Day 50 - Sun 17 Jul 2016
Docked - Gore Bay, ON (North Channel)

[photo: inside the Harbour Centre art galleries]

We had a pretty restful night, although the SW winds pushed some surge into our bay that made a slightly uncomfortable motion for a while. At least the wind was not too strong. We awoke a tad later than usual, almost 0600, to a beautifully sunny sky. With the forecast for the southerly winds to pick up later, it was best to make tracks S to Gore Bay as early as possible.

Weighing anchor just after 0700, it came up full of heavy clay. That is fabulous for making the anchor hold and not so good for getting it cleaned off. Diane did her best and we carried on. The ride was surprisingly smooth and we arrived at Gore Bay in less than 2 hours. As the charts indicated, we were able to anchor in nice sand in just 4.5 feet of water and no rocks in sight.

Following a little Internet email and researching about the Canadian lock at Sault Ste. Marie to enter Lake Superior, we lowered the dinghy, got cleaned up and headed into town. The first stop after the marina office to see what we could learn was the Harbour Centre where they have a number of art galleries. We browsed through them all, Diane admiring one loon print very much but deciding not to buy it. Leaving there, we stepped into the Split Rail Brewery across the street.

It is owned and operated by two young women. I thought back to my youth when the idea of young women who owned a brewery would be as close to heaven as imaginable. They have just upgraded to much larger equipment due to their growing popularity, and their selection was limited. We sampled the wheat and amber ales and shared a pint of amber.

The ale must have killed Diane's indecisive brain cells because as we left she declared that she wanted that loon print after all. Fortunately, she took credit cards because we have used up almost all of our Canadian currency. From there, we backtracked and found the main part of town. It is quite small and our lunch stop was a small restaurant/diner. Diane had a pretty good Caesar salad and I had a decent corned beef sandwich, but prices were quite high for what you got. I guess that is one disadvantage of the remoteness up here.

As we walked back to our dinghy, we stopped to give our boat card to Randy from the Nordic Tug, Hog's Breath. He saw we were from FL and wanted to chat with us about buying a sailboat there to use for the Keys and Bahamas. We got invited aboard and chatted for a long while with him and Terry. We invited them over to see our boat, but after talking about the latest weather conditions, I wanted to get aboard and check for myself.

Sure enough, there was a nasty squall headed our way, so being prudent, we weighed anchor and took a slip in the marina. We saw quite a few boats doing the same thing and the dock hands were quite busy for a time. Randy and Terry were just walking back from town and Diane called them over. They both came aboard for the tour and liked the boat very much.

We visited a while but then I found out we were invited over there for Happy Hour for 6 people at 1700. It was a great gathering with Randy and Terry, and their friends, Percy and Deb (the Leprechaun). All the nibbles were delicious, and the smoked salmon we brought from Herbert's in Killarney was fabulous! After way too many stories, including a couple of pilots sharing some aviation tidbits, it was time to head back to the boat.

I didn't really need to eat much more, but we both had a sensible portion of the turkey breast, a baked potato, and some absolutely wonderful fresh Brussel sprouts. The winds look like they might keep us pinned down here again tomorrow, so we might be partying again.

There is nothing left for us to do here, but we are not behind any firm schedule and may need to stay another day if the very strong W winds materialize.