Saturday August 17: Parry Sound

We left the anchorage at Shawanaga Island yesterday morning after a very quiet night. The winds had FINALLY quit blowing :-) It had been a great place to spend the two very windy days but we were ready to move on.

 The travel day was perfect - one of those days when you could see the close up islands but the others in the distance seemed to just float on the water.

Because it was predicted to be calm for the next 24 hours we were headed to an anchorage on the western side of Franklin Island. The problem with it is you can get stuck if a west wind kicks up as the island is open to the west from the winds of Georgian Bay. We took a chance :-)

And as it turned out, it was a great decision. Initially we thought we'd just check it out and then move on closer to Parry Sound but it was just too nice not to stay.

The kayaks came off as Steve and I explored the area - no spot was too shallow or too small for us to get through!

Some of the rock formations were really very different from what we've seen. See - I really SHOULD have been a geologist!

We spotted a mink that seemed to be attracted to the rustling of the zip lock bag in which the camera is kept on our kayak rides as the little guy stuck his head back up to check out who or what was outside his residence. So cute :-)

It was an early dinner so the guys could go out in the dinghy to fish. It was getting quite late before they gave it up - maybe the sunset over the water was worth it though!

It was an early leave time of 6:50 as we wanted to be in Parry Sound (a 3 hour cruise) in time to meet Cheryl's mom and sisters at 10.

The entrance to the anchorage was pretty tricky - good thing Steve was standing by as the bow watch as we exited very slowly.

It was so crazy calm - just amazing - once again. We slowly made our way out of the anchorage. This time it was me that couldn't stop taking pictures - even though I should have been strictly paying attention to what I was doing!

Peter and Cheryl came behind us - moving just as slowly with Cheryl on bow watch. Especially slow through the narrow opening of the entrance to the anchorage.

Be sure to click on one of the pictures to see the full size picture!

Finally made it out onto open waters - now only a 3 hour trip to Parry Sound over nice calm waters!

Ooops - we left our hand held VHF on Deja Vu. No problem though. Cheryl just put it in a little bucket and passed it off to Steve using the boat hook :-)

Note the jeans and thermal jacket Cheryl is wearing. It's still about 10 degrees below normal up here - what's with the weather???