Made the segue from river / canal system to Great Lakes today’s by exiting the Trent Severn Waterway and entering Georgian Bay, the eastern most portion of Lake Huron. As was with every other part of the TSW, exiting had its challenges. To begin with the lock is the smallest in length and narrowest in width of all of the TSW locks. Consequently, there is a traffic bottleneck at both sides of the lock and the chambers themselves. Once you exit you are looking into a 14 ft swing bridge that would rake all of the boat’s electronics from its top. Jamb the engines into reverse and have the lock hands move the swing bridge. From there you enter a very narrow fairway which is only wide enough for one boat. Boats are steaming in-toward the lock as boats are exiting the lock. Hairpin turns and rocky shoals are before you, boaters all around you. We stayed the course and after a short time eventually found deep and uncrowded water. Soon thereafter we were in 125 feet of beautiful blue water. We set the waypoint to 310’, engaged the autopilot, throttled up to cruising speeds and felt great. The great feeling soon gave way to a head sea with strong northwesterly winds and increasing wave heights with short durations. The ride became rough and I needed to throttle back. Although the reduced speed reduced the heavy pounding it did not totally smooth the ride. Soon the sea built to 4-5 footers and water was drenching the boat from bow to stern. Slowing to a troll speed made things even worse so we cruised at about 15 mph and kept the wipers working instead.


We departed at 0830 and arrived in Tobermorey about 1700 hrs. We are tucked into Little Tub Harbor, well protected from any wind whatsoever. In fact we’re in the middle of town! A grocery store is about 100.feet from the boat and we’re surrounded by shops and restaurants and loving our location.


We don’t know our plans for tomorrow yet. Depending on wind and sea conditions we may move ahead to either Drummond Island, MI, Killarney, ON or just stay put. Met a nice couple docked in front of us traveling in a Pursuit, a sister company to our Tiara, and had dinner with them. They suggested going to Killarney.


BTW - with wind change so did the temps! We needed to put sweatshirts on while underway. Tonight, as I write this post, it’s 69’ and falling! Everyone is in sweatshirts or jackets and coats. No need for a/c tonight! Water temp is 66’.