberta Bondar Marina in Sault St. Marie, ON

Still, like many days, today was just a bit frustrating. We got settled in while there were hours of daylight left on a day that was perfect for making miles. There had not been a whitecap in sight. A little rain was the only weather challenge and that wasn't even enough to drive us out of the flybridge (which leaks like a screen door) for the lower helm station. So, why stop here? Because there is no place to stop between here and Mackinac Island that isn't at least 10 nm off the open water track. The track time from here to the island is around 6 hours. If we went about half way there today, anchored, and came back out to finish tomorrow? The total track time to the Island would be about 8 hours. So we decided to just loaf a bit today and head out with First Light at first light in the morning.

That turned out to be a fortuitous choice. The weather apps all agreed that today was going to be light and variable all day today. I just checked the Pocket Gribs app and it still claims the same. Sitting here at anchor the our wind gauge is regularly clocking gusts of 15 knots. Fortunately the wind is coming in from over the land that is about 1/4 nm off our bow and not the 5.5 nm off our starboard side. But out on our route to Mackinac Island? That would be 15 knots of wind working with 30 miles of fetch and right on the bow. 

It isn't likely we will ever have the boat in Canada again. For all of its difficulties, I'm glad we made the trip. The parts of Canada we explored, boat and train, are just spectacular. The people we met along the way were all good folks. I don't know that I would ever make such a trip again. But I'm glad we did it once at least.

I'll miss the color of the water here. It's almost like the Bahamas.

The light changes so quickly. Five minutes later this sunset became the photo below.