Wednesday, July 1, 2009

This was Canada Day, the Canadian Independence Day. We slept in until 8 am and enjoyed listening to the light rain around us. The temperatures were cool so we picked out a project to work on for the morning. And the Winner was: Find the leak causing the loss in water pressure making the pump run every minute or so. The galley sink was pulled out and things were tightened up there, both the shower in the head and the shower in the cockpit were checked and all hose clamps on all water lines were tightened. We then emptied the aft cabin where the water pump and all the hoses come through, removed and reinstalled the water filter and checked for leaks. And while we were at it, we adjusted the drain hose for the air conditioning unit so that it had a better angle for draining. Hopefully, the problem is fixed!

Our project of the day ended up taking a lot more time than we expected but at 4 pm we were ready to do some fishing. Gale caught a really nice Northern but we lost it as we were trying to haul it in with the net. Not to worry, there were two wonderful bass to follow, a large mouth and a “smallie.” Maureen caught the biggest fish of the day: a 15-pound dogfish. Boy, was that an ugly fish! He went back into the water.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

The word of the day was “Spectacular!!” which was uttered many times, as well as, "Beautiful," "Gorgeous," "Stunning," "Unbelievable" and "Amazing!"

The forecast was for calm to light winds for the morning with the chance of showers and thunderstorms beginning at noon. We left Covered Portage Cove at 7:30 am and headed into Lansdowne Channel which is the main water highway between Killarney and Little Current. The channel can become very shallow in low water years so many cruisers pass on this route and go around. After coming through the channel we crossed the mouth of Frazer Bay to Frazer Point and came to the entrance to Baie Fine, one of the few fjords in North America. The scenery along this 10-mile passage to the Pool at its far end is unmatched. At 12:15 pm we dropped the anchor about as far into the Pool as we thought anyone would venture and admired the view of white quartz mountains, heavy woods and turquoise water. As we were eating our lunch, it started to rain a little so we relaxed and waited for the skies to clear.

At 3 pm, we took the dinghy out and two fishing poles. Gale immediately caught a large mouth bass and after it flopped around for a while, we decided we needed the stringer out of the big boat. As soon as we were going again, he caught two more bass and one of those was nearly 5 pounds! After an hour, it clouded up again and cooled off, so Gale took Maureen home and he and Lucy headed out for a little more fishing. After 45 minutes or so they made another pass by Blue Heron and said they’d be out for 10 more minutes. That was when Gale caught the 10-pound Northern! Needless to say, we had a glorious fresh Canadian fish dinner that evening. What a wonderful celebration for our 2nd Wedding Anniversary!

Today also marks over 1000 nautical miles traveled since leaving Delaware City on May 12th. (1,017 nautical miles = 1,170 statute miles)

Monday, June 29, 2009

It was raining when we awoke so we decided this would be a good day to stay at anchor and chart our course through the North Channel. The chart work took a few hours then we had some lunch and Lucy and Gale took naps. Later we took the dinghy out, let Lucy run around the rocks and did a little trolling for fish. It was a very relaxing day.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

The mosquitoes were so thick when we got up that we simply dressed, pulled up the anchor and left at 6:15 am. The skies were cloudy and it wasn’t long before it started to rain. We called this our “three for one” day: one, for the calm and lovely travels of the early morning; two, for the rain and big waves from mid morning to mid afternoon; and, three, for the sunny anchorage later in the day.

The first part of the journey took us into and through Collins Inlet, about 12 miles of the most protected and pristine waters on the trip up the Georgian Bay. It is very shallow at the western entrance but that was not a problem for us. This part of the Georgian Bay and the North Channel are composed of some of the oldest rocks on Earth. During the last Ice Age, glaciers scraped away any and all topsoil and left only granite as the exposed landscape. Everything is granite: huge boulders underneath, steep cliffs on both sides, and only a few trees able to survive the environment. It took both of us to navigate in and out of the narrow cuts avoiding the visible rocks and, at times, a bow lookout for rocks lurking just below the surface.

While traveling through Collins Inlet, Gale spotted something swimming across the channel about 200 yards in front of us. As we got closer, we saw that it was a full grown black bear. When it made it to shore, it stood up on hind legs, looked at us and then disappeared into the brush. The blueberries are very plentiful in this area and we were told by the locals that bears are often seen here looking for their lunch.

The rain began about 8 am and continued throughout the rest of the morning and afternoon. The last five miles to Killarney was through open water and four foot seas. The fog also rolled in which made the markers to the Killarney cut difficult to find. We approached slowly and spotted the white beacon marking the entrance to the harbor.

The town of Killarney was not connected to the rest of the world by any road until 1962. Many people traveling the North Channel will stop at Killarney for fuel and water before continuing. The town is small and very quaint with a general store, liquor store, souvenir shop and commercial fishing boats. Since the weather was poor, we decided to visit most of the stores in town. There was a nice little shop, Quarterdeck, where we were told we could buy postage stamps. Entering the shop, we both turned our attention to an actual-sized painted wood carving of a great blue heron. That blue heron is now safely stowed in our aft cabin.

We spent about two hours in Killarney and because the weather conditions were still poor, we decided to find an anchorage nearby. The charts provided us with a “must anchor” at Covered Portage Cove. The passage from Killarney to Covered Portage Cove was a little bit more adventurous than we expected or wanted. Four foot waves were breaking over rock outcroppings and the fog and rain made it difficult to travel these few miles. It turned out to be well worth the trip as we found a very beautiful and well protected anchorage. As soon as we entered the cove, the waters calmed and we were rewarded with the sight of magnificent white quartz cliffs rising 100 feet above the water. Here you could tie up channel-style – that is, drop a stern hook, tie bow lines to a couple of trees and step onto shore over the bow of your boat. On the catamaran, however, Mediterranean-style makes more sense by using a bow anchor and tying the stern to shore. The water drops off so quickly, your stern (or bow) can be just a few feet from the shoreline. Here we found three other sailboats anchored and waiting for the weather to clear.

We set the anchor, came inside, shed our wet clothes and took hot showers. After a bit of lunch, we both found ourselves napping. When we awoke, the skies had cleared and the sun was shining. It was about 4 pm and Gale wasted no time getting out the dinghy to explore our little cove. Gale and Lucy left but soon returned and insisted that Maureen accompany them to share the beautiful day and spectacular sights. After some time in the dinghy, we returned to Blue Heron to settle in and grill the fresh whitefish that we picked up at Herbert Fisheries in Killarney today.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

We took the “outside” route today instead of the protected small craft channel. We reasoned that since it was the weekend and the forecast was so good, the channel would be extremely busy. We needed a break from the intensity of the navigating we’d been doing and we were hoping to have the chance to spread our wings and actually sail on the open water. In addition, the North Channel was beckoning and “going outside” was a way to save a few miles.

We charted a course on the outside from Point Au Baril to Beaverstone Bay, raised the sails and enjoyed moving silently over the water without any other boat traffic in sight. The winds started out at 5 knots building gradually to 15-20 knots by mid afternoon. It was a perfect day to be sailing on the open water with blue skies, clear blue water and warmth from the sun. Maureen spent most of the day at the helm while Gale adjusted the sails between naps. The sailing conditions were so good it took only six hours to travel 40 miles on the open water passage before it was time to come in and look for an anchorage. We found the inlet at Beaverstone Bay to be narrow, rocky and poorly marked; on top of this, we had 4 foot waves to contend with. It reminded us a lot of the Atlantic inlets we encountered early in our adventure. After traveling a total of 52.3 nautical miles between 7:15 am and 5:45 pm, we dropped our anchor in Muskrat Bay of Beaverstone Bay.

Friday, June 26, 2009

We took the dinghy out to do some fishing and to let Lucy go to shore. After one pass through the little harbor without any hits on the lure we came back to the boat, pulled anchor and headed out at 10 am. At about 11:30 am, we were approaching Sans Souci (means “without care or fear” = no worries) on Frying Pan Island and the famous Henry’s Fish Restaurant – famous if you’re from Georgian Bay anyway. Actually, Henry’s was recently rated one of Saveur magazine’s top 100 favorite people, places, and things in the world of food and drink. Before we arrived at the dock, a small seaplane flew over us, landed nearby and taxied to Henry’s. Talking to Paul, the owner, he said the place is usually crazy with seaplanes, water taxis and groups of boats all coming in for lunch or dinner. When the place is busy, they have five or more valets parking the boats. Henry’s is actually a federally registered airport and is served by five commercial airlines yet it reminded us of P.M. Park back home. Paul told us that the closest road is 16 miles away so the only access is by boat or floatplane. Our fresh yellow perch dinner was excellent!

We continued on the small craft route for the rest of the day, weaving through the rocks and watching for markers. We were beginning to see signs of building thunderheads around us and the winds picked up. Fortunately, we made it to our anchorage in Hopewell Bay near Nadeau Island without difficulty. We were very surprised that there were no other boats anchored here on the first Friday night of the Canadian holiday season. School lets out for the kids on June 25th, Canada Day is July 1st, and the Canadians take every opportunity to get out on the water during July and August.


As we were writing the journal entry for yesterday, we were trying to come up with the right words to describe what we were feeling. There was a quote on Henry’s Fish Restaurant’s menu that captured exactly what we were trying to convey – “the sense of remoteness”. The quote is from Charles Comfort, Georgian Bay Legacy, 1951:

“About these harsh, barren islands there is an undeniable fascination, possibly inherent in the manifest struggle in their line, perhaps in the sense of remoteness and stern resistance to the encroachment of man – a morning of serene calm may change to an afternoon of calamitous seas. It is a region of great beauty and fierce contrasts; it can be stirring or contemplative. It is always provocative . . . It seems natural that this region would attract adventurous spirits.”

Thursday, June 25, 2009

We reviewed the charts in the morning and made a tentative plan for cruising Georgian Bay. The early morning was hot and sunny followed by clouds and a few sprinkles coming in just as we left our slip at 11 am. The rain didn’t last too long but it did do a nice job of cooling things down for the rest of the day even when the sun came back out later in the afternoon. The topography changed to rugged granite outcroppings; some of the islands are barren and some have scattered vegetation and trees. The scenery was very beautiful but like nothing either of us have ever seen. It is difficult to describe the stillness and the feeling of opening up the senses. As we navigated, the peaceful feeling was tempered by the constant need to keep one eye on the lookout for rocks and channel markers and the other eye on the charts.

At 5:30 pm we dropped anchor in Wani Bay, a protected anchorage in Twelve Mile Bay. The unnamed island we were near is a heavily wooded piece of land that is part of the Georgian Bay Islands National Park and in the nature-reserve classification area. It didn’t take us long to let the dinghy down and do a little fishing and some exploring. Gale caught a small mouth bass right away and another larger small mouth hit on his lure, jumped out of the water, shook his head and spit it out!! Maureen practiced piloting the dinghy and took a few photos. Regrettably, the photos will not do justice to the actual beauty of this place.