Day 41 - Poker Run!
Morning came too early today. Had my alarm set for 5:30am in hopes of us having our anchor weighed by 6am. Captain and I slowly emerged from the cabin to take Kona to shore. By the time we were back and had the kids awake and boat ready we were on our way by 6:30am. The reason for the early departure was a 3 hour sail to the town of Little Current. Little Current is the biggest town that we will visit in the North Channel and where we will need to check in at least weekly for our black water pump out, fuel and water chores. There is a large rendezvous happening this weekend and all transient slips are on a first come, first serve basis. Our hope was by getting to town reasonably early we would be able to grab a slip for the night. Otherwise, we would have to anchor a little outside of town. We wanted to stay the night as there was weather forecasted (more on that later) and we needed to do some mega chores that are just easier to do at the dock.
After we set the sails, the kids returned to their sleeping bunks like the sailing zombies they are. Captain and I enjoyed a beautiful sail to little current. Winds started off well, but the sails came down mid-way as the wind took a break. It is so neat to sail pass island after island and see a mast pop out from behind a cove and imagine having the time to really explore off the beaten path up here. You could spend a lifetime in these waters and still not know every gunkhole (a term used around here to describe a shallow inlet or cove that is hard to get into). You can find a hidden gunkhole and goes days, if not weeks without seeing anyone else.
For the past week, once we were in Canada, we have been tuning into a VHF radio show that the Little Current Yacht Club (LCYC) hosts daily all July and August. This show is a gift the boating community and Roy Eaton is the voice that has greeting boaters for decades. The show gives the weather, some local and sports news as well offers a way for boaters to call and check in. Every morning anywhere from 40-80 boaters in the North Channel will call and check in. If there is anything a boater needs from a spare part, to help diving to retrieve an overboard cell phone (here’s to you Rich Dirks!) you ask on the show and someone will show up at your gunkhole to the rescue. I had been listening on zoom as we were too far out of VHF range, but today I got to call in from the radio saying we were only an hour away for our check in. We are very much looking forward to seeing Roy and others again this year.
We got to Little Current and were happy to see that the current was actually little today! Little Current is the only navigable passage between Lake Huron and the North channel from the east. It is a pretty narrow cut for so much water to pass through if the winds pick up and create a seiche. This can make things hard for any boat, but especially us with a full length keel and no bow thrusters. No issues getting to the fuel dock and were happy to find a space overnight on the wall exactly where we were last year.
Once docked we all went quickly to our land chores. The kids hungry for the amazing wifi down at the pavilion were extra dutiful. I had my head down trying to work as efferently as I could in the chaos when I heard someone up deck ask the kids if Captain or the Admiral were aboard. Even though I call myself 1st mate, Admiral is often referred to in this community as the wife. Because well, we ultimately do make all the decisions! Mike Cooney had arrived in town and he had come to town to see us! Well, we had business to do, but I’d like to say he came to town for us and for the LCYC’s get together later in the day. What a site for sore eyes! He beamed to see us as well as we had become good friends last summer. Mike became my “go to” guy when I had questions and offered us invaluable insight last summer. This spring when planning this trip I had reached out and asked about particular spots that I knew were hard for us to get to in Ciara but that were too far away for us to reach with our electric trolling motor on our dinghy. It turned out he had a little 5hp Honda engine that was only 80lbs he was selling. At first I didn’t even give it thought as I knew Captain was pretty hard core about having on diesel aboard and was quite proud of our electric off grid solutions. But the more we talked about it the more we warmed up to the idea. So we made and offer and Mike was here to make the exchange! We chatted a good long while and got the new engine installed on the dinghy. I poured a rum and coke for him for toasts and ended up spilling the whole drink down the freezer as I went to dig for more ice. I cursed like a sailor, and loudly. Oh well, I suppose I was going to defrost the freezer anyhow.
The day was warm and sunny. A breeze had been picking up throughout the morning and the little current was now starting to tile the current buoys more. At 1:30 we loaded up the dinghy with Mike and headed over to the pavilion with the Wi-Fi and kids. There also was a registration tent for a memorial dinghy poker run for the LCYC which was being held at 2pm. We knew this of course and had come to sign up because now we have a motor on our dinghy and can go more then two miles!!! And all for a good cause in memory of a club member who we sadly never got to meet but left an lasting impression on the community here. There weren’t too many people around because those sunny skies and light breezes were quickly engulfed with dark rumbling skies and white caps in the channel. A tornado watch with possible hail had this whole town on edge for the last 24 hours and the timing couldn’t have been worse. We watched the radar and it appeared the worst of the storm was going to stay to the north west of us. A group of about six dinghies showed up for the event and all of us seemed to be salty enough to say Yay instead of Nay so the race remained on. I sent Kona, Dani and Bert back to Ciara to batten down the hatches and close the portals. With the weather I made the call that we weren’t going to overload our boat and withdrew them from the race. Cory asked to stay and participate as Mike had asked him to collect his poker hand for him as he was boatless, but wanted to play. Cory promised him he wouldn’t let him down. They altered the course to stay out of bigger water and just as we were loading our boats thunder clapped in the dark skies to the west. In the chaos to leave our dock lines got all messed up and I laughed at our self-made time penalty as everyone took off. We picked up our first card not far away at the fuel docks. Cory drew two cards blindly and I picked blindly from those two before we saw our cards. I drew a 2 of diamonds! Cory stayed mum and pocketed their card. We then headed underneath the swing bridge to a club members house. The skies opened up on us as we laughed at the joy of moving 5 knots! Nearly our cruising speed on Ciara. We pulled up last (oh we were so far behind it was comical) to the second card stop in an absolute downpour. These cute kids were standing out on the dock with their mom in the rain and we waved and cheered and made pirate jokes before we were on our way back with our second cards in hand…albeit soaked. Oh I got a 3 of spades and mum from Cory. I am reminded this early in the game to why I never gamble. The 2nd to last dinghy had held back under the bridge in the rain and as we passed them we realized that it is much more fun to come in last and they were bringing up the tail! We By the time we repassed Little Current the rain had stopped. No issues picking up card 3 and then we headed to Roy’s house. We turned the corner into Eaton Cove to see his yellow chairs across the way and our little parade of dinghies in line to land like planes into O’Hare. Roy and Margaret greeted us all on shore with mimosas! We took some pictures and toasted Dave Naples for whom the memorial race was in honor. I kept looking at one gentleman with his notable red beard and I just knew it was Rob Lair whom we met last year. We said hi as up until that point it had all gone so quickly with the start of the race that I just didn’t put it together soon enough! The way back to the start (and final card) we all rafted together and slowly idled while singing songs from our youth as loudly as we could. Friends on Hogs Breath actually caught a 16” fish on the way out of Eaton Cove and returned back to Roy and Margret as a gift before joining our flotilla.
We dropped Cory off at the start to get the last cards and the Captain took me back to Ciara on the boat to take care of somethings before the group BBQ. I put together a Wisconsin Cheese plate and some other goodies to take. Mike came by and he had the kids in tow. Cory showed us the hand they got for the Poker run for Mike and we laughed! While I had picked up the worst hand (2 diamond, 3 spade, two 6’s and a 10 of spades) Cory had 3 kings an ace and a jack! Cory stayed true to his word and didn’t let Mike down. Mike was especially happy to announce that he felt the Karma for all the reasons he came to Little Current today. With the kids tuned in to some big good news secret he had for us. With that he pulled out Bert’s wallet. Unbeknownst to me yet, Bert had lost it earlier in the day. Mike did good sleuthing work (a library card quickly let him know he knew the owner) and returned the wallet to a much grateful kid.
Back at the BBQ we spent the evening talking to sailors who really know these waters. I got so much advice and I have an inkling to some new spots for us to explore after we leave here on Monday. Dinner was amazing and everyone ate up all of my cheese plate. Mike did when the Poker run and he gave back his prize money to the club. Jodi and Brooks came by after dinner. They didn’t participate in the run as Jodi and sea sickness are already friends and they didn’t feel like having a reunion. They were also told the dinner was off so they missed out. We had met them last year in Fayette when they came rolling in on a big wind day much like we did just last Sunday. We became instant friends and have been leap frogging each other getting up here to Little Current for the past week. Not much time to see them today, but we intend on sailing with them to Baie Fine and the pool next week. We stopped on the way back to Ciara to see Deb and Paul on Nadurra. They have a manual windless and offered to show it to us. A windless is what most people have aboard to weigh the anchor back on board. It requires a lot of electric power. This one was manual gears. I now have a quest to find one for Ciara. I don’t think this is being made anymore but that won’t stop me!
We decided to stay two nights as we got nothing done today. We need to go get some groceries and those chores don’t just magically go away. I played Taps and Last Post and then sat down the cockpit and cried. I was exhausted. I had a wonderful day, but under all the good there were some huge anxiety things bugging me. I had made a mess in the freezer, that was annoying. My charging port on my phone is giving out and I’m freaking out of losing my phone before the trip ends and lastly there is a change in the air. We had noticed at the Benjamins that none of the boats were flying American flags. Everyone had a large or small Canadian flag so we wrongly presumed we were the only Americans around this particular day. We found out that there were a few Americans in the bay those nights, but were too embarrassed to fly them. Our vessel is US Coast Guard Certified. We must, by law, fly it. Ours is a nice size and hangs gracefully from our stern. Our Canadian curtesy flag hangs as high as my short self can hang it on our side station. While we were at the dock on our boat today, chatting with Mike, we had another boater come up to us and ask us to take down the flag. That many people up there are offended by it. We explained we had to fly it and why. He asked if we had a smaller one or even just a sticker. No. He asked that we at least fly the curtsey flag higher. In the end I think we had an understanding but Captain and I talked and decided to take down our flag while at port and anchor. We will sail with our Ensign as required by law. We took our boat hook and raised the Canadian flag as high as we could get it. While I played taps to silence and there was no booing there was a very different feeling in the air that this empathic soul simply couldn’t ignore. Just earlier today I read a tweet from our president where he said “One year ago our Country was DEAD, now it’s the “HOTTEST” Country anywhere in the world.” The endless assault on truth, the gaslighting of the American people, the creation of crisis after crisis when there was no crisis to begin with is officially out of hand. Picking on our neighbors to the north for no reason has obviously been felt. I was happy to read that the US is has lost nearly $8 Billion in revenue from lack of tourists from the north. We don’t deserve it and I’m proud of the people to vote with their pocketbooks. No longer can most people of the world trust Americans any more then Americans have been profiling strangers in our land. My only hope is that in the smallest ways possible I can show that a people’s government is not representative of the majority of people. Even in a fairly run election, most people don’t vote. I let people’s actions and words determine if they are of good character and not where they are citizens. That, for most of us, isn’t a choice. We have been spoiled way to long, as American’s. The world knew we had issues, like they did, but we were respected, and well now, we aren’t. So, Mr. President, no you are wrong. You are making a laughing stock out of our country and out of our people. We are not better off then we were a year ago and the whole world is laughing at you. I will stop playing Taps here in Canada and only play Last Post. I can’t do it. I am beyond upset as Taps is very dear to us and it has nothing to do with patriotism. I remain sad. I remain scared. I remain feeling helpless. I will hope that those we meet will see past our shit show and see us. And for the record, I do not support our current government. There isn’t a single thing. It is inhumane, it is unlawful and it is scary. I fear for even writing those words. But I won’t not state where I stand. I will not loose my voice.
Terribly sorry to end today on a sad note. Our pirate stories are usually happy and epic. But all stories have conflict. And this is our story, from my eyes. Be it the hardship of living in tight spaces with 5 fully grown people, to never ending trouble shooting and problem solving. There is also the hardship of finding oneself in the travel. It pushes you outside your safety bubble of not just a safe and secure bed but friends and family that you know you can trust. To not record what is important to me and the journey we are on would be a disservice to the ship log and myself. I remain tearful for the joy of the friends we have met up here and along the way and grateful beyond words.
