Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Back in the USA; Drummond Island, MI

Day 122-125 … Sunday, Aug 20- Wednesday, August 23, 2017 … 40.5 miles; 4:50 hours
Meldrum Bay, North Channel, Ontario Canada to Drummond Island, Michigan, US
DrummondIsland (11)The run from Meldrum Bay on Sunday was nice. The morning was pretty, cool and calm. DrummondIsland (10)
Fog tried to interfere; luckily it didn’t take hold around us. Seas were calm, not flat, but very calm. A near perfect day to be in open water.DrummondIsland (16)
We took down our Canadian courtesy flag and raised our yellow quarantine
DrummondIsland (17)flag as we crossed back into US waters.

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Our marina stop today is DrummondIsland (20)Drummond Island Yacht Haven, where a US Customs Office for checking in is at the marina.
DrummondIsland (2)Once docked, the customs agent was quickly at the boat for questions and paperwork (ours and Cally’s). All went smoothly, soon we were released to all leave the boat. YEAH, Cally gets to go to shore to go potty!
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This marina trip is again about errands. First up laundry & publishing the blog since we have good WiFi here. DrummondIsland (21)DrummondIsland (22)DrummondIsland (23)
Firestorm headed out on Monday.
It would be the best travel day before their friend arrives DrummondIsland (1)to join them on the boat for a few days. Sad to see them head off without us, but we don’t have a schedule. It was a great day for them to travel with flat seas. Later in the afternoon, Tom & Carol on Destinations arrived. We originally met them in NY at Great Kills Yacht Club and again at Half Moon Bay. Then it was a long time until we saw them twice at Little Current. Anyway, nice to have friends around again.
Carol & I went grocery shopping on Tuesday. We had all planned on going to dinner tonight, but the winds started howling and didn’t stop until well after dark. As the winds picked up everyone on the dock started retying lines,DrummondIsland (8) adding additional lines and generally checking everything out so all the boats rode the storm out as well as we could. DrummondIsland (6)The winds were so strong, 25mph with gusts to 30mph, Rip and I DrummondIsland (7)weren’t comfortable leaving the boat, much less leaving Cally onboard by herself.
The winds should abate by midnight, Tuesday. They won’t be calm on Wednesday, but certainly should be low enough we can all go to dinner tomorrow instead.
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