Great Loop Cruise Video

Welcome to YF and the thread Adam. Yes, enjoyed myself. Thanks for the local knowledge. BTW, if your son is near by he'll like the back of my shirt today . We're about to pull into Port Elgin. If you'd like to watch go to Valhalladoestheloop.com and you'll be looking off our bow.

Let me correct myself. We'll be turning in at about 1510. We were by the power plant a few miles away at the time of the post, and then lost WiFi.

Port Elgin-New Experience

Port Elgin is a very pretty town with a nice marina. However they're not prepared for transient boaters. Their staff is adequate at best. Their electrical service in sub-standard; no 50 amp service, old pedestals that their staff are unfamiliar with the operation of, and I awoke to a new experience. The water was turned off to the marina. Not that someone turned off my faucet (which was 75' away from my pedestal, and over by the fuel dock), but that the faucet was dry. It must have been turned off at the main line. That's a new one on me. My only thought is that the town does not want transient boats nor the money they bring to a town. What a shame.

Seems to me that a better way to do that would be to just say they don't take transients. And with two guy aboard we don't generate much garbage and left none at this stop or the last. All we did was rent dock space, tip well and spend money up in town. I don't think that keeping the water on is asking too much.

Today our plan is to go in to Tobermory at the end of the Bruce Peninsula, Docking at about 1330. Assuming that we have WiFi coverage, the video should start getting interesting as we come around the point about 1230.

Today we're casting off about 0830 and heading for Parry Sound (getting in around 1400 or so), and the end of this leg of the cruise. It's a crisp, clear morning and the views should be beautiful.

It's all relative. Guess you weren't watching yesterday as we came around the point in Pea Soup. This time we all got to see the land. Yesterday we came in with 1/8 mile visibility.

No locks this leg. Erie to Cleveland, Cleveland to Cleveland after a breakdown, Cleveland to Sandusky, Sandusky to Detroit. Then we put up the Maple Leaf and headed across Lake St. Clare- up the Clare River to Sarnia and Lake Huron, then Grand Bend, Port Elgin, Tobermory and today across Georgian Bay to Parry Sound

Flying home. My lawn needs to be cut. lol. We cruise about 10 days to 2 weeks or so on each leg, then go home for around 3 weeks or so. The boss and I both have lives and families that would like some attention.

I've been very fortunate with how I've designed my career. As you know most guys in this business often work 3-6 months on a stretch. To me home has always been the most important thing in my life, and I've been able to sleep most nights in my own bed. With this gig I'm away more than ever before. I took it because it fit my life, the adventure is one I've wanted my entire career, and I'm working for the right guy (in that order). Figure this is a good way to end my career. Before this I taught boat handling, day captained (which never had me gone for more than a week), and transported no more than 4 boats a year up and down the coast. One must always know their priorities. For me, money is nice, but it doesn't buy happiness.

We'll do another leg in September, and one in October (but that will be limited due to sea conditions on Lake Michigan at that time of year). Then we'll lay Valhalla up for the winter to have the bottom done and a few other things. I'll fly out about once a month for a couple of days to check on things. Then in the spring/summer we'll cruise around the Lakes, and start moving down the rivers in mid-August.

Well, another leg of the Loop is over. I hope many took some time to watch the bow cam today. This is truly God's country. Beautiful! For those who missed it, here's a pic from my dinner table overlooking the marina. The cam will come on again when we start cruising Georgian Bay and the North Channel in September.

Georgian Bay

We came back up to Canada on Saturday and spent the past 2 days doing maintenance jobs while waiting for the weather to clear.

0900 tomorrow we'll be casting off, heading for Britt, Ontario on the Byng Inlet. Cell coverage here in Parry Sound is marginal at best, and it'll be getting worse as we move towards the more remote wilderness areas over the next week. So I don't know how much the bow cam we'll be able to broadcast, but check in when you can (Valhalladoestheloop.com). If we're able to get the signal out it should be extremely beautiful with all the islands and inlets we'll be going through for the next several days. Wouldn't be surprised to see anything from fox and deer to bear and elk along the shorelines. Fall has arrived up here, and the tree colors are pretty spectacular. Hope you get to enjoy it with us.

Thanks Roger. You never cease to be a wealth of local knowledge 40% looks about right. lol. Any place for a good burger or decent pizza in Britt?

What an absolutely beautiful cruise today. There were a few tight spots, but they were well marked. For the first couple of hours the scenery was just breath-taking, as was coming in Byng Inlet to Britt. The bay was a little snotty, but just enough to tell us we made the right call staying in port yesterday.

And surprisingly we've had WiFi and cell coverage the whole way. Some days you almost feel guilty drawing salary, and this was one.

Tomorrow we'll be heading for Killarney, through Collins Inlet. Should be another day like today, with just as nice scenery, only the weather is supposed to be even nicer.

Hi Brian. Thank you, and welcome. If you watch our bow cam I'm sure you'll see some familiar places. Right now we're on Byng Inlet in Britt. Those who watched today may have seen some confusing things going on. It was a disaster narrowly avoided.

We pulled out at about 0820 heading for Killarney, via Collins Inlet. It had been pea soup fog, but it cleared. As we headed out the fog came rolling back in. We'd been planning to fuel in Killarney, but decided to pull back in and fuel while the fog cleared.

We got about 40 gallons in when that little voice in the back of a captains head started nagging me. So I walked down to the pumps where I found they were giving us GASOLINE.

It was an honest mistake. The gas dock kids are back in school, and everybody now fills in. The gas and diesel are both on the same pump, both hoses are the same, and the nozzles are the same size. Add in a guy who doesn't usually pump fuel, and it all came together on our boat.

So we had to walk Valhalla onto the seawall, and spent the day pumping off 200 gallons of compromised fuel. We finally started pumping our fuel in at about 1530.

I have to give kudos to the marina. They screwed up, but they were nice guys and did absolutely right by us. What could have been an absolute, motor destroying, disaster turn into just a big inconvenience and a lost day. We were force to hang out in a beautiful place for an extra beautiful day with good people.

That's boating.

P.S. I don't want to name the marina, because some could dwell on their mistake, but I would absolutely recommend them. They're good people who made a mistake which they took care of in all the right ways. They also have brand new pumps and tanks.

So, with good weather, we should be casting off tomorrow at about the same time with the same itinerary. Hope you get to enjoy the views.

What a great day cruising. Collins Inlet was absolutely spectacular.



We had one interesting incident. I generally set my Chart plotter on Track up rather than Course up. We were in a tight bit of shallow channel with high rocks to either side, and were only doing about 6 kts. The satellite evidently wasn't able to tell our direction of travel. It inverted the chart and couldn't match with the swing of the boat, and so basically spun. First time I've encountered that. It caused a moment of disorientation until I switched it to Course Up. Not a big problem, but unusual.

We're in Killarney tonight. Killarney, Ontario is nothing like Killarney, Ireland (lol), but a nice stop-over.

Tomorrow we'll move up to Little Current, with a side trip up Baie Fine, which is supposed to beautiful. It's described as a bit fjiord like. We'll be casting off about 0830 and should hit Baie Fine about 1000.

Our draft is 4'10". The depth readings ranged from about 89' to 1' under the keel. Where the GPS spun we had 1' and a good current on our stern, so it was tense for a moment, but I just backed her out to an area where I had room to play. Although the chart doesn't really show it we needed to be closer to the rock on our left although there was no marker showing the shoal to the right side of the channel. I wouldn't recommend going through with a boat much larger than ours (60' with an 18'10" beam), not so much for the depth, but because just past the point were we had that situation the channel narrows to about 23', with a rock at both ends of that well marked section, no water outside the markers, and a hairpin turn at the north end. Definitely a don't blink area, but only for about 1/4 mile or so. This is a place where the GPS 7' margin of error could cost you dearly if not paying enough attention to what's outside the windshield.

Otherwise most of the water was good throughout.