Getting ready to leave Sault Ste Marie, Ontario

Exploring Thessalon with the marina courtesy bikes

27 Aug - We explored a bit of Thessalon before we left after lunch. Thessalon is a cute little town, but unfortunately, like a lot of the small towns, there are signs that the economy is not doing so well. There where a lot of closed up business's and buildings. It's sad to see, but hopefully, the efforts that these communities are putting forward to encourage tourism will pay off.  Things like free courtesy bikes at the marina are sure to encourage repeat visits.

Thessalon Marina

Grey skies as we left Thessalon

We left under grey skies and made our way to Richards Landing, another nice town.  The restaurant at the marina was recommenced by a couple people so we decided to try it out. We were not disappointed, so if you are ever there, we second the recommendations for La Terrazza Franzisi. Great food, great service and awesome location.

A few photos from Thessalon to Richards Landing

At Richards Landing

28 Aug / 3 Sep - To get to Sault Ste Marie, we went via the George Lake and St Marys River way. There where so many photo opportunities along all the way with all the interesting landscape and houses/cottages. (I am only putting a few here - there are just to many to put them all :-))

There are two municipal docks here in Sault Ste Marie, the Bellevue and Roberta Bondar. We decided to go to the Roberta Bondar Marina as it is closer to downtown and just across the river to the American marina we will be going to, to clear customs and get our cruising permit. We took a week here for a few reasons, 1 - we want to rest a bit before tackling Lake Michigan, 2 - we still haven't resolved the water leak issue under the head/toilet (more on that in a moment), 3 - we want to play tourist a bit, and 4 - we need to catch up on personal administration stuff.

Block house

Stone house

Lock house

Lock

Hiking trail next to Sault Ste Marie Lock

Sunset at marina

Our personal admin is mostly done, we've played tourist and visited museums (there's a lot of history here in the region - it's been fun to discover it), we've rested and slept in and today, Papi has dismantled the head sole (bathroom floor) again. There is a steady leak and we think we found it this time. (Time will tell). When he took everything apart last time, it was chaos and not a fun time. The area was not "clean" and it was hard to see where it could have been coming from. This time, when he opened the area, it was easier to see that there is a little pinpoint spot on the exterior wall, probably right near the waterline that water is coming in from.  It was hidden behind the vinyl wall liner and we only saw it after Papi lifted up the lower section.  Papi has dried out the whole area and the only constant spot that is wet is that needle size hole. So at the recommendation of many, Papi has applied Marine JB Weld to the area. Once dry, he will reassemble the head. We will be monitoring this pretty closely for the next while, and we might get professional advise when we get an AIS installed.

CBP has let us know that our cruising license is ready for us when we cross over. So it looks like tomorrow we'll be going to the Michigan side of the river. We will be embarking on our Lake Michigan segment of the Loop. So exciting and just a bit scary... but in a good way!

Tina & Papi

"In life, it's not where you go, it's who you travel with" 

– Charles Schultz