Mike and Kathy-Weather still great!
08/03/2007, Britt, Ontario

8/2/07 St. Amants Marina in Britt

Ok...When we type this stuff up every night we have the option to disallow comments and it was our full intent to take advantage of that particular button. Unfortunately, Kathy has been submitting things on the fly as we pass a wireless areas and has, on occasion, not remembered to ban you guys. Tonight , after explaining to Jan Egbert that she couldn't make comments because we didn't want them, I took the time to go back and read what folks have had to say...

Esther...We entertain ourselves

Jeff...I know Crosby, Stills and Nash

Dan...It wasn't the only one. Did you need help to make the smiley face?

All birthday wishes are duly noted...Thanks

Anyway, we are hereby backing off the no comments stance because we miss most of you guys. Just don't take advantage of situation. Sometimes we barely have time to read the email, much less the comments on the blog.

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Today we left rock bay, otherwise know as Beaverstone Bay, and ventured out into the Georgian Bay and guess what we found.. . You got it, rocks. Two miles off shore we could see waves crashing on submerged rocks. To be able to breath, we traveled 8 miles out. The term "shore" is tough to define here and is generally meant to be that 5 mile rock patch that you have to navigate to get back to land.

We had a wonderful sail today... a beam reach all day. Our max speed was 7.6 knots...(as registered on the GPS Marv) Toward the end of the trip things got too rolly for comfort. And, the fact that we were not entirely sure how to get through the afore mentions rock patch made things a little nerve wracking for about 20 minutes. But we made it and are comfortably ensconced in St. Amants Marina, Britt Ontario.

Aaah -Britt...Britt is a cozy hamlet of 350 year-round residents located 100 km south of Sudbury and 65 km north of Parry Sound on Highway 526 off of Highway 69. It is at mileage 62 from Parry Sound on Sheet 3 of GEORGIAN BAY Small Craft Chart no. 2203 and 65 miles east-south east of Killarney along the small craft route on Chart no. 2204. Trail C of the OFSC trail system crosses the Magnetawan River or Byng Inlet at Britt.

The majority of residents are descendents of pioneers who worked the huge lumber mills, the CPR Coal Docks and the commercial fishing boats in the late 1800's and the first half of the 1900's.

The port has 2 large marinas, a post office, a liquor store, 2 churches, a Legion Hall, two bars, a volunteer fire department, a Medevac Helipad, 2 general stores, 2 restaurants, 2 Inns, recreational facilities and a Canadian Coast Guard Crew stationed at Gereaux Lighthouse.(copied directly from the village website for your edification).

We are docked next to yet another Bayfield 40... Mutual affair. It makes that the third B 40 in about a week.

We are thinking about heading to Parry Sound to visit a friend tomorrow but will wait and see about the weather.

One interesting thing about traveling here is that there is a path marked out in the rock patch area that is used by wimps for moving north and south along this coast. It zigzags back and forth between rocks and islands. (which are really just bigger rocks). It's called the inside passage for pleasure craft and it has its own chart. We thought about it for a bout 10 seconds. Dodging rocks all day is not fun after three or four days.

Bye for now.

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Kathy
08/03/2007, Collins Inlet to Beaverstone Bay

8/1/07 Covered Portage Cove to Beaverstone Bay, north of Sheet Island

Today we left around 8:30 and headed for the drive through Killarney. I wondered if we could pick up some internet access as we drove through so I could post the blog and check some email. Well, it worked out somewhat. I had to answer Sam's email, as she has miscalculated some banking. It's a little difficult to help with that from where we are at the moment. I posted the blog and tried to answer some other email, but alas, we were through the mile of town even though Mike went through in neutral and irritated the boats behind us. He even turned around and made another pass so I could copy some emails. I hope no one feels snubbed because I didn't reply to any emails, I really did try.

We drove to Collins Inlet which separates the Killarney Provincial Park from Prince Edward Island. It was like driving through a river, although it is not. We saw evidence of old beaver lodges and a deer drinking water beside us as we drove by. We saw a string of trawlers go by that must have been traveling together, and some other boats along the way-none of them sailboats. We did see one sailboat anchored behind an island. It was a beautiful trip that was recommended to us by "Celtic Song"-thanks! We then threaded our way around some islands and found a spot to anchor at about 1:30. We had some lunch and read a while and I had a nap. I don't like naps, but I didn't sleep very well last night for some reason.

We realized that today it is August, the usual time we would say it was time to turn around and head home. We were kind of excited that we are able to be traveling on this summer. We have pretty much decided that we will head for the Erie Canal, not the Trent Severn.

It is a bit windy here, so I don't think we will go out to explore or fish.

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Mike Another beautiful day
08/01/2007, Covered Portage Cove

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.

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