Last Day in Canada!

Just when you think you are going to stay another day we are off and running, or cruising.  As a cruiser you are constantly thinking, worrying, contemplating and generally ALWAYS have the weather on your mind.  We awoke Tuesday morning in Meldrum Bay to beautiful skies and the wind that was "manageable".

What will the day hold for us.

Morning sun on the marina

Now let me tell you a little "something" first.  The Captain and I have this ever running thing that goes back and forth between us in regards to mornings.  As everyone knows I am an early riser and like my time in the morning for COFFEE and alone time to just get my day started.  Well on this journey some mornings I get this, some mornings I don't.  I awoke a little later that morning because of a not so restful previous evening.  I was enjoying my coffee (hadn't even had maybe two gulps) when the Captain is up and decides guess what we are leaving that morning and going to make a run for Drummond Island in the States.  As I was overjoyed by the thought of getting back to US soil (not that I haven't enjoyed my time in Canada) I also had this feeling of "Oh crap I need to get my butt in gear".  Now to the Captains credit he did tell me the night before that we would decide in the morning whether or not to leave or stay another day.  And he does his best to make me not feel rushed.  But for him to be ready he pulls on clothes, pours a cup of coffee and he is ready to go.  Me on the other hand it takes just a tad bit more time, not that I am "high maintenance" in any way, it's just that my jobs for getting underway take longer.  So off I was took another gulp of the coffee, threw on what looked to be semi clean clothes, put on a ball cap (no shower this morning) and off we went.  And no Captain I didn't feel rushed, you did a great job of staying out of site while I was running around like chicken with her head cut off.  Ooo gross analogy, but you get my meaning.  

So we were prepared for what might be a bumpy ride.  Winds were picking up and coming out of the North/Northwest.  Not good when you are going west and beam seas make your boat roll like a pig in slop.  Mike came up with the idea to go a southern route to Drummond Island in hopes that the land would calm some of the north winds upon the water.  This plan worked, a little.  There were parts that the cruising was pretty darned good considering the wind and then there were other parts.  Well let's just say you felt like you were riding one of those mechanical bulls.  We were in an out of sun and clouds all day and by mid afternoon the wind had really picked up.  We finally after 8 hours of rocking we arrived at Drummond Island Marina.  I was never so glad to see a place in all my life.

Hmm wonder what lies ahead.

Cruising today was a chilling experience.

Yep love me some clouds

We made it back into the US Of A.

After a long day we made it across the border!

Wind and waves were picking up

Giving this guy as much room as he wants.

Yellow quarantine flag goes up until we pass customs

What a cool looking boat across from ours

Some old friends and new ones docked across from us.

We were directed to the fuel dock as we needed to pass through Customs.  Which by the way went very smoothly.  We had a young woman check us back in and seeing that we had our Nexus passes this made the process go very smoothly.  Found out later that we could have just called in our Nexus passes numbers and foregone all the questions, etc.  But as I said the young woman was quite nice, besides we needed to fuel up and pump out. 

We were then directed to our slip.  Now the marina here at Drummond Island is not as big as I had expected it to be, seeing that it is a major port for boats coming back into the states and is the one places for Customs check in.  Well with that said we were assigned a dock and worked our way over. Now remember by this time the wind was CRAZY.  We had a young female dock hand assisting us as we approached the dock.  Again I was amazed at the strength of these petite young women.  We had a port tie up and the wind was blowing us away from the dock.  Ugh!  but with the hard work of the young lady on the dock and Mike's awesome operation of the boat we got her in the dock and tied up.  Whew!  so glad to be here. 

Now since this is as I said a major stop for folks coming back into the States there were at least half a dozen Loopers docked with us.  So yes you guessed it we were invited to join everyone for "docktails" later that evening.  We enjoyed meeting the new folks and were aboard a beautiful boat, Spirit Journey.  Our time ended when most folks were going out to dinner.  We retreated back to the Lady J, where I fixed Mike and I some dinner.  One thing we have noticed is how much cruisers eat out.  We treat ourselves maybe twice a week to a meal out, otherwise I cook on board.  Specially since Mike has made me a great galley to cook in, and I enjoy doing it.  That evening before turning in we were treated to a......oh heavens I am running out of words to describe the beauty of things.  Well it was a sunset that even got the Captain out on deck.

Nighttime rolling in

This one even got the Captain out on deck.