Entry # 95: N46.01.496, W83.44.906
Recapping yesterdays’ evening _ After returning to George Kemp Marina, Saulte Saint Marie yesterday all I wanted to do was to be alone and to vegetate. For days I would feel devastated with little motivation, listless, lost. Without the distraction of purpose, the reality of my condition began to surface. I finally became cognisent of my true condition. It crossed my mind how pathetic I may have appeared. Nevertheless and as I had noted in my yesterdays’ entry, I had decided to follow Dans’ advice on having dinner. My walk was slow and painful to the restaurant. I was in my own world alone and felt separate from the world and my surroundings. Though I very much wanted to, I knew I could not just sit here for the rest of my life! I finally eased into thinking about options _
Option 1: Complete my circumnavigation of Lake Superior.
Option 2: By-pass the North Channel & Georgian Bay and then head straight for home along Lake Hurons’ Canadian coastline thereby completing circumnavigating the fourth Great Lake.
Option 3: Sail the North Channel & Georgian Bay prior to completing circumnavigating the main body of Port Huron on the Ontario coastline.
After dinner and three beers, I decided to sleep on it and make a decision on which option in the morning.
Sunday, August 6th (Day 90) – I woke up appreciating my first full nights’ sleep in several days. I had made a decision and decided to get underway even though I would have preferred to stay.
I reluctantly decided not to pursue Option 1 and attempt to circumnavigate Lake Superior. I had spent much of my evening assessing its feasibility without success. But, I was only able to let it go and move on to my other options after convincing myself that I would plan out a second attempt in 2021! I would need to be satisfied (for now) to have singlehandedly sail in all five Great Lakes in one season including circumnavigating four out of five in my 20′ sailboat.
Option 2 to head straight for home was very tempting. But I determined that I had invested too much to exclude sailing in the North Channel and Georgian Bay. Tomorrow is promised no one!
Option 3 to sail in the North Channel and Georgian Bay prior to completing circumnavigating the main body of Lake Huron. With having sailed in Green Bay earlier, I will be included sailing in all three major bays of the Great Lakes as well. I estimated this option would take three (3) weeks to complete. I would be home by the end of the third week in August – well within my time constraints!
Even though I had made my decision, motivating myself to get underway continued to be difficult. I decided to take a good shower before finally getting underway at 7:30 am. It was another beautiful day and I needed to take advantage of the good weather. I longingly looked back as I headed east towards the St. Marys’ River. I was taking in the peaceful morning heading south but soon began wondering how the participants were doing. Aided by the strong current I was averaging between 4 and 5 mph. (I had been averaging only 3.1 mph during the entire journey).
I entered the North Channel and made Drummond Isle Yacht Haven around 6:30 that evening. It made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before retiring.
Never Too Late For 