7/19/18: Today was forecasted to be sunny, warm, and calm, with calm overnight winds. Sounded like a great time to go anchor out in “Canada’s Caribbean”. I had read and heard that Hope, Beckwith, & Christian Islands, and Giant’s Tomb all had nice clear water and BEACHES! In fact, the dock hands at Queen’s Cove said that these are their favorite places to go. These islands are a little bit out of the way if you want to just cruise the Small Craft Channel through Georgian Bay, so most loopers don’t make the side trip. Well, we like side trips, and we like beaches, so … let’s go! This was our route from Ojibway Bay to Beckwith Island. To continue the Small Craft Channel, we would have gone northwest on the yellow line, but we have plenty of time to get back on course. The green line was our route – out west. We had to back track to get around Beausoliel and into a good navigable track.
We passed Giant’s Tomb. Kenny said it looked more like a hidden UFO was buried there. He’s watched the movies – he knows how sneaky those aliens are.
The sun was out, and the water was pretty nice, but the breeze was a little brisk up on the fly bridge. Towels work as blankies.
After just 19 miles, we arrived at Beckwith Island. It has two nice coves – one faces northeast, the other faces southwest. We chose the northeast cove, and it looked like a perfect place to hang out! There were just a few other boats in there, so it was easy to find a good spot. We puttered in at an idle and watched for rocks. The water was so clear! It really reminded us of being in a cove in the Bahamas.
It was still just a bit chilly in the shade, but the guys got out the floaties and started the inflation process. We bought 4 floaties when we were in New York, just for this kind of adventure with friends! Between the foot pump for Stuart, and the bicycle tire pump, they had inflated floaties ready for us in no time. We got out the floating rope, and the flotilla was all tied up and ready to go!
When we arrived, the breeze was blowing us away from the beach, so we set the anchor in that direction. Before long the direction of the breeze turned us around, and our stern was toward the beach. There was just a little ripple on the water and we could see the anchor chain real easy in this 10’ deep water! That white rope and black collar is the bridle hook on the anchor chain.
We flopped Stuart into the water so that the swim step was open for business. Before long, we were all in the water. It was almost 70 degree water, so it was refreshing! Captain Kenny did his giant stride with mask and snorkel to go check out Island Girl’s underbelly. Props and running gear all look good! Zincs are wearing a bit. General report from Inspector Gadget – all is good.
Then he checked out the anchor. It is so nice to be in clear clean water!!
Rick would love to catch some fish, but we don’t have any gear on board. So he went down to look at them. There were a few nice big fishies – maybe bass type?— just hanging out in the shade of the boat. Rick came up drooling.
Somebody had told me there was a sandbar, and we though we saw it over to the side of the bay. So Stuart got the bright idea that he wanted to tow us around on our floaties. Captain agreed to oversee the adventure. Well darn – it was a rock bar, not a sand bar. And we aren’t talking rock music with umbrella drinks. So we turned around and went to the beach.
It was really a nice sandy beach! Beausoliel First Nation land. No nudity? Well there went our plan out the window. HA!
The sandy bottom had ripples in it from the gentle waves. In the bottom trough of each ripple were piles of glitter! I’m assuming this is all granite particles. It was really pretty. When I scooped it up or kicked it with my toes, glitter filled the water! It was like underwater fairy dust!
We wandered around a bit on the beach and waded in the water, and got all warmed up again. Hmmm…. maybe we didn’t want to get all the way wet again for the tow back to Island Girl. I did convince the gang that we needed a selfie. Oh my goodness, what a bunch of goofballs! I finally got a decent one.
So we piled up all the floaties on Stuart, and Captain and I took them back out to the boat. The locals probably thought to themselves… ‘Those crazy ‘Mericans!’
Captain could barely see over the floatation devices!
HEY! We left Rick and Rocky abandoned on shore. They would catch the next Uber ride.
Stuart the marine Uber.
We actually did do more swimming back at Island Girl. The water was so nice! And being fresh water, we weren’t all sticky and salty like when we do this at home! I can’t really swim with my injured fin and flipper, but I think the cool water helped with the swelling in the puffy ankle. Man – it is hard to not be as agile as usual. I feel like an old woman trying to get up on the swimstep. I’m not ready to be that old!
We fired up the Genny (the generator) to give the batteries a little more boost, and we fixed up a nice taco bar for dinner. We all ate upstairs on the fly bridge in the warm evening breeze. What a great day! I’m so glad we found this treasure in Georgian Bay – Canada’s Caribbean.
