BAIE FINE / BRADFORD ISLAND

Sunday, July 19

After a quick walk around town checking out some of the historic sites of Killarney, we headed out to the North Channel. We had been in communication with John & Kathe who are cruising the area in PDQ FREEDOM and decided we would anchor out together tonight in Baie Fine (where, by the way, there is no cell coverage at all). The wind was blowing quite strongly out of the southwest, pushing up 3-4 foot waves in places, so we had to pick our route trying to stay in the lee of as many islands as possible and keep the waves coming in front, rather than on the side (an uncomfortable beam sea). Bay Fine is about a mile wide and about ten miles long. There were several good anchorages along the way, but they were already taken by other boats. We finally found a nice little protected area near the end of the bay, and I anchored stern to land so we could tie the stern to a tree & not swing.

Topaz Lake

The four of us took the dinghies up to the end of the bay and found the trail going to Topaz Lake & had a nice land-based diversion wandering through the forest (and swatting away mosquitoes).

John & Kathe on our hike (climb)

After our hike, and back at the boat, I pulled out my fishing rod to pass a little time. I hooked a beautiful wide-mouth bass that was probably 4-5 pounds. While I was fighting him, I called for Elaine to get a few things ready to see if I could land him. Unfortunately, I don’t have a net, so I brought him to the back of the boat, got down on to the swim step and tried to grab his lower jaw, the way I used to when I was a deckhand on a sport fishing boat in California. I found out that freshwater bass don’t have teeth, like sea bass, so his jaw was smooth and slippery, and he slipped out of my grasp, just as he flipped out the hook. Boy, was I bummed. I could already taste him barbecued for dinner!

We had to barbecue chicken, instead, which John did for us over on their boat. We had a great dinner with them, and didn’t get back to our boat until late, after trying to finish off their store of wine…

Monday, July 20

The wind is still up, and is forecast to be 15-20 knots for the next couple of days. We left Baie Fine, continuing west through the North Channel, with a bumpy ride into Little Current on Manitoulin Island (the largest fresh-water island in the world). There is a swing bridge just east of Little Current which opens hourly for 15 minutes. We managed to get there just in time and went right through. Little Current is a nice town, with supermarkets, banks, stores, restaurants & gift shops. They also have a very nice town dock which you can tie up to for free during the day. There is an overnight charge, but they are great docks, right in the middle of town.

We stopped and toured the town, picked up a few things at the supermarket and filled the diesel tanks on IMPROV, even though we were only about half empty. Leaving town, with a very strong westerly wind, we, again, chose our route to be in the lee of the islands, and cruised around to Bradford Island and the sheltered harbor on the east side. Winds are forecast 20+ knots tonight and tomorrow from the Northwest, and this anchorage should give good protection. 

When I turned on the power for the instruments as we were leaving Little Current, the DC breaker for our radar and chart plotter broke. Right now, this isn’t a big deal, since we don’t anticipate much fog for the rest of the trip, and we actually use my iPad for our navigation, along with paper charts, but it would be nice to have it working. After we anchored, I took a look at the possibility of swapping out a different breaker (one that we don’t use much, such as the interior courtesy lights) of the same amperage. To figure out how to take out the breakers, I turned off all of the power, then started unscrewing things. The more I took apart, the more  complicated it became trying to switch the breakers. I finally called James (anyone with a PDQ knows James) to see if there was something I was missing. Unfortunately, it is just a difficult job to take out those breakers. However, James came up with a brilliant idea. Rather than switch the breakers, just switch the wires behind the panel to a working breaker. I put everything I had taken apart back together (about an hour to take it apart & put it back) and, in about two minutes, switched the wires to a working breaker. If you can’t bring the mountain to Mohammed, bring Mohammed to the mountain!

I just have to remember to turn on my courtesy lights when I want to use my radar…