7/26/18: We were up and ready to go and off the dock by 6:45. It was a beautiful calm morning, and the water was splat flat gorgeous!!
But the scene changed as we got out of Byng Inlet and into Georgian Bay. The wind was already blowing, and we were arockin and arollin. The waves weren’t big, but just rough and rolly enough to be really uncomfortable as our bow went up one and down another into the next wave. So captain got us out of the channel markers, and then put Island Girl up to 18 mph where she gave us a much better ride.
By 9:30, we were entering Beaverstone Bay, following channel markers in and finding much calmer water. YAY! Our plan was to find a place that would be sheltered from the westerly winds, and put down an anchor for the night. Then we’d continue through Collins Inlet to Killarney tomorrow.
As we curved our way around into Collins Inlet, the scenery changed and it was so pretty! The channel narrowed, the rocky hills got steeper and higher. And the sky started to clear up!
After just a few miles, we came to Mill Lake. There were a few areas marked on the charts as good anchoring here, so we found a spot that seemed to be pretty sheltered. It was a nice little cove with about 10’ deep water.
The bottom was weedy, so we weren’t sure how well the anchor was going to hold. It seemed to be sitting OK, so we got Stuart down and tootled around a little. The water was pretty calm in our cove, although Island Girl was dancing around a lot. Rick took a 100’ line to shore and tied it around a rock to keep our stern from swinging around into the rocks on the other side of the cove.
But on our dinghy ride, when we got out of our cove, the water was much rougher. We took a few waves over the side of Stuart! It doesn’t look that bad here, but it was choppy and the wind was gusty.
We had some lunch back aboard Island Girl. I kept watching out the window at some sailboats in another cove nearby. We knew there were four boats over there. We could see one, and the mast of another. But an hour later, I could see the whole boat that was attached to the mystery mast. So either we were dragging our anchor, or he was dragging his. I was pretty sure it was us. The gang agreed, so Captain suggested that we reset the anchor. We did, but it didn’t set well, and we kept dragging it. Then he said we should move over by the sailboats, since the bottom here was so weedy, we’d probably never get a good set. So we headed over there. Rick took Stuart to get the line from the rock on shore, and followed us over to scope out a good spot to set the anchor. Unfortunately, the area was not nearly as sheltered and we weren’t sure this was going to work. It was pretty windy and gusty there. I suggested maybe we should just go on to Killarney. It was now 4:00, and it would only take us a couple of hours to get there. In this weather, it wasn’t likely that any of us would sleep if we stayed here, even if we did get the anchor to grab. Captain agreed, so we loaded Stuart up, and away we went. Collins Inlet was stunningly beautiful. It was like a mini fjord. It was narrow and most of it was fairly deep. But the wind was howling in our face as we headed directly west.
It was late afternoon and we were headed right into the sun. There was a lot of glare, and it was hard to see. At one point there were canoes headed toward us, and some other blob that we couldn’t figure out with all of the sun glare. When they finally got close enough, we saw it was three canoes strapped together with a blue tarp for a sail… coming straight down the middle of a narrow channel. REALLY?! We moved over a tiny bit, but with the wind we did not slow down from our 8mph, so we left a bit of a wake which ticked them off. We got a few hand signals, but Captain was equally annoyed that they were taking the middle of the channel with their shenanigans. This picture was looking behind us right after we came out of that part.
We broke out of the Collins Inlet channel and into the big water. But we had to read the markers and stay off the rocks, all while the sun was blazing and reflecting off the water and blinding our eyeballs. This was the view out the port side. There were some very shallow rocks where waves were breaking, that we did not want to find!
And here’s our peeps. They are great boaters, and this weather didn’t bother them at all. I felt really bad for making the suggestion to leave the protected waters and take us into this mess. I was thinking about a secure place to sleep tonight, without really thinking that the water would be this rough and tough to navigate through to get there. Wind, glare, shallow spots with rocks, and hard to see markers. EEK! I was almost in tears because I know this frustrated the heck out of our captain, but he did a great job getting us through it all. Rick finally got a cell signal, and Rocky was trying to keep the wind out of her aching ears. Rick called a couple of marinas in Killarney and found us a reservation for tonight. YAY!!
As we came around into the Killarney channel, we got a little bit of shelter from the wind, so the rough water calmed down some for us. Captain hailed the Sportsman’s Inn marina on VHF 68 and they gave us our slip assignment. It took awhile for us to figure out where we were going, but we finally spied the dock hands who were there to catch lines. Captain got us into our spot without a problem, and Ta-Da! – we were safe and secure for the night. Yay for a successful plan B! There are these great big red chairs on the end of the docks, which are great to sit and watch the activities in the channel when the wind isn’t howling.
This is a view to the east end of the channel where we came from.
And the view to the west, where the wind was coming from.
Here was our route today. We started on the right side, as the green line going down Byng Inlet. Once in the big water, Captain put the peddle to the metal, so the yellow line is where we went fast. Hey – 18mph is faster than a trawler can go! Then the green squiggle is where we went into Beaverstone Bay and to Mill Lake and tried to find an anchor spot. With a change of heart, we went to plan B, and the red line shows our route across Collins Inlet and then into Killarney.
Killarney is a cute little place. I mean little, but not as little as Wright’s Marina. I think we’ll stay a couple of nights and let the wind try to work itself out. It is forecasted to keep blowing for a few days. I think it’s better to be here for awhile with a few more options, than back at Wright’s marina. Although, there is a whole lottaloopers still hanging out there, so I’m sure they’re having a good time together. None of them followed us today. It would have been an uncomfortable day on the big water at trawler speed.