O God, thy Sea is so great and my boat so small

August 13, 2022, Killarney Ontario, we arrived here yesterday afternoon and have now completed our journey though Georgian Bay. Georgian Bay is one of the highlights of The Great Loop and it is also a very challenging navigational section. We went through many very small passages, in fact there is one section that is only 20 feet between the red and green buoy, and Her Idea is 15 feet wide, that gave us two and a half feet of clearance with granite ledge on either side. It was a nail biter. Several Loopers post pictures if 4 people are aboard and they have their passengers on the rail and they each are touching the buoys and have the boat behind them take a picture. We have NO pictures; it was both hands on the wheel.

 

So below is a review of our week in Georgian Bay:

August 7, Travel Day #33, Midland ON to Twelve Mile Bay: Total Distance Traveled: 27 Miles, Total Time Traveled: 4 Hours; We spent two nights in Midland at the Wye Heritage Marina which was a great spot. Midland is a good size city and had everything one would need.  We pumped out and topped off the fuel when we arrived at Wye Heritage. We had an opportunity to go to the store on Sunday and provision the boat, so we were well prepared for our week in Georgian Bay. Spend the second day cleaning the boat and even went for a swim in the Marina pool, living large!

 

We departed early Sunday morning as we had almost 30 miles to travel, and we were going to be in open water for most of it. It started out very cloudy and sure felt like it would rain but we lucked out and it stayed dry all day. The coastline is very similar to the Maine coast. It is all granite shore with pines and spruce trees. Very little development, only at the mouths of rivers did you see any houses. This is the attraction of Georgian Bay as its very remote. Up until this point on the trip we have been in areas that are developed. The Bay is wilderness and beautiful. In most of the marinas they have bear proof trash containers, oh my….. bears. They also have rattle snakes, (The Eastern Massassauga Rattlesnake) so we didn’t plan to do a lot of hiking. Twelve Mile Bay was a beautiful inlet with very few homes and very protected anchorages  

 

Track Day 33

 

 

Pictures  

Looks very much like the Maine Coast

Twelve Mile Bay

 

 Small Boat Route

August 8, Travel Day #34, Twelve Mile Bay to Parry Sound: Total Distance Traveled: 20 Miles, Total Time Traveled: 4.5 Hours. We left Twelve Mile Bay after 8 AM and headed to Parry Sound which is a very large body of water. We followed a very complex inside passage through many marks & buoys. The normal path through Georgian Bay is called the Small Craft Route, witch boats up to 60 feet can navigate. The channel which is very well marked however the buoys are very small.  Pretty much you have navigation aids every mile therefore you have good targets to aim for, however in the narrows you may have 20 buoys within a ½ mile. In the middle of the cruise, we went through Sans Souci which is another narrow roller coaster. Later in the day we had two places where you must blast your horn and announce your passage over the VHF radio, what direction you are traveling to make sure no others were in the narrows. Not a chance could you pass by another boat and way to narrow to back out or turn around. The reason for the advance notification was they were both blind 120 and 180 degree turn around granite cliffs. I had read about them in advance and been dreading both narrows. At any rate we made it through the day, and we got to Parry Sound by early afternoon. Parry Sound was a nice mid-size town, and we had lunch and walked around. Parry Sound is the hometown of Bobby Orr, I’m sure some of you know, and he was a good friend of Meredith’s dad. We had dinner on the boat and finished watching the last season Virgin River series and off to bed.

Track of day 34 & 35 (somehow these two days tracks combined)

 

The Admiral at the Helm

                                                                        Parry Sound

August 9, Travel Day #35, Parry Sound to Regatta Bay: Total Distance Traveled: 14 Miles, Total Time Traveled: 2 Hours. We had a very short day on Tuesday only traveling 14 miles to a cove off Snug Harbor called Regatta Bay. This was a beautiful anchorage and we wanted to set the anchor and have time to make sure the anchor was holding so we would be set for the night. It was a great muddy bottom, and we had a wonderful evening. Once we had lunch and settled in, we took the dinghy for a two-hour cruise around the bay and visited Snug Harbor. The cruise across Parry Sound was very comfortable and pleasant, smooth sailing and we had a most relaxing morning run. We also had a beautiful sunset and an amazing full moon. It was a perfect night to not be in a marina and in a magical location and at anchor.  

 

Track Above

 

Pictures

 Regatta Bay

Her Idea on the Hook at Regatta Bay

Dinghy Ride checking out "The Hood"

Sandy Beach at Regatta Bay

August 10, Travel Day #36, Regatta Bay to Byng Outlet: Total Distance Traveled: 45 Miles, Total Time Traveled: 7.5 Hours. This leg of the journey we had two options, the inside passage, or an offshore leg. After our earlier experience with the narrows, we went of the offshore route. The winds were expected to be light less than 5 knots and the seats only 2 feet, 3 feet apart, sounded perfect. Well, the weathermen here are no better than they can be in the states, and it blew 20 knots all day with guest to 25 and the seas were 4-5 feet and every 2 feet, so it was a slog all day. We departed at 7:30 and ran to a mark about 9 miles off the mainland and ran almost 15 miles north. We were about 10 miles offshore most of the day and only saw three hardy sailors. When we arrive at Byng Outlet we did talk with Salty Dog, and they had taken the same course but started at 6 AM. We have done a few legs with Salty Dog; they are from Michigan and almost done with their loop. It just so happens they are here in Killarney with us today. Nice folks. We stayed at a marina in Byng Inlet and were able to use the marina’s courtesy golf cart to tour the area. Very remote location with a population of less that 50.  This was one of several locations without internet.

Out Side Passage 

Couple of light houses offshore

August 11, Travel Day #37, Byng Outlet to Bustards Island: Total Distance Traveled: 25 Miles, Total Time Traveled: 4.5 Hours We left Byng just after 7:30 and had a 4–5-hour cruise to Bustards Island which was on our bucket lists to anchor in, so we had been looking forward to this cove.  Our travel today for the first 3 hours was back in the small ship route, so we had hundreds of very narrow passages to negotiate. It was another stressful day of avoiding granite ledges and cliffs. Talk about 100% laser focused on the marks and rocks. The last 10 miles was wide open lake and so it was great to have the hard work done first. We arrived in the cove around 1 PM and found an excellent anchorage. We were well protected and at the end of what they call “The Gun Barrell”, it was a very peaceful and calm harbor. Once we got the boat set and had lunch, we put the dinghy in the water and went exploring, which is always fun to do. We had a great dinner, nice bottle of Red and had another spectacular sun set then ½ hour later witnessed a full moon rise, absolutely breathtaking. Great night, again to be on anchor and away from the marinas.

Track

 

Island on  Lake Huron

 

 Sunset looking down The Gun Barrell

August 12, Travel Day #38, Bustards Island to Killarney:  Total Distance Traveled: 25 Miles, Total Time Traveled: 4.5 Hours. We had a great night sleep on anchor and a beautiful sunrise. I hate to admit it’s almost worth getting up early to see them, but I’m certainly not a convert of a morning guy. Todays run was like Wednesday run as it was offshore. We had two legs one long run so navigation was easy, and we had unlimited visibility. The weatherman got it right also on Friday and seas, wind and weather was as predicted, flat seas and very little wind. It was a very pleasant ride to Killarney.  Killarney is a very rural place and only has 120 (year-round) residents. They have two large resorts that are very pleasant. The closest grocery store is 1 ½ hours away, so we have what we have.  

 

Track

 

Chilling in Killarney 

Uber Driver

Killarney Harbor

Float Plane in the Channel

So, we are headed into The North Channel Monday and going spend another day here in Killarney and explore with the dinghy and get some more bat projects done. The weeds are not as bad in Lake Huron but still need to clean all the water intake screens and there is plenty of laundry to do. 

So I thought I would share our first two months Spreadsheet for another look at the trip

One request we love your comments so please post more. We have not heard from many folks maybe they are going to their junk folders, and not getting the blog. However one request is in the body of your comment include your name. PJ and Suzie are the best at that.  Most times we don't know who is commenting. 

Fair winds , enjoy your summer and thanks for listening. Should be back in the USA this time  next week.