Day 351 - Essays In Idleness — Captain Father John

Miles cruised 36, locks transited 2, fuel purchased $0, slip fee $60, daily high temperature 80°f, yes we are still chasing 80°f even this far north and we are running our AC.

It was pouring rain all morning and early afternoon. We are the red pin above Michigan.

Then there was a little break in the clouds so we cast off and headed to the Canadian Canal Lock to transit to Lake Superior. We were lifted 21′ by the lock and cruised up the St Mary’s River to Lake Superior. The lock master confirmed that if we rounded the Gros Caps Reef Light we were officially in the open waters of Lake Superior. We achieved our goal of cruising in all five of the Great Lakes. The grand slam of Great Lakes cruising. On our way to the lighthouse the rain started up again and visibility dropped to near zero. We saw a ship on our AIS. It was a 700′ freighter coming towards us. That was exciting. We kept to the right and turned on our radar. The ship passed at a safe distance.

Gros Caps Reef Light – Lake Superior

On our return to the lock the sun came out and it was a beautiful afternoon cruise back. Both times we caught the lock when it was opposite of what we wanted to do so we had to wait 20 minutes each time to lock through. When we were at the bottom, the lock was full at the top and vice versa.

We reached our farthest north latitude today of our year long cruise.

Today is Priscilla and my 42nd wedding anniversary. I am not sure we planned to celebrate in Sault Ste Marie but here we are. There is a large casino nearby called Kewadin Casino. I am sure they have a very nice restaurant.

On Wednesday we will cruise 90 miles to St Ignace, Michigan.

The Canadian Coast Guard patrols the Great Lakes.

Here is a bit of advice from Itoh-san my country manager in Japan. He is the hero that has created a very successful business for Rust-Oleum there. Itoh-san has been a loyal blog follower since day one. His advice is heartfelt and we understated we must be ever vigilant during our last few days of our adventure because we are finally very close to home. His advice is as follows:

Hi John-san – You are in Lake Huron and is next to Lake Michigan.
Welcome back!!!!! This is a famous story in the Japanese classic “Tsuretsuregusa (Essays In Idleness).” Once upon a time there lived an expert tree climber. One day he ordered his man to climb a very tall tree to cut off branches. The master said nothing when the man was climbing at a very dangerous high place. It’s when the man climbed down at a lower level that was not a dangerous position that the master gave him a warning,”Pay attention!” The author of this essay who was looking at this work, asked the master why he gave the man a warning when he was in such a safe place. “It’s in safe situations that you usually fail. So I called his attention when he came to a low position,” the master replied. Kenko-hoshi the author of this essay was so deeply impressed by the master’s comment that wrote this story down.

Bonus photo

Carl (Chef) Wooden – quote of the day

What do you want to be a sailor for? There are greater storms in politics than you will ever find at sea. Piracy, broadsides, blood on the decks. You will find them all in politics.

David Lloyd George

David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was a British and Welsh Liberal politician an