Day 43 - Sun 10 Jul 2016
Anchored – Mill Lake, ON (Georgian Bay)

[photo: sunrise on Mill Lake]

Well, this certainly was a fun and interesting day. We got a late start to let the sun get higher in the sky to better see the rocks as we explored with the dinghy. Last Dance had already departed the anchorage, but we hailed them on the radio to say bye until we see them again.

About 0900, we took off and first cruised around the anchorage. There were four large boats rafted together on the rock wall and we got some good photos. On the way there, we saw the little plastic buoy marking the big rock that we were told was about 18 inches below the surface. I went at least 15 feet to the side of the buoy and ran right onto the rock. The skeg on the engine caught, but we could get off easily. That did not set a good mood for Diane.

Next, we headed through Devil Door, where in periods where the lake water levels are lower, has a short, narrow set of rapids that could take a bit of horsepower to overcome. This year, it was a surge of water at maybe 3-4 kts, but not scary in any way. Once in there, to the N are several gorges carved by the glacier. One is marked with a ‘no swimming’ sign and we were told that is the downstream route of the rapids. Just W of there is the upstream route, we found out.

Not daring to do anything without better guidance, we saw this 30-something guy fishing from his dinghy and asked about the rapids. He put his pole away and was absolutely thrilled to be able to show us how this all worked. I figured you would use just enough engine power to overcome the flow of water and work your way upstream. Noooo! You have to go pretty fast to be ‘on plane’ so that you can maneuver quickly to dodge the rocks and to lift the boat up higher in the water to (hopefully) prevent striking your prop.

That was not a comfortable feeling, but when our guide, John, took off, we did, too. The rushing water has a lot of force and pushes you port and starboard as it tumbles rapidly over the rocks, so you need to steer very sharply and just go for it. We got to the top (maybe 30 seconds that seemed longer) and showed out appreciation to John. He said he had better show us the way down, but explained that it was even more important to go fast to maintain control.

Off we went and we did not touch bottom once. When I had expressed concern about that, John said that people come here to run the rapids and you don’t worry about saving your prop. Well, a few nicks are one thing, but disabling the engine with a broken or bent prop is something else. Yes, I brought a spare, but the risk seemed too great for the reward. We got up and down without hurting anything and we called that ‘good.’

Another word or two about the rapids as explained by Last Dance: aside from motorized dinghies running the rapids, the local fishing guides take much large aluminum skiffs up and down, too, in order to reach some interesting fishing grounds upstream. With that in mind, it amazes me that someone has not posted two signs for ‘up’ and ‘down’ with a brief explanation why. Can you imagine a skiff loaded with fishermen and gear racing at 20mph or so down this gorge (perhaps 8 feet of usable width) with someone accidentally coming the other way? Did I mention there are some blind corners, too?

Next, we headed quite a bit farther W, checking out the topography along the way. We saw no bears or rattlers, or blueberry bushes, but it was nice. On the way back, just as we got to the rapids, we saw several dinghies coming in and waving madly. We had no idea who it would be, until we recognized the crews of Heron, Golden, Cat Daddy, and Tiger, four of the PDQs in the flotilla. We hung out for a few minutes and then they asked if we know which gorges were the rapids.

We showed them, and then Golden, Heron, and Cat Daddy took off. Tiger’s dinghy engine was acting up and he didn’t want to chance it. I can’t blame him. Heron, like us, said once was enough, but Golden and Cat Daddy went quite a few more times before calling it quits. On the way back, we stopped at the large sloping rock abeam our boat in the anchorage. Diane held the dinghy there while I climbed up and snapped some pretty nice shots to share with the group.

The group asked us to join them that evening up near Collins Inlet. We had debated whether to stay the whole day and move tomorrow or go today. That was our next general area of interest, and we thought we would experience flotilla cruising for a night, so we agreed to go. We were last in the group by almost 2 miles, but a little over 3 hours later we were anchored in a large bay at the W end of Mill Lake. PDQ Freedom was the first there and we were soon joined by Traveller.

The trip took us into the open waters of Georgina Bay and we must admit it was a wonderful day to travel out there. Another day or two of stringer winds are coming soon, so we are no in pretty protected waters. Not too long after stopping, Diane wanted to rest, so I lowered the dinghy and went visiting. I stopped at Traveller for a long while as Rafe and John worked on the electric anchor winch controls. They are both competent individuals and I could offer nothing but encouragement.

At 1715, I got back to Diva Di to realize that Diane was not aware of the 1730 Happy Hour aboard the 41 footer, PDQ Freedom. She showered and changed, I cleaned up and changed, and we got the BYOB and the baked brie with maple and pecans ready. Everyone showed up pretty close to on time – you don’t want to be late for Happy Hour – and it was a great time. There were lots of great stories and jokes and scrumptious nibbles.

Around 1930, it was time to head back to Diva Di. Before we left for the party, Diane had already had a small portion of the chili from several days ago and I had a few spoons-full. We didn’t need anything else, so we just read in the beautiful surroundings until an early bedtime.