August 16, 2017 to August 24,
2017. Just west of Killarney is a small
fjord named Baie Fine (aka Bay Finn). We
believe that’s French for “slender bay”.
Anyway, it’s a “must see” when passing through Georgian Bay and the
North Channel. Baie Fine is about eight
miles long and, indeed, it’s much like a fjord, narrow but plenty deep with
high granite ridges on both sides. At
the top of Baie Fine there is a narrower channel that extends to the east for
another two miles or so where it opens up into a small lake called the
“Pool”. This channel is wide enough and
deep enough for larger vessels to pass through it and to anchor in the
pool. Because the pool can be weedy
(hard to get the anchor to set), we chose to anchor at the top of Baie Fine
proper and not up by the pool. In
theory, our selected anchorage would have a better breeze and fewer bugs. The weather was sunny and moderately warm.
Shoreline Along Baie Fine
Once in Baie Fine, the "thing to do"
is to take the dinghy all the way up to the end of the fjord and then hike to a
nearby lake called Topaz Lake. The path
was rocky but not that difficult and we were able to make it to Topaz Lake in
about 30 minutes. We don’t hike as fast
as we used to. Topaz Lake was beautiful; its waters were
green as the name would suggest. There
were other boaters there and some were swimming in the lake. We did not bring our bathing suits, so we
were not able to take a dip. A missed
opportunity.
Wooded Trail To Topaz Lake
Topaz Lake
Topaz Lake
Tug LeeLoo At Anchor At Baie Fine
Sunset At Baie Fine
We knew the next day, Thursday, was supposed
to be windy and rainy so we decided to move on to an anchorage near the town of
Little Current. The plan was to dinghy
into town and walk around a bit. Our
secondary anchorage would have been behind Beaver Island just east of Little
Current. We got up and pulled the anchor, and cruised to the entrance of Baie Fine. Once we reached the open water
at the mouth of Baie Fine, we found it a bit too rough for our taste, so we turned
Tug LeeLoo around and headed back to our anchorage at the top of Baie
Fine. Part of the problem
was that we did not have any cell service while we were in Baie Fine -
none, nada. So we could not get accurate information on the conditions
of the open water until we were actually on the open water. At least we had a safe and
comfortable anchorage to return to to ride out the bad weather. It rained hard most of the day, but we were safe an secure. Just no cell service.
On Friday we were still dodging bad
weather but were able to make it to Beaver Island. There was nothing to do there except to wait
for better weather. In fact, waiting for
better weather would become the theme for our visit to the North Channel.
Waterfall After All The Rain From The Previous Day!
On Saturday, our plan was to anchor
near Clapperton Island. The weather was
windy but sunny. By this time we had
given up on the idea of stopping in Little Current; we were ready to move
on. To get to Clapperton Island and
further into the North Channel, we had to go through the swing bridge at Little
Current. It only opens on the hour and,
unfortunately, we arrived about 30 minutes early. So we had to engage in “station keeping” for
30 minutes. Station keeping is nautical
talk for driving a boat in circles while minding the winds and current and
trying hard to not run aground or into the many other boats also engaged in this
fun exercise. Eventually the bridge opened
and we and several sailboats were allowed to pass through.
Little Current Swing Bridge - Only Opens On The Hour
While passing the town of Little
Current we noticed some open space on the town wall, so we radioed them and
asked for permission to tie up for a couple hours so that we might have lunch
and go shopping. To our surprise, then
responded in the affirmative. I guess
promising to spend money in their town helped our cause. So that’s what we did. We went to the farmers market, to the grocery
store, and out for lunch. After a couple
of hours we departed for the anchorage at the south end of Clapperton Island.
Dock Along Little Current
Town Of Little Current
The anchorage we were headed to was
a large bay that, in theory, would give us protection from the strong west
winds. And inside the bay there was a
small island that we could get behind to improve our protection even more. Unfortunately, a sailboat was already
there. The balance of the bay wasn’t as
promising as the chart suggested, so we headed out and around to a secondary
anchorage on the east side of the island.
It was called Logan Bay. It was a
fine anchorage, good holding and good protection against the west winds. And it was six miles closer to the Benjamin’s
Islands group, which was our destination the next day.
Sunday was a great day to visit the
Benjamin’s! It was sunny and the winds
were light and variable. It was a short
trip, only 6 miles, and we arrived by 10:00 in the morning. This was indeed a popular anchorage, by the
end of the day there were nineteen boats including Tug LeeLoo anchored
there. Finally, we had arrived at the
North Channel destination you hear so much about. There are smooth rock islands in all
directions, perfect for landing the dinghy on to hike and explore and swim and to
party with other Loopers. So that’s what
we did.
Views of Our Anchorage In The Benjamins
The weather on Monday was supposed
to be okay for most of the day, so we decided to stay another day. Our location was good but not great. While Nancy stayed on Tug LeeLoo and baked
cookies, Carey went for another dinghy ride to explore more of the islands. And of course, we had to get ready for the
eclipse. This far north we did not expect
to see complete totality, about 25% would be it. We made a viewer out of the cookie box and
stood on the bow of the boat and watched the eclipse. Although we only saw a partial eclipse, it
was still quite an event.
Our anchorage was more or less in
between North and South Benjamin Islands, all that protected us against the
strong west winds that were expected the following day were some low lying rock
islands (islets?). So on Tuesday morning
we decided to move the boat to a bay at the south end of South Benjamin Island
for better protection. We thought we
knew what we were doing but this decision turned out to be a bad one in
retrospect. The bay indeed provided protection
against winds exactly from the west. But
the winds that day and into the evening had a northerly component and they
managed to sneak around the rocky bluff protecting us and hit us on the nose. Not to worry, we would have some bow slap
that evening but we were confident the anchor would hold. Unfortunately, the bay we were in was not
that deep (long) and the waves flowing from west to east across the entrance to
the bay refracted into the anchorage.
These rolling waves, in opposition to the winds from the northwest,
caused Tug LeeLoo to turn sideways to the incoming swells. So in addition to bow slap, we rolled and
rolled and rolled all day and all night long.
It felt like we were on a continual roller coaster . . . it was not fun! At all!
Early on Wednesday, like 6:30 am
early, we moved Tug LeeLoo back to Logan Bay on Clapperton Island. Bow slap we can take, rolling back and forth
hour after hour, not so much. This was the first time Nancy felt even a hint of seasickness!
On Thursday, August 24, we were ready to move on
from the Benjamin’s Islands and to see more of the North Channel. Our destination was John’s Island which is at
the east end of the Whalesback Channel, about 29 miles to the west. The weather and water and were excellent
(finally) and we had a good cruise. To
get here we had to pass through Detroit Passage, a very narrow channel. We would have issued a “securite” message on
VHF Channel 16 before proceeding through the channel except for the fact that
the Canadian Coast Guard was monitoring a rescue operation on Channel 16. Apparently a catamaran overturned (hard to
figure out how that could happen) and everyone on board was dumped into the
water. One nearby boat picked up a
mother and two small children and took them to a waiting ambulance at the
municipal marina in Spanish, just a few miles from where we are anchored. A second boat picked up seven additional
people and took them to the marina.
Unless it was a large vessel, one can suspect that it was overloaded.
Sunset In The North Channel
On Friday, August 25, the plan is to backtrack
a bit and go to the town of Gore Bay on Manitoulin Island.
Except for our short visit to Little Current, we had been at anchor for nine straight days. The holding tank was
full and the liquor cabinet was empty!
It was time to reprovision and to get off the boat and to stretch our
legs.
We were hoping to find a restaurant to go out to dinner, but found only two and they were both closed Friday evening! Talk about rolling up the sidewalks! The good news was there was a walk-able grocery store and LBCO so we were able to do some re-provisioning.
Gore Bay
