The view from the marina is beautiful which makes up for the showers which are not beautiful. Oh well, this promises to be a great place for the winter layup and we’ve certainly showered in worse places. 
Ron sailed solo again and had an exciting start to the day. The winds were blowing 20knots from the SW straight into the channel into Wellington. Having got past the 4’ section there were breaking waves at the channel entrance. Quinita handled it fine though, although it was a bit lumpy and noisy. Out in the lake there were 6-8’ waves with the wind almost dead ahead, so Ron got soaked a few times bringing in the fenders and lines – I miss my crew! Motored the first 6nm while the wind was on the bow and then bore away, raised the main with 1 reef and ¾ genoa. Then the sailing improved – following seas and 8-9 knots boat speed. 
Ron sailed solo in light winds and motor-sailed the whole day so that he wouldn’t keep the girls waiting too long for their accommodation to arrive. The entrance to Wellington was interesting – it’s not on any charts and we were told that it had 4’ depths in places. It was pretty easy though – there was a narrow channel with the docks at the end, and my 2 dockhands were on the dock waiting to take my lines. 
We found ourselves with one boat, one car and three bikes. So Teresa and Mary took the car and three bikes to Cobourg. They then biked back to Port Darlington, 43° 53’.31N 78° 39’.87W, where they met Ron who sailed solo to that very port. What a coincidence! Docked at Wiggers Custom Yachts, owned by a Dutchman. The Waterway Guide listed it with the marinas and it did in fact offer transient dockage but was not a marina, but a shipyard. We tied up to a “dock” in the middle of the channel into the Port Darlington Yacht Club. The depths on one side of the relatively narrow channel were less than two feet – see photo of fisherman in the channel.
Teresa and Mary went for a bike ride around the Toronto Islands. Ron did some route planning for the next few days, went back to the boat where Keith had just finished his work and then started boat cleanup. Tom (from Tomcat boats) arrived in the afternoon and installed our mainsail stackpack and screecher (large, light airs headsail). 
We were planning to have some work done on the boat by the builders who are based close to Toronto. The work was not to start until next week, so Keith, one of the boat builders who Ron worked with last year, arranged a mooring for us at his sailing club – the Aquatic Park Sailing Club. It’s not shown on the charts and we had verbal directions on how to get there. We entered the bay and asked a passing tri-maran to confirm where it was. He sent us off in a different direction, we found the dock and 2 guys waved us in and took our lines. Keith sails a Tomcat 6.2, the club we were in was almost entirely multihulls and the 2 guys were very friendly, so we figured we must be in the right place and Keith was delayed. It turns out though that we were in the wrong sailing club! They knew Keith however and sent us off to the correct club where we found Keith. We docked for the night, had a few beers and burgers with Keith, Hazel (his wife), Lynn (her sister) and several other members. 
We’re heading for Lake Ontario today which connects to Lake Erie via the Niagara River and Falls. My plan was to hoist a spinnaker, go over the falls backwards and float down gently with the spinnaker acting as a parachute. We found an alternate however – the Welland Canal – and decided to go this way instead. The canal has 10 opening bridges and 8 locks and the canal operators time one’s passage through to minimize bridge opening times and disruption to commercial traffic. The locks were huge – big enough for large ocean going ships and most had a drop of 46 feet – 1 foot more that our mast height! The hype makes the transit sound daunting, but we passed through without any issues and docked at St. Catharines marina in Port Weller, 43° 13’.89N 79° 12’.72W. 
Today’s log: 21.7 nm, season total: 1237.5
Can’t believe it’s almost September! Yesterday we noticed that the BBC was in town – the British Baking Company. A sign on the door said “Closed Mondays, see you Tuesday. So this morning at 8am, Ron went there picked up a blueberry scone and brought it back to the boat where we shared it. It was scrummy – so scrummy in fact that Teresa went back to the shop for some more at 8:30am. Trouble was, by the time Teresa got there the shop was closed with a sign on the door saying “Closed until 2pm to bake fresh goods”. So we had oatmeal for breakfast. 
We had tailwinds on the way out, were making slow progress over the bushwhacking sections and were anticipating headwinds for the return trip so we turned back about 2/3 way along the canal and returned to Port Colborne after cycling 40 miles. Somewhere along the canal, we noticed some strange devices in the canal (see photo). They’re “fire pods”. Later that week, a concert is being held on a floating stage, and the pods will all be filled with wood and lit. It promises to be a really nice evening – pity we won’t be here to enjoy it. 
On Sunday we woke up to 25-30 knot winds, and so opted for the bike ride. It took us through several beautiful roads with vineyards, and gave us a good workout up the hills to the watershed. Water from the north of the Watershed drains into Lake Erie, but despite being so far north, water on the south side drains, eventually, into the Mississippi. Needless to say, we had great views from the top of the watershed. (Thanks Tony for the route!) 
Erie is in a huge natural harbor, bordered by Presque Isle which is now joined to the mainland so is not actually an island. The peninsula is 7 miles long and 2 miles wide at its widest point. We’re planning to cycle it tomorrow and may not have time to explore the city so we’re thinking of spending three nights here. 
A leisurely sail to Ashtabula, (pronounced Ashtabula), 41° 53’.99N 80° 47’.71W, in winds varying from 3knots to 12knots, with corresponding boat speeds of 1.5knots to 8 knots. What the heck, it was a beautiful day, we only had 10 miles to go, and it was very quiet and enjoyable sailing along slowly with the occasional burst of speed. After entering the river we had to wait for a bridge to open. We were expecting this, but we weren’t expecting the huge freighter to be docked right on the bend before the bridge. So (a) we couldn’t see the bridge until we were practically underneath it and (b) we had about 20 feet of space to get our 16 foot wide boat through. We were totally blind until we passed the freighter and were committed to passing under the bridge so were very thankful there were no boats coming the other way. 
Had a great sail to Geneva, OH, 41° 51’.42N 80° 58’.34W. Broad reach with winds up to 15 knots, but big seas (4-5ft) so not perfect, but pretty good. Explored Geneva–on-the-Lake by bike. It’s a nice enough town but very touristy, with mini-golf, amusement arcades and fast food everywhere. It has some nice, but short bike paths with views over the lake. There are also some nice looking beaches and we considered swimming in the 30°C water (86°F), but we’ve been spoiled by the crystal clear waters of Georgian Bay, and the olive green water of Lake Erie did not appeal. Dined on the boat and watched a beautiful pink sunset. 
It poured down last night and this morning. At about 12:30 we were fed up with waiting for the rain to lighten up and set off towards Fairport, 41° 44’.64N 81° 16’.91W. We must have been doing something right, ‘cause just after we set off, the rain stopped and the sun started to come out. No wind yet though so we were motoring again. After about an hour, the wind picked up, the sun came out and we had a glorious sail to Fairport. Went for a walk in Fairport – a small town with several fish restaurants on the waterfront. 
Thursday evening produced a spectacular sunset. A thunderstorm was in progress over Cleveland downtown, (about 2-3 miles away) and also out on the water. There was a hole in the clouds where the sun was setting beautifully, and at the same time, Mother Nature was putting on a spectacular lightening display. I watched the display as I was eating my dinner in the cockpit, until the winds started to pick up, and then it was a big rush to get everything inside the boat before the storm arrive. (I just made it). 
We’re staying in Cleveland for a week. Teresa is jumping ship tomorrow, surprisingly, not because we can’t stand each other any more, but rather because there’s an airport here and she wants to visit her mom. We spent the 2 days exploring Cleveland. We found a great web site - http://www.CityProwl.com – that has guided tours you can download to your phone, iPod, etc. for selected cities. Cleveland has about 6 or 7 tours and we did several. These included the Public Square, the Warehouse District, (now trendy bars etc.), Bank Lobbies, (very interesting and beautiful buildings), Wade Park and Buckeye, a less affluent district a few miles out of town. All in all, a very nice way of getting a feel for many different aspects of Cleveland. 
We took the day off from sailing to visit the Henry Ford Museum, a 16 mile bike ride away. The bike ride was not very pleasant – it took us through some of Detroit’s industrial areas. The museum, however, was very interesting, not just cars, but clocks, aeroplanes, locomotives as well. Henry Ford actually dabbled in designing and building a ‘peoples’ aeroplane, like a Model T aeroplane, but the project was not successful and he concentrated on cars. (Notice that I resisted the temptation to say the project never took off!)
Changed the engine oil and set off towards Port Huron, 42° 58’.43N 82° 25’.24W. Yes, you guessed it, no wind! Port Huron is at the start of the St. Clair River, which runs into Lake St. Clair. Lake St. Clair drains into the Detroit River and this system links Lake Huron and Lake Erie. So we’ll soon be leaving Lake Huron. Strangely, the ships log reset itself sometime between yesterday and today. (No it doesn’t just count up to 1000nm – we saw it at 1010 nm yesterday!) It’s supposed to act like the odometer in a car and this is essential for traditional navigation, where you need to know how far you’ve travelled since your last known position. Anyway, we calculated that it should have read 1011.2nm when we started today. Annoying!
We’re crossing Saginaw Bay, 44° 02’.52N 83° 26’.16W, today towards Port Austin, 44° 02’.93N 82° 59’.66W. It’s a straight run – only 2 waypoints on our course. The forecast last night was for Northerly winds up to 20 knots which would have made for a lively, fast sail. This morning’s forecast was for less winds however, and that’s what we‘re seeing. (I’m writing this while we’re underway). So once again the engines are on L. At 2:30, the wind picked up and we managed to sail for the last 6nm. By the time we got to docking, the winds were howling so we opted to dock against the wall which was much easier than trying to enter a narrow slip with cross winds. Our decision was vindicated when we watched a fellow boater playing “bumper boats” in the tricky conditions. We went ashore for a walk and saw a collection of electric cars from around 1915 – 1926. 
Had a very pleasant sail, to windward again but mostly on one tack, towards Mackinaw City. This will be our furthest point west, so from now on we should benefit from the prevailing westerly winds – we’ll see! On the way to Mackinaw City, 45° 46’.85N 84° 43’.34W, we found ourselves only ½ hour from the Mackinac Bridge, which separates Lake Michigan from Lake Huron. So we took a little detour and crossed into Lake Michigan - just for the giggles. The bridge is known locally as Mighty Mac, and at 5 miles long is currently the third longest suspension bridge in the world. 
Went for a bike ride around Thessalon – surprisingly a much nicer looking town than Blind River, despite the fact that Blind River was billed as a metropolis of the North Channel. We then had a fast reach to Drummond Island, 46° 01’.42N 83° 44’.82W, where we dropped the Canadian courtesy flag and entered the US for the first time. Customs formalities were extremely easy and quick. Took a short bike ride on Drummond Island, and returned to do laundry, shower and cook dinner. Drummond Island does not seem to be too exciting. 
We got a late start today and as usual were sailing to windward towards Thessalon, 46° 15’.28N 83° 32’.89W, our last port in Canada before entering the USA. After a few hours however, the wind died and then came in from the NE and we found ourselves on a broad reach. This was the first time we were not sailing to windward in 19 days. Whatever happened to the old adage that “gentlemen do not sail upwind”? The reach was very pleasant but short lived and we ended up motoring. On the way we saw a fishing boat with a gazillion seagulls flying around and over it. Let’s hope they weren’t all pooping on the catch. We arrived at Thessalon and contemplated docking rather than anchoring, since Ron’s shoulder has been giving him trouble recently. Decided to anchor after all, but after 3 failed attempts at getting the anchor to hold, ended up in the marina. So we had the worst of all worlds – Ron lowered and raised the anchor 3 times, and we ended up paying for a dock anyway, and got there too late to get the access code for the showers! 
The forecast was for westerly winds at 10 knots which would have made for a nice windward sail to Blind River 46° 10’.72N 82° 57’.93W. The wind did not materialize however and we motored all the way in hot hot humid weather. Arrived around noon and set about investigating customs procedures, since we’ll be entering the USA in a couple of days. The marina offers rinky dink old bikes to guests so we borrowed a couple and set off to explore the town. The jet fountain was reminiscent of Geneva. Visited a museum and watched part of an old film depicting the loggers of the early 20th century. Logging was the big industry in these parts in those days, and boy did those guys have a hard life. 3 or so open boats were loaded to the gunwhales with food and camping supplies for the trip and then had to shoot the rapids without losing anything. They weren’t always successful. One boat was swamped, so the crew of 2 (the cooks) had to beach the boat quickly, unload everything and save what they could. The loggers had very hard and dangerous work – and of course everyone worked in all weathers. Looks like the marina where we are is the site of the old logging mill. You can see the remnants of the structure in the background of the photo taken at sunset. 
Today’s log: 16.6nm, season total: 488.4
Most of our blog so far has been upbeat and positive, but it’s not all perfect. We’ve been tormented by flies, heat and humidity. And last night was pretty bad – no wind, plenty of humidity and flies. This evening we have 20knt of wind over the boat which is wonderfully cooling and, so far at least, is keeping the bugs at bay. 
Today’s log: 6.9nm, season total: 441.4