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| Entrance to Killarney Harbour |
Killarney is the gateway to the North Channel. However, we had to wait awhile before getting
to experience that waterway as high wind warnings kept us at the Sportsman’s
Inn and Marina for four days!!! One of
those days the west winds were so strong that the docks which run perpendicular
to the shore all shifted and the boats along the docks were pushed precariously
close together. Captains scrambled to readjust
fenders and lines hoping to prevent any damage.
Other captains and dockhands gave it their all in an attempt to
reposition the dock where Lazy W was
moored. Their combined efforts paid off
and the dock stopped drifting much to the relief of the boats on the adjacent
dock that had been getting squeezed ever closer together.
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| Trouble at the docks at the Sportsman's Inn! |
Despite all the commotion, we still managed to enjoy the
first three days in Killarney. Blueberry
pancakes, the breakfast specialty at Killarney Mountain Lodge, proved to be a
great way to start a day and were just as good as we remembered them to
be. The ice cream store is a short jaunt
from the dock as is Pitfield’s General Store, Herbert’s World Famous Fisheries,
and the ever-important LCBO. That is
about the extent of ‘downtown’ Killarney. A short dinghy ride to nearby Covered
Portage Cove kept us occupied for a few hours - we chatted with Hard Dock Café at anchor there.
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| Returning to Killarney from Covered Portage Cove |
Several other looper boats were also stranded in Killarney (Moni Jean, Pearl Two, Miss my Money, Gracie,
Cutty’s Ark) and we all gathered for docktails near the porch of the
Sportsman’s Inn. The manager did not
approve of the location we selected and ferried us across the water to George
Island where the rowdy loopers would not alienate the other paying guests.
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| The first calm day at the Sportsman's Inn |
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| Looking back at Georgian Bay somewhere along the Lighthouse Trail |
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| After the hike |
Day four dawned with calm winds and we began to second guess
our decision to stay at the dock. The
weather radio continued to broadcast high wind warnings but it looked so calm
and inviting out there. Being the fair
weather boaters that we are, we stayed and so did all the other loopers. Frank and I had used up all of Killarney and
had really wanted to get underway. We convinced ourselves that we must be in a
protected area and the northwest winds were just not roaring through Killarney
Harbour. We shook off our disappointment
and took off on an early morning hike to the lighthouse on the east end of the
harbor. After swatting a path through
the mosquitos, gnats and other hungry flies, we ditched the hike idea as soon
as the far-off lighthouse came into view. “Okay, we saw it now let’s get out of
the woods.” When we returned there was only a gentle breeze blowing.
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| On the way to Baie Fine |
Day five dawned and we were raring to go. By 7:15 we were leaving Killarney behind and
on our way to Baie Fine just thirteen miles away across Frazer Bay. Baie Fine, a must see on every looper‘s places-to-
go list, is a narrow fiord-like bay bordered by white quartzite mountains
covered with closely–packed pine trees.
At the eastern end of Baie Fine is ‘the pool,’ a must see on every
looper’s places-to-anchor list.
Remembering its parking lot like character from our visit fourteen years
ago, we chose to find a quieter, more secluded anchorage. We set the hook just past Mary Ann Cove, had
lunch and launched Cassiopeia, the
dinghy, for a six mile ride to check out ‘the pool’ and hike the trail to Topaz
Lake.
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| Topaz Lake |
Hiking to Topaz Lake entails an uphill climb along a rocky
creek bed. The trail is marked with
little blue plastic circles tacked to the tree trunks. The hikers we passed coming down told us to
just keep following the trail to the left.
Well, it would have been even more helpful if these same hikers would
have pointed out that after a while the trail to the left is marked with little
yellow plastic circles. We kept going on
the blue trail since we were not even looking for the yellow one. After some time we realized that the trail we
were on was not really going left and we backtracked twice before realizing that we wanted the yellow trail. So much for a forty minute hike to Topaz
Lake…
By the time we returned to Cassiopeia, ‘the pool’ was home to about two dozen boats of all
sizes med moored around the perimeter.
We were glad to be heading back to our little hideaway – now home to an
additional four sailboats!
On to Little Current, the largest town on Manitoulin Island,
the largest fresh water island in the world. Between Manitoulin Island and Goat
Island, the water of the North Channel funnels its way to the Georgian Bay.
Crossing this channel of water is a single lane swing bridge which is the only
roadway linking Manitoulin Island to mainland Ontario. The bridge opens on the hour for a short 15
minutes. Miss the opening and you will
find yourself hovering in the channel, fighting the current, until the next opening. Not wanting to do that, the Captain pushed Lazy W’s cruising speed all the way up
to 9 knots! Success! We made it through the 11AM opening with
minutes to spare.
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| Bridge at Little Current |
Little Current has not one, but two grocery stores – boater
heaven! Reprovisioning was a breeze and
chores were done in no time. Plenty of
loopers stop here and we were able to reconnect with many of them that we had
not seen since before Killarney.
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| Anchor Inn Hotel |
Roy Eaton, a former high school principal on Manitoulin
Island, provides a unique service to boaters on the North Channel. Every morning in July and August at 9AM on
VHF Channel 71, Roy broadcasts the LCYC Cruisers’ Net from the Anchor Inn Hotel
and visiting boaters are invited to sit in with him. We did. The first part of
the broadcast is dedicated to a recap of the local weather, news of the world,
sports scores, business reports, and happenings in the area. Then the lines are open for all the listening
boaters to call in with their locations.
Two visiting boaters are recruited to take note of all these boats. This information comes in handy in case of an
emergency since cell phone coverage is sparse to non-existent in many areas of
the North Channel. On more than one
occasion the Coast Guard and Air Search & Rescue have called upon Roy for
help in locating a boat. In 2015, close
to 900 individual boats had called into this morning broadcast.
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| Roy broadcasting from Anchor Inn Hotel |
Roy was kind enough to broadcast our request to acquire the
necessary charts for a cruise through the locks of Sault Ste. Marie. An immediate response came from Anne aboard Gentle Lady docked in the nearby Spider
Bay Marina – she would lend us her charts!
After the broadcast Roy drove us over to retrieve the charts and get
Anne’s address in DeTour Village for returning them to her at a later
date. Thank you, Anne!
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| Anchorage at Croker Island |
Another must-see in the North Channel is a group of islands
known as The Benjamins. These islands are
unique in this in that they are composed of pink granite, unlike the
surrounding white quartzite mountains and low-lying limestone islands. We sought out an anchorage in the crook of
Croker Island. By cocktail time, the
anchorage was also home to our two dock mates from windy Killarney – Rick and
Monica from Moni Jean and Ross and
Charlotte from Munising, Michigan aboard their sailboat KoraLynn. We all convened on
Lazy W for cocktails.
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| Sunset at Croker Island anchorage |
The following morning, after a dinghy ride to explore the
other popular anchorages of The Benjamins, we set our sights on Beardrop
Harbour. With a name like that, who
wouldn’t want to stop! We cleared the
menacing rocks with docile names, Sow and Pigs, and headed for McBean Channel.
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| Approaching Little Detroit Strait |
After transiting Little Detroit Strait connecting McBean
Channel and Whalesback Channel, we encountered Dan and Linda on Shoal Survivor heading back to their
home port in Midland. We had the
pleasure of meeting them when we spent a few days in Bay Port Marina. Dan discouraged us from tackling Beardrop
Harbour because of the west winds that had just chased him out of there. He suggested we try Bear’s Bottom Cove
instead.
We took his advice, picked our way carefully behind Lett and
Nelles Islands and found a charming anchorage there. Monica and Rick from Moni Jean dinghied by that afternoon on a mission to catch some
fresh fish.
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| The Whalesback |
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| Approaching Blind River with the wood chip processing facility to the left |
After another nice cruising day we found ourselves in Blind
River Marine Park. Once home to one of
the largest sawmills in North America, Blind River is, sadly, well past its
boom time. However, it is a convenient stopover on the north shore of the North
Channel for those cruisers heading to Sault Ste. Marie. And on Thursday nights in the nearby town park,
there is live music. We hopped a cab
(yes, there is cab service in Blind River and we used it since it looked like
rain might dampen the evening) and caught the last half hour of River Country, a local band that was
billed as country and classic rock.
Their music set consisted of very old, pre-Glen Campbell country with no
classic rock! Oh well, we headed over to
the Iron Horse Inn for an early night cap before heading back to the marina.
It was August 11th and the peak of the Perseid
meteor shower was set to streak across the sky.
Alas, the skies over Blind River were dark and stormy. L Ever since arriving in Canada in early July,
the night sky had been clear as a bell with wonderful star-viewing
conditions. Murphy’s Law!?!? We did not complain too loudly as Ontario has
been extremely dry all summer and the locals were glad to see some rainfall
overnight.
Wind and rain kept us at Blind River for two days. By the third day we were more than ready to
leave. More strong wind was forecast to
blow but things looked relatively calm so by noon we decided to make a run for
Thessalon, 28 miles to the west. It was
a lumpy ride at first but after a short distance things smoothed out. By the time we made Thessalon there was
barely a breeze blowing and docking was easy.
Thessalon is another town with origins in the lumber boom
whose fortunes have eroded despite three working lumber mills. Downtown is just two blocks away from the
marina. The short Main Street was marred
by out-of-business stores, a barber shop, pharmacy, hair salon and
restaurants. Those few surviving
businesses were mostly closed for the day – at 4:30 on Saturday – but the LCBO
and grocery store were busy. We hoped we
would not have to spend another day here…
Sunday morning, August 14th, was a beautiful calm
day and we made an early exit from Thessalon for the forty mile trip to Sault
Ste. Marie, Ontario. The St. Joseph
Channel was picturesque and we were mighty glad we were on our way to a bigger
port of call.
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| Picture Island along the St. Joseph Channel |
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| Twyning Island Bridge connecting Humbug Point on St. Joseph Island with mainland Ontario |
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| We knew we were nearing Sault Ste. Marie when we passed Lee A Tregurtha of the Interlake Steamship Company! This company also operates the Paul R Tregurtha, the largest vessel on the Great Lakes at 1,013.5 feet in length. 90% of the world's iron ore passes through the Soo Locks on vessels like this. |
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| We were no the only vessel docked at Roberta Bandar Marina in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. El Galeon was visiting from Spain. |
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| Everyone is welcome along the Sault Ste. Marie waterfront! |
The St. Mary’s River is the only connection between Lake
Superior and the other Great Lakes. This
area of North America has long been a gathering and trading place. Today the two cities of Sault Ste. Marie, ON
and Sault Ste. Marie, MI straddle either side of the river. On the Michigan side, four American locks
operated by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, handle the commercial
traffic – over 7,000 vessels hauling 86 million tons of cargo a year! On the Canadian side, one smaller single lock
handles the recreational vessels.
Upstream of the locks there is a low-clearance railroad bridge. It is out of commission right now over the
Canadian lock and Lazy W is too high
to pass beneath it. L We had wanted to stick her bow into Lake
Superior and turn back but unless we are willing to wait our turn amongst the
big boys transiting the American locks, it will not be happening this trip. It makes for a good excuse to return here
next season. J
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario is a vibrant city of 75,000
people. The city is extremely proud to
be the birthplace of Roberta Bondar whose name was given to the marina, the
surrounding park and pavilion, and the adjacent office park. Dr. Bondar, Canada’s first female astronaut,
flew aboard the U.S. space shuttle Discovery
in January of 1992.
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| Train trip! |
A highlight of our stay in Sault Ste. Marie had
nothing to do with boat travel. We took
a train trip aboard the Agawa Canyon Tour Train! This northern rail tour winds through the
forests of the rugged Canadian Shield, over towering trestles, along the shores
of numerous small lakes arriving 114 miles later at Agawa Canyon Park. Commentary along the way explained some of
the rich history of the Ojibway, fur traders, entrepreneurs, and artists who
explored the wilderness of Algoma.
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| Atop Lookout Trail |
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We hiked the Lookout Trail and had this sweeping view of the canyon below. The train is hidden in the trees along the Agawa River.
|
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| Another hike along the Talus Trail lead to Black Beaver Falls. Dry weather provided low water flow. |
A funny story was told during the train trip. When the Algoma Railway first started running
the train to Agawa Canyon (accessible only by train), the train horn attracted bull
moose during the rutting season to the tracks where the moose would defiantly
block the train. There were pictures to
prove this! Several different horn sounds were tried before one was found that
was not an attraction to the moose. No
moose were spotted during our excursion.
Our stopover at Agawa Canyon was less than two hours and
before we knew it we were boarding the train for the journey back to Sault Ste.
Marie. We had worked up an appetite so
off to the dining car we went. Lunch was
much tastier than we expected. I had my
first taste of wine in a pop-top can and Frank enjoyed a local microbrew
beer. When the bill came, I was quite
surprised to see that my can of wine cost a whopping $14CA!!! I always say that life is too short to drink
cheap wine…
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| Sunset over the Canadian arch of the International Bridge linking Sault Ste. Marie, ON with Sault Ste. Marie, MI |
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| At nightfall the American arches of the International Bridge are lit in red, white and blue. The Canadian arch is lit in red, white and red. |
