Picture of Chattanooga

Picture of Chattanooga

Monday, July 17, 2017

Kirkfield, Ontario to Beausoleil Island

Kim’s Korner:

We have covered some miles in the last month and all these small towns and locks are running together! We have had to traverse some extremely narrow channels. Before we enter, David makes a Securite call over the radio which announces which channel we are entering and which direction we are heading and to please announce yourself if that will be a problem. Then you just hope that if anyone is in the channel, they’ll let you know. We’ve also had some very shallow canals to travel – these are man-made, cut out of rock and are very narrow as well. Currents make things even more interesting. This area is rock, rock, and more rock – no more soft sand as in Florida. Several of our fellow loopers have missed a buoy, hit a rock which caused damage and has had to wait on repairs. It’s definitely scary but the area is beautiful at the same time.

The last two locks on the Trent-Severn were interesting. The Big Chute was definitely the highlight of the Trent-Severn. This “lock” actually puts you onto this “chute” which lifts you out of the water, over a road and back into the water on the other side. They really have it down to a science and seems hum-drum to them but for me - I definitely had an adrenaline rush after it was over! The last lock is very small and only one boat our size can fit in it at a time. We were warned as we waited on the blue line that when you leave the lock, we would be in very swift currents and have a very narrow channel to go through. We were to give a securite as we left the lock as the channel was not big enough for two boats to pass each other. Oh my gosh! We hit that current and it was like riding a slalom course through that channel – wheeeee!!! David’s arms were sore afterward from having to keep Overtime between the buoys. Crazy!

We are officially off the Trent-Severn Waterway and on Georgian Bay which is supposed to be a beautiful cruising area. It is nice to be done with locks for a while. Our first stop is Ojibway Bay on Beausoleil Island which is a Canadian National Park. It is beautiful here and we have a gorgeous view from our aft deck! This park has docks in several places and we are tied to one of the docks along with six other boats – no power or water. There is an outhouse – that’s about it. We got here just as the rain started – ugh! More rain! I also was disheartened to learn we had lost one of our new fenders – at least we are done with the locks for now.

There is a huge mix of houses here. Near the bigger towns, you will see the big, expensive homes. But most of the time, you will see these awesome small cottages, many on their own island. We assume many of these cottages have probably been in the family for generations. Many of them are only in use during the three months during summer as these lakes freeze during the winter. We have had several 60-degree mornings and we still see kids out swimming while we are wearing our fleece.

Wildlife – I’ve been hearing loons early in the morning while I’m just waking – they have a wonderful song. I finally saw one and have seen a few so far. Just as we got into the Georgian Bay, Anne spotted an osprey that had just caught a huge fish – so huge, it couldn’t fly with it. The osprey had the fish pinned on a rock with a seagull only a few feet away just waiting. It was very interesting to see – I only wish we knew how the story ended. I also spotted a deer from our window who had come to the bay to drink water around dinner time – so neat! I took pictures from inside the boat so as not to scare him. We are hoping we might see some black bear and moose – we’ll see!

We started out on a hike to Fairy Lake and after only 500 yards, turned back for our thermacells. Bugs, bugs and more bugs! And they were biting! This was really the first time we had used the thermacells and they worked great! I could hear bugs near my ears and things flying into me but nothing bit – whew! We passed Chimney Bay – a popular anchorage – and saw kids swimming and skiing. We continued to Fairy Lake which was beautiful! A momma loon and her chick were swimming – a hawk flew over and the momma let him know real quickly to just keep moving. We returned to the boat for docktails. We even learned that Ray and Leise are good friends of Rob and Glenda, friends who are doing the loop and who we traveled with for a while – it’s a small world!

We also got our dinghy down and took a ride – we finally had a sunny day – Yay! We haven’t had the dinghy down in months and it was great to use it again. We went to Picnic Island for ice cream and checked out Honey Harbour. We’d heard about Canadian weekends on the water and boats and people were out in droves on this sunny Saturday

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