Tuesday, August 8 - Back in the US!

Tuesday, August 8 - Back in the US!

We pulled out of Meldrum Bay about 9:00.  We are still amazed at the clarity of the water. 

This is the inn and restaurant where we at last night, we got a better view from the water as we headed into the North Channel for the last time.

We had lots of open water, about 3 hours worth, but the waves were not nearly as rough as yesterday.

We finally passed the western end of Manitoulin Island, the largest fresh water island in the world.  Manitoulin Island began at Little Current, and we were there a week and one day ago!  We have been taking our time, but it’s still a big island! 

Back in the USA!  The border zig-zags quite a bit, but thanks to GPS we could tell exactly when we crossed it. 

Drummond Island is the US Customs entry point for most boaters doing the Loop.  To get there, we cruised through Potagannissing Bay and saw real houses! 

This is Drummond Bay Marina.  Kind of small.  That is Deb and Gil’s boat, with John from Jo-Ella standing by to help with ropes.  

The Customs lady was very nice, checking in was a breeze.  And the lending library had two Diana Gabaldon books.  Score!

Steve on Sanctuary was at the marina, too, parked in front of quite a nice boat!  

As the boat was pulling up, the Customs lady told us it was one of about 5 yachts that came every year.  This one is the Daddy’s boat, the “small” ones (about 80 feet long) belong to each of the children.  Steve told us that this was the family that owns Amway.  That’s a lot of cleaning products!  We looked up Seaquest, Daddy’s boat, and it is 163.09 feet long.  We saw four crew members lined up along the rail, I’m sure there were more at work stations.  WOW!!!

Our plan was to check in at Customs and then take off before they discovered Deb’s tomato and basil plants!  Harbor Island was just a mile or so away and showed good coverage, so that’s where we headed.  There was one other cruiser there, and several fishing boats passed through. 

After a few brief rain showers, we took the dinghies and checked out the area.  The adjoining cove was beautiful, we turned off the motors and just sat there enjoying the silence and the scenery. 

As we approached our boat, a pontoon boat pulled up to the shore and aa dad, a kid, and a dog got off the play on the rope swing.  I couldn’t get a good picture of them, but here is the swing.

After we called our dear friend, Jim Wansley, to wish him a happy ___th birthday, we sat back to enjoy the night sky.