August 14 – Something truly wonderful happened on the Slate Islands! A few days ago we heard there was an outdoor bathtub somewhere on the islands but I tried to not get my hopes up… 

Jason and Dylan had set out in the dingy to go fishing for a few hours while I read on the bow enjoying the quiet beauty surrounding me. When they got back to the boat, they both had big, proud smiles on their faces as Jas told me to grab my soap, towel and anything else I needed to enjoy a nice, hot bath! What?! We took the ten minute dingy ride over to a small island and sitting just at the edge of a rocky beach was the glorious tub! I gave it a good scrub down (although it was pretty clean) and I started to bucket fill it with the crystal-clear Lake Superior water as the guys got to work building up a good, hot fire under it. It was pretty sweet – I could easily see how Dylan knew how much I was going to love the experience; he was so happy to help make it happen!

Our soaker tub we had was one of the many things I just loved about our house back home. That house was supposed to be our forever home. We built it with a view of our forest from the kitchen window and it had a big dining room I though I’d someday have a highchair in for our grandchildren to use. Jason had built a beautiful, raised deck off the back door that we used for many dinners and parties over the 12 years we lived there. The idea of selling our dream home to do this trip used to make my stomach queasy. Eventually I found a way to see the house simply as walls and at that point I was able to push past letting it be a road block keeping us from being able to move forward with getting it ready to sell. We said goodbye to that home in November 2021. That part of the Big Trip plan did sting a bit.

No more ensuites with luxurious soaker tubs for me – only special opportunities like the one laying in front of me that day. As the fire warmed the water, I picked wildflowers to float in place of bubbles. It was divine! The view looking over the water across the bay while I soaked was so lovely. After I was shampooed, washed and rinsed we emptied and filled it two more times for my guys. We stayed there the rest of the day. Over an open fire we cooked up potatoes and the two trout the guys caught. We ate our supper sitting on a little wooden dock with our plates on our laps and our feet in the water.

August 15 – After only about three hours of sleep, Jason and I were both awake for the day at 2:30 AM. We were both feeling the anticipation of what was to be a 14 hour sail day to get us ahead of some nasty weather coming. We prepped and waited until 5 o’clock to leave so that we could pull anchor with the skies shifting out of their darkest stage of night. We knew it was very likely that we had wrapped a waterlogged tree with the anchor and/or chain and we were right unfortunately. As Jas pulled up the chain, we could see that it was wrapped tightly around a big log. Well, we weren’t going anywhere until we figure out how to untangle it. The log looked so eerie coming up from the depths. I shone the flashlight on it while Jas worked his magic to use the boat hook to flip it upside down to release it from the chain’s grip. It worked and we watched it quickly and equally eerily slink silently back down to its resting place.

I got back to the helm and got the engine going as we fully expected the anchor to be hung up on more logs. To my surprise, Jas very quickly gave me the hand signal that communicated to me that the anchor is up! No problem! We could now relax and enjoy this gorgeous moment motoring out from the islands, sipping our hot coffee as the sky to the east slowly started to turn light purple.

That began our day of sailing once the winds came up a few hours later. We filled our long travel day with playing cards, writing and reading our books. Eventually Quebec Harbour slowly came into sight first as a faint grey blob on the horizon.

Quebec Harbour wasn’t as pretty as places like the Slate Islands or Otter Cove but it did have it’s appeal. Very close to us were 3 shipwrecks, Big Jim, Billy Blake and Dixon. Dixon was the only one totally submerged but was just a few feet below the surface. Through the clear water we could see this massive structure. We then dinghied over to Davieaux Island and walked the trail up to the lighthouse passing a helicopter landing pad beside the house that must be used by the lighthouse maintenance workers.

The night brought us a strong thunderstorm and by morning, as predicted, the wind swung around and honked from the northwest. That put us in the worst possible spot within this anchorage. The shipwrecks on the lee shore behind us were fascinating yesterday but now felt sinister and looked like they were beckoning to Starship for her to come join them. A quick look at the charts and Jason and I were in agreement that we needed to pull anchor and motor over to the northwest side where the land could block some of the wind for us. An hour or so later we had our home moved, nicely secured to the seabed and were able to spend our day doing other things without worry.

August 18 – This day took us to Batchawana Bay but when we set out, that was not our original destination. We had planned to go to Sinclair Cove – about a 50 nautical mile sail – but the blow from the last two days left us with confused seas making our run quite uncomfortable. After failed attempts to sail wing on wing and Jason’s best efforts to fly the spinnaker, we decided to change our sail direction pointing the bow further south to Batchawana Bay. Voila! Starship finally tucked comfortably into the wave pattern on a broad reach and our boat speed increased nicely. Batchawana Bay was now our new destination but it was a much further sail that got us in after dark. We both are never keen to arrive in darkness but the approach looked quite straightforward and we knew we could just follow our chart plotter into the exact spot we needed to drop and set the hook.

Watching the sun fall on the horizon I thought that perhaps we would be lucky enough to get some moonlight to help guide us in but no such luck. With the moon being in its waxing crescent phase I knew it would be no help to us. This also meant that with the clear skies and next to no moonlight – the stars would really put on a show for us and they did! The sky was beautiful but I wasn’t really able to relax to enjoy them much. Dressed in my toque, mitts and foul weather jacket I was still chilled to the bone and being so tired from our long day on the water did not help. It wasn’t a great combo as I also dealt with being very anxious about coming into an unknown anchorage in the dark. At the same time, I knew that it was not right for me to refer to it as ‘unknown’ as on the lovely screen in front of us at the helm, the chart plotter and radar were introducing us to Batchawana Bay by providing us with all the information we needed to keep us safe. We knew exactly where the shoals and rocks to avoid were located and when we should see the bell buoy with the flashing red radar reflector. All we had to do was trust the information in front of us as we used our bright flashlight to scan the water ahead of us for possible floating debris. After 15 hours on the water, all three of us were absolutely delighted to tuck into bed as the clock showed 1 AM.

August 19 – We slept hard and today is a lay day to relax and prepare to go through the locks to arrive into Bondar Marina in Sault Ste Marie tomorrow! We are excited and just called the marina to make sure they could accommodate us and the kind woman on the phone was happy to answer all the questions we had. She asked that we call the marina using VHF radio station 68 when we are about an hour away and someone will be standing on the dock to direct us to our slip. We are so excited to arrive in a city tomorrow after living so remote for two weeks. We will soak in and enjoy all the conveniences ahead of us the next couple days (shopping, ice cream, long showers, etc) but I know very quickly all three of us will be looking forward to pushing off the dock back to being remote as we start the next phase of our trip.