Boating again! Run east to John Harbor anchorage.

Wednesday, June 21 -- Soo, Ontario to anchorage in John Harbor (93 miles)

We got up at a decent hour to do phone and email chores and a grocery run (which took cab rides to and from), but it was still almost 12:30 before we got underway. The wind and weather were very favorable -- and we had lots of daylight to work with being the summer solstice -- so we decided to make a long run and head for John Harbor. This is a recommended anchoring spot that turned out to be absolutely empty when we dropped anchor at 6:30, which was nice. 

We had a pair of loons swim by as the sun was setting. We also saw an eagle earlier.  

It was great to be on the boat again and cruising in the North Channel, which is widely viewed as some of the finest cruising waters in the Great Lakes. It is like cruising the coast of Maine but without the tides, lobster pots or cottages. The islands and shorelines are all glacially carved granite covered with birch and pine, as in Maine, but unlike Maine they are mostly uninhabited. In the North Channel it is just rocks and trees and water and birds (and not many of those) with the occasional boat or cottage thrown in. 

Here are photos from the early portion of our cruise, after we left the St. Mary's River to take the St. Joseph Channel over to the North Channel. First is the Shoal Island Lighthouse,

then the Wilson Channel Range Lights, which are just past the one bridge that connects St. Joseph Island to the Canadian mainland, 

and then the West Sister Rock Lighthouse, which exhibits classic Canadian styling. 

And of course we need a freighter picture. This one at the stone dock at Thessalon was too far away to identify.

Our Belgian friends Carmeuse (the lime and limestone products company) have a plant a few miles east of Blind River. Rock mining of one sort or another is the only industry of any scale in the North Channel. 

This last picture shows the islands at the start of the Whalesback Channel, where we will continue our cruising tomorrow. The islands that form John Harbor are on the right side. Note how calm it got late in the day. It was an awesome day on the water!