The Last of Georgian Bay to the North Channel

July 1- 11^th, 2012

 

It was July 1^st – and oh what a Happy Canada Day it was – a good decision to wait one more day at Wright’s Marina in Byng Inlet.  Roger had looked at weather & decided to forego the small craft channel with all the twists, turns, narrows & shallows and go the whole way to Killarney via the outside route.  Georgian Bay was calmer and more tranquil than Louie and I could have hoped for!  

 

The next stop was Covered Portage Anchorage, just past Killarney.  It was breathtaking, with the granite cliffs as our backdrop.  We met up again with Potest Fieri (Danny & Susan) and Alacrity (Craig & Barb).  One of the days, Roger & Danny kayaked into Killarney from the anchorage (about 1-1/2 hours) and Susan & I each drove our dinghys to meet the guys for the fish & chips lunch on “The Bus”.  Killarney is a very small town, far from the main highway, which means there is hardly anything going on from a retail standpoint, but the fish & chips were good and quite honestly, there was nothing we needed.  The next day we hiked up a hill and looked down at our boat from the top—what a gorgeous view.  Even Louie has become a mountain goat and he made the climb!

 

After 3 days at Covered Portage, we headed west toward Little Current and spent the night at the Town Docks.  Rae & Steve Mason arrived on Thursday morning, July 5^th, bearing gifts of homemade butter tarts, muffins and lots of food and drink!  They had taken the car ferry across Lake Huron from Tobermory and trailered their dinghy so that we could each have use of our own for exploring.  After we stowed away their stuff, we left the marina and began our experience of the North Channel.  

 

We headed for Mary Ann Cove in Baie Fine.  There was only one other small boat in the anchorage when we arrived; Roger set the anchor and Steve took his dinghy to shore with a line and stern-tied us to a tree.  Half an hour later, Potest Fieri and Alacrity came in and did the same.  We invited everyone for Happy Hour and dinner on the Karen Anne.  We had drinks on the top deck where there was a nice breeze.  Inside the cabin, the 8 of us (!!) enjoyed a dinner of Italian sausage, pasta, salad and garlic bread.

 

The next day we took our 4 dinghys and went all the way to the end of Baie Fine, saw the old Evinrude (motors) cottage and The Pool (a very weedy, but beautiful anchorage) and hiked up the cliffs to Topaz Lake.  It was so worth the climb, as you can see from the pictures.  We’d packed a lunch and then jumped off the rocks (the lower ones!) into Topaz Lake.  The water was so clean that I really think that we could drink it.  After the swim, we hiked a little further for a different view from the top, picked and ate blueberries along the way and made our way back down to the dinghys for the ride back to our boats.

 

We’d spent 3 days at Mary Ann Cove and then broke off from the other boats.  Rae & Steve have spent many years in the North Channel and one of their favorite places is MacGregor Bay.  It is very tricky getting in there, and that is probably why there are so few cruisers in that area.  But Rae & Steve guided us in and we dropped the hook on the west end of East-West Passage, about 9 miles from the mouth of MacGregor Bay.  We had to set our anchor twice to get a good hold and decided not to tie to the trees.  There were 3 other powerboats on the far side of the anchorage, but it seemed as if we had the place to ourselves.  

 

The next day Roger had to be on a business call at 10:00 a.m.  For the past 5 days, we had had very limited cell and hardly any internet service.  Here in MacGregor Bay, both were nonexistent.  So Steve took Roger ashore and Roger climbed to the top of the hill to get a cell phone signal for a meeting that lasted an hour and a half.  Roger said that he could stand on top of this one rock and he had 2 bars of cell phone service, but if he stepped off of it or sat down, he went down to one bar or no bars!  When he was done, he hailed Steve’s Water Taxi and came back to the boat with his computer, cell phone and backpack.  Then we all took a long dinghy ride and explored the nooks and crannies around MacGregor Bay.  The deer flies were out in full force and Rae was swatting them with a fly swatter!  It was another gorgeous day, not too hot, not too cool, no humidity.

 

Rae & Steve are the best boat guests because they have owned boats forever, sail and trawler, and know the systems and the space constraints.  They were with us for 6 nights and we never felt as if the boat was too small for the 4 of us.  Everyone was considerate and we had so many laughs and such a good time.  We played Scrabble and Sequence and just read and swam and relaxed.  We shared the cooking and the clean-up.  We were especially appreciative of Rae’s housekeeping; she cleaned the bugs off the upper deck that were attracted to the anchor light.  

 

Two days at MacGregor Bay and it was time to head back to Little Current to drop off Rae & Steve.  It was tough to say good-by to our friends, but time to get caught up on emails and phone calls, laundry and provisioning, not to mention the blog posting.  Danny & Susan came back to Little Current and we’ll travel with them to wherever the next stop will be in the North Channel.