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Day Six - De Tour Village to the Soo Locks (Thursday, August 7)

 De Tour Village Marina
At 11:50 AM we leave De Tour Village. The Saint Mary's River is calm and for the most part very wide.  

Only one portion would be interesting if we had to share it with a lake freighter.  This section (rock cut) was dredged and had huge rip rap boulders on both shores.
About fifteen minutes before we were to arrive at the Soo, (at 13:26 exactly) we see the only other small boat on the Saint Mary's River. (We outran a 1000-foot, 19,000 horsepower lake freighter, the Edwin H. Gott,  the only other traffic we saw since De Tour)  This small boat is heading directly towards us, which is a bit strange, as the river is a mile wide. I start to give way, and then I notice that this boat has a flashing blue light. I tease Juan that's it's probably immigration, but it turns out to be only the Coast Guard. 

"Have you ever had the pleasure of being boarded by the Coast Guard?" the chief asks us.  Looking us over, the Chief (E7) says to the Lt. (JG), "Sir, we're going to be here a while, I'm not very familiar with the regs for a craft this small!". We pass with flying colors; the Chief hands me the Boarding Report, and mentions to the Lieutenant that the Type 1 PFDs we have are a lot nicer than the ones the Coast Guard uses.
We finally make it to the Soo. We register and get a slip at the Charles T. Harvey Marina, check out the facilities, and prepare to go through the locks. After all, that was the object of the game, and the locking process is free.
We studied the charts of the lock area, and re-read the section in the Coast Pilot 6 regarding lockage procedures. The marina is separated from the main section of the Saint Mary's River by a series of narrow islands. It appears from the charts that there is a narrow opening to the main part of the river upstream of the marina.  As we cruise upstream towards the cut in the islands, I notice that there is a lot of water going out towards the main part of the river through that small cut. The Edwin H. Gott is just upstream ahead of us.  These lake freighters are so big that they partially block the flow of the river. As the downbound flow was being partially blocked, the river was trying to refill itself by taking water from the harbor side of the islands. (Note: This cut is very narrow, maybe 20' wide, and quite shallow, maybe 4 feet at most, I wouldn't recommend taking it.  It's right off Riverside Park.  We didn't traverse this cut again, and prudently used the normal entrance to the municipal harbor a couple of miles further down stream) 

Edwin H. Gott being resupplied in the St. Mary's river.  Downstream from the locks.

 We call for locking instructions at the "Small Craft Reporting Station".  This is a spot along the lock approach between the Poe and Davis lock.  The procedure is to press this large red button on the sea wall, and speak into a microphone next to the button.  The lock control authorities speak back on gigantic pole mounted speakers. It's like receiving instructions from God. They tell us to wait for the Davis lock.


While we're waiting, the Edwin H. Gott passes us again and enters the Poe lock.  We get locked through in the Davis lock with the Soo Locks Tour Boat.

                                    Entering the Davis lock

  Juan tends a line to keep us from drifting into the middle of the lock.
After we get locked through, and are now 21' higher than Lake Huron, we head towards Whitefish Bay.
We get to 46 27.35N  084 30.15W.  A decent ways into Whitefish Bay before we turn back towards the Soo.  Four out of five Great Lakes.  Lake Ontario will have to wait until later.

Link to Day Seven - Tourists without a car at the Soo