Carolina Cruisin’: Into the Soo…..again!

July 20, 2024

If you have been following us for a couple of years, you know that we have bounced in and out of Lake Superior through the locks in Sault St. Marie a number of times. So one more time should be a snap. Bob called the Mac Arthur Lock the day before we planned to lock through and got the skinny on the procedure for this big lock. It’s not set up for pleasure boats so there are no hanging lines to grab hold.

St. Mary River rapids

Jessica B in the Poe Lock or Lock 2, we’ll be to her left in the
Mac Arthur Lock or Lock 1. The Poe handles the Footers(1000ft long bulk carriers)

Going up

Goodbye Sault St Marie, Hello Lake Superior

We locked through on Thursday, July 18th. We were the only boat in the lock. As you can see from the pictures, we were right up against the observation deck and had an audience of 20-30 tourists watching our locking. Pretty boring compared to watching a laker or footer go up. The lock master threw lines to us to secure Carolina. The lines are not tied on so Bob and I hold the line and keep the boat from crashing into the walls of the lock. We, of course, have multiple fenders in place but the water comes in at a high rate of flow and can cause you to waffle around. Once the chamber is half full you can barely tell water is entering. We raised up 21 ft. to the level of Lake Superior above the St. Mary River’s rapids.

Goulais Bay, ON

Our goal for tonight is Goulais(goo - lee) or Whitefish Bay. It was an easy 4 hr cruise and we arrived mid afternoon. We cruised the bay looking for a good anchorage considering our winds and dropped our anchor. She stuck like glue! That’s always a nice feeling. We had 12-15kn blowing and we’re expecting some gusty winds later. Carolina never budged. We settled down and worked on some boat chores- scraping bugs off the gel coat, putting up a light, blowing up two new ball fenders, etc.

It was a quiet night with a couple of jet skiers who couldn’t get over that we were from America.

We left the following morning heading north to Batchawana Bay. The Lake was a bit choppy but nothing Carolina couldn’t handle. This is a large bay so we took our time and explored the various possible anchorages. We chose to anchor behind the main island to protect us from the Northwest wind. The island is a NCC owned and protected wildlife sanctuary. We are told there are moose, otters, bears, and wolves plus 32 varieties of birds on the island. We saw some Loons. (If you’ve never heard a loons call,you should look it up and listen to it). Bob has been working on the motor for the dinghy, prepping it for a new season. We had a big rain storm on Saturday….saw it coming so we stayed an extra day here.

Expedition to Batchawana Island

Carolina at anchor

Sunset over Goulais Bay

Full Buck Moon at Batchawana Bay

The following day when the weather was more settled we took the dinghy over to the island to explore . The growth on the island was very dense - we mostly walked the beach. We did see tracks that could have been moose tracks. Next we took Carolina to the very to the mouth of the Chippewa River. We hopped in the dinghy intending to go up the river and see the falls. We hadn’t gone far before we ran aground a good 100yds.off shore. While we rowed and poled our way out of the shallows we were approached by a very talkative gentleman in a kayak. He showed us the “detergent bottle” buoy channel that we should follow and told us how to get to the falls. A “restaurant” up the river had a new dock that we could tie to and walk up the shop. We’d need to buy something but then could easily walk to the falls. He also told us where we could find an open LCBO (read ABC) store just around the corner. He also suggested that we needed to buy an apple fritter while there. He says they are the best.

Chippewa River

Cottages on the Chippewa

The ride up the river was quite interesting, little summer cottages crowded the shore. The restaurant dock was under advertised - nosing in - and we took a chance and tied up. This was a very rudimentary dock but hopefully it would serve its purpose. The “restaurant” was a ramshackle building at the top of a dirt and grass road. Crossing in front of it was the Trans-Canada Highway. We went inside to make a purchased and had a lovely talk with the owner. She informed us that we were the first to use their new dock - no prize was forth coming.🤣 We asked for directions to the falls and she pointed across the highway. They were staring us in the face.

Chippewa Falls

This is also the halfway mark for the Trans-Canada Highway

Bob and I at the falls

Lower falls

Upon crossing the highway, we discovered that we were in the exact middle of the Trans-Canada Highway. We were 2430 miles from the east and the west coast of Canada! We hiked a short way up a grade and came out on a rock ledge overlooking the falls. Chippewa Falls is a multi-step waterfall, cascading down five tiers of rock. Next we walked along the highway to view the falls from the western side. There had obviously been some spring runoff. Large trees littered the rock tiers.

We walked back to the dinghy, met the restaurant owners son and proceeded back to Carolina….this time follow the detergent bottle channel. The wind had come up and we were both quite wet by the time we got back on board. Now we needed to up anchor and move up towards the Voyageur Lodge and Cafe to do some provisioning.

Still wearing my boots for pulling the anchor

The Voyageur sits across the Trans-Can from a lovely beach. We anchored about 80yds off shore and took the dinghy in to see what was available in the store. We were of great interest to the beach goers. One little boy kept waving and screaming “hi” till we acknowledged him. The store had a few essentials and cases of beer, and a few bottles of wine. Because of the strike you are limited in what you can buy. Bob bought a case of beer and some wine and I bought a different kind of wine, circumventing the rules a bit. The beach goers thought our choice of provisions a bit odd, but waved us off none the less.

Voyaguer Lodge, Restaurant, Bakery, Grocery, LCBO, and Gas Station

Couldn’t resist this sign

We opted to stay anchored off of the Lodge for the night. The wind had calmed and it looked like as good a place as any. In the morning, we went back in to the store for some ice and a fritter. We were going to pull up the anchor and head back to the Soo. The fritter was a perfect dessert for breakfast and really hit the spot.

We knew there was a chance of rain, so we got ourselves together and headed back to Goulais or Whitefish Bay (it’s called both on our chart). We would stage therefor a quick run into Sault Ste.Marie on Tuesday morning. Storms were expected but nothing with lightning or big winds. A little rain won’t hurt Carolina….maybe wash off some of the fisher flies and other bugs we’ve been collecting!

Who would have thought that a Monday morning on Lake Superior would be so busy. As we neared the channel into the St. Mary River we had no less than 7 boats/ships on our AIS. The Tregurtha is outbound and we will intercept her at a very sharp curve…..think we’ll hang back, make some circles, and let them pass. Ahead of us is the Viking Polaris waiting to lock through in the Poe Lock or Lock#2. We are waiting for three tour boats to exit lock #1 so we can go down. There’s a survey boat, a barge with fuel tankers, a sailboat and a couple of fishing boats all hanging around the channel into the locks.

During all this we got a FaceTime call from a friend we made in Death Valley last April. He lives in England and had so many questions for us about our journeys. It was good to reconnect with Paul and Susan. We’ll see them again in November stateside when they come to tour.

The Mac Arthur Lock(Lock #1) was a breeze. Once again we were alone in the lock. The weather was not great. About 60 degrees, spitting rain and not a pleasant day. From the lock we went to the George Kemp Marina on the US side to pick up a package. The dockhand delivered it to us so we did not have to exit the boat. If we had exited we would have legally had to check backings the US then when we got to BondarMarina check back into Canada. A major hassle. We are most appreciative of Jed at Kemp for helping us out.

We headed back to our favorite marina in the Soo- Bondar Marina. We were here to reprovision then leave for the North Channel of Lake Huron.