7/31/07 Boyle Harbor to Covered Portage Cove

Another windless sunny day. We hoisted the anchor (after almost a month I've got the new windlass down) at around 9 am and backtracked a couple of miles to the point. Then up Landsdowne Channel toward Killarney, which we by passed, and continued on to Covered Portage Cove which is spectacular. There is an outer bay and then an inner bay both of which are surrounded by rounded limestone cliffs and trees where there's enough soil. It's a popular spot and there were probably ten boats in each of the coves when we arrived. Is sounds like quite a few but everyone was well spaced and all had their privacy if they wanted it.

After a quick lunch we found our hiking shoes and climbed one of the cliffs that had a trail for a great view back down on the boats in the cove. The hike reminded me of the last half mile of Ramseys Cascade.....If you've been there you know what I'm talking about, if not, read steep and rocky.


We switched to the larger dinghy motor for the first time ( we have two- a 9.8 hp that gets us up on plane and a 2.5 hp that we putt around to shore and back) to drive the two miles into Killarney hand headed back to town. Killarney is a very old town dating back to the late 1600's. It consists of a natural straight cut that divides the mainland from George Island which is about 50 yards wide and a mile long. Both sides are solid boats with a few houses and businesses thrown in to break things up a bit. The LCBO (read beer store) faced the channel and had its own dock so we stopped for a $40 case of Bud Light. The fishing dock was selling fish and chips from a permanently parked school bus on the water so after filling both dingy tanks with gasoline at the General Store (they also had their own dock) we were there for an early supper.

We spent the remainder of the day reading in the shade and jumping in the water periodically to cool off.

The most memorable event of the day occurred about two hours before sunset. Three sail boats that had been in the inner harbor came out and anchored between us and the nearest boat to the west. There was lots of room in the cove but they all bunched together much too close to both of us. On top of that, they really didn't anchor very well. (For those of you who are boaters... they had undersized anchors, 15 feet of chain and put out 45 feet of rode in 22 feet of water. If a thunderstorm popped up they would be dragging into either another boat or the surrounding rocks. The guy on the boat to our west, who had been here when we arrived, started yelling at the three sailboats for their rudeness and lack of seamanship. (Two of the three were single handing and the third had two guys.... All of whom seemed to be buddies) who promptly told the guy to mind his business.
Our neighbor who seemed to be in his 60's lost it... Screaming and swearing. It was embarrassing. A little later one of the three intruders dinghied over to try to smooth things out ... and the ugly American lost it again. Both parties were at fault and the whole scene put a little damper on an otherwise perfect day.