This morning we awoke and planned on leaving Soo Ste. Marie…Our planned course was south, taking us back toward De Tour, and we knew we didn’t want to repeat a stay there; not because it was a bad marina or town, but because we want to find somewhere new each time we stop.
We also knew that we had options, should the weather not cooperate. Now we were going south, and we had the current in our favor. Our plan was to get to De Tour area, and see what time we would make it there. If we were moving fast, we would go out to Lake Huron and anchor at one of the anchorages we had scoped out both in passing and via charts. If we were short on time, we would go back to De Tour, or Harbor Island.
We made the trip from Ste. Marie to Lake Huron in 5 hours and 45 minutes. We were moving at an average of 7.6 knots, and went 44 miles! This is by far the best speed traveling we’ve had since starting!
We had left around 8am, and had a soft 2 knot wind when we departed. The trip back was a bit different in areas, as we took the ‘down bound’ passage. There are areas where the river splits, and one side is for ‘up bound’, and the other for ‘down bound’. Since we took the one side up, it made sense to take the other down. We passed some sights we didn’t see on the way up. There is a home made to look like a freighter on land…legend has it the retired freighter captain drove his ship on the shore and retired.
By the time we were coming back to Lake Huron, we had one freighter catch up to us and was gaining on us quickly. I was staying to the side of the channel, and we were approaching a bend in the river…HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK! This is 5 blasts of the horn from him- my knowledge of horns, from ships or bridges, 5 blasts means DANGER/WARNING! What the hell!? I’m out of the way! What should I do?
I called him on the VHF, as at this point I can read the name of the ship. “Klondike to Roger Blough…” His response: “go to channel 8″. Channel 8 I go…”This is Roger Blough..” Me: “This is Klondike, do you want me to stop, or get out of the way? I’m confused about the horn?” Him: ” Sorry about that- our owner is sitting on the beach over there- it was a salute to him. You’re good on your course.” Me, laughing: “roger that!”
That was one radio contact, the other was also out of the blue as we passed Lime Island (bird poop and feather island): “(mumble, mumble) Klondike…” I heard the transmission and heard our boat name, but there was no one around! “mumble, mumble) Klondike” came again! Me: “this is Klondike, channel 8 please?”…”This is Captain Ron! I see you just passed me. Why don’t you stop here?” OMG! He was anchored at Lime Island and saw up pass; I explained we had already stopped there and looking for a new spot. He suggested Carlton Island as an anchorage, saying no one else goes there, but he likes it. OK! We will look into it!
So we get to De Tour and realize we are making good timing. Our options were to go either right or left once we reached the lake. Both anchorages didn’t look too far from the mouth of the river. We decided to turn toward the west, Carlton Bay as suggested, as that is the direction we will be heading. At this point the wind had picked up to around 7 knots…we were going into the waves, so the ride wasn’t too rough, but the wind was supposed to pick up some more, and rain was at 50% chance.
The bay we were heading to we were not familiar with. We kept looking at the maps and charts, and trying to figure out where it was. At this point, we had been heading into the waves for about an hour, and wind was up to 9 knots and the clouds were threatening. We finally saw where the opening was to the bay, and turned a course in that direction. We slowed down on our approach, as it was a shallow area. There was another boat fishing, but no one else around on a boat. As we got closer, we could see there were a few houses back here, and a road/highway that ran along the back side.
We found a spot in about 7 feet of depth and dropped anchor. We did the usual anchor watch, and after about an hour, it looked like we were starting to drag. I had been watching the tree line and triangulating our position, as well as setting our alarm which will sound an alarm and alert us of either shallow water and/or anchor radius. Before the alarm could go off, I felt we were moving toward shore- not good!
I jumped up and told Lauren to man the helm, I’m starting the engine and we’re moving! We got the engine started and I raced up to the front of the boat to my anchor position…”Forward” I shouted to Lauren; She put it in gear, and we started pulling up anchor chain. I noticed a cloud of mud kick up once she engaged the throttle- this means we were too shallow! Good thing we moved when we did or we would have ‘been grounded’! We pulled forward to deeper water and dropped anchor again. We went through the anchor steps, and ensured we were secure, again. Best I can figure was the wind had shifted, and the anchor got pulled out by being pulled in the opposite direction. It would (hopefully) re-set, but we had anchored fairly close to land, so we didn’t have the luxury of waiting for it to re-set.
Once we were secure in our new anchored spot, I took Frank for his shore visit. We had a little area we could explore, but not much due to it being private property around the bay. There were a few people that came out to look at us as we anchored, but other than that, no one else was around.
These types of anchorages are cool with us, as we do like the solitude and serenity of a quiet anchorage. The rest of the night was dinner and cocktails, watching the sunset, and figuring out our next stop. The weather doesn’t look great for tomorrow, and I was told of another anchorage called ‘Government Bay’, but we cannot find this on the charts… Who knows where we’ll end up!