Story of Our Summer Cruise 2013

July 3 - Snug Harbor to Keyhole Island

Snug Harbor to Keyhole

Up early today for our short run to a Keyhole Island anchorage via the narrow channel running through Killarney. Clear sunny skies and just under 60 deg. f - way better than Little Current which was 42 this morning. Normally we would so end a day in Killarney but today it was just a 30 minute stop to top of fuel and water and pump out our holding tank (the tank where the toilet leads to).

We have also worked out a way to show our progress a little better than photographing a chart and adding a line - better but not necessarily simpler! On the iPad we run a navigation program, Navionics, which has a way to record your track. You can take a screen hot of any iPad page by holding the menu button and quickly clicking the power button (if successful, the screen goes blank for a split second). The screen shot ends up in your photo folder. I still have to download the photo to my laptop for insertion in the web page but I can customize the photo.

Early Morning on the Water

 

Killarney East Lighthouse

By noon we were anchored in a 5kt breeze from the SW. Today was meant to be south winds continuing until tomorrow morning but there is always the caveat on the forecast that shoreline winds may vary in strength and direction and we are not far from shore here.

Great Idea of the day - courtesy of Randy Guzar on "Heart Tug"

We use an anchor float when anchoring to show us and others where our anchor is set and to trip the anchor if it ever gets stuck. It is often difficult to get a good depth reading to set the length of the float line and invariably we end up making it too long so the float is not over the anchor or too short and the anchor sinks it. This idea given to us by Randy solves both of these problems.

This should be self-explanatory but, if not, here are the details. Buy a Taylor Made anchor or waterski float with an attachment point for line, a shackle to fit the attachment point, a shackle to fit the anchor trip-line hole, some 3/8" line (max. depth you expect to anchor + 5'), and a weight of some type (a conical zinc ~ 1to 1.5 lb. seems to work well).

Secure the weight to one of the line, thread the other end through the shackle attached to float, add a shackle to the trip-line hole on the anchor. When you anchor, tie tend of the line to the shackle on the anchor so that the line length is the water depth + about 6'.

Drop your anchor and the float will be directly over the anchor held in place by the weight which will take up any extra line. If you want to get really sophisticated, you could have a 12' line to cover 7'-10' depth, an 18' line to cover 11' - 16', and 28' line to cover 15' - 26.'

Keyhole is quiet today with STB, Carrie Rose, and Shannon anchored, down from the usual 10-15 in the past two years. In Killarney, we talked to the Power Boating camera crew we met earlier in Little Current. They came into Snug yesterday and shot some film and then went on to Covered Portage which was full with boats on the outside. We were lucky to be so quiet in Snug yesterday.

Out fishing this afternoon for a couple of hours, I saw no cruisers coming down the Collins Inlet - unusual but good for us. Talking of fishing, I did catch 11 bass but all were less than 10". It's tough to quit fishing as you know there are bigger ones there! Oh well, maybe this evening.

July 4 - Keyhole to Beaverstone Bay

Keyhole to Beaverstone Bay

Happy July 4th to everyone!

Not an early start today as we listened to the CruiserNet before departing for a leisurely cruise through Collins Inlet to Beaverstone Bay. Collins Inlet is a narrow channel often bordered by rocky cliffs. In some areas, you would be in 50' of water next to the wall: in others, there is only 9' so keeping in the middle and slow speeds are the order of the day. We ran at a fuel-sipping 5.5 kts to enjoy the scenery and saw no boats the entire way.

Carrie Rose Winding Through Collins Inlet

I'm not sure of the origin of Collins Inlet but it is probably glacial with river erosion as well. The general area was part of the Killarney Mountains which were twice as high than the Alps at one time but were relentlessly ground down by the glaciers of several Ice Ages. They predate the Appalachian Mountains by many thousands of years. In the 1800s, Collins Inlet became a center for logging and milling of lumber, and the town of Collins Inlet had a population of over 2000 - nearly twice as big as Little Current today. As the forests were stripped, the reason for the town's being also disappeared, and just a few traces remain of the old town. All that is evident of it along the water are the decaying docks used by the freighters.

After anchoring northwest of Burnt Island in Beaverstone Bay , the rest of the day was devoted to reading and relaxation, a bit of fishing (with no success), and some exploration of a couple of islands. The wind was quite strong (15kts+ and cool at times).

For those of you not familiar with the area we are traveling, I thought it was a good idea to include a larger map of the area below. When we reach the end, we will re-trace our steps while Dean and Charlotte will head to the south shore of Lake Ontario to explore this area and will leave their boat somewhere here for the winter.

Our Overall Route

 

We celebrated the holiday with drinks on the rocks in the evening

and enjoyed a good sunset (below)

I couldn't resist adding this photo of our granddaughter, Morgan, and grandson, Elliot, taken last week.

Take My Hand Elliot and Let's Go up to our Armpits. Yeah, Whatever Miss "Fearless"

July 5 - Beaverstone Bay to Parry Sound

Getting Good at Importing Today's Route

Our plans were to head for the Bustard Islands to the northeast of Georgian Bay before heading south to Parry Sound. The weather forecast did not sound promising for the trip from the Bustards to Parry so we decided to head directly to Parry. The trip was long and uneventful with very little to hold our interest for most of the way until we started to head into Parry Sound when the navigation became a little more complicated.

Red Rock Lighthouse

Coming into a new area by boat for the first time is always a challenge, much like driving into a new city by car.

However, in a car you usually have a specific destination such as an address that you can locate on a map and you find the best roads to take to get you there the quickest. If you have a GPS, your route is calculated for you and specific directions are laid out often with verbal prompts. If you miss a turn, you are repeatedly told to "turn around" until you give in and do so. If you go off route, the GPS automatically re-calculates your route in seconds.

On a boat, you have a starting point and a destination in mind but only a "map" or chart as we call it. There are no roads to follow in most cases. You are free to wander across the water in any direction to get to your destination as long as you have the time and the fuel with two big caveats - land above the water that may be in your way and land below the water that may interfere with your proposed route in a disastrous way.

With few exceptions, although we have a GPS and chart plotter which are very accurate, we cannot just plug in our start point and our destination like you would do with Mapquest and presto, turn-by-turn directions are provided. Someday, a creative software developer will come up with such a product and will retire at the age of 32 as a billionaire!

Our charts look like the extract below:

A few words of explanation are needed. Yellow areas are land: white areas are deep water; light blue areas are less than 20 feet of water depth; darker blue areas are less than 10 feet. The numbers scattered everywhere are specific soundings or depths. the symbols circled in red are "Aids to Navigation" of various types.

Many of the water depths in the areas we are traveling were actually measured many years ago (actually two centuries ago by the Admiral William Fitzwilliam Owen and Lt. Henry Bayfield of the British Navy) using a line with a lead weight on the end. A rowing boat would be sent out from the survey ship following a straight line with depths being recorded every few hundred yards. They would then follow a parallel course taking more soundings, etc., etc. until it got dark. The next day, they would move on a short distance and start again. Back on the survey ship, the depth data was transferred to a chart which was often being developed at the same time to show the land outline. The charts developed by Owen and Bayfield are still the basis for today's charts and many depth readings have never been updated.

Because of its geological formation, Georgian Bay has large depth variations and a two soundings of 50 feet two hundred yards apart do not necessarily mean that it is 50 feet between the two points. This is particularly true near the shoreline. To help us, we have a depth sounder which give us a continuous depth reading so we watch it very carefully as we travel. Owen and Bayfield would have given their right arms for a depth sounder

The green symbol at the top left is a green buoy (or float) in the water. If set properly, it is about 4' high and about 12" in diameter and has a flat top. The next circle on the track has two green buoys and a red buoy that is like the green in size but has a pointed top. Further on down our track are two more reds and the last circle shows a light at the end of the yellow land mass. All these buoys help define our "road" to follow if we are traveling from the top right to bottom left. In the direction we are heading, we have to keep the red buoys on our right or "Starboard" side of the boat. The green buoys are kept to our left or "Port" side of the boat. In addition to the buoys in the water, there are a variety of "signs" on the small islands dotting the North Channel and Georgian Bay that help us to keep in safe water.

Therefore, on the short course above, we cannot travel a straight line but have to weave a little to stay in safe water. The convention on which side to take the buoys depends on whether you are "Returning". At sea this is no big deal since, if you are entering a port from the sea - it is clear you are "Returning" and you keep the reds on your right and the greens on your left. On the lakes, it gets a bit more confusing as you are not really "returning" in many cases and it critical to know the buoyage convention. In some areas, we can be midway along a channel with reds on the right and suddenly the greens have to be on the right. A close watch has to be kept on the chart at all times to assure we do not make the mistake of being on the wrong side of a buoy as it could well put us in shallow water. Many a sailor has run aground in this manner.

To get from A to B safely, we lay out points on the chart that we have to pass over. These have take into account water depth, land masses, Aids to Navigation, and attempt to optimize the distance we have to travel. These are our "way points" and we steer the boat from point to point to reach our destination.

After safely navigating our way through over 50 buoys and other aids, we arrived at Killbear Provincial Park which has a designated anchorage area just offshore in a sheltered bay. Killbear is a large park, much like a State Park but significantly larger. Talking to a former Park Ranger on shore, I learnt that the Park can accommodate over 7000 campers in 10 sq. miles and stretches along about five miles of beautiful sand and rock shoreline on a peninsula.

 

"Chippewa" - the Star of the Anchorage

"Chippewa" was built in 1936 and reconstructed for its new owner many years later based on a design by Michael Vollmar, a yacht designer, who is now its owner. The entire upper and interior is varnished black cherry. We were fortunate to meet Michael and chat with him and it turned out that he was very familiar with Nordic Tugs and has worked with the factory on certification of the vessels for Canada and Europe.

Michael Vollmarr

It's Tough to Avoid The Sunset Pics When They Are Like This!

July 6 - Killbear Provincial Park, Parry Sound

What We Do When We're not Boating

July 7 - Killbear Provincial Park to Parry Sound Harbor

A bit of a lazy start to the day as we only had a short distance to cover before reaching the town of Parry - in fact, in just under two hours we were docked at the Big Sound Marina - recommended to us by Randy and Audrey. We joined less than 20 other boats at the facility which can hold 150 transient boats. As with many other marinas we have visited on out trip, numbers have been down so far this season. We talked to one Looper (a person who is circumnavigating the eastern part of the US), who was in the last group to be let out of the Erie Canal before it was closed to through traffic as a result of flooding and storm damage. Many of the boaters he had met on his travels who would normally be in this area by now are still stuck in NY state.

As usual when we arrive at a new marina, we end up chatting with people on the dock and met Danny from Burlington, ONT who was on his way to the supermarket in the shuttle van (provided by Sobeys). Danny seemed to be an expert on the town and together with Pete, the driver, soon had us up to speed on where to shop and eat. It turns out that Parry is the birthplace of Bobby Orr, one of the best hockey players every, and is home of the Bobby Orr Hockey Hall of Fame. It was quite a treat to be chauffeured to and from the store - the best we had seen since Muskegon. We even got to visit Canadian Tire which does sell tires but also sells just about everything else except food. Think K-Mart but a lot better.

Following Pete's recommendation, we decided to sample the food at the Wellington Grille and were joined by Danny and his wife, Kay - highly recommend the food and their selection of draft beer. Danny kept us entertained with his world travels as his job takes him everywhere. He has traveled to Japan over 60 times - sometimes for a one day job!!

July 8 - Parry Sound Harbor

Hot and humid summarizes the weather.

Boat cleaning was the order of the day for me while Judy and Charlotte were pampered with haircuts and pedicures in town. The boat was long overdue for a good cleaning and I ended up spending a good part of the day on it as I even put some wax on. Boat cleaning is one of those jobs that I don't particularly mind once I get started. It is like cutting the grass, where you develop a rhythm and your mind can wander to more important things such as the meaning of life.

I did manage to sample the scenery (and ice cream) of Parry later in the day, wandering around some of the older boats in the harbor, and the historic railroad trestle that spans the Seguin River splitting Parry. In its day, it was a major construction feat for the area and still carries the main line north.

 

Today was also a real treat with the evening being capped by another ice cream - Rolo, but not quite up the standard of Little Current.

July 9 - Parry Sound Harbor to Echo Bay

Today's' Track to Echo Bay

Just a short inside run today to Echo Bay but that's like saying a roller coaster is just a short run! We had more boat encounters in this short distance than we have ever experienced before. A video is really the only way to convey our experience through 7 Mile Narrows, shown below, but I did not have the forethought to set up the camera. We were so busy dodging boats, I didn't even have time to take any photographs.

Seven Mile Narrows

To set the stage a bit better for you, imagine a deep, twisting, rock-lined ditch about a mile in length with over a dozen buoys marking a channel only 40' wide in many places. Now throw in twenty or so kamikaze boats ranging from 15 to 25' driven by demented locals (all wearing "No Fear" T-shirts) at speeds ranging from 15 to 30 knots coming towards you trailing huge wakes. Add to this our unfamiliarity with the Narrows' Aids to Navigation which, while shown on the charts, always need some interpretation to real life. Randy had advised us to broadcast a "Securite" warning of our approach on the VHF radio to alert others we would be entering the Narrows. This warning is often used in tight spaces so other boats can use caution.

Rounding a blind corner to see five boats racing towards you at 25 knots trying to squeeze through a 40' gap is an experience hard to describe. "Intense" is the only single word I can find to describe the feeling after getting through with no collisions. The feelings experienced when getting off a roller coaster at Cedar Point are similar with all of your senses heightened and an amazement that you did not die after all. Every boater should experience the Narrows at least once in their lives.

Fortunately we missed the ultimate challenge as, just after passing the last red buoy at the bottom left of the chart, a 60' barge loaded with debris, a CAT excavator, and all manner of other equipment being pushed by a tug at 15 knots appeared heading for the Narrows. Those behind us were in for a real treat!

The rest of our trip was very tranquil in comparison and we anchored in a small circular cove with protection from all sides with one other sailboat. More boats arrived during the day until we had six or seven but there was still plenty of room. If you are familiar with the North Channel, think Long Point Cove.

Echo Bay Views

 

The highlight of the day was a dinghy trip to Henry's on Frying Pan Island, an appropriate name, about two miles away.

Henry's is renowned in Ontario for its fresh fish dinners and every visitor to the area is subject to adverts at every turn, from seaplane rides to the Island to cruise boat trips. Too often, we have found the advance publicity does not match reality but, in this case, we were pleasantly surprised as the dinners were excellent, huge, and reasonably priced for all of the hype. Naps were the order of the day after such a huge meal, beer and dessert.

 

One of the Many Water Lilies in Echo Bay