Today was a bitter sweet day, ending another season of boating in the Great Lakes. Since we didn’t close the deal on our new boat until mid June, this year was cut short. We really did enjoy our trip from Toronto, but when arriving in home port we were left with short of ninety days until today. This season did allow us ninety six days of living onboard, fifty three hours of run time, and traveling over four hundred nautical miles.
During winter lay up, the remaining detail work will be completed, bottom painted, and all canvas and strata glass replaced. By our launch date the first week of May, she will have a whole new look.
Next year will be our fifth season living aboard “Second Knot”, splitting our residency between St Clair, Michigan and Merritt Island, Florida.
We are truly blessed to do what so many dream of, but so few do.

Today we had lunch at Crews Inn on the Clinton River with Cathy's childhood friend Janet and her husband Carl. Cathy and Janet lived on Detroit's east side two houses apart from each other at grade school age until they both entered the medical field at St John Hospital on the same day in 1970. Since our time living in Florida they have both retired, but each season while living aboard our boat in Michigan we meet for lunch to visit and exchange life's events.
It is always rewarding to continue friendships that span a lifetime.

The wedding venue was on Peaks Island which we traveled to by ferry from the mainland. When we arrived it was low tide and amazed us to see the results of a ten foot drop of water surrounding the shores. When that amount of water reseeds, the bottom reveals some awesome sites. The seaweed that grows and attaches to the once underwater formations falls limp against a landscape of exposed rock.

Having traveled nearly eight hundred miles to arrive in Portland, Maine for a family wedding, it would not have been complete without a reward to enjoy a lobster dinner. As it is the "main" draw to this area, the amount of fresh lobsters needed to satisfy the appetites of all the local restaurants on a daily basis is unimaginable. It would truly be a mishap if there are bad fishing days with a low return of a catch.

While driving across Canada towards Niagara Falls in route to Portland, Maine for a family wedding, we crossed over a bridge on the Welland Canal. This really gives the size of a lock true perspective to the enormous structure that raises and lowers freighters up to eight hundred feet in length.

Today is the last day of August and the season is winding down to the last month here for our boating season. We drove by car north of our home port to the Fort Gratiot Lighthouse Beach, just the other side of the Blue Water Bridge in Lake Huron. This is the connecting span between Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. It is a double span bridge between the two countries. As it was when we traveled to Toronto for the new boat, you must still use the ArriveCan app to gain access into Canada. Needless to say, the US Border Patrol remains busy searching for and apprehending illegal persons crossing in both directions. They recently did an arrest with someone using a jet ski to transport a passenger across the St Clair River. You never know what you might come to witness while enjoying yourself on the water.