Good Bye North Channel

July 30th
We decided to go back over to Gore Bay and stay for 2 nights there with Inua. While setting setting on the boat sharing a finger with Inua, Right smack over on the finger bow to bow from Inua in comes Dave and Jan on Laurel. The other side of my family I have always heard about but never met.(not really family) We could not believe it as fate must have been. It was nice to finally meet up with them as we had dinner at the Rocky Raccoon Café on the 2nd night we were there. It was a place you did not want to be in a hurry for but all the meals were great.

July 31st
A diamond in the ruff.
I think Jeannie and I found a true deal up in Claperton Island. A little piece of real estate that is a true hideaway. It comes complete


with a main lodge, outdoor seating on a beautiful deck over looking the bay. You can hear the loons calling and watch the beautiful sunrises. Also it comes with 2 beautiful cabins which are furnish to boot. Sorry Girls mom and Dad are spending your inheritance. You can come and get away and truly forget all your troubles here. It is truly amazing what one can find up in this neck of the woods. Buster even liked it so well that he went swimming. Ah but we need a bigger life jacket for him as he has gained weight from just lounging around.

Aug 1st
After a night over at Claperton Island scouting out real estate we moved back over to Croaker Island as it was one of Canada’s holidays. The first time we were here there were only 4 boats in the harbor which is big. But this time roughly 14 were in here. But we had our own little piece of the island. It was the only place that had a sandy beach and a private outhouse. Yea I did use it even. Had to. This was our last night being with Inua and Laurel as we were headed east to start moving on out of the north channel. So to top the night off we had to have a bonfire on the beach with dogs and all the trimmings. It was one of the better nights we have had up here weather wise so it made the night fantastic.


Leaving Croaker we headed over to Little Current just for a short stop to do laundry and top of fuel and water. The public marina is a government run marina and if you do not stay the night you do not pay. So we stayed for 4 hours tied up to the wall right downtown. The swing bridge operates on the hour only so we had planed on catching the 4 pm bridge but as we came back from getting a few items at the laundry and the LCBO store. It was dang close to 3 pm that I had noticed the boats lining up. So we made a made dash to the boat and threw the lines on and shoved off. We were the last boat to cross.Wow! We high fived each other as we headed to Haywood Island for 2 nights. We had planed on going up to Baie Fine but a front came and it rained and was foggy for the next 2 days. So that was home. Looking at the charts the east end of the North Channel has so much to see that it would take a few more weeks. So we decided that next time that is where we will go.

Aug 4th
Listening to the Canada weather (noaa) they were predicting strong winds coming later in the night. Our plan was to get closer to Lake Huron and set it out for a few days as it looked like Saturday we would cross back over to the States. So we took off from Haywood Island at 7 am and headed for Club Island. Which is out in the Georgian Bay all by it self. The anchorage is as we had talked to a coupe that had been there and told us that there is room for only a couple of boats. So might you know as we are headed in that direction off in the distance we could see a few other sailboats headed that same way. So course a change we did. As we looked at the charts and Fitzwilliam Island had a much bigger harbor with a small bend in it so I figured we could tuck in there. Well the name of the harbor is called Rattle Snake harbor. We found out that the island has the highest population of rattle snakes in Canada. So Jeannie wanted to be reassured they would not swim out to the boat. Naturally I told her some story about they could not swim. As we got to it we got looking things over and it was rather roley but long behold we spotted a big barge that was run up to shore. So sure we tucked in behind that and all was well. Till about 4 hours later a 27 Catalina came in and plopped about 100 feet from us and was trying to use the same idea we had. I wanted to say something but I did not as it was rather ruff and they were older then we were and we were all safe at least.

Aug 5th
Ah well the winds had subside some but were to pick back up later in the morning so we hightailed it out of Rattle Snake harbor with no snakes aboard and headed to South Bay in which we plan on leaving from to cross back over to Michigan. Not knowing it but South Bay has a ferry that comes from Tobermory 3 times a day. Heck when we first spotted it we had thought it was a cruise ship.
South Bay is rather large and has a few places to duck into as we did and rode out the wind but not with out seeing 29.7 kts. As we got there we just stayed put and read and slept and some cleaning and of course boat projects. The following day we decided to take the dingy and go back to where the ferry comes in and watch it and see what we could as we noticed there were a few shops. It is also nice to get out and walk around as it was our 4th day with out going a shore. Where we found a place to come ashore there was a couple setting at a picnic table and naturally I struck up a conversation with them. They were waiting to take the ferry back to Tobermory as they had been up here camping for 2 weeks. It was close to their home but have never been here to camp as we all know. It seems like the best thing is close to home instead of traveling 1000 of miles. So we wanted to see the ferry come in and where we had stopped to view it was right by their car and camper you might know. So we got to know more about each other as we waited and then watched as they drove onto the ferry.

Aug7th
We finally arrived back in Michigan. But NOAA was not to accurate once again with their forecast. The night be for we left I went onto their web site and looked up the wind patterns and speed for today and it was showing 5 to 10 kts when we left and as we got closer to Michigan it went down to 5 kts. Wrong~~! We started out OK but as the day went on it did drop to around 10 kts but about 20 miles from Michigan someone turned on the wind and wave machine. The top wind we had was 23.7kts and the waves, All I can say is Jeannie had her nose buried deep in her book the whole time but the good thing is we flew, top speed for us was 9.8 as the waves were abeam (sideways)to us. I know I am one tired puppy as I had to hand steer the last 20 miles so early to bed tonight.