BUSTARD ISLANDS

We were discussing today’s options over coffee, and remarking on how flat the water was, when we decided we had better take advantage of the situation and get moving, since the forecast included high wind warnings. It was supposed to be windy last night, as well, but it wasn't too bad. Whenever we anchor out, especially if the wind is expected to change in intensity or direction during the night, I usually get up at least once in the middle of the night to take a walk around the deck and make sure all is well. When I woke up last night, it was pitch black. I could not even see my hand in front of my face and absolutely no light was coming in through the hatches. I got up on deck, and, as dark as it was, the night sky was incredibly illuminated with thousands and thousands of stars. Several of the constellations jumped out at me, and the Milky Way looked like a ribbon running across the sky. The wind had changed direction, but the anchor was holding well, so I went back to bed.

Pointe au Baril

After trying to clean off some of the hundreds of mayflies which took up residence on the boat overnight, we took off from Franklin Island and jumped offshore at the first chance, in order to put some miles under our belts. We left the Small Boat Route at Pointe au Baril (Barrel Point) and came back in about 14 miles later at Byng Inlet.

A bear, swimming between islands

The inside route then became very tortuous, with many tight turns and channels. It was pretty, but if we had stayed offshore, we would have been much further toward the North Channel in the same time.

Some narrow channels, and lots of rock

The forecast was for 10 knot winds from the south all day (fairly accurate) then increasing to 15 knots, SE by late afternoon (the wind died down) then 20 knots from the south by midnight (it’s 9 PM and the water is like glass). Who knows? It may pick up later. If it does, we’re prepared. We stopped a bit early because we were near a protected bay. We came in and anchored in a small cove, facing south with our bow to the rocks, and put out a second (stern) anchor so we wouldn’t swing, since the cove does have some fairly shallow rocks nearby. 

Our protected cove for the night.

REGATTA BAY, FRANKLIN ISLAND

Tuesday, July 14

We woke up early, trying to chase down the mosquitoes that found their way into our stateroom. By the time 2 out of the 3 were dead, we were awake anyway, so were up at about 5:30. The third one got lucky and lived to bite another day. The weather stayed quite pleasant, no high wind as was forecast, and we left Echo Bay to wander through the islands, via the South Channel, up to Parry Sound. Parry Sound is both a large bay and a large town, so we went to Parry Bay, the town. It was a very pretty cruise, although it only took a couple of hours. We went even slower than our regular cruise speed because we knew we would get to the Parry Island Swing Bridge early, and it only opens once per hour, on the hour. We got there early and I called the bridge tender on the VHF radio, just to let him know we were wanting to go through when it opened, and he informed me, gruffly, that I’d have to wait another 15 minutes until 11 AM (which I knew anyway). After getting through the bridge, we tied up on the Town Pier in Parry Sound (the town) and were able to get power and water for the night at the same charge as being at the marina, but it was closer to town. 

We got the bikes down and took off for the major shopping center. We didn’t need all that much, but Elaine found out that there’s a Starbucks there and she had a coupon, which expired today, for a free anything coffee. Well, the Starbucks was just a drive through in a gas station that was incredibly difficult to get to anyway, so we gave up on that. We did stop by a store to buy a mosquito killer recommended to us. We’ll be ready if that third guy ever shows up again!

We stopped by a farmer’s market for a few things and wandered around the downtown area a bit before getting back to the boat. Although Elaine had some steaks defrosting, we decided to take advantage of being at a dock and near restaurants and go out for dinner. We went to the Bistro by the Bay and had one of the best meals of the trip so far.

"Hole in the Wall" channel in Parry Sound (the bay)

Wednesday, July 15

Elaine took a hike. There’s an old fire lookout on a hill overlooking town, and a museum nearby, so she decided to visit them. I stayed at the boat, getting some maintenance done and getting ready to depart when she returned. A very strong north wind had come up last night, and was still blowing this morning, but most of our planned route today was in protected areas, so we left the dock around 1:30 in the afternoon.

Lighthouse at entrance to Snug Harbor

A couple of spots had us exposed to Lake Huron and were a bit bumpy, but it was only for a short distance. We had searched out some likely anchorages on the charts, but when we got to the one we had decided on, it had a lot of boats in it. Instead, we found a slightly less protected area nearby and dropped our anchor. I have a great deal of confidence in this anchor (a 20 kg Rocna) and although it is windy, the water is still, we have plenty of room to swing on anchor (the wind is supposed to shift 180 degrees tonight) and the scenery is better without so many other boats.

Our anchorage in Regatta Bay

I positioned the barbecue in the most sheltered place I could on the boat, and we’ll cook up those steaks that were defrosted last night. No need to worry about having to make do for dinner. On the menu: fresh pea and feta salad with walnuts and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, the bacon-wrapped filet medallions, mashed potatoes with garlic and a bottle of Beaulieu Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s a tough life…

Our Bistro setting, with a view...

ECHO BAY

Left our crowded anchorage late morning and headed north, knowing that the weather forecast was quite vague. We had first heard to expect thunderstorms , 30% chance of rain and high winds by Monday evening, so I identified several anchorages along the way where we could bail out if things got too rough. We cruised on glassy water most of the day, with not a cloud in the sky. We decided to head for the San Souci area,as we had been told about the infamous “Henry’s” restaurant and thought we’d give it a try.

Hitch hiker statue along the way.

We stayed on the Small Boat Route - a buoyed channel winding it’s way through the many islands - most of the time, with only one deviation to go through Indian Rock Channel with it’s pink granite islands. I have to say that I have never seen such poor boating etiquette anywhere as I have around here the past few days. Technically, one is responsible for any damage that your wake could do, but in reality, that is difficult, if not impossible, to monitor and enforce. The majority of boats we have seen in these waters are local “go fast” boats in the 25 - 40 foot range, owned, I assume, by people within a 100 or so miles who want to get to where they are going, then get back home quickly. Their attitude appears to be that if you can’t handle their wake (sometimes 2-3 feet high), then you shouldn’t be out here boating. Courtesy says you slow down as you pass another boat, so your wake will not be too uncomfortable. Not here! I’ve had fast boats pass me going probably 30 knots, and not more than10 or 15 yards away in a channel which is only 50 yards wide! It leaves me with no evasive maneuvers possible, and I often cannot turn into the wake because their buddies are following right behind. In general, these are not the “cruiser” boats that travel at a sedate 6-8 knots and wave as you go by - these are a different breed that seem to want to impress with horsepower, speed and noise. The only consolation I have is that as they go by, I’m thinking “there goes an engine that is sucking up 60 - 100 gallons an hour versus my 1.5 gallons per hour.”

Anyway, we survived the wakes and made it up to Henry’s. We looked around close by for an anchorage, even did a little gunkholing in marginally charted waters, but couldn’t find anything closer than Echo Bay, about 1.7 miles away.

Elaine catching up with the world while in Echo Bay

We anchored there, a very nice, very protected bay with only three or four boats anchored, then watched another 5 or 6 come in. It’s a fairly large bay, so there is room for them all. The water was nice and clear and I used it to scrub down the boat, getting most of the insect remains off, then jumped in to cool myself off.

Relaxing on a floating cushion.

Because we would have to dinghy over to the restaurant, we decided to have an early dinner so we could be sure to be back before dark, and just in case any of the thunderstorms showed up. The restaurant has, apparently, been widely written up, but we decided it was mostly due to it’s unique location, although the food wasn’t bad. We got back to the boat before 6 PM, and it was so warm, another swim was called for.

The latest forecast is for high winds tomorrow (I’ve heard that before) and 30% chance of rain (sounds familiar), so we probably won’t spend a lot of time on the water. We’re not far from Perry Sound, a fairly large outpost of civilization, and might stop in there to see the sights…

FRYING PAN BAY

The objective of the day was two-fold; get to an anchorage which would 1) be protected from the forecasted high winds coming from the south and 2) be convenient to the hiking trails on Beausoleil Island. We left Chimney Bay late morning, heading to Frying Pan Bay, thinking that the weekend boaters would have to be leaving around mid-day and there might be a space on the public dock. Frying Pan Bay (shaped like…, well that’s obvious) has two public docks which can hold about 5 boats each and there is room (according to the cruising guide) for about 10 boats to anchor. We went through Big Dog Channel (which, I’m sure is meant for a big dog, not a big boat - parts of it were very narrow), past Honey Harbor over to the west side of Beausoleil Island. We got to Frying Pan Bay and found at least 6 boats at each dock and 18 boats at anchor in the bay. Nevertheless, we found a little spot off to the side and anchored so Elaine could hike the island. We put out a bow anchor and tied the stern off to a tree on land so we would stay in our own space and not swing.

Path through the forest

We dinghied in to shore and took a hike around Fairy Lake. The trail was a mix of dense forest and exposed granite. The forest part had wooden walkways that mostly kept you away from the carpet of poison ivy on the ground. The only thing missing was handholds you could grab when the mosquitoes ganged up and tried to carry you away. After a few hundred yards on the trail, we went back to the boat and sprayed down with insect repellent before starting off again. We were pretty warm after our hike so we jumped off the back of the boat (yes, even Elaine!) to cool down. Nice and refreshing, as well as not using up our meager supply of water taking showers (the lake is clean, clear, fresh water).

Fairy Lake

In some of my “down time” I have been doing a bit of fishing off of the boat. There’s supposed to be plenty of good-eating fish in this lake, although, so far, all I have caught is a northern pike - about a 5 pound fish with big teeth, lots of bones and poor flavor. Normally one would just throw these fish back in the water after dislodging the lure, but I wasn’t too thrilled about working around those teeth. Luckily, the fish threw the lure as I had him next to the boat, trying to figure out what to do. It reminded me of catching barracuda in the Bahamas and getting them off the line.

Since, by this evening, the forecast has changed, and no high winds are expected, we’ll probably move on tomorrow - not sure to where…

BEAUSOLEIL ISLAND

Friday, July 10

Finished off the Trent-Severn Waterway this morning by going through Lock #45 at Port Severn. There have been a total of 76 locks since we left Florida on this trip! Now we can put away the fenderboards and the gloves and cruise all at the same water height while here in Lake Huron.

From Port Severn over to Hogg Bay was only an hour or so to get to James & Jackie Power’s house and tie up at their dock out front.

Docked at James & Jackie's place

They had just returned from their canal boat trip in France and it was great to see them again, see their house & meet the rest of the family living there. It is a beautiful setting and very comfortable house. We jumped in the car with Jackie to get a tour of the Midland area, pick up a few things for dinner and stop by the Bell store to, with Jackie’s assistance, get a wireless data plan. Even though our US-based phones offer text and data service over Canadian networks, it is interminably slow and frustrating. I had brought an old, unlocked iPhone along, so we got a new SIM chip and now have 2GB of data per month! I guess I’ll have to start taking more pictures, now that there is no excuse for not loading them on to the blog.

Dinner was also a lot of fun with John and Kathe Macdonald joining us from Toronto. Their Boat, PDQ FREEDOM, is berthed in Midland and they are taking off for a couple of weeks to cruise the North Channel. We went over charts of both Georgian Bay and the North Channel and got some interesting bits of information about the area.

Saturday, July 11

We debated about taking off today or staying another day to enjoy the hospitality of our hosts. We borrowed a car so that we could get buy a cruising guide of the area and do some provisioning. We finished what we needed to do by early afternoon, so we decided to go over to the marina to get fuel then head up to Beausoleil Island. Getting fuel is a bit different here compared to the US. The fuel dock was staffed by a full crew of young people in the marina uniform who provide full service. Apparently by law, only a fueling crew can be aboard the boat at the time of fueling, so we stepped off, stood in the shade and watched them work. They fueled up both forward and aft tanks, pumped out our holding tank and filled up our water tank before we could get back on the boat. In the US, we were handed the diesel nozzle at the fuel dock and it was up to us to get everything done. Having fueled up many times on our own, we had a routine down where I would fill the tanks and Elaine would watch the fuel gauges, relaying their information to me so that the tanks would not overflow and make a mess on the deck. We did eliminate any overflow by doing this, but we also ended up not filling the tanks all the way up, stopping when the gauges were reading about 7/8 full. Well, we now have FULL tanks. Considering we last filled up in Bremerton, New York on June 25th - 16 days ago - we did pretty well. I’ll have to calculate our distance travelled, but a rough estimate gives us 4-5 miles/gallon over that time. Not bad for moving your house along the water.

One of the reasons we had considered waiting another day to get started was that it’s Saturday, and the weather is nice. Everyone said there would be hundreds of boats on the water today and it would likely be very crowded in the anchorages.  Well, I can assure you that prediction was not accurate. There are not hundreds of boats out here - there are thousands of boats out here today. And a surprising number of them throwing inconsiderate wakes around through narrow channels and in the anchoring areas. We’ll have to put up with this for at least half of tomorrow before they all start heading back home and leave us in peace for another week. Hopefully by next weekend we will be out of range of the overnighters in their “go-fast” boats.

Our dinner view tonight

One of the advantages of our boat is the shallow draft - we can go places where many other boats would hit bottom. Using this to our advantage today, we found a quiet place to anchor in a few feet of water between two small islands in Chimney Bay. It’s a nice, protected area with good holding for the anchor and a dynamite view while eating dinner (again). I did take a swim after we got settled in. It’s still a bit chilly when you first get in, but OK, once you get moving around It’s so nice to be able to swim off the boat in fresh water!

Tonight's sunset

PORT SEVERN

An interesting day, today. We went through two of the most unique locks in the world.

The day started in Orellia when we left the marina around 8 AM and retraced our steps from yesterday toward lock #42 which had been closed due to a power failure. It, and the railroad swing bridge, were open today. In fact, they said they had opened yesterday by 2 PM. We had turned around about 1 PM, so could have gone through if we had been patient enough to wait an hour. Unfortunately, even they did not know when the power would be restored and had been told it could have been as late as 6 PM. That’s OK, we had a nice third night in Orellia.

Weather was quite nice with mostly sunny skies, minimal wind and a very nice temperature. We wound our way through rivers, lakes and canals until we got to Lock # 43, one of the deepest conventional locks in the world. It lowered us about 45 feet.

Elaine, looking up where we just came from

The next lock, #44, also known as “The Big Chute” is actually a rail system with a flatbed car dropping down into the water in one lake, loading on the boats, then going by rail up and over a dividing berm to another lake.

The Big Chute just after loading

They can only take 2 or 3 boats at a time (depending on the size of the boats), so we did have to wait a bit to catch our ride over. The lock attendants really like the PDQ catamarans since we basically sit flat on our bottom, so they don’t have to use the cradles and slings to stabilize us for the ride. They have learned, however, to keep the back 4-6 feet of the PDQs hanging off the back side of the flatbed so no damage will occur to the area around the props.

Traveling down on the rail car

Several times today we went through “Narrows,” areas of a half-mile or so where the water is quite constrained by the narrow channel and the current flow was very strong. On a couple of these I had to announce on the VHF radio that I was entering the channel downbound (with the current) and hope anyone close to entering upbound would wait until I had passed. The downbound vessel has the right-of-way over the upbound vessel, since it is more difficult to maneuver while going with the current.

We had thought we would actually make it all the way to Georgian Bay today, but we stopped just a bit short for a few reasons; 1) we were getting a bit tired 2) the weather had worsened a bit and the winds on Georgian Bay were strong enough to kick up a decent chop and 3) we had a nice place to stop and tie up at Lock #45 and weren’t sure where else we could comfortably stop for the night if we didn’t make it all the way.

So, tomorrow morning we will go through the last of the 45 locks on the Trent-Severn Waterway which we started 11 days ago in Trenton…

ORILLIA, REDUX

Tuesday, July 7

The forecast for the day is pretty stormy, so we decided to stay another day in Orillia. We had a few things to do and/or buy, and we could do that here. Besides, we’ve had enough of locking through in the rain. I spent the morning, before the rain came, on my bike, riding off to the marine supply store and a bike shop. I have been so frustrated trying to adjust the bearings in one of my pedals, that I was ready for professional help. The bike mechanic looked at my pedal and said there was nothing else he could do, so I bought a set of cheap pedals ($5) as replacement. Elaine stuck around and did stuff on the boat.

The rain started late morning and was to last the rest of the day, so I decided the conditions were right to do a major wash-down of the boat. Whenever I wash the boat I get soaking wet anyway, so doing it in the rain doesn’t really make much of a difference. It’s pretty amazing how dirty a boat can get on a trip like this - I started from the very top and scrubbed every inch of this boat. It took several hours, and when I was done with the boat, I scrubbed down all of the fenders and fenderboards. It was a long afternoon, but it made a difference in how the boat looks.

Wednesday, July 8

So much for planning. We had planned to finish the Trent-Severn Waterway today and be in Lake Huron. However, the person who crashed their vehicle into the power pole next to the highway changed that. Both the lock and the railroad swing bridge at the north end of Lake Couchiching were without power by the time we got to them around mid-day, so there was no way to get through. It was unclear when power would be restored, but estimates ran as late as 6 PM, and by that time, the lock is closed. Since the railroad bridge couldn’t open, we could not even get to the lock to tie up at the wall and wait.

It was not difficult to decide what to do, although we did have options. We could have gone back into Lake Couchiching and anchored (there are some very nice anchorages there, and the weather is nice), but if you pay for two nights at the Port of Orillia, the third night is free. Since the marina has nice shore facilities and free electricity, not to mention access to Orillia, we retraced our route and got back to the marina by mid afternoon. This gave me more time for the boat projects that keep adding up. The 12 volt power cord which we have used for 3 years to keep the computer charged, quit working the other day. It had been getting a bit temperamental lately, and when it stopped working I pulled it out of the socket and saw melted plastic. Surprisingly, the fuse had not blown, but, apparently, the long term use was too much for it. I was going to replace that outlet with a USB outlet anyway, so I did that, then found I didn’t have a cord that would fit to charge the computer. After biking around to a couple of stores, I finally decided to completely eliminate any 12 volt plug, and temporarily hardwire the cord direct to the 12 volt source. It doesn’t look pretty with a wire coming out of a hole in the dashboard, but it works. Next project was getting the mineral spots off of the front windows using a glass polish and a polishing head on a drill. That done, I coated the windows with Rain-X to keep them clear. Next was repairing the VHF antenna - long story, but it needed repair and that got done also. Lastly, I’ve been meaning to take off some hardware on the dinghy. I’m not sure exactly what it was meant for - probably to hold a light pole, or something. Anyway, it was made of aluminum and had corroded very badly. When it was installed many, many years ago, some of the washers were poor quality stainless steel and had rusted, making ugly stains on the fiberglass. I removed it, sanded down the rust stains and filled the holes. By then, it was time for a shower and a walk into town to visit the local brew pub for dinner.

We’ll try again tomorrow morning - should get through the locks and the “Big Chute,” if there’s not too many boats backed up from the closure today…