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We departed DeTour at 0915 after one last futile attempt to find the starboard lens. The wind had settled down to 10 knots overnight and it looked like our trip up the St. Mary’s River would not be as bad as I thought. The one problem was fog patches drifting across the water in front of  us, but they gradually disappated and visibility was never a problem.  Although the weather was cold and the sky overcast we were comfortable with all the panels of my cockpit enclosure in place.  There usually are two issues to deal with going up the St. Mary’s river: freighter traffic and current. Today there was NO freighter traffic which was a disappointment unless you have the misfortune to be in the same spot where they pass each other. The current was 0.3-0.5 knots going up Nebish Island and then gradually increasing to 2 knots near the Soo. By the way if you want info on where we are or in this case where Nebish Island is, go to Google Earth and that will help orient you.

We arrived at the marina at 1530 which meant we were able to average almost 6 knots up the river. Awaiting me in the marina office was a FedEx Express package from Verizon  with my new Blackberry. Better yet it was free as out great telecom guys had figured out I was eligible for a free upgrade. Thanks Randy and Randall. I am now back in the call and email business.

I am typing this on Thursday, so I can tell you the three of us went to dinner at the Freighter Restaurant where we watched two freighters and a cruise ship lock through the Soo locks while we enjoyed our Whitefish. Don and Kerry treated me to dinner and thanked me for the trip, and I thanked Don for all his help and Kerry for all her lunches, pupus and dinners. They have been great companions, and we have  successfully survived living together in the close confines of a boat for three weeks.

 Fireworks to celebrate Canada were scheduled for later last night but the persistent light rain showers forced a cancellation. Hopefully they will try again tonight. Kevin Scheiferstein is scheduled to arrive around 2 PM today to relieve Don and Kerry of their duties as crew. Kevin and I will use his car to refill a propane  tank and do some grocery shopping  and then the Albanese’s will head home.

I do not plan to post a seperate log entry for today. Instead I will update you tomorrow from the Canadian side of the Soo at Roberta Bondar Marina. That will be a trip of less than 1/2 mile.

Late yesterday the temperature fell and the winds started to blow from the NW with scattered rain showers and those conditions were still in place when we got up this morning. It was an easy decision to revise our plans to go to Detour Village instead of anchoring at Harbor Island.  We departed Drummond at 0900, and I led Windchaser out to the main shipping channel where they headed south to Lake Huron and then west to Mackinac Island while we headed west for our brief trip across DeTour Passage to Detour Village. We pulled into the fuel dock at the marina and took on 17.6 gal. of diesel in my main tank and 10 gal. into two jerry cans.  As we were entering our assigned slip a local boater, trying to be helpful,  took my starboard  bow line, but instead of taking it down to a cleat on the dock, he jerked it upward snapping the lens off my starboard navigation light. This is the third time the lens has been lost. Once in Mentor when another helpful hand pulled the bow into a dock post  and again in 2005 in Sault Ste. Marie when a dock boy at the fuel dock pulled the bow into a post. The marina has a long pole with a rake at the end for retrieving items on the bottom, but our lengthy efforts to retrieve the lens were to no avail. The cloudy skies and rippled water surface from the wind did not help.  So we gave up, put our bikes down for the first time this trip and went to town.  Don and I visited the sporting goods shop to add some fishing lures  to our tackle box, and I bought a fishing net for use in Lake Superior as well as to give us another shot at retrieving the lens. We discovered the one well renowned local restaurant has closed. I guess another victim of the recession. After a quick stop at the grocery store to pick up a few items, we pedaled back to the boat to await a break in the clouds for better visibility in our hunt for the lens. In the early evening we had a brief period of sunshine, but no luck in lens fishing. I guess I will have to have Will bring me a new one at Isle Royale. We plan to leave tomorrow morning  for Sault Ste. Marie after one last try for the lens. FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE GETTING AUTOMATIC UPDATES ON MY POSTS VIA EMAIL, YOU SHOULD OCCASIONALLY  CHECK THE BLOG  ON THE WEBSITE FOR THE PICTURES WE ARE POSTING.  YESTERDAY WE UPLOADED 25 NEW PICTURES WHICH WILL SHOULD HAVE POSTED FOR YOUR VIEWING BY TOMORROW. ENJOY!