The North Channel

The last 10 days we have meandered slowly through the Georgian Bay hopping from anchorage to anchorage. Each place a little different then the last. Now we are in the North Channel our final  stretch of Canadian water before we drop down into Lake Huron and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In the Georgian Bay we anchored 6 out of 7 nights only stopping at two marinas to pump out and provision. The anchorages were very quiet. The first one Longuissa Bay only had two other boats besides ourselves and we were surrounded by tall trees, clear blue water and dead silence. Anchoring is our favorite type of boating. It's just us, the boat, nature and nothing else - no towns, no people. We spent our days at anchor swimming, reading, and napping. Needless to say it was very very relaxing. We anchored in Hopewell Bay and Beaverstone Bay. In Beaverstone we were the only boat anchored and we only saw one other boat cruise by the entire time we were there.

Longuissa Bay, Ontario

Longuissa Bay, Ontario

Longuissa Bay, Ontario

One of the two marinas we stayed at on the Georgian Bay was Henry's Fish Camp in Sans Souci, Ontario. This marina and docks is one of the only places you can dock for lunch or dinner and then spend the night if you wish. Its popular for not only boats for also for sea planes. We sat on our stern and watch the plans fly in an out all day long. At the restaurant Jeff had their fried pickerel and chips dinner. He said it was very mediocre but all part of the experience. 

After a wonderful 10 days exploring the Georgian Bay it was time to move on into the North Channel. Our first stop was at the Killarny Mountain Lodge and old time lodge that had a ski resort type of feel. The waitress at the restaurant told us that it was originally founded by a member of the teamsters from Chicago as a business resort and a place to hold cooperate meetings in the 50's. About 10 years later is was sold the family who just recently sold it. They had a great pool which we utilized, a restaurant which was kinda weird - bad drinks, weird service and mediocre food. By the end we found it to be humorous. Fortunately they did have this cool rotunda shaped bar where there was a local guy playing guitar and this homemade guitar that was called a fluteguitar which allowed him to play both bass and regular guitar at the same time. It was a trip but very nice and he was really talented. Fortunately too in the bar they were playing the olympics. This was the first time we have seen any t.v. in almost two months that we have been traveling. I miss t.v!!!! Is that wrong? We were lucky enough to watch Michael Phelps swim and win the heat he was in. Overall it was a great night and a nice place to stay. 

From Killarny we traveled a short 3 miles to Covered Portage Cove. A beautiful anchorage that has both and outer and inner cove. While the inner cove was prettier we didn't trust the depth with a boat of our size so we stayed in the otter cove. We launched the dingy and went exploring and Jeff took us a on a fast ride out in the bay. This I could have done without. I like out trawler and going nice and slow. Jeff just says, "It's good for the engine to blow it out at top speed." I think this is just his excuse to go fast. While we were sitting on our back deck we noticed another boat had pulled in that were also loopers. Later on that night they dingied over and introduced themselves and we shared stories. 

That evening while we slept it rained like cats and dogs. The hardest rain I've been in since I lived in Lima. It was so loud and so hard it woke us both out of a dead sleep. I quickly closed the hatch and we both went outside on the back deck and watched for a bit. This was all at 1a.m. in the pitch black. The rain stopped by the morning and we were on our way to Little Current where I have been corresponding with the local harbor host Roy who we had our mail sent to. We were both looking forward to picking it up and when I let Roy know we were in town he mentioned that he was putting on a happy hour for boaters visiting the area. We went to the market which is a nightmare as a vegetarian in these little Canadian towns but that is whole separate blog all together and then headed over to Roy's happy hour at the Anchor Inn which is like 100 feet from the town dock we are tied up at. Roy was happy to meet us both, gave us our boxes of mail, a welcome bag and told us to enjoy. Later he noticed that Jeff and I were sitting alone in this group and came over to the table and asked the other members of this boating group to welcome us and include us in their conversation. While a little awkward especially for me we began talking to this group of people. Turns out that Jeff knew two of them from the recent rendezvous that he attended in Virginia. We all shared boating stores and maintenance issues and it was actually quite nice. At 5 when the happy hour ended we left and headed back to the boat to devour our mail. Mail glorious mail is what I used to say when we came home after a weekend of being at the boat. This had been two to three weeks and I was so happy to have it. I made falafel and we spent a quiet night on the boat. We woke up to pouring rain that hasn't stopped since. We walked to the farmers market which was very small and disappointing and walked the rest of the town which is actually quaint and charming. We are supposed to go to the Benjamin Islands to anchor today but are holding off for now to see what the weather will do. I'm hoping to stay here another night and start in the morning but we shall see.