Day 352 - Pastys — Captain Father John

Miles cruised 90, fuel purchased $0, slip fee $65, daily high temperature 74°f

We departed Sault Ste. Marie at 9:30 am. The St Mary’s River was flat as glass as was northern Lake Huron as we turned the corner at Detour Pass to head to St Ignace. We cruised at 26 mph the entire 90 miles except for slowing for small fishing boats and one short stretch of boats on docks. Dale had some fog during his helm watch. He turned on the radar for only the forth time in 352 days.

Visibility zero – maintain course and speed.

We arrived in St. Ignace at 1:15 pm. We have been to St. Ignace many times before. St Ignace was our switch over spot after each Chicago to Mac sailboat Race. We would haul all the racing gear off and load the cruising gear on for the return trip to Waukegan or an extended cruise to the North Channel. Several bags of racing sails would come off and a full camper enclosure dodger and bimini would come onboard.

For those of you unfamiliar with our Pearson 39 Blue Heaven, here she is at the start of the Chicago to Mac race. Definitely pointing higher than our competition below us. Speed bubble in the mainsail. She is a jib driven boat.

We had two comments regarding our claim to have cruised all five Great Lakes. Their consensus was that Gordon Lightfoot will not be writing any songs about our adventure on Lake Superior. But, they were in agreement that our version of the sea story will get better over the years with the tellin’. Thank you Captain John Halter and Peter (Willard) Fisher.

The taste sensation in Canada were butter tarts. I described them as mini pecan pies without the pecans. However we found out that you can get butter tarts with pecans. So we have traded in butter tarts for pastys (past-ees). That is the unique food group in on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Thank you Cornish miners from Corwall, England for bringing this meat pie delicacy to the UP.

Bonus photo – the St Ignace Marina staff uses the land between the seawall and the lake for vegetable gardens. Being on the waters edge, they do not have to water their gardens. Look at the large pumpkins.

We are at a crossroads so to speak. We will cruise to Beaver Island on Thursday and then we need to decide if we want to go north, west or south in Green Bay. The weather forecast is still favorable for several days so we will have options.

Carl (Chef) Wooden – quote for the day.

“Someone once asked the great literary wit Samuel Johnson what one book would he take with him if he were cast away on a distant island. His instant reply was “Harrison’s Elements of Boat Building.”

Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often referred to as Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. Johnson was a devout Anglican and committed Tory, and has been described as “arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history”. He is also the subject of “the most famous single biographical work in the whole of literature,” James Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson.