North Channel Report – Before Day One
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Capt. SO and I arrived
safely at our destination port of Gore Bay, Manitoulin Island, Ontario,
Canada. After tying up at the slip and
checking in to pay our slip fee for one night, we hit the one main street of
Gore Bay in search of two priorities.
Priority Number One: Gore Bay
Frozen Yogurt, which we swear is the best we’ve ever had and maybe the best on
the planet? (Would that statement be
considered a superlative superlative?)
Our hopes were nearly dashed when we walked in to the little health food
store that sells the frozen yogurt and saw a sign that read: We are out of frozen yogurt until tomorrow
afternoon.) You would have thought the
world was coming to an end. When we
told the clerk we’d come by boat all the way from northern Wisconsin, she said,
“I have enough for one more yogurt.” We
said, in unison, “We’ll take it!” And
so, Capt. SO and I left the store with one peach yogurt and two spoons, happy
as could be, on our way to locate Priority Number Two: Obtain a Canadian fishing license for
moi. Luck was with us and the Provencial
Office was open until 5:00 p.m., which gave us a cushion of fifteen minutes in
which to do our business. We left the
Provencial Office with one fishing license for me, an empty yogurt container
and two smiles.
Dinner was an epicurean
delight as we ate some pork ribs that Capt. SO had pre-prepared at home, just
for our Grand Adventure. We even had
special barbeque sauce that he had pre-prepared. The melt-in-your-mouth ribs, grilled Vidalia
onion, and the last of my potato salad, combined to make a great meal. We had the opportunity to talk with another
boat’s owners who turned out to be from a neighboring marina back at “boat
home”. Small world, always. Later we were visited by a gracious Canadian
woman who came down to say “hello”, telling us that she saw our “pretty” boat
come into the harbor earlier and remembered the boat from last year.
Our dockmates were
friendly Canadians and two boats across the main dock from us were also from a
Door Co. marina. It seems we find
geographically close people wherever we take the Aqua RV.
After a post-showers map
perusal, it was lights off in preparation for the Actual Day One of our Grand
Adventure.
Ancora imparo
