Duluth to Thunder Bay
Last Sunday we started what Ann calls the ‘Great Adventure’. Sailing to Duluth, MN to Thunder Bay Ontario. The shakedown day was uneventful going from Duluth to Knife River, MN. Knife River has a nice little marina, swimming beach, but not a lot of ammenities. It takes about 4-5 hours to make the trip from Duluth. Second day was Knife River to Silver Bay, MN. Again not a long trip, but a little longer then day 1. Again a nice little marina, but a couple miles from anything else. The first long day was day 3, Silver Bay to Grand Marais, MN. Now we are starting to get a but more ‘rustic’. Not a lot of transient spots here but we snagged a spot on the end of ‘A’ dock. Here we are within walking distance of a number of restaurants which were very good. Spent two nights here as it was raining. Day 5 was Grand Marais to Susie Island, just outside of Grand Portage, MN. Here we have to anchor, and are one of 3 sailboats there. Day 6, started at 6:00am to insure we get to Thunder Bay in time to find the marina and clear customs. After pulling into the wrong marina pier we were sent to the correct one by a couple sailors from Michigan. Cleared customs with a simple phone call using a cell phone provided by the office at Prince Arthur Landing Marina. So here we are! Went out for supper and cleaned up the boat a bit, will stay a couple nights and then reverse the whole trip. One new gadget we tried on this trip is the SPOT personal tracking system. It’s a very simple and easy way to let everyone back home know all is well, or if needed call for an emergency. Well worth the $100 it cost. Anyone with the password can monitor our progress every 10 minutes throughout the entire trip.