Day 67

Howling winds and the rapid deployment of the USCG rescue boat have made us glad about our decision to come immediately to this safe harbor in Manitowoc. We are quite snug in this place. This. Morning we toured the Maritime Museum. I t was excellent and included a tour of the SS Cobia a WWII submarine. A little less polished than the boats I was on.

So here we are and I have to say that unlike many adventures the treat is not at the end of the trip. Indeed, the treat was the trip itself.
We burned about 500 gallons of Diesel fuel.
We travel 1711.1 miles.
We went through 149 locks. Two of the were pan dishes that lifted us up and one was a railroad like ride called the  "big chute".
We used 250.2 hours of engine wear.
We used 2 quarts of diesel oil.
We had no major problem with the enforced togetherness and , in fact, have gotten quite used to being alone with each other for weeks at a time.

We suffered indignities and setbacks without an angry word . Situations like breaking the radar mast, a failed GPS , a two way communication system dropped into Rice Lake, ruining a propeller on a rock, engine stalling and crashing into a multimillion dollar yacht and  a couple of gales at sea.
Did I mention the burning up of the exhaust water injector. all these are a part of the boater's life. A strong faith in the Supreme Leader helps in situations like these.

We started with dear friends Scot and Lucinda and finished alone.  We reconnected with an old college chum, Natalie and husband Jim and they are now high in the dear friends category. In every port we made new friends that shared their boating stories and travel tips with us. Many of them will be life long friends.

Many were the small towns that charmed us. The star was Charlevoix. Both of us voted  it magnificent and number one. Others worth high honors included Orillia, Ontario; Westport ,NY and  Westport, Ontario; Perth; Mackinac Island was wonderful and of course Ottowa and Montreal are huge and very special. There was only one town that really turned us off and that would be the desolate, decomposing town of Whitehall,NY birthplace of the USN.

We are anxious to get back to our family and bungelow in Rome. Yet we are anxious too, to reusme the nomadic life next June when the water softens up again. Overall an amazing first bucket list accomplishment and worth every minute of our time.