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"On August 11 Kay and I left Little Current, Ontario, a small village at the eastern end of the North Channel and traveled west to an anchorage in the Benjamin Islands. For the next few days we anchored in various islands in the North Channel with other boaters from New York, Florida, Washington State, and North Carolina, who are also doing the Loop as we are. All of the islands of the North Channel are formed of granite of various colors ranging from white, gray, pink, to an orange color, with trees and brush. As large as the wilderness of Canada is, we have seen very little wildlife, not even any bears or moose. We have however seen chipmunks, snakes, frogs, turtles, seagulls, and herons. Other islands that we anchored at were John Island, and the Grant Islands. "

"On August 13, while traveling between John Island and East Grant Island we traveled the furthermost north that we will be on our entire trip, 46 degrees 09.721 minutes north at 10:15 am, and the next morning was the coldest temperature that we have experienced so far, 53 degrees. That evening was also one of the prettiest sunsets of the trip. For four days we traveled just north of the Island of Manitoulin, the largest freshwater island in the world. I thought that we would never get past it. Finally, on August 14 we could see Drummond Island, Michigan, USA, the location where we would clear U.S. Customs back into the United States. As great as our time spent in Canada was, it was really good to be back in the USA. "

"We entered U.S. waters at 10:42 am on the 14th and one of the other Loopers, a boat from Beaufort, NC, played The Stars and Stripes on the boat radio as we all entered the United States. After clearing customs and an overnight stay at Drummond Island, it was on to Cedarville, Michigan, where we anchored in Government Bay. Interestingly enough, we anchored just around the corner from where Neal and Karen Sage, friends of ours from Southport, have a summer cottage. The Sage's were not at their cottage however, they were in Southport. From Cedarville it was on to Mackinac Island, Michigan for a couple of days. Mackinac Island is a resort island at the western end of Lake Huron, with notable tourist attractions such as Fort Mackinac, a British fort built in 1780, and taken over by the U.S. in 1796, the Grand Hotel, a hotel built in the 1850's with the longest covered front porch in the world, and fudge shops. Our next travels will take us down the eastern shore of Lake Michigan to Chicago."

Robert & Kay

C-Life