Windsor, Ontario 6/24/2016

After my shower this morning I hopped on the internet to try and determine how much the tax on excess alcohol coming into Canada would be. It seems almost impossible to know. The rate varies by province, by type of alcohol and by the alcoholic content. So much for that.

I did come up with plan B, however. We decided not to go back into the States. I had planned to stop at St. Claire MI, then go on to Sarnia. So, by skipping the US port, I don't need to call into Canada Customs again. Kerry just called them and said we would be staying 30 days instead of three. Now our job is to drink up the excess wine before we need to call Customs again. I think we are up to it.

We walked to town this morning. Kerry got $20 worth of treasures at the dollar store. On the way to town we passed this monument, dedicated to Canadian American Friendship in 1898.



After lunch we shoved off for Windsor about 1:30. The trip to Lakeview Marina was 20.8 NM, and took 3 1/2 hours at 6.0 knots. We took the scenic little channel up the Detroit River, shown on the right in the chart below, while Brillig traveled in the main channel.

Usually we get to see some interesting bird wildlife, and today was no exception. There are lots of little marinas along the way in the side channel that we like to check out also.

The trip was pretty uneventful. The weather has been beautiful, and we had minimum bugs - for a change. Going by Detroit is always a rocky trip, especially in front of the GM building. The sides of the river are steel bulkheads, and the waves slam against them and bounce back and forth, back and forth. Nasty. Fighting the current was a challenge all the way today. It is strong and definitely slows the trip.We arrived at Lakeview Marina shortly before 5:00 PM. Brillig arrived about 45 minutes later.

Following are some random pictures from the trip up the river:

We did not like the docks they had assigned to us. They were right in front of the marina restaurant, which would have meant gawkers, food smells, music into the wee hours, etc. It literally took us 15 minutes to negotiate better docks, but we were successful in the end. We purchased diesel while we were checking in at the gas dock - 40 gallons for the trip from Vermilion to Windsor, which is about 3.8 gallons per hour.

Dinner tonight was on Annie, and it was delicious. Kerry made a mixed green salad with all the goodies, and shrimp pesto linguine. It was so good. We dined on the top of Annie. It was cool and breezy, and the view was beautiful. It was the first time Peter and Marianna had been on our upper level, and they enjoyed it as much as we did.

It is a long trip to Sarnia tomorrow. Peter said it took them 9 hours last year, so an early departure is in order. I hope we can stay there 2 nights. We have been traveling every day for a while, and have had no time to chill. Chilling is overdue!