We left Detour, MI for Sault St. Marie, MI traveling up the St. Mary's River. It was AGAIN a beautiful day on the water. We had less than four hours to go so we slept in a bit before taking off. Sault Ste. Marie is our last stop before we head into the Soo Locks and then to Superior. We planned for two days here as they have a lake freighter called the Valley Camp, which is located next to the marina for touring. We will top off our diesel here, do some laundry and get our large round fenders blown up and ready for the locks.
 |
| Passing a freighter heading up the St. Mary's River |
 |
| Gorgeous on the river today |
While walking Sawyer (I really need to work on leash training with him) and checking out the cute town, which is bigger than the last few stops we've been at, we decided our next few meals! Prime rib and mexican will be our two dinners!
 |
| Shop after shop after shop with a smattering of restaurants and ice cream |
We enjoyed our time here, we spent our first day touring the lake freighter Valley Camp. Ben was in heaven, they had the actual life boat from the Edmund Fitzgerald. To me it smelled but I enjoy seeing how people live and what the galley (kitchen) and heads (bathrooms) look like on these freighters. Surprising, the accommodations were pretty nice for ship life considering it was built in 1917. Pretty awesome to walk through one of these huge (550 feet) ships knowing that she served on the Great Lakes for almost 50 years.
 |
| Inside the belly of the ship |
 |
This freighter is massive
|
 |
| the wheel house |
 |
| Galley for officers and guests |
 |
| The life boat from the Edmund Fitzgerald |
We watched as two freighters were locking through the Soo Locks. One was going up to Lake Superior and one coming down. All ships/freighters pass through these locks going into Superior, commercial traffic takes precedent over us pleasure craft. So we will be calling the locks first thing in the morning to see what the freighter traffic looks like for our travels. These locks are said to be the busiest in the world by cargo tonnage. Something between seven and ten thousand ships pass through in a year! We will be going through these locks on our boat, raising us 21feet. We have locked through more than 80 locks so this is not new to us, but it has been a few years so I may be rusty!! I'll keep you posted...
 |
Soo locks: The freighter on the right is heading down while the ship in the parallel
lock (left) is going up. |
 |
This was the park where everyone
is checked by security to watch the ships in the locks |
 |
| Beautiful grounds with a foutain...we are ready for the locks but better yet to be on Lake Superior |
 |
Sawyer pants...it is fun to have a puppy onboard
 |
| My little shadow |
|
 |
| Sawyer is either sleeping while underway or chasing flies but he sometimes can be found getting crazy dog with dad! |
No comments:
Post a Comment