September 1, 2010 - My Noodle Is Blue

Synopsis – We are in the town of "Blind River" on the North Channel of Lake Huron in Ontario Canada. We have traveled 2900 miles since leaving St Pete in early May. All is well and we have been cruising in stunning beauty for the last couple of weeks. We have been cruising generally northwest in "Georgian Bay" and then the "North Channel". It has become progressively more remote and progressively more beautiful. This is northern latitude island cruising at it's best.

Shortly after our last posting we went through one of the trickiest spots on the whole trip.

It is shown on the photo to the right but it is really MUCH scarier than it looks here. .

To negotiate this ROCKY area, you have to go to the right of the green buoy and then turn left IN FRONT of the rock with the red triangle on it and then around the rock. There were rocks within a few feet of either side of the boat so of course we had to go through at dead slow. After going through this area, we had to stay in an anchorage for three days because the winds were 20 to 30 mph out in the open water. This results in waves that are from three to six feet high and would be TERRIBLE to travel in. So, we just hunkered down for three days and watched the wind blow in the trees. Even here, we got a few TV stations that were local broadcasts.

We had a wide variety of weather from pretty nice (but windy) to rain, thunderstorms and fog as shown in this view. We were anchored off a main route and during this three days we saw almost no traffic. It was lonely.

A major portion of Canada is covered by huge granite formations that are collectively called "the shield". This is the dominating geological feature of the landscape in this cruising area so everywhere you look there are granite islands that have been scoured by glaciers with beautiful windblown trees and bushes. We have a million pictures of them but here are two.

When the winds dropped down some on August 18^th, we headed to the big town of Killarney and tied up at the Killarney Mountain Lodge. Boy civilization felt good. They had a restaurant and everything! It is actually a cute little town and although the "store" is quite lame, it was great to be there for a couple of days. One of the town

landmarks is a fish and chips restaurant that is in an old red bus and serves lake trout and whitefish that are netted locally every morning. Here is a view of it and let me tell you they really pack them in at this time of the year (of course they are closed in the fall, winter and spring).

After Killarney, we continued on and went into a bay called "Baie Fine" (pronounced

Bay Fin) and anchored with quartz hills surrounding us. Here is a picture of the hill top we reached after hiking up about a mile. The "ground" here is all solid quartz. The views were incredible.

Here is a picture of Linda recovering after

we returned to the boat.

After a few days in Baie Fine, we went into the town of Little Current which is the only way to drive onto the island of Manitoulin (it's a huge island – look it up!). This is important geography around here and of course we had never heard of it. We were surprised to suddenly be in the middle of a bunch of cruisers that had gathered here, drawn by what is called the "cruiser's net". One of the townsmen (Roy Eaton) does a radio broadcast every morning on the VHF radio at 9:00 for boaters. He covers news (local, regional and international), local marine weather forecasts and has all of the boats that can hear him check in (typically

60-100 per day for the roughly 80 mile stretch that he tries to serve). He had also organized a pot luck dinner (with music and prizes from the local businesses) for the boats in Little Current so we met quite a few other cruisers and hooked up with some fellow "loopers" including these folks (Marty, Gloria, Don, Richard, Gill, Rhonda and Joey on three boats) who we had run into before on the Trent Severn Canal System and several times since. We had a great dinner and a nice visit.

There was also a couple that were cruising with SEVEN CHIHUAHUAS, some of which are shown here. Bet their boat smells good!

After leaving Little Current, we went to the small (itty bitty) town of Kagawong to view Bridal Falls and then moved on to anchor in an area called the Benjamins off Croker Island. The anchorage was nestled between granite hills and some evergreens clinging on for dear life. We stayed longer than we had planned to enjoy the perfect weather and check the area out a bit more. We did a lot of swimming (hence my purple noodle and Linda's blue noodle swim toys) and relaxing. We had calm winds and hot air and water temps.

Here is a picture showing Kingfisher in the anchorage however it doesn't due justice to the surrounding area and the granite hills.

Here is another picture taken from our boat across the anchorage showing the sailboat of Tom, Cheri and Cookie who live in Michigan but work at Park City Utah for the Winters. We shared dinners, dingy rides and swimming with them.

We continued West with a loose plan to reenter the USA right after Labor day and went into an anchorage called "Bear Drop". Again, it was granite cliffs around us and warm water. On the first day of September, we made our way to the town of Blind River to have a little "town time" and stay out of the forecast winds. After Labor Day we plan to spend a few days on Mackinaw Island and then head south on Lake Michigan.

That's all for now. The last month or so has been very pleasant and often more like a vacation than a journey. We miss you all and wish you well.

Have a great Labor Day holiday and we look forward to seeing most of you when we return in October or November after putting the boat away for the winter near Traverse City Michigan.

Tod and Linda C

8/12/10 - Georgian Bay

Synopsis - We are in the very small town (village?) of Britt about half way up the Georgian Bay on Lake Huron. We have travelled a total of 2750 miles since leaving St Pete on May 10th, 2010. We have transited a total of 80 locks but don't think we will have any to go through any more in the foreseeable future. We now plan on
"storing" the boat in NE Lake Michigan for the winter so we will probably be home sometime in October or November.

Since our last blog, we finished going through the Trent Severn Waterway including all 45 locks. There is a variety of lakes and passages between each lock and we generally went to a marina every two or three days and anchored out or stayed on a "wall" the rest if the time. The water was very clean and warm so swimming was often on the agenda. I also did a bit more fishing and finally started catching a few large mouth and small mouth bass. Here is a picture of me with one of the "big ones" that I caught off the back of our boat.

Some of the Trent Severn is quite open, but other parts are VERY narrow. Here is a picture of us approaching another boat

(there are actually three small boats behind him) and as you might guess, it was a slow difficult process to pass. One guy in a 25 foot boat wasn't too happy with me judging by the yelling and single finger gestures.

Of course one of the main memories of the Trent Severn is the locks. They come in all sizes and designs. In the last blog, I put in a picture of the lift lock just past

Peterborough that goes "up". Here is a picture of the Kirkfield lift lock (the other lock where you drive into a big pan and they make the whole pan go up or down) where you start going back "down". As you enter, it looks like you are going off into nothingness!

We worried for weeks (months?) about going over lock 44 which is called "Big Chute". They load your boat on a special railroad car and then take you (and your

lock mates) up and over a hill and down into the river below. Here is a picture of us going down the "Big Chute" and you can see that there is not any water for the boat to float in. We sat on our keel and the lock keepers (Canadian Park folks) put straps under us to keep us from falling over. When you get back in the water down below, you just float off and away you go!

After the Trent Severn, we entered Lake Huron to continue our way West. There are

thousands of "cottages" (not cabins!!) along the waterway of all types. Here is one that Linda picked out to show you.

At one place, we anchored in a bay off of a park and settled in for the afternoon. Little did we know that we were in front of a YMCA camp and would soon be surrounded by

boys and girls trying to learn how to sail by racing out on the harbour and around us! Here is a picture of one of their boats.

Today's insight - we didn't realize how "bug challenged we were coming from Seattle. In Florida we were attacked by "love bugs". In the Carolinas big black biting flies took over, and recently the mosquitoes and gnats are attacking en masse! Bring on the chemicals!

I think I will post this a couple of days early because the next part of our trip is reportedly quite remote and I worry about having internet.

We have firmed up our plans to store the boat in NW Lake Michigan (the town of North Port Bay) for the Winter and come home sometime in late fall.

We look forward to seeing you then.

Tod and Linda.