Monday: Gore Bay Marina

Since leaving Little Current on Sunday, we spent 2 days at anchor and visited 2 towns - Kagawong and Gore Bay (both on Manitoulin Island).

Bell Cove anchorage Thursday night

We've often seen shorelines like the one on the left in Bell Cove but could never figure out how the trees got to be such a uniform height. Turns out that during the winter when the water is frozen, the deer eat the trees along the shoreline and that is as high as they can reach! Makes sense to me :-)

East Rouse Island anchorage Friday night - better know as Sleepless in the North Channel - we woke up at 2:30 in the morning with the wind blowing quite hard. The anchors held but the night was not without it's worries. The up side was the stars were out in force - as they often are up here where this is little ambient lighting. Reminds me of Lake Powell at night when we were on Tom's pontoon boat with Mom. It's almost hard to believe there could be that many stars!

The days were not without work though. Steve repaired the lazarette hatch cover (which was splitting and needed reglueing) while I reattached the shelf in the front cabin. Near as I can figure, it was a casualty of our Lake Ontario crossing but just never noticed. How anyone thought two screws would be sufficient is beyond me so I replaced these with bolts instead.

Saturday we went on to the very small town of Kagawong - once again against the wind and waves. It was nice to be tied to a dock after the last night at anchor. There was a fun waterfalls, a great stop for lunch and a large outdoor chess set (we thought of you, Jim!).

A visit to the local museum - more antique outboard motors - and the church by the dock that had lots of boating items incorporated into the furnishings! This is also where we learned about Daniel Dodge - one of the Dodge car heirs - who scandalously married a local gal from Gore Bay and was seriously injured playing with dynamite at his home here on Manitoulin Island. In trying to transport him by boat back to Little Current, he fell overboard and was killed. They were married a very short period of time and his wife ended up with quite the inheritance. Anyway, it was interesting.

Spider webs and fog greeted us in the morning. You can just barely make out a sailboat at anchor toward the right side of the picture. It burned off by mid-morning so we were able to head out for Gore Bay - which is where we are now. Very windy - we'll stay another night and hopefully be able to take off tomorrow.

Thursday, August 12: Leaving Little Current

So Steve starts the day by returning from the marina showers with the statement "we must be stupid or something." Mind you this phrase is used quite often on the boat as our basic philosophy is when something that could have been prevented by some minor proactive action on our part goes wrong we were just being stupid.

Seems our front bike tires were stolen last night. We left the bikes locked around a telephone pole on shore right along the boardwalk - took the seats off but didn't think to lock the easily removable front tires as we locked the bikes.

This morning's agenda has thus changed a bit! I am still getting my hair cut but Steve will take the complementary shuttle from the marina to the bike store which is about 15 minutes outside of town. With any luck it will be the direction of the flea market and he can stop both places.

The moral of the story is of course lock everything up or simply put stuff back on the boat for the night. If we repeat this action it is then deemed to be a "consciously stupid" act: an act that you think to yourself "this is probably a dumb thing to do" and then proceed to do it anyway.

Successful trip for him though. We are now the proud owners of two complete bikes again :-)

Completed late yesterday: new safety features (Matt will be proud!). Since slipping and crashing on the small step from the flybridge down to the walkaround deck (this was Steve fortunately - I probably would be broken something) we added nonskid to all steps. Breaking things when at anchor would be a bad thing :-)

Best thing about this harbor by the way was the Dairy Bar - right off of our dock! Seems the best ice cream is made right here on Manitoulin Island - so of course we had to find out :-)

Wednesday, August 11: Little Current

Little Current is NOT a place with little current as we found out and as we look at the current flowing by the boat. We were lucky and got in before it was too bad though. Entertainment for the afternoon was watching people getting their boat into the dock! Most did quite well and no even minor mishaps. The map shows the three towns we have visited and the x's are places we have anchored. We made it through the bridge at 11 am after waiting in the channel for 20 minutes. It only opens on the hour and our timing was not the best :-( Having traveled only 10 miles today seems like we could have figured it out! All of the water that moves from the main North Channel to Georgian Bay funnels through this relatively narrow opening so it really can get quite a current under the bridge. This is the only bridge that connects Manitoulin Island to northern Ontario. Laundry is being done as I write and we are running the air conditioner as it is unusually hot and humid for this time of the year. This is the harbor at Little Current. The population here is 1500 permanent residents. You can see the bridge off in the distance to the right. The anchorage last night was again great. We are going to miss being able to find these very wonderful places once we are out of the North Channel. I can see why everyone who has been here loves it. Our plan is to be anchored out 6 of the next 8 nights. It reminds me of the Trent when we first started going up - clean water and much less crowded than now. When we anchor Steve is always looking out for places that offer kayaking opportunities and this anchorage was no exception. The water is incredibly clear - but we see very few fish. Maybe they just don't like the light as apparently the fishing is quite good for muskie and pike. We did see a beaver den - but no beaver. It was pretty neat though. It was quite warm again so Steve found the perfect spot out of the sun to relax and read (after he had scrubbed down the deck) and afterwards grilled supper. I'm not sure where the time goes ....

Monday, August 9: Manitowaning

I have finally figured out why they call this the North Channel. This body of water runs east and west across the top of Lake Huron and is the channel that is between the north shore of the lake and Manitoulin Island - the largest freshwater island in the world. Anyway, the Le Cloche mountains range is on the north shore and provide some spectacular views with it's white quartzite mixed with the red granite and green trees. We once again found a great anchorage and ended up spending 2 nights there (off of Frazier Bay) as the weather was gorgeous the first day but rain and thunderstorms the second. Seemed like a good place to sit and wait it out. Some guy who stopped for lunch near where we were kayaking showed us the 10 lb pike his wife had caught that morning - which prompted Steve to head out fishing even though it was raining! Not a good plan as then a light thunderstorm rolled into the area. We also saw a bald eagle when we were out kayaking around. Wanting to get an early start this morning, we nonetheless waited until we thought the fog would dissipate shortly - not the case. So we spent about an hour or so making our way through thicker fog than we have ever been in. Saw 2 boats cross in front of us - weird with the in and out of the mist - and eventually it did burn off. Not a lot of fun. Fortunately the route we were taking was basically a clear lake - even though I did manage to go on the wrong side of one buoy (but not a big deal - a mountain peak just jutting up out of the water in one spot!). Manitowaning Harbor: We made it to Manitowaning about 1 pm and promptly walked uptown to check out the museum. It used to be a jail with six small cells. The warden and his wife occupied the front 4 rooms right in the same building! Lots of guns - this pic is for Pat and Warren :-)

Friday, August 6: Still in Killarney

We woke today to calm waters, sunshine and puffy clouds in the sky. High today in low 70's - the perfect Canadian day! And once again I was duped. The dockmaster suggested that we ride to the Killarney Provincial Park - apparently there is a lake with red granite and white quartz - very worthwhile. So why not? It was only 6 - 7 kilometer. I quickly did the math and thought: ok, I can do 3.6 -4.2 miles with no problem. Turns out it's actually 12 kilometers (7.2 miles ONE WAY). After a very long ride out, it was actually worth the ride just for the exercise but also the lake was worth seeing. Plus there was ice cream 2/3 of the way back so it was the pause that refreshed!! Lake George really was georgeous - and it was fun watching a couple who rented a canoe, get into it backwards and paddled contentedly away!

Visited the local museum - there was an old Evinrude boat motor that would have sunk our dinghy - good thing they are smaller now. A trip to the general store and the day was complete. We mapped out the next two weeks which will take us back into the US through the Straits of Mackinac. The sky the night before we left was really something!

Thursday, August 5: Killarney - The Start of the North Channel

Every time we think we must have found the most georgeous place in this area, we find an even better one. Pictures simply don't do justice to the beauty of this area! We have traveled almost 100 miles since leaving Byng Inlet Monday morning and arrived at Killarney this morning. We are now offically in the North Channel! Anchoring out is the only way to travel up here as the towns are now getting quite far apart. We were fortunate to find some really great ones. Below is the view behind the boat of our anchorage at Major Island. We were tucked into a nice little niche in the rocks as it was quite windy again - and we held very well. Maybe it was partly due to the log which the anchor was hooked on which came up when we raised the anchor. Hey - whatever works! Steve was bent on pursuing the bumblebee that got stuck behind the washer - it ended up in the bilge - not sure if it ever made it out or not but we don't hear it buzzing at least. But the washing machine had to be pulled out - which is a whole process! Tuesday we moved on (in the rain of course) to the Bustard Islands - one of the most popular anchorages in this area. Quite large and very well protected. I felt a need to take a chart and GPS when we went kayaking just in case we got lost! There are that many little twists and turns and islands that it really could be difficult to get back to where we started. Never did clear up - in fact we hadn't really seen the sun much since leaving Parry Sound 5 days ago. Wednesday we were on the move early as it was predicted to be windy again. This time to Mill Lake and the best anchorage yet (Steve's pick this time). Glacial grooves in this area are quite common (Steve is kayaking past one) as all of this area was formed when the glaciers pulled back after forming the Great Lakes. Some of the rocks on the north shore are over 3 BILLION years old (according to the guidebook). Also spotted visiting our ancorage was a double dinghy!! (One of the restaurants in Seattle served chowder as double, triple or quadruple dinghys.) After a short run over open water (again windy) we arrived at Killarney. First order of business was to have fish and chips for lunch at the chip truck that has been a part of Killarney forever. Then a bike ride to the lighthouse for a view of the opening of the Killarney Channel. Sometimes it's good to be tied to a dock. The winds here at the boat are 23 mph with gusts of 32 mph! I think we'll stay another day as the winds will continue for at least that long. More tomorrow :-)

Sunday August 1: Byng Inlet

Well, we didn't make it to Byng Inlet yesterday but stopped instead at Bayfield Inlet (which is really where we were headed as it was 43 miles and far enough for a day). Before we left Parry Sound, Steve had to make one more trip to the store on his bike. Never mind that he had spent 1 1/4 hours in the same store the day before when we had a car. Or that he spent an hour in the store at Orillia on the way back from Buffalo. I could not lift his backpack - it's just crazy what he can put in that thing! The small craft channel north from Parry Sound winds through some very interesting places - including the channel below which appears to go nowhere. There is actually a very narrow (as in 1 boat at at time) channel to the left in this picture. Steve's preferred work time is when we are moving as it is overcast and gives him a perfect time to tape and recoat the railings. This is when he isn't helping me find the buoys!

After a nice sunset, it was up early with an egg in the hole for breakfast and on our way out of Bayfield Inlet. The guidebooks said we needed a smooth lake for the next 10 miles (about an hour and 20 minutes for us) as the channel was open to the full length of Lake Huron. For once the wind was minimal and actually at our backs most of the way. Very interesting run - I was happy the sun wasn't out as you can see to a depth of 10 feet and many of the rocks we went over were VERY visible with sunlight but not so much with an overcast sky. It's just unnerving even knowing we have plenty of depth under our keel. See if you can find the buoy in the picture below - you will have to blow it up - as this is what we look for to stay in the relatively narrow channel. Imagine trying to find these buoys in 3 foot waves! Innovative person that he is, Steve found the perfect solution to the charts blowing everywhere. I was using the binoculars to hold them down but of course every time Steve picked them up to look for buoys, the charts blew around. This is the best use of crescent wrenches ever! Tonight we are staying at St. Amant's Marina in Byng Inlet which has a restaurant - and opens at 8 for breakfast. We're definitely in! Next two nights will be spent at anchor and then we will travel to the beginning of the north channel: Killarney. Update in a few days .....