Friday -Monday September 7-10
We decided to leave Bear Drop and find a marina because there were supposed to be big winds and rain coming and we wanted to be at a slip, instead of on the hook. We got into Blind River Marina around 3 PM. We were in need of a pump out if our holding tank so we went over to the fuel dock.
You can see by the flag that the wind was already really blowing hard. Pam and I had a little communication problem about what side to put the fenders on. I didn’t discover until the last minute that we didn’t have them on the starboard side and I was already too close to the fuel dock so I decided to go ahead and dock on the port side. Big Mistake on my part as Captain. I had planned on landing on the port side which would have made leaving against the wind much easier.
It took nearly 2 hours to pump out the tank. The pump was SLOW or practically non-functional! We were not sure exactly what was going on and John even went down and opened up the holding tank to check the level. We finally go it done. It did give us a chance to know Daryl, the dock master though.
Two hours later, the wind is up even more, blowing us against the fuel dock. Remember, we don’t have thrusters. We tried several times to get away from the dock and move out but failed each time. Fortunately, we didn’t damage the boat. We talked with the dock master Daryl and decided that I would try to use the prop wash and my rudders to swing the stern away from the dock into the wind (that is accomplished by turning my rudders toward the port side, port engine in reverse and putting my starboard engine in and out of forward gear). Our rudders are huge and by turning them to the port side and putting the starboard engine in forward, the thrust being deflected by the rudders starts to move the stern into the wind, away from the dock, but, it also moves the boat forward. The prop wash from the port engine, being in reverse causes the stern to walk toward the starboard side. If there were no wind it would be easy – that was not the case here. Daryl, said that he could push on the bow of the boat and keep the bow from hitting the dock as I attempted to power the boat around. Between using the rudders, prop wash, throttles, shifters and Daryl’s back we were successful but it felt like it took 10 minutes or more. Once the stern was into the wind, I could back out into a larger area and maneuver to boat over to our assigned slip. Daryl said he would meet us there to catch our lines. When we had all the fenders on the starboard side we were ready to dock.
That evening we had the owner of 17 Restaurant came and got us and took us to his restaurant. Excellent fish dinner. He even gave us a ride back to the marina after giving us a tour of the town. The next day we rode our bikes and visited the stores and grocery store. That night we went to a restored church that had been turned into a music hall and listened to the band DRIVE. They are a local band and they got their name because they have to drive to get together to practice and play. You could tell that they had been playing instruments for a long time, they were really good.
Blind River used to be a huge plywood manufacturer. The picture below is what is left of their chimney. Kinda reminds one of condom on a big penis.
The next morning we went to St Andrews United Church. The congregation was very friendly and joined them in the fellowship hall for cake after the service. That afternoon we did the much dreaded LAUNDRY! Then over to Aurora for a delicious dinner.
The wind really clocked up and there was a lot of rain. Since we were right out at the entrance to the marina the wave were coming into the marina constantly. The boats rocked for and aft for days. It was kind of crazy and John did not trust the cleats on the dock so we added more lines and hooked to any solid object on the dock. We even had to resort to putting chafe guards on some of our lines. We even added more lines after this pic was taken. The rocking was constant…
Did really get sustained winds of 40 miles an hour…
The cruising guides warn of a ton of weeds in this marina. It was late in the season but we did not find that to be true. The marina itself was very nice. Huge clean bathrooms with showers. Actually there are a large number of stalls and showers. They had a upstairs lounge area that used to be used by boaters but not anymore. It became more of a convention center for the town. A nice little town.
We looked around the old plywood plant. The used this boat to move log rafts.
The town also had this hug hockey rink. On the roof, was the largest array of solar panels that I have ever seen. This is a very small town to be able to afford these facilities.
While riding our bikes around town we saw a billboard that advertised movies for a couple of bucks on certain nights. Well the night came and we walked in search of the movie theatre. We could find it on Google, Maps, or anything internet. We walked around and finally asked a local that was out working on this car. He pointed us in a direction and said walk that way, walk in between a couple of trees and go into the parking lot. Well, we did that but all we saw was something that looked like a school building. There were people coming out of the building we asked one of them for more directions. She said, “just go in that door over there in the building”. Yep, the school building had a huge auditorium setup as a very nice movie theatre. We met a couple that had traveled 60 miles to see the movie.
The trip home was very fast once we knew where we were. The directions that some had given us earlier made perfect since. It was just on the other side of the Hockey Arena.
This was our last night with Steve and Diane. In the morning, we will both pull out and run a parallel course out in open water for a while. Then we will angle south to Drummond Island and Aurora will continue west toward Sault Ste. Marie. We have had a lot of fun with our friends and know that we will hook up again later.