Articles
In the North Channel of Lake Huron
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Killarney, ON We left the Bustard Islands by 7:00 am.
I had been very concerned about this passage because the prevailing winds
would cause side seas on a rather long passage. It was a beautiful ride.
I defrosted the refrigerator early in the day so it could cool off during
the run. We hadn’t really planned to stop, but managed to find a marina in
Killarney and were able to take care of laundry, groceries and dump the trash.
We only need to do that about every 2 weeks.
We made 3 trips to town to bring things home.
It is very different not to have a car to just stop here and there and
pick up whatever you think you might want.
We did have fish and chips at Mr. Perch, which is the red school bus that is so famous in this area for having the “Best Fish and Chips in the world.”
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Pretty amazing sight
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Baie Fine, ON We left Killarney rather unprepared, but were able to sort out charts and
make travel decisions rather quickly.
The paper chart showed the Landsdowne Passage as far too shallow, but the
computer charts were excellent and showed the depths.
The Digital Ocean charts are on-screen prints of the actual chart, much
like Maptech, but not quite as refined in their appearance.
The essentials are there, though and you can read the buoy numbers and
colors, unlike the Richardson paper charts. We anchored outside the entrance to the pool because the charts said it was only 5 ft. deep inside. We watched the behavior of the boat at anchor for a little while then went by dinghy up into the pool. There was about 100 ft. boat up in there. The shallowest depth we found with our hand held depth finder was 9.6 ft. This cove was just before the narrow passage. We could have gone in, but this is so beautiful and alone.
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This place was about as |
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Cobbler made of blueberries picked |
We walked to the top of the mountain and saw a clear lake.
We also picked nearly a quart of blueberries thus depriving the local
bear population. Don went fishing all around the cove and caught 2 fish while I was
cleaning the berries and fantasizing about what to do with them.
A cobbler seems to be the best idea yet.
We have decided that blueberries are pretty fattening.
I guess it isn’t the berries, but as Karin says, “It’s all that butter
and sugar you have to put with them.”
Don makes foamed milk to pour on the cobblers.
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We sat out and watched the sun set behind the pure white mountain off the
stern and the silence was deafening. While we were in Baie Fine, we installed the mid deck shade.
I don’t know how we made it 12 years without it.
What a difference in both rain and sun. We fished every afternoon there.
We caught 2 Northern Pike, but weren’t sure what they were and the conservation
fishing license does not allow us to keep a Muskie.
The Northern Pike is sort of like a spotted Muskie.
We caught 3 nice bass and one quite large one that spit the hook
(honestly it was far bigger than the others).
I drive the dinghy and Don fishes. We will remember Baie Fine as silence, darkness, white mountains and tropical blue water.
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Sunset at Baie Fine |
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Trail to the blueberries |
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Aird Islands We left Baie Fine in the mist and haze.
The weather was nice and calm and we were headed through Little Current
and on up the North Channel. We
kept passing anchorages that had been suggested to us, but they looked crowded
and difficult. We anchored in
Whaleback Channel behind Aird Island.
The holding was difficult and deep, but it was uncrowded.
We fished some and caught nothing, but did have quite an interesting
experience with beavers. We had noticed some piles of sticks and wondered if they were beaver
lodges. One looked sort of new but
the other just looked like washed up sticks. We were fishing along and saw a limb on the shore.
Don noticed and wondered why it was down since it looked healthy.
The “log” next to it turned out to be a beaver.
He swam away and we went on to fish.
About 30 minutes later we came back and he was there eating the bark.
We came quietly from downwind and he didn’t notice us.
As we were watching from probably 25 ft. away, we heard a very loud slap
close to us. It sounded like
something had jumped from shore. Our beaver swam right over to investigate and slapped his tail and dove. In a couple of minutes the other beaver surfaced by the lodge. It swam back and forth numerous times, and went into the lodge.
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Caper anchored at Aird Island |
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We thought the beavers were warning us and trying to keep us away from the
lodge. Our beaver went back to eat.
By now we were within 15 feet and he was not paying attention to us.
We were very still and quiet.
At one point he looked over and spotted Foggy.
He slapped his tail and dove then went back to his food. In a few minutes he started swimming away from the lodge.
We thought he was trying to lead us away like a mother bird will. He swam quite a distance and when he got to the other lodge, he dove and
went in. We realized that it had
been a challenge between the two males and that they were just sorting out
territories. Our male was quite a
lot larger than the other one. When we hauled our anchor we found it hung on about a 20 ft. log. No wonder it wouldn’t set.
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Bear Drop Harbor, ON We moved over to Bear Drop Harbor.
It is a beautiful anchorage with several entrances.
We are at the far end of the anchorage and most of the other boats are
sailboats. I become more convinced
all along that the cruising trawlers are docking in marinas rather than
anchoring out. What a shame.
You see things anchored that you would never see otherwise. We went fishing around thru a cut and back through another cut. We caught a Northern Pike and decided to eat it. YUCK! It was far too bony to eat. I guess it would be ok if we could figure out the pattern of the bones. The bones were forked.
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Don with a slimy stinky bony |
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Catching bait |
Bear Drop was actually the last stop on our Canadian cruise.
It was a nice quiet anchorage.
The sailors were friendly and a lady on the powerboat next to us actually
offered to clean a pike if we caught one.
We caught one about 2 ft. long and it flipped slime all over the boat.
We put it back in the water and didn’t tell her. |
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Looks like a picture puzzle photo |
Bear Drop |
