The Beauty of Georgian Bay

 O’Connell Point

On Thursday August 4th after another early morning trail run and exercise we weighed anchor and headed off for O’Connell Point 22 miles up the north coast of the Bay. The skies were clear and absent of any humidity. We arrived pretty early to our anchorage which was scenic to a fault. There was three other boats in the anchorage but there was plenty of room. When we settled I scooped a bucket of water to clean up around the bow pulpit my attention was immediately drawn as to how clear it was. We threw a penny into it and don’t you know you could tell weather it was heads or tails. We immediately launched the dinghy and explored many little coves and inlets. We could see large game fish lurking about the weed beds. I think they were the famous Muskie know for their fierce strike and big fight. Too bad we didn’t have a fish pole with us. Sue and I found a remote little cove where we swam, sat and Sue read a book. The sound the wind makes as it blow through the sparse pine trees is so relaxing. We had dinner aboard as other dinning options were none. Just after dinner we noticed a big sailboat sitting oddly in the narrow entrance to the cove. She had run aground! Every mariners nightmare. The was already a dinghy in route so I decide to join the the rescue mission.

Before you know it there was a mosquito fleet of dinghy’s wanting to help. Well after about two hours and some creative engineering the sailboat was free from the rocks. We thought we had some bad luck. This was the captain’s second day on his new to him boat. The first night he had it the dock was struck by lightning and took out half of his electronics. 

I wondered if he would have been better served to just putting a 4 sale sign on it while parked on the rock! We were treated to a beautiful sunset that evening. 

On Friday morning we headed to Perry Sound, home the the hockey legend Bobby Orr. We did a planned lunch stop at Henry’s Fish camp which is located on San Sochi Island. It is another one of those restaurants that you can only get to by boat, with one exception, float plane! Yes they have an excursion from Perry Sound where you can get on a float plane and they take you to Henrys for their famous fried Pickrell dinner. The planes park right out on the docks with the other boats.  Pickrell by the way is Canadian for Walleye. At one time Henry’s was the largest purveyor of Walleye on the Great Lakes. Reports are that many of the rich and famous have flown in and enjoyed the meal. Most recently was Bear Grylls and George Clooney.

We didn’t see them so might have just been hype. We met up with a couple of other loopers that had the same idea for lunch. The fish was good but not as good as what we get in North Tonawanda. This was all about the experience and that it was for sure. 

O’Donnell Point Sue’s favorite swimming hole.  Some of the rocks are petty slimy so I have learned where to exit the water while keeping from slipping back into the water.Good thing no one is around to see the rock dancing that goes on.  I left this spot with pruned fingers and blue lips, but no scrapes from the rocks.

Cove view

I do miss Pan”cove” but for now this cove will do just fine.  Mike has become a pro at picking out pretty views for our anchorage.  He reminds me of a dog Going around in circles and getting the blanket just right before finally settling in.  “Good lord already, pick a spot.”  Just when I think the search will never end and the anchor will never be launched…down goes the chain and there we are again in the perfect spot.  

                                  Our Anchorage for the night

Canadian Shield

                                              Sunset aboard

Float Plane at Henrys

                                              Friday lunch with Loopers at Henrys 

Pickrell Dinner enough for two! 

                                                            Georgian Bay

Headed to Perry Sound

                                 

The Final but not so Final Lock

 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. 

Kirkfield Lift Lock and the Big Chute

 On No Here We Go Again

So this is out of order but that’s just how it goes. Days of the week no longer mean anything so it’s hard to keep track of where we were and when. We forgot to include the run to Kirkfield Lock on the way to the mouth of lake Simcoe where we strayed just past the swing bridge. When we left Felon Falls we had to pass thru the the Kirkfield Lift Lock just like the one at Peterborough just not as tall.

 

Remember a lift lock is the one where you basically enter a bath tub and they lift you in the tub to the next level. In Kirkfield they lower you. We were all prepped for the trip as the entrance to the Kirkfield lift lock is treacherous in that it is so narrow that large boats like ours cannot pass another large boat coming from the opposite direction and the depth is only 5-6 feet. We draw 4.5’. So we headed off with our brand new tuned props and we get to the narrow part. We called the lock master to see if any boats were coming from the lock in our direction. He said there was one so we waited until it came out of the channel. He also said, “see you in 1.5 hours”.

I thought how could it take that long we were only 3 miles from the lock. Well it took that long as we were at idle the whole way when we were not out of gear trying to sneak across a shallow areas . Then all of a sudden we heard a thud. Shit, we hit something. How could that be, we were dead center of the channel? Well we continued along and passed thru the lock and had another 2 miles of shallow water.

 

We made it past the swing bridge where we spent the night. Did not even have a beer that night as I felt sick to my stomach. After Orillia which we already posted on we headed to the Big Chute Railway. The big chute is a cart that you drive the boat into and they catch you on straps and then it is pulled out of the water and it goes down a hill and let you out on the other side. It is a very simple design but an amazing piece of engineering. 

Look up Big Chute Railway on You Tube. You will be amazed. It was another incredibly unique boating experience. It was both exciting and terrifying at the same time being the captain. The cruise to the big chute was spectacular. Comfortably narrow but picturesque. We stayed on the gray line for the night as we arrived on Sunday which is the day they don’t lift boats over an 11’ beam. It was a warm day so I got up the guts to put on a snorkel and masks to go take a look at the props to see what we damaged. Good news! No damage. We launched the Dinghy and headed back the way we came to a restaurant we saw on the water called Waubics. It was a great little restaurant that is only accessible by boat. Everything including staff are brought in by boat. We enjoyed a great meal and had a pretty sunset ride back to the boat. 

The next morning we were number 7 to get thru the Big Chute. We thought we would not get thru until 2 pm as they only take one big boat per trip. Well things went quicker than expected so we went thur about 11am. It was simply exillerating. Check out this link: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy7OG_vViSM

                                                    Great New Friends we met from the UK. We really enjoy their company. Already planning a trip to London to visit. 

Party Weekend in Lake Couchchiching

                                      Orillia 

On Friday morning July 30th we pulled away from the wall and headed out into Lake Simcoe. The lake is a popular fishing area where the target fish are Perch, Walleye and Bass. We were headed for Orillia which is past the narrows and at the bottom of Lake Couchiching. 

It was a quick 20 mile cruise so we had time to get a pumpout and buy some of the cheap Canadian Fuel. Read $7.50 a gallon in US presidents. Ouch! Fortunately we only needed 150 gallons to get us to Michigan where it is currently $5.00 a gallon.

We got to our slip and did the typical provisioning, laundry and a quick boat bath. I even did an oil and filter change with a detailed maintenance inspection to see if we had broken anything else. We were all done by early afternoon. I recalled as a very young kid,age 10,  my family and my cousins family went on vacation to some cottage near Simcoe. A call to my Aunt Alice and I got the address of the cottage we stayed at. Here is the crazy part. It was right around the corner of the marina we were staying at. So we jumped on our bikes and went to see it.

What a trip down memory lane. It was just as out was 50 years ago. We went back to the marina to prepare for Happy Hour. Well we didn’t have to prepare much we no more than walked down the docks and the local boaters were putting beers in our hands. 

We couldn’t walk 25’ and not have another group ask us about the Loop. So friendly. We wound up having dinner in town with four of them which turned into a night cap on Next Chapter. We finally threw them off at 11:30 pm as quite hours were supposed to start at 11 pm. I told them we had another three weeks in Canada and we did not want to get deported just yet. Fun people, fun marina. They had the best social activity of any marina to date. 

The Next morning we decided to go to the Canadian Legion for breakfast. Somebody told us it was good and cheap. Well they were right. We had a great breakfast of Peameal Benedicts with coffee for all of $9.50 CND! There was a nice little museum of war time memorabilia and our waitress was a hoot. In the meantime Sue got a text from a couple we met briefly in NYC, Rui and JoeselIe. 

I then remembered they had a cottage on Lake Simcoe and told us to come stay with them when we came thru. Well we forgot but thankfully they did not. We were already in Orillia past their cottage so they graciously offered to come get us in their 60’ boat and take us for a cruise in Lake Couchchiching. They brought along some good friends of theirs, Noel and Anna from St Vincent. We hit it off large. They took us to a cove in Indian Chief Island where there was at least 75 other boats all rafted up. The music was playing the the drinks were flowing. Much like our Tiki Bar on the Eastern Shore only Canadian style. Although they tried to kidnap us and take us back to their cottage we had to decline as we were heading out in the AM. Huge thanks to Rui and Joelle for their incredible hospitality and a shout out to Anna and Noel. We hope to see you guys soon!. They dropped us dockside and we called it a night. What a fun weekend! 

The cottage I went to as a child

       The boat house

Front of the cottage

Fenelon Falls

 Fenelon Falls 

As you can probably imagine we were a little stressed from the previous two days so we did a very short cruise to Fenelon Falls on Wednesday July 27th, a Looper favorite stop. It was only 20 miles and 2 locks so we were there by 11am. The lock wall is right in the center of the tiny town so it is pretty convenient. There was several Loopers on the wall also. We enjoyed a nice lunch at the local brewery and then went about town. 

There was another one of those local historical museums full of old items from the local area. They were actually having a High Tea in the lawn served with ladies in period correct dresses. The Museum was very interesting. We then heard about a bike path so we launched the bikes and went on a great ride thru woodland and costal areas. The bike path is used by ATV’s/golf carts, cyclists or walkers in the warm weather and snow machines in the winter months.  

We spoke with two ladies on Jazzy electric wheelchairs wearing shirts that read, “Sexy Seniors”.  Turns out they have a daily wheelchair jaunt to the coffee shop and back.  Electric wheelchairs are indeed the new “sexy”.

On Thursday we headed to lake Simcoe which was a 28 mile cruise and involved 7 locks and one swing bridge. It was a pretty warm day but it was windy so it was not too bad. We ended up staying on the wall just past the swing bridge at the mouth of lake Simcoe. It was well sheltered and we had an awesome view of the lake for our dinner on the Sundeck. We enjoyed the company of another boat from Waterport NY which is between Rochester and Buffalo. They had been to Georgian Bay and were a wealth of information. We also learned that there is, no kidding, a Virginia Beach, Ontario on Lake Simcoe. How crazy is that! I found this location perfect a nap. Lulled by the lapping of the waves on the hull of Next Chapter I dreamt of the coves we would anchor in (and I could squeeze a nap in) on Georgian Bay. One interesting thing that happened was this car pulled up and a really old guy clamored out of his car. Sue immediately went to the rescue as she thought he was in need of some type of assistance. Well it turns out he was dispensing information about the history of that particular lock. The original was built in the mid 1800s but it was enlarged in the 50’s. Well George happened to own a construction company at the time at the young age of 26 and did all the excavation with a cable operator excavator. Back then that machine was a highly specialized piece of equipment and he was the only one for many miles that had the skill to operate it. And so it goes. The next Morning we headed off for a 28 mile cruise that included 7 locks and one swing bridge. A pretty full day as you remember each lock takes about 25 minutes to pass thru. We ended up on the other side of the swing bridge just at the mouth of Lake Simcoe. It was well protected and offered a beautiful view of the lake. We met some other past loopers who shared some of their wisdom on Georgian bay. Turns out they were from Waterport which is just north of Batavia, NY where Sue and I lived for a short time before we moved to VB. We also discovered from some locals that there was a Virginia Beach, Ontario on lake Simcoe. Look it up I’m not smart enough to make it up!.

High Tea

Inside the Museum

Local Home

It’s Always Something With Boats

 Back on the Hard!

After a tense hour in the morning the owner of the prop shop, John came to the boat and said he had good news. There was a marina about an hour and a half in the direction we were headed that could pull us out the same day. So this was Monday July 25th. So we fired up the engines and cast off.

We got to Happy Days Boat Rental at about 1:00 pm, they don’t rent any more it is now really a marina for house boats. They were waiting for us when we arrived to pluck us out of the water. The last 100 yards to the ramp was extremely shallow causing us to stir the bottom. Yet another pucker ride. Within a half hour Next Chapter was back on the hard. The mechanic Mitch went right to work. He had the props off in no time. Then he said, “hey your shaft bearings are shot”. 

Great! For our non boating friends,  shaft bearing hold the shaft as it passes thru the strut which keeps the shafts from wobbling around as the propeller spins. If we were going to change the bearings we would need new ones and we were in the middle of nowhere Canada. He made a call to the prop shop and we were in luck. They had replacement bearings that fit out struts. So off we went to drop off the props so they could get to work on them and pick up the new bearings. Back to the boat an hour later.

Mitch went right to work to press out the old bearing and put the new ones in. Well no love. The struts had to be pulled off the boat and taken to a machine shop to replace the bearings because the struts were unique. So we worked together till about 8 pm to finally get the struts off. Up here in Canada the sun doesn’t set until almost 8:45 pm. After a brawl to get them off the boat Mitch threw them into his truck so he could  drop them off at the machines shop in the morning. Long day so we went to bed early. The next morning the owner of the marina, Frank came over and introduced himself and offered to take us into Bobcaygeon, another quaint Canadian town. 

Sue did some provisioning and we walked the town. There is a whole community of houseboat owners at Happy Days Boat Rentals that were all so friendly and offered to help in any way they could. As the hours ticked by on Tuesday the anxiety level increased so I went to work and did some cleaning and waxing on the boat. About 4:30 the phone rang, it was Mitch! 

The props and struts were done and he would be to the boat at 6 pm  to put everything back together. Loud cheers. When he arrived he did not have any help so I jumped in again and we went to work. By 8 pm we had Next Chapter ready to splash. We enjoyed a couple of well deserved cold beers and called it a wrap.  We spent another night on the hard but enjoyed a campfire with the boaters from the marina. Other than the extremely pesky mosquitos it was a great evening. At 7:00 am Mitch was back wanting to put us back into the water as it was calm and he wanted to tow us out to deep water so we had no chance of hitting ground. 7:45 am on Wednesday we were back in the water and on our way. What a relief. I asked to pay the bill before we left but they said don’t worry about it when we get it together we will send you the bill for payment.  Just another example to the kind hearted nature of total strangers.