August 10th: Anchoring on Georgian Bay, Indian Harbor and Monument Channel.

We left Parry Sound with a gorgeous day for travelling on Georgian Bay. It was very enjoyable weather so we decided to stop at Indian Harbor, a popular anchorage. There were winds coming in the next day but it was too far to go all the way to Port Severn, our next planned stop. Indian Harbor  is not the best for holding an anchor but Peter and Cheryl were able to get out of the wind with the anchor holding.

Over night the winds shifted just enough tom cause trouble, but fortunately it was morning when we realized the anchor was slipping. Peter and Cheryl went to work and moved us closer to shore so we would hold.

After checking the weather we decided we should move to Monument Channel where there was a protected anchorage with good holding. We had about 5 miles to go in fairly rough seas but thought we'd be okay. If it looked too bad we could always turn around and go back.




There were pretty rough seas but manageable. We arrived at Monument Channel happy to be in the secure anchorage. Peter and Cheryl anchored our moving dock and we tied to them again.

The bent over trees on the island are a typical indication of the strong winds in Georgian Bay. The wind was not hitting these trees when I took the picture, they always have this appearance and shape. The prevailing north and west winds cause the trees to have this continuous Georgian Bay bend.

The forecast for strong winds over night were accurate but we were fine. I decided I might as well refinish the side railings on Guppy. The finish was getting pretty bad. Not a big job but one I don't like to do in a marina where the sanding can be annoying to other boaters. The sanding was completed and I got one coat of finish on. Two more coats to go.



We watched the forecast and saw that the next day the winds were again too high for travel. We decided to stay another night.

Not much else to do so I decided to try fishing. Once again I caught a nice pan sized bass which we had for supper.


The afternoon was nice and sunny so I went for a very nice kayak ride. I was protected from the wind and there was a very nice winding path through large rocks.



That evening, for docktails, there was a fairly strong cool breeze, even in our anchorage, so we sat on Deja Vu's plastic enclosed fly bridge. The sun warmed thing up nicely. I decided we better get a picture so of course Peter had to once again clown around, as you can see in the first picture where he is blocking Cheryl. I thought about cropping Peter out of the second picture but why bother! It would probably just encourage him.















 After checking the weather for the next day, Saturday, the winds were supposed to die down for a while in the morning but then pick up again around noon. It was 22 miles to Port Severn with a lot of open water. We planned to leave at daylight if things looked good. That night we were rewarded with a beautiful sunset.









We woke to a beautiful sunrise and calm winds.

We said goodbye to Peter and Cheryl as they decided to go back to their home port for a couple days. We had a lot of fun travelling with them but we wanted to keep moving to catch up with Cindy and Randy on Margaritaville. Their grandkids, Liam and Mia, were going to be with them for the week and we wanted to spend some boating time with them. They were a lot of fun whenever we have gotten together. We hoped Peter and Cheryl, along with Cheryl's mom Lois, would meet us somewhere on the Trent after we met up with Cindy and Randy.


It was quite cool as you can determine by the way Linda bundled up. Veronica Mars hooded sweatshirt, (thanks again Rebecca for the sweatshirt) and oven mitts for gloves. The outfit worked just fine.

We were able to cruise most of the way to Port Severn with calm seas. We arrived just before the first lockage at around 8:30am. We were glad we arrived early, (the locks open at 9:00 am) because several other boats arrived and because it is the smallest lock on the system, the last two boats had to wait for the next lockage.

Last Blog's Wildflower:

Tansy

Tansy is a perennial, herbaceous flowering plant of the aster family, native to temperate Europe and Asia. It has been introduced to other parts of the world, including North America, and in some areas has become invasive. It is also known as common tansy, bitter buttons, cow bitter, or golden buttons.

This Blog's wildflower: