Saturday August 10: Black Bay

Plan A: Leave Killarney mid-morning when the winds were to die down, cruise 28 miles (1 ½ hours) across the top of Georgian Bay, enter the small craft channel (which winds through the rock islands) and travel slow the remaining 28 miles (3 hours) to the small town of Britt which lies on the Byng Inlet – thus avoiding being on Georgian Bay in the afternoon when the west winds were predicted to pick up to 15 knots.

Plan B: didn't have one … good thing plan A worked!

It was actually a very nice day for the run across the top of the bay. Sun was out, a light wind was at our back and the waves were less than a foot. There were a few other boats around by the time we entered the small craft channel – mostly sailboats that appeared to be traveling north.

So very different traveling down the north shore – it's called the 30,000 Islands for a reason! - as opposed to the south shore with it's hundred foot cliffs and very deep water right up to the shoreline.

We arrived at the Byng Inlet and found Deja Vu right where Peter and Cheryl said they would be – we quickly dropped our anchor and tied up next to them for the night. Guppy looks like a baby boat compared to Deja Vu :-)

The next day was calm when we left and headed for an anchorage about 8 miles away. It's a beautiful bay with the granite rocks that look so nice but are so hard if you hit one! The guidebook normally will give instructions to “use caution” if a particular spot can be rocky. For Black Bay, it just says “use caution everywhere”! So in we went with Steve on the bow and Deja Vu following.

We found a great spot that looked like it would provide nice protection from the strong W and NW winds that were coming for the next day and a half. Of course it took almost an hour and a half just to get lines from both boats to shore as well as getting two anchors wedged in rocks behind us.

What a beauty of a spot!

Steve and I kayaked around the island behind which we were anchored. Saw some frogs and a mink but not much else. One boat that went by said there was a mother bear with her two cubs on one of the islands near us but we never spotted them. Sad.

As we came around the other side of the island we realized that we really WERE in a good spot as only the two flybridge canvases were visible above the top of the rocks (circled in red).

There was much fishing going on with Peter and Steve trolling the area for an hour or so in Peter's dinghy. Sadly no catching until they returned and Peter caught a really nice bass off the back of his boat!

Great dinner that night thanks to Cheryl's expert fish cooking skills :-)

Nice sunset and no mosquitoes (a rarity) so we could sit on the flybridge and be amazed by the Milky Way and a zillion stars. And everyone saw at least one falling star but Peter saw the most although it might be that he just saw some shiny things …...