Canada’s Superior: the North Shore
Story and photos by Jennifer M. Smith
“Where should we go this year?” Nik asked as we booked the spring launch for our Vancouver 42’ sailboat, Green Ghost.
“We always said we’d go back to Lake Superior,” I replied.
“Let’s do Superior then. The Canadian side.”
And just like that our 2025 summer cruising was planned.
We’d been north before on a short two-week cruise. At the time, we were unprepared for the isolation, the lack of cell phone coverage, and the spotty VHF reception. Since then we’ve repowered, installed Starlink, and retired from work. Now, with confidence in our engine and our connectivity and more time to sail, we were Superior-ready.
We departed Wiarton, ON, in early July and covered the 225NM to Sault Ste. Marie (SSM) in a week. After final preparations in town, we entered the starting gate: the single lock that lifted us to Superior waters.
The Canadian coastline of Lake Superior trends north-northwest for 150NM from SSM to Marathon. From there, the shoreline abruptly turns, arcing westward for over 100NM to Thunder Bay. We planned to explore it all with a focus on Terrace Bay across Superior’s northern shore.
While southern Ontario suffered heatwaves, we had a cold, wet start. We dodged a storm cell on our first night in Batchawana, but the following evening in Sinclair Cove we turned up the VHF radio to hear the 20-knot northeasterly forecast, rain pounding our decks above.
