North Star on the Great Loop Journey: Thessalon

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.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Thessalon

We arrived at the Thessalon Marina in the rain after a calm foggy crossing. The Marina is empty except for 5 seasonal boats. The Municipal marina has all the right amenities and they do let you tie up for the day to reprovision. They do not let you use any of the facilities unless you are staying overnight. They also have a basin that some boats anchor in. We found a more private anchorage just a mile away at Bullhead Bay (N46 15.381' and W083 31.875').
There is a Valu-Mart in town as well as some nice little shops. We rode our bikes through town and found a nice junk shop where we picked up a few items.
We didn't see any wildlife other than cormorants and beavers. It appears that our swimming days are at an end with the water temperature of 63 degrees. It could be the cold water from Lake Superior coming in to cool Lake Huron down this far west. Nice clear water and a hot day but no swimming, we don't like it.
Today is sunny and calm so we are off to an anchorage west of Bruce Mines.