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 Perry Sound and Kill Bear Park

The cruise to Perry sound from Henry’s Fish Camp was only about 15 miles. By time we paid the bill and jockeyed boats around so we could get out it was about 1:15 pm. Remember that. The cruise was more great Georgian Bay scenery dotted with more cottages than one could count. The funny thing about Canadians is that they are a people that don’t seem to be as much about the excess.

Many of these cottages were as they were back in the 50’s and 60’s when many of them were built but well maintained. The typical Mac Mansion cottage is really the exception. Boats are the same way. Most of the boats we saw were at least 20+ years old or more. Many 80’s and 90’s boats on the water. They also have a lot of small, simple aluminum boats that the average guy can afford. Now being on fresh water certainly helps that tremendously.

I spoke to one mechanic who said they rarely change exhaust manifolds or exhaust elbows.  

So we made our way along at a good clip and arrived at the Perry Sound Swing bridge about 3:10 pm. The bridge only opens on the hour for 15 minutes. So I called the bridge and asked if they were opening. He said, “No we went out and looked for cruisers at 3pm but didn’t see any so we didn’t open”.

Well could you open for us? No! We will open at 5 pm. 5pm! What about 4 pm? Nope we don’t open at 4 pm, rush hour you know. Now Friday Happy Hour was in jeopardy. When you boat you have to be flexible or get out of the game. So we pulled into a pretty cove, dropped the anchor and went for a swim. We made it to Big Sound Marina, got secured and started Happy Hour a tad late. We were invited aboard a Gold Looper boat who was staying long term at the marina as they have family in town. Ken is a business developer in Honduras having just completed a Ferry Terminal. His wife, Cathy offered to take Sue to the store the next morning. We heard of a great restaurant back on the other side of that damn swing bridge so we launched the dinghy and made the 2 mile trip for dinner. The meal was excellent. The next morning Sue went off to the grocery and I walked the dock and had great conversations with other boaters. I stumbled across this other Looper, Jim who was very interesting.

We got on the subject of engines and I shared with him that I had a small leak in my injector pump. He asked what brand it was. When I told him it was a Delphi he said he was the engineer at the company that made them. Now that is not where this story goes. He asked if I remembered the rumor back in the late 70’s where technology had been developed to triple MPG in cars and that a petroleum company bought and buried the patient?

Well the story was true, the company was Shell and he was part of the team that developed what was the precursor to fuel injection for gasoline. You just can’t make this stuff up at least I can’t because I’m not smart enough. When Sue returned we rode bikes into the quaint town and even went into the Bobby Orr Museum. While we were riding around there was some great smelling smoke from a little shack. It was Jerk chicken! It wasn’t ready yet but would be soon. So while Sue readied the boat for departure I raced back to get us some of that finger lickin good jerk chicken . And good it was. 

Saturday was pretty hot for Geo Bay reaching 84 degrees. Our cruise was only 10 miles to Kill Bear Provincial Park where we would anchor for the night. The park has beaches, bike and hiking trails and camp sites. The place is huge. We saw campsite numbers over 1000 and very few were open. We took a great bike ride thru part of the park and then dinghied to a small island in the center of the bay for a swim. Later that evening we caught up with family on the phone and even watched a movie onboard with our new hotspot. In the morning we went ashore to run and exercise before we left for our next port of call. 

The plane above is a 1952 De’Havlin Otter. It is still revered as one of the best most reliable bush planes out there. This is where I remind Mike my birthday is next week and a tour over the Georgian Bay in a seaplane might be a memorable way to celebrate.  The next couple of days I have enjoyed the dinghy rides and pulling up to our private beaches…lots of rocks to scramble across. Clear water to float in and a chance to cool off.  Last night I watched folks cliff jumping into the lake.  Probably 25 people, staying at the camp ground, carefully making their way to the flat area to jump from.  I could hear the screams as they got up the courage to take the leap.  I was happy to be watching with binoculars sitting on Next Chapter.  This girl won’t be doing much cliff jumping in this “Next Chapter.”  Waxching through the binoculars was scary enough!!