Migrating Loons

Lake freighter ship in the distance 4 Sept -We left Sault Ste Marie - the Canadian side - to cross over to Sault Ste Marie on the Michigan side and prepared to clear customs with the CBP (who we called before leaving the dock in Ont.). We knew our cruising license letter was ready, but we had no idea what to expect regarding the whole clearing into the States by boat would be. I don't know if we were lucky or if it's always like this, but it was a good experience. When they arrived at our dock, we invited them on board, gave them our passports, they gave us the cruising license and asked us if we had any fire arms (we advised them we had our flare gun as required safety equipment) and if we had any unauthorized fruit or veggies. Turns out, they had to confiscate our tomato and green pepper! Not a big deal - we joked that they just want us to go grocery shopping when we cross over.  The two agents were very nice and answered many of our questions regarding the reporting obli...

July 3 It was reassuring to see that the marina wants to help us out as much as possible.  They are ordering all the parts we "could" possibly need to repair the leaks. That way, once we get hauled out, they will be able to fix whatever the issue is in a timely manner, therefore minimizing the time we will be boat-less. We like their plan. So what to do while we are waiting?  Well, we still have a few little projects to do, which we were going to do as we went along. Papi is checking for part numbers to give to Vian, so that he can order our spare parts while we are waiting.  He'll also be working on re-sealing a couple of windows that need it. Trying to find the belt number Our boat fridge We've been using our fridge for about a month now, and it was due for a defrost. Apparently, with all the hot and humid weather we've had, it can accelerate the ice build up in the small freezer. Before doing anything, I read the NOVA COOL 3100 manual and googled ...