Friday July 5: Plan C - Meaford!

After a last breakfast with Peter and Cheryl Wednesday morning, we finally departed Midland under sunny skies with Cheryl waving us off.

The murals on the old grainery - so unique to Midland - are such a landmark entering or leaving the Midland harbor.

Our plan was to spend a couple of days around the islands north of Midland and then move on to the western shore to a couple of small towns. Plans in the sand!

The day quickly turned hazy but it was still possible to see the rock islands that dot the east side of Georgian Bay.

Traveling about 20 miles took us to the northernmost island on the tip of Midland Bay to the island called Hope Island. Reviews indicated that if we squinted we would think we were in the Caribbean. I don't think the person who wrote that has never been to the Caribbean :-) But it was a very nice place anchor and the water was definitely crystal clear with the bottom easily visible at a depth of 11 feet. Steve kayaked - I again felt a need to stay aboard to repel any pirates that might be around the area. Thankfully, none were spotted :-)

The sunset was great. The night was not. We knew the winds were going to come in from the S but light winds so we didn't feel it would be an issue.

Man, is this boat noisy in a wind! Water slapping everywhere - guess we sort of forgot about that.

Finally I got up and just slept on the dinette. I didn't like not being able to see the water (on the trawler all I have to do is look out my little porthole :-) ).

In the end a peaceful night but not until I decided that we really weren't going anywhere! Somehow Steve managed to get sleep in even though he stayed in the lower bunk.

Thursday morning was very cloudy with rain coming in sporatically. I think I moved from the flybridge to down below to drive 3 different times.

Let's hear it for the easily mobile GPS chartplotter so I can see where it is we are supposed to be going!!!

Twenty miles across the Nottawasaga Bay and we were on the west side of Georgian Bay. Largest body of water we've crossed in quite some time as the intercoastal waterways aren't anywhere near this large.

Steve spent the time crossing working on the teak again. Last of the really messy jobs of stripping the varnish.

We entered the harbor at Meaford late in the day. Definitely we were ready to be tied to a dock for a day :-0

Bikes off first - a quick ride around town next. Had to check out places for breakfast, groceries, etc. Really a nice little town!





I really like the welcome center for the town - the apple!

The harbor area is so well done with much public access to the lake and lots of lake views.

The sunset was spectacular ... again. The harbor has giant rock walls (both the wall and the rocks are giant!) and it was fun to walk along the rocks out to the point to view the sunset.

No worries - it was a very careful walk for both of us but especially for me. Who needs a broken leg at this point, right?











Just to give an idea of the size of the breakwalls around the marina on which we were walking, check the picture above right. One of the guys at the marina here said that in a really bad north wind, the waves break over the top of the wall ......  And I thought Cleveland got some large waves over it's breakwall (which is no where near as tall as this one!).

We liked it so well here we stayed another day :-) Out for breakfast and lunch (just helping the local economy) and a nice ride along the Georgian Trail.

Tomorrow: heading north toward Cape Croker to what should be a nice quiet anchorage :-)