North Star on the Great Loop Journey: St. Joseph Channel

Preparing for the trip

Captain Jerry has been making the final preparations to North Star, our 32 foot Cape Island down east trawler. We are anxious to leave our landlubber lives behind and begin our long awaited journey around the Great Circle. Join us as we travel 10, 000 kilometers: through the historic Trent Severn Waterway; the pristine waters of Georgian Bay; the North Channel of lake Huron; and hop from beach to beach on lake Michigan. We will visit Chicago and begin our trek along the rivers: Illinois; upper Mississippi; Ohio; Cumberland: Tennessee; Tenn-Tom Waterway and the Black Warrior. We will have transited through 68 locks at this juncture. We have chosen the inner route from Mobile Alabama to Tarpon Springs Florida and the shorter Ocheechobee Waterway to reach the East coast of Florida. We will skip over to the Bahamas to wait out the winter before heading North on the Atlantic Inter Coastal Waterway.
The 10 years of researching and planning are finally at an end and we invite you to come along on our adventure.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

St. Joseph Channel

We have completed the third leg of our journey by leaving the North Channel at Thessalon and entering into the St. Joseph Channel. We are slowly making our way to Sault Ste Marie. This is not part of the Great Loop but we have extra time and we understand that it is a better place to get a cruising permit for the US waters than at the smaller crossing at Drummund. More on that when we know for sure.
We are anchored in Anderson Bay 28 miles east of SSMarie and may stay here for the day (N46 19.592" and W083 57.700'). It is cloudy and 20 degrees so if we get bored we may just leave and head to SSMarie today.
The water is in the mid 70s again so there goes my theory about Lake Superior cooling things down. Perhaps it is because Thessalon was open to all of Lake Huron and it was deeper water. One more of my theories.
The scenery is much like the North Channel here with some granite cliffs and mostly coniferous trees. No fish although the ports book says there are all kinds. The water is not as clear as in Georgian Bay and the beginning of the great channel. To this point the crew of the North Star felt that the best cruising is from Parry Sound to the Benjamin Islands in the North Channel. This is where there are the most bays and coves to tuck into and the water is really warm and clear. The best places to reprovision are Parry Sound in Georgian Bay and Little Current in the North Channel.