Gore Bay to Meldrum Bay and Drummond Island Back in the USA

Aug 10th

The winds calmed down and we all took off for Meldrum Bay the seas were much calmer than we had expected, so it was a nice day for travel.  About 4 hours later we docked in the Bay along with CrawDad and Grianan settled in for the night after dinner and on to Drummond in the morning.

Aug 11th

We are Back in the States good and bad.  Such mixed emotions,  on one hand its nice to go to a store and see the brands you are used too at prices you are use too.  But, time was just to short to really explore the North Channel the way we would have liked.  I would say with maybe 8-10 weeks time there would be nice, but to do that you must leave your boat here for the winter and get pulled .  Well maybe we can come back again someday.

The word was COLD!

Meldrum Bay

Leaving Meldrum Bay with CrawDad and Grinanan

Heading into Drummond (customs) were DreamCatcher, Jeramiah, SeaMoore, Grianan, Crawdad and SweetPea behind us was GloryDays, DockersInn and Gemini.

Homeland security, Passports please. 

Drummond Island road signs.

Party of 13, out to dinner back in the USA! 

Little Current to Croker Island Anchorage to Gore Bay

August 7th

Things don't always pan out the way they are planned.  Due to weather we have passed up a couple of my MUST anchorages.  We spent a night in Little Current instead of Baie Fine very disappointing, especially when it turned out to be good weather for the anchorage there.  Little Current was an ok stop not alot happening there 1 restaurant, a very small down town area and an ice cream shop.  We were surprised to see we have caught up to a group of loopers who we thought were further ahead of us, there were 7 other looper boats there.

August 8th and 9th

We anchored out at Croker Island very nice anchorage with beautiful scenery and again we saw more looper boats in addition to the ones we saw in Little Current.  It seems we are back in the pack.  We wanted to spend another night at Fox Island anchorage but again the weather got the best of us, so we left and headed towards Gore Bay just a 17 mile trip.  It was nice to get some laundry done and take a long hot shower.  Two other Loopers came into Gore Bay after us, Crawdad and Grinan they too "chickened out" on an anchorage given the weather reports of high winds and thunderstorms.  The next day we had planned to head to Meldrum Bay but once again the weather held us in Gore Bay.  At least we really did get the weather (winds) as expected and we were very glad to be tied to a dock.  It has been extremely windy here today and a couple of other looper boats joined us at the marina.  We are all hoping to head out to Meldrum Bay and other points southwest from here.  For us at least, it looks like the end of any exploring of the North Channel on this trip, and we will work our way stateside when good weather allows,  Ashley will be flying out of Traverse City MI so we need to get her there.  We called the kennel to check up on Barkley and to extend his stay as well, since we are now almost a week behind what was anticipated for Ashleys stay with us.  Luckily, they have fallin in love with him and are more than happy to keep him an additional week.  Seems he has found himself a couple of girlfriends and has become quite the social animal, much to our surprise! 

 Not a great day heading in to Little Current to get tied down for some nasty weather

 Such a pretty day !

 Sailboats all tucked in for the night

 On anchor in the North Channel at Croker Bay

 Sunset at Croker anchorage

Sitting on the Dock of Gore Bay, waiting on better weather for tomorrow and fishing the night away.

Aug 6th Killarney

 Herbert's Fisheries they have fish and chips cooked and sold out of an old bus.

 These boats across the way have front row seats for the movie.

 And the End of another wonderful day in beautiful Can a da

Today we again traveled the outside as to make up some time.  We are at the Sportsmen Inn, We seemed to have caught up with some loopers by traveling the cargo route, there are 5 other AGLCA boaters here now and yesterday 6 left so we are now back in a pack. (for now)  We walked around town, very small, had ice cream and bought a homemade pie.  This marina does something I have not seen written up anywhere, not in any blogs or cruisers guides.  They have an outdoor screen across the channel and play movies,  Its a Cruise In Theater, we sat on the upper helm tuned in the radio and there you have it! Very cool.

Tomorrow we will be anchoring out hopefully,  the weather for this evening was not suppose to be good, but so far its pretty nice here.  The North Channel has some of the best anchorages in Canada and some are said to be in the top 10 list in the world.

Parry Sound Aug 4th Byng Inlet Aug 5th

Aug 4th

As we set out today we had originally intended to stop in Parry Sound to pumpout and re provision what turned out to be a quick stop over took almost 3 hours.  After all was done the winds had picked up and we figured we would spend the night here. 

All the sea planes you see flying over to Henry's Fish Camp come out of Parry Sound, for $158 per person you fly to Henry's a roundabout 10 min flight which includes your meal and another roundabout flight back.  They do a very good business as we watched these planes take off and land all day and into the night.

Aug 5th

Today we traveled the outside route to Byng Inlet it was a great day for such a trip.  We are told that the scenery will have a dramatic change from here on up through to the North Channel, less cottages and a bit less boat traffic.  After we docked we met a couple who just started the loop from Parry Sound and another couple from Byng Inlet who are planning the loop starting in July 2012.  We had a nice chat and then hit the showers and out for dinner. 

Tomorrow we should be in the Killarney area, we have not made reservations as we are hoping to anchor out, weather permitting.

Frying Pan Island Echo Bay Aug 2nd and 3rd

We are anchored in Echo Bay near Frying Pan island, less than a mile or so from Henry's Fish camp.  We had lunch at Henry's yesterday, MuddyWaters was leaving and BlueSkies was arriving when we left.  Best fish and chips, we had the pickerel which in the states we call walleye, yummy.
The fact that we are anchored is something we do not have alot of experience with, so its a big deal to us.  I really do enjoy being at anchor, though, anchoring here is not at all what we are use too in our limited experience.  We are in a smallish cove and there are 21 boats here, there are 3 of us swinging at the center and 18 others on the sides at anchor but tied to trees or rocks at the stern,  some are rafted with others, some by themselves.  It really is quite the site.  Boating here is very serious stuff in many ways,  we now wish we bought our Georgian Bay charts earlier to study them a bit but it is a crash course now.  No pun intended....   We knew it was going to be very rocky, narrow and shallow but WOW.  The boaters in this area know how to enjoy the short season for sure,  they really take advantage of the beautiful cruising grounds, taking off for weekends with friends and fellow dockmates, anchoring out in groups.  Boats rafted together 6 or more is also pretty common.  Lots of swimming and boat toys brought along with them inflatable rafts, lounges,etc, some very serious dinghy's for exploring as well.  We have all been enjoying swimming in freshwater especially Ashley.
Being from New England our cruising grounds are the ocean, though we to have beautiful destinations Marthas Vineyard, Nantucket, all of the Cape and Newport RI. but  it is more about marinas than anchoring, and  more about visiting the quaint New England villages and Harbours then the serene natural beauty of nature. 
Well anyway, here we sit in this beautiful cove enjoying our new home for a couple days this was a planned anchorage before we even left the States and it is nice to be able to share it with our daughter but we were also hoping to have NautiNell here along with us.

 Here we are at Henry's Fish Camp you can get here by boat, by plane or by helicopter thats it!  Henry's has a heli pad, we didn't see anyone arrive that way but LOTS of boats and planes.

 Echo Bay anchorage

 Ashley enjoying the sun. water and a good book

Tomorrow we set out for a restock in Parry Sound then head out to Point Au Baril, we are planning on spending a couple of nights in Killarney before we continue on into the North Channel.

Aug 1st Midland tomorrow Frying Pan Island and Henry's Fish Camp

We took a walk into town took some photos of the murals the town is most known for, had lunch at a Deli and returned to do laundry.  Yesterday we ran into Carol and Rich at the marina (Salt n Sand) and they came over for cocktails they are planning on leaving here in the morning.  We will be 1 day behind them.
For some unknown reason my e-mail won't recieve here,  Never had that happen before but we hope it is just something here at the marina?  So, therefore I can not recieve or send e-mails.
Here are some photos of our visit at Bay Port Marina in Midland.

We are in the Georgian Bay!

How do you follow up on something as unusual and exciting as the Big Chute?  Well....Holy Cow we are now in the Georgian Bay!  After traversing the Big Chute (lock 44)  we traveled a ways to the smallest of the locks on the Trent-Severn Waterway, this one is Lock 45 in Port Severn and its the last lock on this canal system.  Once we dropped down the 12' we exit the lock to the Georgian Bay.  This lock being the smallest in length 84' means if you want to travel the entire TSW you must be under 84', an easy task for us.  I must warn, after exiting this lock the cruising guides tell you about the current and the narrow winding channel here,  I will just say it is an understatement,  with all the traffic bogged up at this lock and little room for boaters to tread water waiting to go up,it can be a bit intimidating if larger boats are coming in as you need to head out as there is only room for one boat at a time, and as I said it is a Narrow 25' with a strong current and curvy.
We are now in Midland and will remain here for 2 nights as we are waiting the end of a long Canadian weekend.

This is our first peek at the Georgian Bay

And this is our home for the next 2 nights.