If nothing else, we're creatures of habit. We got a typically early start from home at 14:45 and made it to River Park Campground in Menominee, MI by 20:00. Same routine as last year, nothing exciting.

Continuing the routine, we left Menominee for the Canadian border at 08:45. Then the routine changed big time. First Craig hit the border -- literally. With Day murmuring "stop", Craig got a little too close to the edge of the "checkpoint" and took off the passenger side mirror. While Day held onto the mirror, Craig answered the customs agent's questions plus volunteered that we had a bit too much booze (in the locker, not in Craig). While Day went into Customs to pay her duty, Craig parked the rig and tried to "duct tape" the mirror back in place. Day told the agent we had an expensive case of wine (less than $3.00 a bottle -- we're such wine connoisseurs), several liters of the hard stuff plus beer. The Canadian custom agent did a good job calculating the minimum duty (which plus the low price we paid was much less than the prices charged at the LCBO). Craig's duct tape kept the mirror attached to Irv but it could not be used to see behind us, not so good. It was a two person job to change lanes. Luckily most of the roads to Little Current are two lanes.

We pulled into Harbor Vue in Little Current, Ontario at 19:30 and set up camp in the shipyard.

With our early start we didn't have long to get Toucan ready for launch June 17. As a result we did nothing but work on the boat for 5 days straight. We ate out a few times, reacquainted ourselves at the local hangouts but mostly worked -- boring.

Toucan was launched on the 17th and the mast raised on the 18th without incident, kind of. Craig decided that, rather than rewire the mast electrical connections himself, he'd have the boatyard do it. That way, if there were any problems, it was their fault. And there were problems. The mast head light and steaming lights didn't work right and the radar didn't work at all. Craig was able to fix the light problem but the radar problem befuddled even the expert the yard brought in. Winter damage? Craig may have found his excuse to get the latest and greatest new radar.

Meanwhile we pulled into a slip at Harbor Vue and spent a couple more days working on Toucan. To think we pay to do this kind of labor.

Free at last. We left Harbor Vue, made the 08:00 bridge -- and, after all of 1.6 miles, pulled into Little Current town dock to work some more. Day did laundry and provisioned while Craig filled up the water tanks and futzed. This is ceasing to be fun.

Not willing to pay for dockage (with taxes almost $2.00 a foot), we left Little Current at 16:50 for Sturgeon Cove. After motoring through the Waubuno Channel we anchored in Sturgeon Cove by 18:40, 8 miles later (no sailing). It rained overnight but we were finally at anchor in a lovely cove.

We stayed the next four nights in Sturgeon Cove working on Toucan (this is really getting old) trying to finish what we didn't get done on land and socializing (this never gets old) on Fairy Tale (with Ted, Venetia and Anne), on Raggedy Annie (with Ted, Venetia and Anne) and on Toucan (with Ted, Venetia and Anne).

We had a cocktail party on Raggedy Annie in Sturgeon Cove. It was a tight fit for the 5 of us but fun.

Craig's mother had received a letter about a group wanting to put a hiking trail through some property she has up in North Dakota and wanted Craig to take a look at the letter. Of course the letter didn't arrive in Deer Park until just after we left for Canada. Corey forwarded the letter as soon as it arrived and, as always, it arrived in the Little Current Post Office just after we left Little Current. It was time to move on so we left Sturgeon Cove for Little Current (an 8 mile motor) to pick up the letter and then motored all the way to East Rous, 4 miles west of Little Current.

We were supposed to be in Mackinaw City by July 9 and should have been on our way but we woke up to a rainy, foggy day and decided to stay put and work on Toucan -- again. The 28th, we once again woke up to strong winds and rain. We stayed another day and worked. This is really getting old. Strong winds (30 knots +) continued on the 29th so we stayed anchored, fortunately in the same spot without dragging.

June 30 -- more winds, 20+ knots from the way we are going but we saw our first Bald Eagle of the year as she/he tried to make headway against the wind. Small consolation.