Gore Bay Town Docks, Gore Bay, Ontario To Detour Harbour, Detour, Michigan – July 29, 2013

We went to bed last night thinking today would be a weather day in Gore Bay with the winds a little to strong to consider moving.  Well after Candy’s morning walk I checked the weather services and the winds looked good for today and a little iffy for the rest of the week in the North Channel.  I woke Lenore up and said we needed to move.

The plan was to go to Meldrum Bay and then the next day we would go to Detour.  The water was good and we ran at about 15 mph so we decided to keep on moving.  We knew we would have to stop at Drummond Island Yacht Haven to check back in with US Customs.  I had an email from Humbug that Customs had taken the herb plants, citrus and some vegetables from the boat. Lenore wanted me to pitch some of the herbs but I said let’s wait and see what Customs does.  We would probably have a different Officer that Humbug did.  Might not mean anything but they could throw them out if they took them.

Well we did get to Drummond Island early afternoon and soon after we tied up another boat Time & Tides came in to check in.  We had radio contact with them at the Britt Inlet and saw them motor thru Killarney later that same day.  They are Canadians from Trenton doing the Loop.  We were chatting as the 2 Customs Officers approached.  One of them told me to go back to my boat.  The female officer came to Champ III and we had all the paperwork in order for her to fill out her paperwork.  She looked at the
herbs and asked where we got them and we said in Florida during the winter.  She was a little dubious but said she was supposed to take them but she would not.  She asked about citrus and we had a couple of oranges and clementines so she wanted those bagged up for her to take.  She came down into the cabin and pretty much asked about each compartment and had us open most of them for verification.  She really did like Candy and we gave her a cookie to give Candy. Candy was worth her weight in gold.

After we finished with Customs we left for Detour and Customs was still working with Time & Tides.  Detour is only 7 miles from the Customs stop so it was no big deal.  We like Detour Harbor because you can watch the freighters go by on the St Mary’s River headed for Lake Huron or Superior.

When we got to Detour just as the sun was coming out. We had
help tying Champ III up from Pete from Humbug.
Off Leash was also there and we had cocktails with Paul and Betsy Loock
from the Birmingham Power Squadron.  Paul
and Betsy had kept their 34’ Mainship in St Clair but 2 winters ago they lost
it in a fire at a storage building in Canada.
They had their new boat there and they were on a trip with Betsy’s
sister and husband.  We had dinner with
Pete and Carolyn from Humbug so it was a pretty active evening with cocktail
and dinner with friends.