SPANISH RIVER

Thursday, July 23

The wind died down a bit overnight, so we weighed anchor to get out into the channel before the whitecaps started up again. The water at our anchorage had cleared up considerably overnight and I could see the anchor in about 20 feet of water as I was pulling it up. Too bad the water had not warmed up as well.

Our first idea was to go to Eagle Island which, on the chart, had a nice big bay on the northeast side, but scout out Gibson Bay on Fox Island on the way over. Gibson Bay actually looked pretty nice and protected, although it is deep water right up to shore, a couple of boats were already there, and it was only a few miles from our last anchorage. We kept on going to Eagle Island, where we were a bit disappointed in the exposure. The wind was already coming up and, clearly, hitting the bay fairly strong. We kept going. We had thought we might stop in at the town of Spanish in another day, so going in that direction we scouted out Shoepack Bay. It was very protected, although deep, small, and there were already boats anchored, swinging on one anchor. Because they were swinging, there was no room for anyone else to come in. We kept going. By this time, around noon, the wind had come up and there were 2-3 foot waves and whitecaps in the exposed channels. Spanish wasn’t that far away, so we headed there to spend the night in a marina.

Spanish Municipal Marina

It’s a nice marina, although not much of a town. There’s a sporting goods shop, a couple of minimal grocery stores, a liquor store and some restaurants about 1.5 miles away. The best thing about the marina is the community building right next door. It’s a modern, 2-story structure which houses classrooms, event spaces, a workout gym, laundromat and full washrooms with showers (which marina tenants can use).

Community center

After a walk into town, mainly just to stretch our legs, we were entertained by other boats trying to get in and out of their slips in the strong wind.

Ontario countryside around Spanish

It’s now Friday AM, and, looking at the weather forecast, we have a day before another strong front comes through with 20-30 knot winds. The extended forecast really doesn’t show much relief for another 3-4 days. We would like to head over to Tobermory on the Bruce Peninsula, but that entails some open water, so we may gradually position ourselves over the next couple of days, hopping from bay to bay, and take off for the crossing on the first good-weather day.

IMPROV docked at Spanish

Yesterday, we made plane reservations to head home for a week in August, so we will want to be back to Midland before we go,  to put the boat on a mooring while we are gone…