Sault Ste Marie, Day 3

Sault Ste Marie has a lot to offer the transient boater. On Day 3 we walked to City Hall and two more museums. We had been told that City Hall had nautical charts and we wanted to see if they had any charts that we were missing. It turned out that we had everything we needed. The Richardson's Charts, the Bonnie Dahl Cruise Guide, and the Ports book for the Great Lakes will cover us for cruising Lake Superior.

We were off to the Museum that is housed in the old Post Office building on Queen St. Here there are 3 floors of memories and information on the Soo. Very well done and very complete.  Then we were off to see the Hermitanger Stone House and the Clergue Block House. Both men had a significant influence on the Soo, 70 years apart. Clergue was an industrialist who began many businesses in the area, but unfortunately he went bankrupt and all the businesses failed. While he was a great visionary of his time, he needed someone to come along behind him and fill in the details. Both men ended up returning to Montreal.

By the time we finished with the Block House Jim said "he thought he had heard and read enough about the fur trade to last awhile."

On our return walk to the boat we stopped at Time Horton's for a late lunch (3pm). The winds had been building throughout the day and were quite brisk by 3 pm, so we decided to pay for another night at the marina.

We got together for snacks and a glass of wine around 7 pm. No one was really hungry after such a late lunch. The wind was still blowing quite strong. There was a free concert in the huge tent area beside the marina, so we decided to go and see the musician. The songs would carry on the wind towards the boat. They often have nightly music in the tent, and this gentleman (unfortunately I don't know his name) was particularly good.  We found a protected corner to shelter from the wind and we stayed to the end of his show.

We returned to Symmetry and reviewed the weather for the next few days. It looks like Wed. will be a good day to set out for Lake Superior. The next 3 to 4 days are looking pretty good. We have several long days of travel before we get into the more populated and protected areas of the northern shore. I'm not sure you can really say that about the north shore as there will still be long stretches without much available, but lets say more than along the eastern shore. The eastern shore has long distances with little to no anchorages or marinas or diesel. Not that diesel will be a problem for us, as the trawlers carry a lot. Not like a sailboat.

Jim and Linda's son Allen and family will be joining them around the 10th or 11th and they would like to be in the Marathon area by that time.

We have heard about how beautiful the eastern and northern shoreline is and we look forward to experiencing it first hand.