Georgian Bay Bound
On Monday August 1st we slid down the Big Chute and made our way to Midland, Ontario passing the final lock, #45 on the Trent Severn waterway. Oh was Sue ever happy to be done with the locks! For a while anyhow. Shhh don’t tell her that we still have another 70 or so to go to get to Florida. So far on this trip we have done over 130 of them. They do get a little old after awhile.
Passing thru lock 45 also was the milestone for entering Georgian Bay. Undoubtedly one of the best cruising grounds in the world. The section leading up to the final lock was a great teaser of what was to come in the next section of our journey. Georgian Bay is divided up into two basic sections, the Thirty Thousand Islands and the North Channel. I can tell you based on what we saw in our teaser cruise there is no doubt that there is at least 30,000 islands. Unfortunately they don’t count the rocks that lurk just below the surface waiting to devour boater’s running gear. The good thing is the channels are very well marked.
The tricky part is staying in the channel some of which are a mere 50’ wide. Our 20 mile cruise ended about 2:30 pm at Bay Port Marina in Midland. We chose that spot because we utilized the Harbor Hosts, Pat and Lynn, to ship a mobile hotspot to and they were willing to come to the marina and drop it off. Pat and Lynn are not only Gold Loopers but have cruised the Georgian Bay waters for decades.
They not only helped us plan this next section but even loaned us their personal paper charts to use. They topped it off by taking Sue to a Canadian style Sam’s Club to get provisions. Their comment was, “Theywere helped by so many on their Loop they felt compelled to do the same for other Loopers”. It also turns out that Lynn was the managing editor for Ports Cruising Guide which is similar to our Waterway Guide.
We were so fortunate to be the benefactors of such kindness. We could have talked to them for days. Dinner Monday night was shared with Looper friends Andy, Migella, and their onboard guests Peter and Dorothy, all from the UK. We enjoyed great conversation and a lot of laughs. It was Peter and Dorothy’s last night as they would be heading back to the UK. Peter, we will be taking you up on your invitation to come over to drink warm flat beer in your local pub! We wish them safe travels back home.
On Tuesday we delayed a bit in port as the weather was dreary but expected to clear by mid day. We shoved off about noon and as forecast, the skies cleared to a cloudless and brilliant blue. The cruise was only 13 miles to our anchorage for the night at Frying Pan Bay. Frying pan bay is a completely protected bay that has a Parks Canada dock that leads to miles of trails thru the Canadian Shield.
The Canadian Shield is where the surface is mostly granite but pine trees somehow find a way to grow out of the cracks and small patches of soil scattered about. The dock has space for about 6 cruiser size boats but we chose to set the anchor. Parks Canada does a wonderful job providing the public with basic facilities at these parks. At this one there was a restroom, shelter, fire pit, tent platforms, and water stations.
The local boaters say that they just use the water out of the bay as it is so clean. We met a couple of the local boaters who invited us back to the dock later for a camp fire. Oh yeah I forgot. A parks Canada boat comes by everyday to collect the park fees and offer bundles of firewood. The parks are heavily used which is great to see. Kelly, I’m not sure exactly why you left this wonderful country! The camp fire was great after which we called it a night. I did manage to get up on deck about midnight to check out the stars. All I can say is WOW! The next day we got up and utilized the trails for exercise and a run. The skies looked foreboding so when we returned to the boat I checked the radar and sure enough storms were approaching. We decided to stay at anchor as to not take the “Pleasure” out of pleasure boating. It rained most of the day our first totally rainy day since we began May 1st. The next day was looking much better for cruising. We spent the day doing some inside boat chores, reading and catching up on some of these blogs.
So can you believe that we have been gone three months already? I know we can’t. To date we have cruised over 1650 miles and been underway over 220 hours. And to think we only have 3900 miles to go! I will add that the trip is going so fast. I am looking forward to more anchorages, dips in the lakes, campfires and the loons calling at night.
Lynn showing us how the Ports Guide is organized.
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