We bid goodbye to Sarnia and headed north towards the Blue Water Bridge and Lake Huron. The current under the bridge was pretty stiff and we were glad that the previous owner had upgraded to a larger engine. We made forward progress, but it was slow. We learned much later that the trick is to hug the West bank where the current slacks a bit. That would have been nice to know before leaving Sarnia.
Once we got into Lake Huron we headed straight for Goderich. There were thunderstorms predicted for that night and we wanted to be off the lake before they hit. We made it to Maitland Valley Marina with no problems. If you’re headed there, just look for the turquoise salt mine. The friendly staff helped us tie up just as the first thunder could be heard in the distance, and rain started to sprinkle down.
We ended up having quite a storm, but it was short lived and the marina was very well protected.
Once the storm subsided we decided to walk into town because a reviewer said it was a nice walk. Nice, perhaps, but it’s long, and steep. There is a long stairway leading up the bluff to town, followed by a fairly long walk to get to the downtown area. If you were in a hurry, and in good shape, you might be able to walk it in under 30 minutes. The town was very nice and has some wonderful old architecture. We got rained on a little, but not too bad and ended up having a nice meal before heading back to Pearl Lee.
We found out we had only experienced the edge of a very large storm and the following morning reports of large waves kept us at the dock. So we spent a sunny, warm day relaxing and planning our next step, heading to Port Elgin.
