How fortunate to catch Paul R. Tregurtha on her first upbound trip through the Soo!   She’s the last product of the shipyards in Lorain OH, which was the first stop on this gallivant.

Just ahead of Tregurtha was James R. Barker, another product of Lorain, here waiting to enter the locks.

An impulse stop in Sault Ste Marie ON was the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre, a great stop.

To get from Manitoulin Island to the Bruce Peninsula, we boarded “the big canoe,” aka Chi-Cheemaun, a replacement for SS Norgoma, featured here a few days ago.  Chi-Cheemaun is a product of Collinwood ON shipyards, about which I’ll comment later.

Tobermory has erected a plaque to Le Griffon, the will-0-wisp of the Great Lakes, the first full-sized sailing ship built on the Lakes above Niagara.  She disappeared on the return from her first voyage, one of the many vessels lost on the Lakes without a trace.

Is it true that Dawn Light, docked here in Tobermory, was built in 1891?    !!  Here’s the suggestion and history.

Georgian Bay . . .  and here’s a cairn built in honor of those past.

Just east of Georgian Bay in Gordon Lightfoot country, there are lots of apple orchards.  Are there any Lightfoot songs referring to them or to farming there?

 

Here is part of the area that used to be Collingwood Shipyards, now living and shopping space.  At least they painted a mural of a laker on the supermarket wall.

Itinerary and all photos by Will Van Dorp, who offers this poem in respect for this day..