Georgian Bay, Eastbound

Friday, July 20 – Sunday, July 22, 2018

Today we have a 9+ hour run from Port Elgin to Tobermory, our first stop in Georgian Bay.  We leave before 7, a miracle for us to get away this early, but we are expecting increasing wind and seas as we round the point and enter Georgian Bay and want to avoid the rough conditions as much as possible.  Here we are entering Georgian Bay.  Thankfully, seas are not too bad yet.

Gig Point, Cove Island, Bruce Peninsula ON

We give the Chi Cheemaun Ferry a wide berth.  Chi Cheemaun is Ojibwe (Chippewa) for “big canoe”, and big it is at 364 feet long.  (We are in the heart of “First Nations” land with many tribes in the area.)  This car ferry runs between Tobermory, on the Bruce peninsula, and Manitoulin Island.  Manitoulin Island and the Bruce peninsula define the northern boundary of Lake Huron.  The inlet between the two leads to Georgian Bay to the east with the North Channel extending west above Manitoulin Island.  We will spend the next week or so cruising the Bruce Peninsula, then move north and west to the North Channel.

Chi Cheemaun Ferry, Georgian Bay ON

We arrive in Tobermory late afternoon to a full house.  This is a very popular tourist destination and the marina does not take reservations.  They do allow us to tie off to this work boat for the night and promise we are first in line for a dock the next day.  Hmmm … we’re not off to a good start here.  We are charged full price for a “slip”, even though we do not have power or water hookup.  We will run our generator all night and make do.  We have to climb over the side of our boat and walk across the work boat to get to a dock.  Are we having fun yet??  Town turns out to be a bit scruffy, full of tourists, not the most upscale place we’ve been. 

 

Tobermory ON, tied to work boat

The next day we move to a dock.  Soon another boat arrives and ties in front of us.  Very close quarters!  A crewman on the other boat actually had to put his foot on our rear rail to stop their boat.  Yikes!!  Thankfully no damage occurred!

Tobermory ON - close quarters

We end up staying an extra day here, waiting for predicted thunderstorms to move through.  Soon the entire harbor fills with smoke.  We learn it was from a forest fire on the opposite shore of Georgian Bay, almost 70 miles away!  The smoke clears as suddenly as it arrived.  Then we noticed this boat being retrieved from the water and learned a local charter dive boat had capsized in the thunderstorms that morning.  Wow!  Are we ever ready to move somewhere else!  

Sunken dive boat, Tobermory ON

Monday, July 23, 2018

We are finally on our way east, cruising along the southern shore of Georgian Bay.  Gorgeous scenery – rocky, heavily forested cliffs rise above clear blue water along this extension of the Niagara escarpment.  A 50-mile, 6-hour run takes us to MacGregor Harbour, where we anchor for the night.

Bruce Peninsula ON

We launch the kayaks for the first time in many months.  The weather is cool with light drizzling rain off and on, but we enjoy a chance to paddle around this quiet cove and get some exercise.  Robert tries in vain to catch fish.

Kayaking in MacGregor Harbour ON

Tuesday, July 24, 2018

We move on to our next stop, Meaford, despite some area fog, hoping it will not get any worse.  This passing sailboat made an eerie sight with a very narrow layer of fog laying just at the water’s surface.

Fog - Georgian Bay ON

Meaford Harbour is a very pretty municipal marina in a quaint small town.  We had hoped this town would offer some things to do but don’t find much near our marina. 

 

Meaford Harbour, Meaford ON

A short walk to town gives us a little exercise where we find neatly maintained buildings and this classic old-time “five and dime”.

Downtown Meaford ON

Downtown Meaford ON

We enjoy a lovely sunset after more thunderstorms pass nearby.

Meaford Harbour sunset

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

We are off again today, cruising the remaining 55 miles to the eastern extent of Georgian Bay.  This area is the terminus of the Trent-Severn Canal, which connects Georgian Bay to Lake Ontario.  Had our boat been smaller, we could have taken this canal from near Kingston, getting here in a much shorter time.  Now that we are in this area, we should start meeting lots more Looper boats.

We stop at the city marina in Penetanguishine, expecting a cute town and lots of fellow loopers.  Instead we find a town with the entire main street torn up for new sewers and pavement and no other boaters.  Guess we didn’t get the memo!  So we cut our stop short and plan to leave the next day.

 

Port of Penetanguishine ON

The northeastern shore of Georgian Bay is known as the “thirty-thousand islands”.  It’s more like 30,000 rocks, some charted, some not.  Our navigation charts show “small-boat channels” through the area, but we learn we are NOT considered a “small boat” for this area.  So we decide to not take on the stress of winding our way through narrow, rocky passages with the risk of doing major damage to our boat.  We’re sure the area is quite scenic, but we will opt to return along the Bruce peninsula on the southern shore.  Oh yes, the forest fire is still raging out of control along the northern shore and parts of the small boat channel is closed to boaters.  Another reason to stick to the southern shore. Tomorrow we will start heading west again.