17 August 2014

Before leaving Sault Ste Marie Michigan we got 160 gallons of fuel at $4.10 per gallon. Lots less than my last purchase at $6.20 per gallon. I’m looking forward to cheaper fuel prices as we head back down the US. I bought as little fuel as possible in Canada and it worked out well. There is a fuel monitor system that measures the exact amount that I’ve used. I’ve found it to be pretty accurate, it’s within 1%.

The ride was very pretty, even though it was an overcast day. We followed the “downbound” shipping channel on the St. Mary’s river. We passed the top of Sugar island and waved to the ferry bringing a load of cars across.

To help with the freighter traffic they cut a channel on the west side of Neebish Island. It’s a few miles long and about half a mile wide. They piled the cuttings on either side of the canal. They are working on the east side pile, taking the big rocks and turning them into gravel. The good news is they have used about half of the cuttings. The bad news is they have been working on them since the late 1800′s, so there is a decent supply of cheap gravel available.

We saw three freighters on the trip. All of them were empty, and moving at about 14 knots. I was surprised how little of a wake they caused. While we stayed away, we didn’t get bounced around much.

Coming into DeTour there is the bow section of a freighter stuck about 80 feet up into the side of a hill. I asked about it and was told that a guy bought the freighter, lopped off the front third, had it barged in and lifted into the hill. Took most of the summer to get the foundation poured and the lift completed. Rumor has it that he sold the rest of the boat for scrap and it paid for the entire boat and the installation. They then spent 5 years sandblasting, primer, color painting, etc. to get it the shape it is today. Still no idea what it’s going to be, but bets are on either a B&B or a conference center. I’ll need to come in a few years and find out.

The docks at DeTour Island are brand new last summer, they spent just over $5 million on 50+ slips, dredge the basin out, etc. Very nice facility, we were one of 10 boats there for the evening. The weird weather and the cost of fuel are the two reasons they give for it being too slow. The docks are super wide, have lots of length and lots of cleats.

We went up to the Mainsail (a five minute walk) It made me happy, they had fried food and new Michigan microbrews to try. The waitress was nice, but she was a high-schooler and didn’t have a grasp on adult beverages. After a few go-rounds, we got it all sorted out. Highly recommend the place, but it might require a teachable moment. We tipped well and that helped out.

We went back to the boat and had garlic sausages and mashed. This is one of Susan’s stock dinners, but it requires decent sausages. She’s been lucky with the last sets she found.

It was a south wind last night which just blows into the harbor. So it was cold and we were bouncing. Belle decided that she wanted things her way. So we needed to move other stuff around to make her happy – at 1 am..

I was up at 8 to bike to the store for milk and poptarts. Came back with lots more so it was all good.

We were off the dock at 10 and on our way to Mackinac Island, an item on Susan’s Bucket list. Looking forward to the 1890′s