Crawdad on the Loop: Tobermory Home of the Chicheemaun

Now you’re talking! Boats, people, things to see and do. The Dockmaster placed us in a peaceful spot a mile from the restrooms and bathhouse, but we later found out our slip was an upfront spot for fireworks. Did I ever tell you how much BooBoo hates fireworks?

We are in Canada now. How can we tell for sure?

Lake Huron can be the most peaceful place on earth or pure hell. I have experienced both and everything in between in my 30 years of racing. What is peaceful on a trawler can be hell on a sailboat. Fortunately for us, trawler cruisers, the water was truly flat. No waves on our crossing to Tobermory. The crossing takes about 9 or 10 hours. By the time we arrived, the boys bounded off, headed for grassy havens!

Chi-cheemaun, a passenger and car ferry, travels from Tobermory to South Baymouth located on Manatoulin Island, the largest fresh water island in the world. There is only one other way to arrive with car on the Island and that is over the drawbridge at Little Current. The Chi-cheemaun is 396 feet long and weighs empty almost 400 tons. The name means Big Canoe – yea, one BIG canoe!

Tobermory is located at the very end of the Bruce Peninsula which divides what we know as Lake Huron and the Georgian Bay, which are both parts of the same Great Lake-Huron. The scenery is not unlike the Door Peninsula in Wisconsin. The harbor has two distinct parts. Little Tub Harbor (where the municipal marina lies) and The Big Tub. Old wrecks lie under water in the Big Tub and can be viewed with the naked eye. Needless to say, Tobermory is a scuba divers dream!