Harbor Island July 16, 2016

It seemed like I was awake all night. I had set the alarm for 5:30, but shut it off before it went off. Kerry says I never sleep well before a big travel day. It was a beautiful morning when I looked out though. I usually do not see this time of day.

Peter and Marianna were so nice to get up and see us off. It has been a very nice trip with them, and as they say, parting is such sweet sorrow. Marianna gave Kerry a very nice departing gift of assorted teas and a nice wooden crochet hook all in a little basket, plus the nicest personal note.

We were off at 6:00 AM. The morning was beautiful. Blue skies and light winds with a following sea - perfect conditions for going against the prevailing winds. I thought the trip would be 70 miles, but it turned out to be only 61.3, saving us at least an hour of travel at our speed of 8.4 knots.  The trip took 7 hours and 15 minutes.

Kerry helped me navigate through the island passages to get to Harbor Island. It was fun having her involved in the navigation. We found that the GLCC Harbor report instructions have a buoy mis-numbered, so I will write to them about that. Kerry even baked a loaf of bread the final hour of our trip. We had it for lunch with butter and jelly. So good while still warm!

Coming to Harbor Island from the North Channel is like leaving the country for the city. We are back in civilization. As soon as we got near here we started seeing boats, lots of them, and jet skies. We are in Michigan now. It was like a switch was thrown and we are “back in Kansas."

I was able to call in to the US Customs and report our arrival without having to go to the Customs Station on Drummond Island, for which I was thankful. I had to give the agent every bit of information about us and Annie. It seemed like he was recording it on a piece of paper. It’s so different from Canada, where when you give them your boat registration number, and they have every bit of information about you on their system.

The anchorage is beautiful. It is round with trees all around and no buildings. It is open to the south, but only a slight chop comes in, even if there is a strong south wind. We are anchored deep into the harbor. There are other boats here, but they are all at the mouth of the harbor.  I hope there is nothing that I do not know!  The harbor is .4 miles wide. Pontoon boats and lots of fishermen come into the harbor. Many of the pontoon boats bring jet skies with them. While I think they are invading our anchorage, I am sure they think this is what they should be doing on a beautiful weekend Saturday.

We relaxed all afternoon. Dinner was hamburgers cooked on the grill and a tomato-cucumber and onion salad. Anne called while we were eating. We caught up on all the news, including the brothers showing off in their new big boy pants! Anne is going to arrange to get our AIS and replacement faucet to Jim before he drives up here.

Grayson is on the left and Andrew is on the right.

I turned my solar Christmas lights off, but will have the anchor light on tonight. We exchanged texts with Peter and Marianna all day – to help ease the separation anxiety I think. They went to Eagle Island and are going to go on a wild blueberry picking expedition. This is what Kip did and Eagle Island is always where he baked a fresh blueberry pie. So good! We will stay here tomorrow and go to DeTour Village on Monday. Big storms are possible tomorrow.

Kerry's Comments:

The picture below is my new water carafe.  It is a beautiful shape with frosted glass and the perfect size for our dinner table  on "Annie".  Where did I get this jewel you ask?  The answer----Marianna's trash.   The bottle originally housed an orange liquor which the three of us (minus Peter) managed to consume on two different nights.  I plucked it from her trash to re-purpose as a vase.  I soaked off the labels and found the lovely frosted glass  and noticed it was a very similar to very, very expensive water carafes in fine gift shops.  The carafe's debut was the next evening at dinner where it was greatly admired by all.  Peter really liked it and said they could use one too.  I asked if they wanted it back and Marianna graciously said she would buy another bottle of liquor for Peter....I hope they let us empty this bottle too!!!