Penetanguishene is a fine little town, but we are definitely ready to move on. We couldn’t have asked for a better marina, or more friendly staff, owners, and managers – the number of times we’ve been offered a car, I mean someone’s personal car, to do errands, is phenomenal. You walk into the office, and everyone greets you by name. The owners make the rounds periodically and make sure that everything is OK. Each slip has its own picnic table, and there is a free newspaper every morning for anyone who wants one. So it’s been a great place to be, but I must say that we ARE ready to move on!
While we’ve been here, we’ve had fun riding bikes into town, we went to dinner at a GREAT Greek restaurant, walked to a produce stand and enjoyed great fresh peaches, tomatoes, corn, and blueberries, took a fun dinghy ride and explored the bay and all the many marinas here, and gotten to know some really great people. We have lived life to the fullest, and taken advantage of what this town has to offer. Enough, already!
The best thing that has happened here is finding this great mechanic to work on the genny – someone who knows what he is doing, has gone to bat for us with Onan, and isn’t interested in putting a band-aid on the problem, but in finding out and correcting the CAUSE of the problem! Now, there’s a novel idea! Maybe we won’t continue to have these problems if the cause is fixed…
We left Penetanguishene planning to go all the way to George and Minnie’s on Shasha Island in one run. As it turned out, it wasn’t very far, and would have been too short a run to break up anyway, as we’d intended in our original float plan. George and Minnie met us at Henry’s Fish Restaurant on Frying Pan Island, where we had a happy reunion and a delicious lunch. There was a bit of unreality, just as there had been with Suzan and Mike, in meeting these friends from Florida 3,000 miles away, having come by boat. We kept pinching ourselves and saying “I just can’t believe that we’re really here!”
Minnie got aboard Mer Sea with us and helped us navigate our way in to the anchorage behind their house, without hitting the famous rock (lurking just under water to the side of a confusing marker). It was amazing to see Mer Sea and Muggins (their Nordic Tug) together here in Georgian Bay!
Minnie and George’s cottage is just perfect – all beautiful wood inside and a lovely porch, all with a beautiful view of the bay. The land up here is rocks and firs, and this cottage is tucked into its environment in such a way as to almost disappear – really perfect! The “bunkie” (meaning a “sleeping house” with beds and maybe (yes, in this case!) a bathroom) is close by on its own patch of rock, also all wood, tucked into its own little environment. Everything is low-profile yet wanting for nothing.
We had a delightful time just visiting for a while, and then friends of George and Minnie’s, Chris and Alf, came by (in this part of the world, that means on a boat), and the merriment was ratcheted up a notch. THEN we saw Heart Tug, with whom we’d been in contact earlier that day, heading in. We had an anxious moment while we tried to communicate with them about the ROCK, but we were eventually successful keeping them off it, and led them back to raft up to us! NOW the party was really in full swing! Minnie and George generously invited them to join us for dinner, and we all had a wonderful evening together.
Early the next morning I had a lovely row in the dink back to Mer Sea to check on the status of the batteries. It was quiet, calm, and peaceful! The loons were calling, and all was right with the world.
I checked the batteries, determined that they needed charging, and worked out with Randy that he’d turn the genny off after breakfast before he came to the house. I rowed back and had a delicious breakfast with George, Minnie, and Roy. Roy even cooked a bacon and egg breakfast for George!
Randy and Audrey came over to the house, and we all decided to take a ride over to Chris’ to see her cottage. It reminds me of Maine, in that each cottage is different, and charming in its own way, and each has its unique spectacular view. I could spend many years just going from cottage to cottage enjoying the different settings and views.
On the way to Chris’ we stopped for lunch at a fun restaurant on the water – there are so many of these kinds of places, and everyone zips around by boat (or float plane) to visit them. Lunch was a bit slow, but we had a fun time all together.
Chris’ cottage is more rustic than Minnie and George’s, and she doesn’t have “hydro” (electricity), but runs things using either propane (refrig., stove, oven, some lights) or batteries and an inverter. Makes for a simple, relatively inexpensive, and self-sufficient setup. The house is tucked away among the firs, and has a wonderful view out into Georgian Bay. She has planted flowers in crevices all over the rocks, and has a small vegetable garden in a small un-rocky patch. In the back she has a sandy beach area, which I would guess is relatively rare in these rocky parts. I couldn’t resist taking my shoes off and dipping my feet in – brrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!
The water up here is crystal clear and a beautiful blue – unlike any I have seen before. I hope it is evident in some of our photos. It’s not the blue of the Caribbean, but its own gorgeous color. And the rocks that are everywhere look like an unrealistic artist’s rendering – that’s how striped and spectacular they are. Rounded, flat, craggy, broken pieces in what look like piles, large, smooth, you name it, it’s here. The area is called the 30,000 Islands, and they say there are probably more than 100,000, many of them just below the surface! Makes for interesting navigating!
On the way back from Chris’ we stopped at Parry Sound where we did some shopping for dinner, and to provision our boats. Minnie and George have a slip at a marina there, and keep a car there for going in town. It was a good opportunity to see a bit what life is like and how you have to plan ahead if you live on an island. It was also our opportunity to see Parry Sound, and we decided to skip it in our float plan, since we’d already been there with Minnie and George. We could certainly have spent more time there, but we don’t really have it, thanks to the generator…
We had another delicious dinner, again joined by Chris and Alf. What fun it was to all be together, to be sharing friends with each other, and all having such a jolly time! The visit with Minnie and George was all too short, but extremely memorable, and perfect in so many ways! We hated to leave the next morning, but Fall is breathing down our necks!
After breakfast and lots of hugs goodbye we headed out to continue our trip. We parted with Randy and Audrey, who are headed back to Lake Ontario, amid lots of radio traffic and horn honking. It’s really been fun to get to know them and to share this portion of our trip with them. We continued on to a lovely anchorage, the entire experience only marred by the recurring fresh water leak.
Roy has been trying to jury rig a fix for this thing without really having what he needs to fix it properly, and so far, nothing has worked. We at least now keep our water pump off when underway, and turn it on only to flush or otherwise use some water. As soon as we see a problem, we’ve been able to turn it off, and have thus really limited the amount of water in the bilge, but it’s a constant pain in the @#*, and if Roy can’t get it somewhat jury rigged, we have no water! It’s fortunate that we’re in lovely, clear, clean fresh water here in Georgian Bay, and I’ve used some of it more than once between fixes!
Once again, when we arrived in the anchorage, poor Roy had to try to fashion a fix so that we could use the water. He was able to do so, but it put kind of a pall over what should have been a lovely evening. At least the generator cooperated!
We woke up to another beautiful day, albeit cool (45º) in the morning! We were headed to Britt, and had planned to spend the night at the free town dock. Underway, however, the water hose separated again, and we decided to stay at a marina so as to have as many facilities at our disposal as possible.
The navigating and piloting necessary to get through Georgian Bay without having an unplanned meeting with one of the below-the-waterline islands is exacting. You look at an area that the small craft route traverses, and you think that there’s no way there’s a safe “path” through those rocks! There are places where you literally have to make 90º turns in order to stay on course and not have an unpleasant surprise! Here’s one of the treacherous passages:
You can sort of see the path of the boat that zoomed out before we went in!
You come to a place like this and you ask yourself: “I’m supposed to take my boat in there?” It’s daunting. But we did it, and have so far not had any “accidents”. We go VERY slowly and both of us are looking at charts, the water and buoys, and, of course, the rocks.
We got to Britt and solicited the kindly marina owner’s help with our water leak problem. Roy knew what we needed, we just had no means by which to get it. The marina owner came aboard and spent about 10 minutes in the engine room looking over the problem, he and Roy chatted a bit, then he said he’d be back!
About two hours later he reappeared with all the parts we needed loosely assembled – it was perfect! He’d also gotten several other parts (this was all PVC) and pieces, and asked if we’d like to have them also. Of course we said yes, now that we understood how crucial a little PVC can be. Roy asked how much we owed him, and he thought a minute, did some addition in his head, and said how about $20? SOLD!! We couldn’t believe our good fortune. That was no doubt simply the cost of the stuff he’d gone to the hardware store and bought for us. What a great guy!
We had a wonderful dinner that night at the Little Britt Inn. The owners, Jim and Terry, seem to do just about everything themselves: Jim picked us up in his black Mercedes, then put on an apron and proceeded to act as our waiter, cocktail hostess, and entertainment (that part was unofficial, but very much the case!). Terry was not in evidence except through the delicious food that she prepared. When dinner was over, Jim drove us back to the marina. Now, that’s service!
It had rained heavily during dinner, and the wind was definitely up when we went to bed that night. We were in no rush to leave the next morning, but waited until things had calmed down a bit. Which they did. We began our trip to Killarney via the “inside” route, banking on the more protected waters because of the previous night’s winds. As it turned out, after about two hours we decided that things were pretty calm, and we charted a course to the more open route, which would get us to Killarney faster. It was absolutely beautiful, and so easy not having to worry about rocks, etc., all the time! We breezed into Killarney feeling relaxed and fresh.
Killarney is the official end of the Georgian Bay portion of the trip. We used our time there to catch up on laundry, cleaning, writing, etc., and of course to sample some of the local restaurant fare! Our favorite was the meal we had at the Killarney Mountain Lodge – which is also where we’ll stay if we’re in these parts again. It’s a big resort, also with a marina, and has gorgeous grounds, hiking trails, of course waterfront, and lovely buildings as well. We had a great dinner there, served by a charming young man who we later learned was only 15!! And he wants to be a pharmacist! We had lots of fun with him, and he did a great job serving us! All in all, it was a really great experience to end our stay in Killarney.
Georgian Bay has been as fantastically gorgeous as we’d heard – the scenery is truly dramatic, and the water is absolutely stunningly blue. They say the North Channel is even better – everything Georgian Bay has only more so – so we’re obviously looking forward to it! We only wish we had longer to explore, but this will have to suffice to whet our appetite for more!