So we've been awol for a couple days.  Here's the update on the voyage.

After sitting out another breezy day in Blind River on Saturday, we awoke to a calm North Channel Sunday morning.  

We spent Saturday preparing for a few days away from shore with a trip to the grocery to stock up on a few meat and fruit items.

So after gassing up the Sea Ray, we said farewell to Blind River…

…and headed east toward our first anchorage, Long Point Cove.

It would be a short run of about 15 miles along a course I had plotted on the GPS.

The waters aren’t necessarily all that deep that we run in up here.  It’s a bit unnerving for someone used to the Lake Michigan depths of a hundred feet plus.

We arrived at Long Point Cove without incident and anchored among a few boats already there.

The three large cruisers rafted together stopped at Blind River the evening before and couldn’t get dockage due to their size.  (the Sea Rays are 48’, the other one a bit larger).

We’re backed up to a bay at the east end of the cove.

A seagull keeps tabs on us from his perch on the nearby rocks.

Meanwhile, Kathy enjoys a cup of coffee.

A bit later, three more boats entered the cove and anchored NEAR us while I prepared to grill a burger. 

One of the guys came over later and said “I hope we didn’t crowd you too much”.  Well, if you’re making that statement, you’re probably too close but it was no big deal to us.  They were quiet and we were the ones running the generator before 8:00 am the next morning.

The galley slave whipped up a batch of tater salad to go with the burgers.

It continued to blow enough that I didn’t venture out for an evening dinghy fishing excursion and just kicked back and enjoyed the setting sun.

Monday July 4th.

OK, so enough of all this Canada Day stuff…It’s Independence Day!!!  No one seems to care here.

We woke to a dead calm morning in Long Point Cove.

Because of all the company we had there, we thought we’d like a better experience away from the cocktail crowd and plotted a course out of the cove.

We meandered among the island outcroppings along Long Point…

…as we left the cove behind.

Rounding the tip of Long Point, we steer east into the Whalesback channel bound for our next anchorage off Green Island.

We arrived to find only two boats in the area we wanted to anchor.

Those boats soon departed and we had the anchorage to ourselves until another sailboat arrived a couple hours later.

We were just inside a gap that separated the two islands to our west. 

I entered the anchorage from south of the island group not knowing what the water depth was in that gap.  After watching a trawler and sailboat pass through there, I could assume it was deep enough to get through.  A run through with the dinghy showed a passage maybe 50' wide and about 40' deep.  

I fired up the inflatable and dragged a worm around the islands.

The shoreline in most places is shear rock.  Depths fall to 50' or more in a matter of the length of the dinghy.

I caught a small pike but that was the extent of my angling excitement.  The captain of the trawler that left after we arrived, said he caught a couple walleye the night before.

So after dinner, it was back out to try again.  The rock along the island had an orange moss growing on it which is quite common in the North Channel.  It can be found in several places.

But alas, my quest for the elusive walleye went wanting and I hung just outside the passage to see the evening sunset.

I thought the cirrus clouds gave it an interesting effect.

Soon the sun met the horizon and it was time to find the mother ship and retire for the day.

Tuesday

We awoke to calm conditions but a forecast that called for another windy afternoon.  

I fired up the Honda generator that we borrowed from a friend so Kathy can have her morning coffee and toasted begel.

The generator is our safety power source should we need to charge the batteries while anchored out.  So far that hasn't been needed.  We can easily live off battery power for a day.

OK, finished with chores, I went out to see if I could find any fish before we pulled anchor and headed to port...I found ONE.

Hopefully, this fishing thing improves over time.  So far, my success is marginal.

We pulled anchor about 10:00 am and set a course to Spanish only a few miles away.  Finding dockage at Spanish Municipal Marina.

We pumped out the holding tank and settled into our slip.  

Not long after arriving, the predicted winds blew up the Spanish River.

After a lunch, we made the trek to see what was "downtown" Spanish.  I didn't get a picture because we were walking too fast.  In other words, the experience is brief.

It's a bit of a hike.  About 30 minutes at my senior pace.

I exchanged a few more USA dollars for loonies in the Scotia Bank, toured a little general store and grabbed an ice cream cone at the convenience store.  The only other thing there is the LCBO.  See?  All the necessities.

Back at the marina complex, there's a gazebo on a bluff.

I KNEW that hike to town was missing something...STAIRS!!!

But it was worth the climb.  The view was really nice.  

That's the Whalesback Channel to the right.  Our anchorage last night was near that gap just to the right of the island in the center foreground and our next leg will be through the pass known as "Little Detroit" just beyond that gap to the far left.

The view to the left shows the Spanish River delta.  Lots of fishing boats passing here.  There's a couple fishing camps just upstream.

Here's a panoramic shot of the scene from the bluff.

So that's the gist of the past few days.  Everything's been good.  Even the weather gave us a couple days of peace.  

Tomorrow may be a different story.  Word is, storms may develop. 

We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Stay tuned.

Oh, CANADA!

It's Canada Day here in the bustling metropolis of Blind River, Ontario.

After a lot of sorely needed rain overnight, the heavy weather settled to the eastern horizon.

And the skies began to clear to the west.

There was no shortage of wind.  The maple leaf could be seen all day long.

I needed a chin strap for my hat.

There was a rib fest here today as part of the festivities.  Kind of like a chili cook-off with 10 different people competing for best ribs.  The cookers lined the boardwalk next to the docks.

There were some interesting games.

A blind dinghy race where the oarsman was blindfolded and directed by a navigator.  This was a timed event.  I think a dozen dinghies doing battle all at once might have been a good contest as well.

There was the beer tent, food tents and a sound stage with a DJ and a country band near the marina building.

Once you were thoroughly sauced at the beer tent, here was an interesting competition.

It was the backhoe competition.  The operator had to pick up a square block, triangle, and rod that were connected by a chain to a long bar.  You grabbed the bar with the bucket and swung the shape over to and into a receptacle of the same shape.  That took a steady hand on the hydraulics.  That was another timed event.  You could tell the real operators from the posers.

The whole event appeared to be a success.  I think this is the first year the marina and yacht club have put this on for Canada Day.

Then late in the afternoon, we had another brief shower followed by a bright sun.

It created a rainbow over the lake and happened a couple times while a few misty clouds passed by.

So that was the big Canada Day celebration.  There's fireworks at dark followed by my beauty sleep.

Looks like the weather is going to be clear and calm beginning sometime tomorrow.  We'll likely move on Sunday morning.  At the moment, we're pretty comfy right here and BTW due to the favorable currency exchange, the slip fee as well as fuel are cheaper here than in the USA.

Gotta' love that.