Georgian Bay and North Channel

We were the last to go through the last lock at port Severn. The lock was small and would only hold one boat of our size at a time. Since I had to perform the emergency repair of the cooling system on the Starboard engine at the upper side of the lock, it put us last.
The bridge between the last lock and Georgian Bay has always had a problem with depth, so we had arranged for someone from the marina at Midland, to drive over and ride with one of us through the minefield of granite.
Our “guide” got there early and got on with Barefoot’n since he was the largest boat. Seaglide and Pazza Bella both tied up on the wall at the bottom of the lock, waiting for us. As soon as we came out, they radioed to us to go first while they untied.  I looked ahead of us and all I could see was a field of red and green bowling pins!!
Imagine the picture below without a boat going under the bridge!!  Thanks to Grace from Seaglide, I stole these pictures from their Blog.  We had a small camera SNAFU while in the lock and didn’t have time to get out the other camera.
Barefoot’n and our “guide” had already gone through the maze and were nowhere in sight.  With the wind and current, they could not stop and wait without the possibility of getting pushed onto the rocks.  They stayed in contact with us by radio and painted a picture of where I should go.  It’s a good thing too, as there were places that if you missed a buoy it would put you right where you didn’t want to be, on the rocks!
As we approached the “minefield” it became more clear as to the proper route to take.  There was one place where there was no red marker and you had to go between the “green” and the rocks.  There was even a chair there on the rocks where I imagine people go to watch the action.
Pazza Bella and Seaglide followed us and we met up with Barefoot’n on the other side.  There were still plenty of places that our guide led us through that could have been a problem.  As it turned out, we all made it without a problem.

The “Minefield” and by the way, just to confuse things, the reds and greens swapped sides at this point.  Red was now on the right.

Looking at where we came through.  Not much room between the rocks and the green marker under the bridge.  Not enough room for even another red marker!

The same picture with our approximate route.  The one turn was rough!!  Notice the observers chair.  I think we all deserve a score of   “9.9” !

The route is not straight between the black marker on the left island, and the red marker on the right island.  If you look closely, there is a little red bowling pin to the left of center between the islands. this meant that we had to hug the left island to keep the marker on our right.

Midland, Bay Port Marina

Cindy’s Observations:  After a restful nights sleep, with no more locks in sight until Chicago,  I rounded up the girls and asked them to come on our boat.  I had planned a morning mimosa toast to celebrate the successful completion of  the locks in Canada.   A job well done  by all the first mates!!!  Captains too, but this was all about the girls.
After talking with the dock hand, Ashley, she passed on to us the name and number of the spa for mani-pedis (written on her arm in true student fashion) and suggested a few good places for lunch.
While the captains were in a chart plotting meeting with our guide Ken to plan our journey through the Georgian Bay and North Cannel, we decided to head into town for some quality me time as a group.

A little French Cafe was our choice for lunch.  Everything was delicious.  We even walked out with several “docktail” types of snacks to enjoy later.
Next up was our mani – pedis.  Vicki thought we needed to step outside the box and pick colors outside our comfort zone.  She chose aqua.  Okay, I’ll do red to match my new sandals from Bigleys (40,000 pairs of shoes and I found ONE that fit).  Purple for Grace and French (usually does colors) for Veronica.


After an afternoon of “pampering” and lots of window shopping we thought it would be fun to meet the fellows responsible for getting us here in the first place.  Kind of like a date night.
After their afternoon of “plotting” we met at the local pub to unwind some more.

Georgian Bay in the morning.

Now we have challenges of a different kind, granite.  As beautiful as they are, it is a little stressful navigating amongst the numbers of formations.  They call this Bay land of the 30,000 islands.

Heading into our anchorage for the evening.

   The Inuksuk is leading us to Indian Harbor

We tried several times to get a good hook but no luck do to the grassy bottom, so we rafted with Pazza Bella.

As you can see, the current is flowing swiftly through the rock formations.  At least that keeps us facing the same direction with no swinging.

It was a clear night and the moon shined brightly.

The morning brought sad news.  Amos (Seaglides boat cat) had jumped ship at 4 in the morning.  Grace and Jeff had searched in their dinghy to find him but no luck.  The current was strong and we had no idea which way he would have swam.
As they were heading the dinghy back to their boat to give up the search, this anchored boat asked if they were looking for a cat.  YES, said Grace.  Amos had swam up the current and made it to the swim platform on the back of the anchored boat and started howling around 4 in the morning.  Amos was safe and used another one of his nine lives.  More on this later.

Chanel markers are your new BBF in Canada.  It is imperative that you follow them or pay the consequences.  Here we go through another zig zag turn.  A Security must be announced before entering, as there is not enough room for boats to pass.

These next shots are of different rock formations.

This land is referred to as the “wilderness”.  It is amazing to see the cottages and homes in which all materials have to be brought in by float plane or boat.

How did that one lone tree survive??  How is it so much larger than all the rest??

It’s a cell phone tower!! Completely fake.

The water was unbelievably clean.  NO SALT.  All fresh water.  It was beautiful!

This is roughing it on your own private island.

Look to the right of the wind sock and you will see the yellow nose of the float plane.  There are as many planes as boats it seems.


Heading out to more open water.  It’s less stress from submerged boulders but can get choppy.  See how the structures are built on top of the granite with pilings.

We were headed to our marina when we saw a boat in distress.  Their motor would not shift out of low gear and could not keep up with the current.

Don’t tell our Coast Guard Flotilla.  I’m not certified for towing!!  But what else could you do?  They flagged us down with an ore in hand.

These next shots show the distressed trees.  They grow only a few inches per year.

Coast Guard Canada

We stayed 2 nights at Wrights Marina in Britt waiting for a window.  It was cold enough, so we had a chili dinner party on our boat.  Seaglide and Pazza Bella each brought chili to go with our chili.  After dinner we killed some shots of “white caps or little beers”  Betty L had introduced these to us.  Cuarenta Y Tres with a layer of cream on top, yum.

Dawn, heading out for another anchorage at Mill Lake

Beaver den

Looking for a head stone to make an Inuksuk

We dinghyed around the granite boulders looking for keepsakes.

Mill Lake was a really cool place to anchor.  The coyotes were serenading us along with the loons.

A new day headed for Killarney, the beginning of the North Chanel.

 

Lighthouse outside of the channel into Killarney

Entering Killarney from the water you pass by the variety store complete with water access.

The front of store depicts a time of long ago with the huge facade and massive mill work.

Fresh caught fish at the Herbert fisheries.

We ate our fish and chips by the water served from the school bus.
When we were at Great Harbor in the Berry Islands, Bahamas, we met he cousin of the owner of Herberts.  She called and told him we were there but he could not make it to see us.  Maybe next time.

Here the girls are filleting the white fish.   Below is the smoked trout, which will make a very good appetizer with cream cheese and crackers,  I’ll take one fillet divided, for later.  Not bad for $5.


This sea gull was begging for food,  making such a ruckus.  Perched on this ice breaker boat behind the fisheries.


Sportsmans Inn marina offered a movie for the evening but we could not pick up the audio on the radio frequency.  Instead we enjoyed a night of sing-a-long music in the pub.

Another first.  Movie screen were movie would be shown later that evening.

This is “Famous Amos”.  The disappearing cat from Seaglide.  He has used 3 lives so far.  He is very adventurous. 

Poor Heidi loves Amos and Amos says “talk to the paw”

Restored wooden boat

Outside the Killarney museum sat a tame chipmunk packing his cheeks with peanuts.  Inside stood this pump organ just like my grandparents had.  It brought back fond childhood memories.

  We had a hearty breakfast before heading out for the day to our next marina.

Just because they make it, doesn’t mean you should wear it!  Especially in public!!

North Channel

Leaving Killarney into the North Channel

Indian Head Rock was a popular tourist spot which we had to see for ourselves. 





Had to wait a few minutes for the swing bridge at Little Current to open.  Only opens on the hour.  The last hour of our trip was at about 6 mph so we wouldn’t get there too soon and  have to wait.  There is a LOT of current at Little Current!

  “Appy” Hour at the Anchor Inn Hotel Fridays 3-5 PM in August was provided by the Little Current Yacht Club free for loopers.

Morning radio broadcast to boaters around Little Current.  Roy Eaton has been broadcasting the “LCYC Cruisers Net” for 10 years in July and August every morning around 9 AM.  You could get help, find things you need and other bits of information that could come in handy.  A role call was taken and you would be surprised how many boats were within radio range. Even the Loopers in the peanut gallery were credited for attendance.  Seaglide was acknowledged from were they anchored the night before. We witnessed it from the “studios” on the second floor of the Anchor Inn.
Turners is a store in Little Current established in 1879 that supplies charts and navigation books for boaters since that time.   Sure enough, we have a roll up paper chart from Turners and did not even know it until I went searching.  Turners is…a piece of Island history.

There is a  story behind this cooler.  We had gone to bed and around 1 or 2 in the morning  Cindy felt the boat rock.  Then we both heard movement on the deck over our heads.  Cindy said “someone's up there”.  I immediately regretted being in Canada with no firearms!  I got up and knocked on the inside of the door and yelled “HEY”. 
I didn’t know if it was a person or a bear or what, so I figured I would give them a head start.  As soon as I yelled, I saw a person run down the pier beside the boat. So I immediately went on deck and saw that they stopped at the power connection for the boat next to us.  I yelled “Hey” again and they took off running to shore and disappeared into the darkness.  I took a quick inventory of what was on the bridge and didn’t see anything missing.  My portable radio, binoculars, flashlights and everything was still there.  We keep two large coolers on deck for storage and they were unstacked and both open.  Nothing appeared to be missing there either.  They only contained lines, cleaning supplies and stuff like that.
So I put away the valuables in case they came back and went back to bed.  After lying there for a while I thought “I didn’t see the little pink cooler that we had our soda in”.  Then it hit me that our visitor was looking for booze.  That is why they were looking in the big coolers.  I went back upstairs and looked.  Sure enough the small cooler was missing.
Boy were they going to be surprised!  The cooler contained a bottle of water, two diet sodas, and one can of LA beer (Nonalcoholic) .
When I got up early the next morning and looked around, I saw a cloth bag next to the power connection where I had yelled at the intruder the night before.  I went and looked and found 5 bottles of Bud Lite Lime in the bag.  I guess when I yelled, he left the bag and opted for the cooler.  Poor choice if you were looking for booze.
I reported the break-on to the marina and mentioned it to a few other boaters.  One noticed that his cooler had been opened also and all of the life jackets that he kept inside were taken out.  No booze there either!
On the way back to the boat someone said that they had seen a cooler in one of the public restrooms by the marina.  So we went to look.  Sure enough, setting outside the rest room was our pink cooler.  Guess what was inside?  One bottle of water, two diet sodas, and one nonalcoholic beer!!
I ended up 5 bottles of beer to the good!  The marina didn’t want them and no one had reported them as missing, so they told me to keep them!

Looking back at the swing bridge at dawn on our way to Drummond Island, MI.

Pulling out of our slip before the sleepy little town woke up.  Pazza Bella had risen early to give us a warm hearted salute  and a “hope to see you down the waterway” farewell .  We enjoyed being boat buddies and hope to see them again “down the waterway”.
 

Sunrise leaving Little Current, Ontario.  The water was like glass.  What a wonderful way to end our 28 day visit in Canada.

Passing by the old Red Mill on Manitoulin Island

Lake Huron

The water is so clean

Our furthest point north while in Canada.  46 degrees .488 minutes North.  We entered the US in between Cockburn Island, Canada, and Drummond Island, Michigan.   The course shows the route that I had planned, but we ended turning north once back in the US and going around the north side of Drummond Island.  I was planning on clearing customs with a phone call the way we did in Florida returning from the Bahamas, but here they want to see everyone.  So, it was closer to go around the island on the north to get to Drummond and Customs and Immigration.
Georgian Bay has the wilderness for exploring to last several summers.  The North Channel was as beautiful as we heard it would be. The people always had time to listen to our adventures and were pleased to have us visit.  They are very patriotic and almost every home on the water flies their country’s flag.