GeorgianBayA

The Great Loop

2004 - 2005

Lake Huron, enroute to Georgian Bay, one of the northern sailing Mecca's...

This leg of our journey takes us into Georgian Bay, according to friends one of the greatest sailing areas of the Great Lakes.

This page contains our most recent postings. The Loop Log accesses the entire narrative via a list of voyage segments, and Loop Gallery contains photos of the trip in a main gallery and a host of sub-galleries accessible through a gallery log page.

Updated 7/12/05.

7/7/05 - AA trod north against a 2 knot current the entire 45 mile distance to Port Huron at the base of Lake Huron. Sampatecho headed for Sarnia ON while we swung west to the Port Huron Yacht club to visit Patrick Hoy. The club hosted us as visiting NNYC member, providing a courtesy slip and welcoming us to their beautiful clubhouse. PHYC has built a large two story club house, complete with bar, meeting rooms, dance hall and two kitchens. It was member designed and built! They have a new harbor with about 100 boats - all to current day marina standards. Very impressive for a 400 member club!

We had a lot of fun that evening, meeting a group of interesting folks. We were invited to enter a 90 mile Huron race starting at 7pm the 8th, but declined. They also invited us to attend the Leukemia Cup Regatta, to be held Labor Day weekend.... hmmmm?

We may be off-line for a few weeks... don't know what to expect for communications in Georgian Bay and the North Channel.

7/8/05 - Another 8am departure, we motored out to meet Sampatecho and head north to Goderich, ON, a 60 mile run. The weather was cool, mid 60's and sunny. We fought our way under the bridge against 4 knot currents. I wondered how some of the smaller boats make their way into Lake Huron. As we entered Lake Huron I saw floats and flags marking a wide field of nets. No problem, the nets by law are 12' below the surface.

Motoring along at 7 knots the boats quickly slowed, as if I'd run into molasses. I quickly idled down and put the prop in neutral. We'd caught a net. I could see the white buoys about 3' below the surface surrounding AA. I tried to back slowly - stuck. I took a boathook on deck to try to push the nets deeper while the breeze backed us out of the net. It worked and we were free. I moved east and crossed the net field successfully. Some fisherman had miscalculated his net depth.

We arrived in Goderich about 6 pm after a perfect day of sailing. One long reach had brought us about 1/2 mile south of the harbor. We motored in and dropped anchor behind the outer breakwater. First we cleared customs by phone. That went smooth as our records of prior clearings were on their computer. "Is the parrot still with you?" "Yes" "Okay, here's your number." I fired up the grill and soon a pair of nice rib eye steaks were sizzling. It doesn't get much better!

Goderich is the home of the Siftco salt mine, reputedly the largest. The port also is home of a large grain elevator that uses two old bulk carriers to augment their storage capacity. The town's claim to fame is its octagonal layout... right down to an octagonal jail.

7/9/05 - Another beautiful day in paradise. We certainly have been blessed by the weather lately! Looks like we'll be motoring though; the lake is glass smooth.

After a couple of hours the wind came up and we had a nice reach to Southampton, 37 miles north. A tricky passage through a gap in a sunken breakwater behind Chantry Island took us to the entrance to Southampton's harbor. The chart showed an anchorage... what we found was a narrow river channel with fishing tugs and a small floating dock populated by a sailing club. We anchored in the channel, single file, with barely room to swing. Our boats secure, we walked the three blocks to the downtown area of this old seafaring village. Originally a 1848 trading post the town cultivates its lake port history with walking tours and ghost tours. We walked a bit, ending up at Duffy's for a great meal of Cod and chips.

7/10/05 - We headed out early, hoisting the main and unfurling the genoa to catch the morning breeze. The wind came up after an hour so we launched the Gennaker - the big red sail that is on our home page. For a record 6 hours we sailed under "Big Red" at 6-7.5 knots. What a sail! We both agreed it was probably the best we'd had on this boat. About 5pm, after 70 miles under sail, we ducked into Tobernory, ON, and anchored in 40' of water in Big Tug Bay. This was a narrow slit with deep water right to shore. Though populated, it was a rustic setting. We are officially in Georgian Bay.

The 10th is my brother's birthday. Tried to call him and learned that Sprint has our phone service messed up... we bought a Canada package but it apparently isn't enabled. I can't dial out. Ruth's phone just decided to quit charging... aaaaargh!... so that one doesn't work either.

7/11/05 - We pushed about 60 miles to McGregor harbor... a snail shell shaped inlet that provides fantastic protection from any winds. We swam in the 78 degree water while anchored in a clean sand bottom. This harbor is in the Fort Coker Indian Reservation and is sparsely populated.

The land is forested and rocky. Cliffs formed by the Niagara escarpment rise a couple of hundred feet high a mile or so from the anchorage. Very pretty... actually it's awesome.

7/12/05 - Another 8am departure in hazy skies. We motored on glassy flat seas all day. We can sure tell we are in fresh water again - we have spiders, flies and lake flies; something we never had in salt water. About 4pm we arrived in Midland, ON, and anchored out by a small park. We had a sand bottom and 85 degree water. It felt like a bath! Toss me the soap!

The air temperature the past few days has been in the low 90's but it's been comfortable on the water. We're working our way through a maze of islands, some of which rise a couple hundred feet above the water. Water depths vary from 25' to 600' and the water has a deep turquoise color. Very nice.

We saw a sister ship to Bill and Jill's Kelt, Tafia. A party of 6 were aboard, towing a dinghy and obviously enjoying their trip. Aaaargh kiddies, Kelts are cruisers.

The biggest surprise is how populated the area is. I guess my vision of the Georgian Bay is based on tales from 30 years ago. I talked to a trawler owner (age, late 70's) in Port Huron that said he no longer does the northern waters as they've become populated, crowded and marked so well a blind man could cruise them. Damn, born too late to be a pirate or a cruiser.

7/13/05 - Warm, humid and overcast today. Looks like a motoring day - fortunately we only have a 7 mile run to Victoria Harbor, ON. Victoria Harbor is a small town - hardware store, supper market, liquor store and a new set of condos. Their library has 3 computers on broadband and a collection of books that rivals the number we carry on AA. The marina was nice, full facility including a pool.

7/14/05 - We spent two days at Queen Cove Marina in Victoria Harbor. Bradd & Maeve were visiting with his uncle, we were trying to sort out our phone coverage with Sprint. After 2 1/2 hours on a land line we were no better off than when we started. We can get calls but can't dial out.

Both nights we saw lots of lightning as a series of thunderstorms passed us by. Nothing hit our harbor. The temperatures remain in the 90's with high humidity. The water temps are in the mid-80's so we swim a lot for relief from the heat. Tough life.

7/15/05 - We headed NW through a maze of rock. In this area the Canadian Shield (granite bedrock) was scoured clean by the glaciers. Water depths varied from 0 to 120' - some times in 100'. We missed the marked channel and had to pick our way using chart-plotter, depth finder, eyes and radar. Often we were creeping along as we searched for passages. We finally connected with the marked channel just as we selected a rock basin to anchor in.

7/16/05 - Saturday, we followed the parades of boats up the winding marked channel. In places the buoys were only 15' apart as we squeezed through narrow passages in 9' of water. The scenery was beautiful - rock, pines and leafy vegetation. We lunched at Henry's on Frypan Island - a great meal of pickerel (walleye), chips (french fries), beans and slaw - ummmm! We watched float planes deliver people to lunch there.

We motored along the twisting channel to Parry Sound, anchoring in a small rocky cove in 25' of water about 100 yards from shore. It's not developed in this area so it feels like wilderness. We've been amazed by the development we've seen in this area. We expected wilderness but have found houses everywhere - from barren rock islands to wooded ledge outlooks. It's like cruising on the Waupaca Chain of Lakes.

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