After 12 weeks, many phone calls and special consideration from a number of people, Moon Dance IV finally made it back to Canada. She arrived in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario June 25, 2020. A licensed captain brought her from Charlevoix, MI to “The Soo” where we caught the lines and stood respectfully aside while two border guards and an RCMP officer quizzed the captain and checked the boat out.
In a nutshell, here is what was required:
- a contract with a licensed American captain
- copy of the captain’s credentials
- book a slip in a closed marina
- a float plan
- insurance
- send all of the above to Canadian Border Services a week ahead
- adjust float plant to meet conditions specified by CBSA
- reserve taxi to return captain to the US
It all started in the middle of March when the Canada-US border closed. By early April it was clear to us that it would not re-open any time soon. We bounced around a number of ideas.
One, fly to Chicago, rent a car and drive to Charlevoix, Michigan where we left Moon Dance in October. Then re-provision the boat for a 2-day trip and a 14-day quarantine. We had removed everything from the boat in the fall and taken it back to Ottawa. Obviously we couldn’t fly with all of the gear taken off the boat before storing. (I didn’t bother to check with the few airlines still flying whether they would take a kayak.) So we would need someone to meet us in Sault Ste. Marie with a full load. Lucky for us we had a few volunteers.
I reserved a vehicle, hotel rooms and tapped our daughter and a friend for transport but in the end we decided it was just too risky to go this route.
Two, try to find a delivery captain to bring Moon Dance to us. This option was all new to us so implied a steep learning curve layered with the difficulty of doing it all remotely. A few calls to border services in both the US and Canada confirmed that this was possible. I was lucky enough to get the local offices who walked me through the process. Later in the spring local phone numbers were taken down from their respective websites.
AGLCA proved its worth once again. We reached out to their harbour hosts in Charlevoix to ask if they knew any licensed captains in the area. Both, John Winn and Bill Dupont got back to us quickly with recommendations. We called the individual captains starting with those that were local. My Iowan grandmother’s Scottish heritage coming to the fore – why pay travel expense if it wasn’t necessary.
We choose John Kalbfell; owner of Little Traverse Charters in Charlevoix. We drafted a contract and passed it back and forth to John until we were both satisfied. The float plan was also discussed. Charlevoix to Sault Ste. Marie is a 15 hour trip at our normal cruising speed of 7 knots. We did indicate he could travel a 10 knots thinking it could be done in one day but more on that later. The solution was to take two days to allow for adverse conditions that are not uncommon on Lake Michigan at that time of year – wind, waves or fog frequently confound the plans of man. These are the causes of Straits of Mackinac Shipwreck Preserve.
The Roberta Bondar marina in “The Soo” is within walking distance of the CBSA offices on the Canadian side of the International Bridge. Easy for the agents to land Moon Dance and easy to get John back on American soil. The harbour master was incredibly helpful; allowing us to have a slip before the marina was open and ensuring that the water and power were turned on. He also provided a list of the other marinas in the North Channel that might be open.
The longest hold up in the whole process revolved around our boat insurance. We wanted confirmation that it would cover the boat if it was driven by a delivery captain. John had his own insurance but our boat needed to be covered. It took weeks. It appeared no one in Canada would cover a delivery captain even under a separate rider. One company let it slip that there had been 5 “catastrophic” losses involving delivery captains in 2019 so they were no longer prepared to take the risk. Eventually, we reached out to a relative who works at our insurance company. They were able to verify that our existing coverage would be honoured.
Ta-da… if you look close, you can see Moon Dance across St Mary’s River in Sault St Marie, Michigan. It was the hardest thing in the world watching someone else back her into a slip. We can only aspire to how well it was done.
Moon Dance IV 