CROKER ISLAND

Really getting tired of this wind. We moved to the Benjamin Islands today, but spent a good amount of time looking for an anchorage. The cruise over was only a couple of hours, but, even leaving in the morning, the conditions became worse and worse. We were fighting 4-5 foot waves by the time we reached South Benjamin Island. The first place we anchored was protected from the wind, but a swell coming into the bay made it very rolly. We went around to the other side of the island and found any and all protected anchorages already taken up by boats. I felt like I was trying to find a parking place in San Francisco! We backtracked a bit to the east side of Croker Island and finally found a protected cove with only one other boat anchored. We anchored and put two stern lines to shore, tied to rocks (covered with bear scat, by the way). Even with the island and forest behind us, protecting us from the direct wind, we still get pretty of strong gusts curving around the cove.

It was afternoon by the time we got anchored, so after a quick lunch of leftovers, we tried to explore the island, but the growth was too thick. We jumped in the dinghy and explored some of the area along the shore, but we couldn’t go far without getting into more waves and wind. The forecast is for winds to diminish tonight from 20 to 10 knots, but building again tomorrow afternoon to 15. More wind on the way for Friday & Saturday before lessening on Sunday.

As I mentioned before, all of this wind is churning up the water, mixing the warm surface layer with the colder lower layers. Even a week ago, it felt good to jump into the water, but now it’s pretty brisk. I took my soap, shampoo and towel over to a small, isolated cove so I could bathe, but it was a pretty quick bath.

My internet data plan is quickly being used up, so pictures may have to wait a bit. Just imagine us in the back draft of a jet engine and you’ll get the picture…

AMEDROZ ISLAND

Continued Strong Wind Warnings today on the weather forecast. It looks as if it will be this way for another day or so. Winds have been steadily 15-20 knots with stronger gusts. Our anchorage last night was protected, but the wind howled through early this AM and got the boat moving enough to send it into “creaking” mode. Usually the boat doesn’t creak unless the water is rough at anchor, but the water stayed fairly calm (considering the strong wind) and the boat made noises. 

We decided to switch anchorages, thinking we might find someplace that would not only have smooth water, but give us some protection from the wind. On the chart, we saw a cove couple of islands over that looked like it would suffice, so we weighed anchor and headed over there. Surprisingly, the channel exposed to the wind wasn’t too bad this morning, so the couple of hours we were underway were tolerable. On our way to the cove we had selected, we passed by another island, and looking with the binoculars, saw a small, un-named cove with water like glass, when all around it there were whitecaps. We headed in and anchored in an incredibly still cove with water so clear, we could see the bottom at over 15 feet deep.

Our well-protected anchorage on Amedroz Island

Once we were settled, we took the dinghy over to shore, hiked around a bit, and I found some nice, ripe wild blueberries (always alert for bears).

We were in the cove by ourselves until mid-afternoon when three sailboats came in and anchored as well.

Our inverter/charger (the device which both charges the battery when hooked up to shore power and changes DC power to AC) has been giving a warning message that the internal temperature is too hot when it has been charging the battery. I took a look at it, and the cooling grills and circuit boards (that I could see) were covered with lint. We tried to vacuum it out, but couldn’t really get access to it and I figured the best way to clean it out would be to use compressed air. Unfortunately, I do not have an air compressor on board, but I do have a hand pump to inflate the dinghy. I rigged up a connection from the pump to a length of hose, inserted a small plastic nozzle into the hose and one of us pumped and the other directed the nozzle into the ventilation ducts. It was pretty amazing how clean everything got with just that amount of “compressed” air. Now, of course, we’ll have to wait until we are at a marina again, hooked up to shore power, to see if it did any good.

Later in the afternoon I decided to try fishing in the next cove over. It had some grass and bushes growing along the shore, which looked like good bass habitat. About an hour or so was enough to get a couple of nice-sized largemouth bass (3-4 lbs each) which we later ate for dinner. They were incredibly fresh-tasting, having been swimming around in the lake just a couple of hours before being eaten.

A little warmer, a little less wind, and it would be perfect!

We are planning on getting to the Benjamin Islands within the next day or so, depending on when this wind lets up. The cold front associated with this wind is keeping the temperature down to the low 70s during the day, and the wind is causing a lot of water mixing which lowers the temperature. My “bath” off the back of the boat this afternoon was quite refreshing (too cold for Elaine - she takes a nice warm shower on board). I could go for some warmer weather and warmer water…

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…

KILLARNEY, NORTH CHANNEL

Sunset at Bustard Islands

A grey, rainy day at the Bad River anchorage

Woke up to a sky as grey as yesterday, but after a cup of coffee, things started to lighten up a bit. It had stopped raining, so I got out on deck and scrubbed/washed most of the insect remnants off the boat and organized the stern anchor a bit so it would be easier to deploy. The bay we are anchored in is the run-off for the Devil’s Door Rapids which drains a considerable amount of the watershed around here into Lake Huron.

The river above Devil's Door Rapids

Since I had seen photos of other people do it, I revved up the dinghy and we went upstream through the rapids into some beautiful rivershed areas. It really wasn’t that much of a rapid, and was pretty easy to run, but it gave us a diversion for the morning. We then took the dinghy (at high speed) out to the mouth of the Bad River, about a mile away, to see just how bad it was. It looked OK, with no whitecaps in sight, so we decided to get back to the boat and head up to Beaverstone Bay - the 14 mile “outside” jaunt. As we got back to the boat, another boat had just come in and was anchoring next to us. Elaine asked if it was rough outside, and they replied “not at all,” so we took off.

It wasn’t bad, only about a 1 foot sea and we even thought about bypassing the small boat route and heading direct to Killarney, but decided we wanted to slow down and see the scenery, so went into Beaverstone Bay and through Collins Channel - both very pretty.

Granite walls in Collins Channel

We did have some electrical issues along the way, although we traced them down to a slightly discharged house battery bank. Since we had been anchoring out for a few days and it had not been sunny, our solar panel just couldn’t keep up with our usual electrical demand. Normally, one would run their generator for an hour or two every day to charge up the batteries, but, for the past couple of years, we have relied on the solar panel in sunny Florida. This far north, especially with the rain and clouds, the solar panel is just not as efficient. We’ll have to monitor that situation a bit closer than we have in the past.

A narrow part of the channel

We continued on to Killarney, the “entryway” to the North Channel - one of the most popular and beautiful cruising grounds in the world. We decided to stay at a marina for the night so we could wander around town and pick up a few things we needed and plug in to electrical power to make sure the house bank of batteries was fully charged. The infamous Herbert’s Fish & Chips is here in Killarney. It used to be a fish & chips take-out stand in a converted school bus, and everyone stopped by as they passed through Killarney. Although still a take-out place, they now have their own building where the bus used to be parked. We stopped by for a take-out dinner, went back to the boat, opened a bottle of pinot noir and ate on the flybridge as the sun came out for the first time in about three days.

It looks like I have reasonable internet connectivity, so I’ll try to include a few pictures from the last couple of days…

Even with all the clouds last night, a nice sunset

Notes from Elaine

So our boat's name is IMPROV and our hailing port is San Francisco (okay, we are from Corte Madera, but close enough, plus we stamped our hailing port as "San Francisco" on our boat before we bought our house in Corte Madera and everyone knows where San Francisco is located). What happens is everyone assumes (me included, until a few years ago) that we came from San Francisco (I guess through the Panama Canal) so I have to explain that we started the trip in Florida (still, a long ways away) and we kept the boat on the Atlantic coast and have traveled here from Florida. In fact, you can stamp ANY location on your boat as your hailing port, including Denver, Colorado or Winnemucca, Nevada or Timbuktu. My ignorance of the boating world increases. 

However, having said that, my husband has been boating since before I met him (me, not so much). We have owned a boat most of our married lives, but never really embarked on such major expeditions as the last few years. My friends and family say they could never live on a boat for months at a time but I beg to differ. I KNOW my friends and family, and they COULD do what I am doing - because I am a BOAT WIMP! Plus our boat now (albeit, tiny) has all the comforts of home - AC, heating, microwave/oven, stove, refrig/freezer, full head with shower and two "staterooms" (which are the size of a queen size mattress).

Dave is an excellent captain and boat handler, but we share navigation duties throughout the trip. I prefer to handle the boat in rough seas so I don't get seasick.  I prefer to navigate. Since Dave docks and undocks the boat the ultra majority of the time (I only have the confidence to do it during the calmest waters) I have become proficient in line handling. My confidence has soared during this trip.

So I head into the North Channel, Canada, brimming with confidence, until I display my lack of knowledge once again. There is a Michigan island stuck in between all these Canadian islands? Are you kidding me? Who drew up these international boundaries anyway?

BAD RIVER

NOTE: We have a very weak internet connection out here in the middle of nowhere. To get the full effect, read this VERY SLOWLY...    (pictures to follow)

Well, the wind finally did come up last night, and it was fairly strong. However, we were well protected in our little cove, the only issue being that the wind, coming from the south, swirled around the cove and hit us broadside from the southeast and we had anchored bow & stern facing south. It actually wasn’t bad, since the cove was so well protected that wind blowing over the trees at 20-25 knots only swirled around at about 5 knots, so we had no issues with the anchors holding. Nevertheless, I was up a couple of times during the night to check on things.

The wind had calmed a bit by this morning, and the forecast was for continued calming throughout the day, although rain in the afternoon. The next leg of our cruise required that we go into unprotected, offshore water for a minimum of about 14 miles, and we were concerned that the water might still be rough from last night’s wind. We decided we’d give it a go, but had a couple of contingency plans, and a bail-out point if things are too rough. The first mile or so from the anchorage was OK, but we were still in the lee of the Bustard Islands. When we were about 2-3 miles out, things started getting rough quickly. Within a half mile, the waves went from 1-2 feet to 4-5 feet as we reached the open water. The first contingency plan was to turn around & go back to the same anchorage as last night, the second was to head up Bad River to a protected anchorage there. By the time things got rough and we decided not to keep going, we were several miles from last night’s anchorage but only about a half mile to the channel for Bad River, so we chose Bad River. The cruising guidebook said not to attempt entering the channel in rough weather, but the visibility was good - I could see the range markers and the channel markers clearly - and the seas were behind us, so we threaded our way between the waves crashing on the rocks, into the channel and calm water. The anchorage is about a mile up the river, and we expected to find it packed with cruisers, but there were only three other boats there, and plenty of room to put down a bow anchor and swing to the wind.

By the time we anchored and got the boat secured, we were pretty cold. Even though it was probably in the mid 60s, it was raining and the wind, instead of letting up, had gotten stronger. A quick warm shower and a bowl of hot chili for lunch helped get us, and the boat warmed up. It was an incredibly grey day, all day long, with a light, but steady rain and some thick fog in the evening. This really is a beautiful anchorage, and I could see how it would be phenomenal if the sun were shining. But, it was an “inside” day today, studying, reading mystery novels and (Elaine) knitting.

We’ll check out the forecast first thing in the morning, and if it looks like there’s any chance of reasonable water we’ll keep on going up to Beaverstone Bay, then have a protected inside route almost all the way to Killarney and the North Channel…

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...