A Return to the U.S.A.

[Kyle]After Blind River, we had originally planned to spend a couple of nights in the Grant Islands. Our main problem with that plan was that a weather system was coming that was supposed to shift the winds to north, which was a bad direction, right at sunset on the second day. We planned to tough it out for the few hours until daylight.

The sail from Blind River was a slow one over a flat lake in light headwinds. That gave me plenty of time to think. The more of it I did, the less I liked the idea of the Grant Islands. The wind was currently light enough that the lake was flat no matter what the direction. I decided a better idea would be to find an anchorage along the north shore, so we changed the plan and found a spot in the middle of a big, shallow bay there (Supply Point, Huron Shores).

Still in Canada, and safely at anchor by Supply Point

The next morning, we awoke to gentle to moderate rolling. Rain was pelting the deck above our heads. When I finally climbed out of bed and went outside to have a better look, I emerged into a gray world of cold, sideways rain. Yuck! Looks like a nice day to curl up and watch a couple of movies.

A frontal system went through in the middle of the night. To take advantage of the brief wind shift behind it, we needed to be underway as soon as we could see our way out of the bay to make the 30nm+ to an official port of entry on the USA side. I put up the sails in the dark and then cranked up the anchor by hand, finishing right at the first of the day’s light. We got about halfway to the northwest corner of Drummond Island, across the border in the U.S. State of Michigan, before the wind shifted against us and we had to start tacking.

It wasn’t so bad. It was a nice day, the water was flat and the scenery on the north side of Dummond is nice. The wind shifted against us as we rounded the corner into Potagannissing Bay. The islets and shallows within required a bit of strategizing our tacking point so we wouldn’t end up in a blind corner.

We were on the Canadian side, squeezing as close to Milford Island as we dared, when the wind shifted to the complete opposite direction, right as we tacked. That had us heading for the same rocky shore as before. We quickly bore off and suddenly we were booming along on a fast broad reach. It was the fastest we had gone all day.

Approaching Harbor Point on Drumond Island (Michigan, USA)

As soon as we crossed the border back into the U.S., Maryanne checked us in on the Customs and Border Patrol app. A minute later, they sent a request for a video chat. She did most of the talking, only pointing the phone at me at the helm to show the officer that I was the same guy on my passport. Five minutes after that, he welcomed us to the USA and told us we could lower our Q flag. I had just hoisted it ten minutes earlier.

Change of plans. We had been intending to go to Drummond Island Yacht Haven, since it is an official clearance port. Instead, now we are officially cleared in, we turned right and headed for the protected anchorage at Harbor Island for a bigger dose of nature. The big lagoon in the middle of the island is shallow, which keeps most of the deep-draft boats on the outside and slows down the rest. Even though it was a beautiful Friday afternoon, we were one of only two boats inside when we anchored. The other was a fishing boat that left when the sun started to get low, leaving us surprisingly isolated on a weekend so close to town.