Monday July 5 - Got up early, around 7am, to Aaron and Maggie could get going back to Cleveland. We were packed-up, checked-out of the “club” and on our way to CYC by 9:00am. Aaron did not particularly like driving out the old stone pier, and with a fully loaded vehicle we did scrape a little getting up onto it from the gravel drive. We unloaded the car and exchanged hugs and goodbyes and they were off on their way. Unfortunately they got stuck in two bad traffic jams in Toronto and then had to wait awhile at US Customs, but were home by 7:45pm. We definitely immediately missed having them around.
We got ourselves organized and put things away. I worked the internet making sure we had all our bills paid or scheduled, and that Quicken was up to date. Kathi went up to the clubhouse and used our Net2Phone access number to make phone calls. We just took our time, although I was eyeing he bad gouge towards the back of the dinghy’s Port tube that happened while we were away. The dinghy got blown or wave pushed under a corner of the finger dock and there was nasty steel bracket the dug into it. Then I would look up at the bimini and the 8 inches of ripped out seam… hummmm, tomorrow is another day. We decided to take our time and stayed overnight.
Around 5pm we headed into town to Molly Bloom’s and had a couple beers and dinner. At Molly’s we met up with a couple from CYC and we BSed for quite awhile. They then when they left the mentioned “Have you been over to Admiral’s?” We decided about 15 minutes later to go see if we could find the place. We did and who was there still hoisting a few? The people we were with at Molly’s. They had joined another couple. So now we were sitting at the bar with Wayne (not the Commodore, he is the other Wayne) and Chris and their wives talking about where to anchor and whether to go to Fryingpan Island and Henry’s for fish and chips. Chris said he would come by tomorrow and show us on our charts places he would recommend. We eventually headed back to the boat and made it a night.
We really wanted to thank the folks at Collingwood Yacht Club (CYC) for their hospitality, friendliness, and making us very welcome. It was a wonderful stay with them and we would do it 100 times again. Thank you from the depths of our hearts.
Tuesday July 6 – I got up somewhat early, probably around 8am. I got myself organized with all the things I needed to patch the dingy. Once that was done, and it was getting quite hot and humid, the sweat was rolling off my face, I got the upholstery thread and one of the smaller sail repair needles and got to work stitching up the zipper’s seam that got pulled out when I did not crank in the main reef outhaul good enough and the boom was pressing on the bimini top. Got that done, and now I am really sweating. I headed up to the clubhouse for a cold shower. Kathi was up making more “Net2Phone Direct” phone calls to friends, Jenessa, and Aaron, checking her voice mails. It was probably 2:30pm when we started to get wrapped up to pull out and head to Christian Island. First, though, we needed to top-off our diesel tank – so over to Cranberry Marina. It was a pretty narrow channel in and we kept getting the good old 4.5ft depth reading (we need 5ft) but as usual it was very weedy in there. The dock hands assured us there was plenty of depth and not to worry. On our way out we did see some fairly large rocks 10ft or so from the shore just a foot or two below the surface. There may have been plenty of depth, but you better keep to the middle! Looking at the Cranberry docks, paying $350 for five nights would have been a real rip-off! Now to be fair, even though their finger docks did not look all that great, we would have had access to two swimming pools and other facilities – but since we were at Club Intrawest we would never have used them. One thing we did forget though is that we still have the CYC key! We were supposed to leave it on a picnic table near the front of our boat, but is slipped our minds. We will either mail it back to them or see if we can find another CYC’er out at anchor.
Once out on the lake we headed for my dreaded “gap” at the south end of Christian Island at Lighthouse Point and the mainland. At first we had a nice breeze from the West that got is going 4 to 5 knots, but as we approached the middle of our crossing the wind went totally flat. We were wondering why the boat heading towards Collingwood was under power with no sails up – well we found out! We motored the rest of the way to Little Sand Bay on the East side of Christian Island. It was supposed to blow 10 to 15 from the West at midnight and that seemed like the best place to anchor. There were two sailboats already in there when we arrived at about 8:15pm, and some a couple powerboats in closer having a bonfire and party on the beach. Over to the east of us in a bay anchorage on the west side of Beckwith Island there were some more sailboats and powerboats anchored.
Little Sand Bay is actually pretty nice. Although you initially may get concerned that the water is going to get shallow, once you cross a very small sand bar at 6ft to 7ft, you find yourself in a consistent 8ft to 9ft of water. The water temperature was 78°F so we spent some time swimming to cool off from the hot and humid day. We had some left-over steak from our last evening with Aaron and Maggie sliced thin and dipped in sweet spicy mustard along with pretzels and a beer. But once the sun went down and it got dark, we were on someone else’s menu – the mosquitoes were viscous. We went below quickly and made it a night. I used my electrified racquetball paddle to sweep the air and clear out the cabin of any sneaky buggers. I love the flash and snapping sound of an electrocuted mosquito!
Little Sand Bay, Christian Island
Wednesday July 7 – Overnight it was smooth as glass and we woke up to the same, although we are pointing East (still in 7ft to 8ft of water). I was up around 8:30am, made coffee, and started working these three entries. Kathi is still sleeping at 9:50am… maybe I will get her up… nah, maybe I will go back to sleep, or go for a swim (water has dropped to 68.7°F), or just sit in the cockpit, drink my coffee and watch the world go by. More later….
I ended up going for a swim and then got into the dinghy and went and visited the other boats at anchor. We still had the CYC key to the locks that I was hoping to return to a CYC member. Both sailboats were from Thornbury and the two powerboats I am not sure, but none were CYC members. After I came back I scrubbed the bottom of the dinghy. It is amazing how a week in the warmer and more “fertile” waters of Collingwood harbor could put so much growth on the bottom! Still cannot get some of the “hairy” growth off the rear of the tubes.
After I was back in the boat I decided to take on mounting our new solar lights. I had purchased normal walk way lights and was going to convert them for the boat by using some clamp blocks. What an ordeal! First I broke a drill bit trying to put holes in the stainless steel tubes for hold on screws. Then I cracked the stick-in-the ground bases, followed by finding out the hardware supplied had lock nuts that were not a match hex holes they were supposed to fit into. Yikes, I needed to unscrew one I had originally used to attach the crappy bases that broke. I spent probably an hour trying to undo it. I don’t have a hacksaw on board (probably should) and I was not going to f-up my cable cutters. I eventually used a cable crimping tool to hold the stainless screw after using the vise-grips to detent the screw, and then the vise-grips to bend I back and forth to finally break it off. But keeping at it, I was able to get them mounted on the aft corners of our bimini frame. Now we have a solar lantern we hang up front and these two solar lights of the rear. In Canada, we have been told, you actually only need on light hanging on the boat and you don’t have to use the anchor light.
By then I was rolling sweat and went swimming again, and afterwards just sat in the cockpit. Eventually I got hungry and cooked up a couple slices of Peameal Bacon on the grill (a Canadian thing) and made a sandwich with string cheese, the bacon, mustard, onions, and tomato (Kathi helped me) and put it all on a hoagie bun we had left from Aaron and Maggie’s visit. Yummm! More resting, and then Kathi decided we should swim to shore – about a ¼ mile to the beach. We did and went ashore where the signs on a single sign post said: “NO TRESPASSING”, “Pay Here”, and provided the rates for using the beach and “North Camp” campground. But they were 2009 rates, and there was no receptacle to put any money… hummmm… This island is owned by the Beausoleil First Nation – guess they are not all that interested in getting their money.
Swam back to the boat and hung out until dinner. I cooked up the souvlaki skewers, reheated some Zataran’s red beans and rice we pre-cooked back at the condo, and finished off the big cucumber. Then it was on to planning our trip for tomorrow.
We spent quite a bit of time trying to decipher the notes taken when Chris from CYC told us some good spots to enter and anchor up near Perry Sound. In the end I decided we needed to go and get some supplies first, so we are going to Fryingpan Island and will probably anchor in Fryingpan Island Harbor as there is a “well stocked” grocery right on shore there.
Panorama of Little Sand Bay
We loved this anchorage, swam to shore, and swam around the boat in nice temps. We were thinking of staying another night, but weather forecast called for thunderstorms and rain on Friday.
Thursday June 8 – Woke up at about 7:30am to get going. Of course, we never “get going”. I made coffee, and Kathi went for a swim to shore (she turned around after going half way). We are starting to get organized now… more later….
OK, we finally pulled up the mainsail and then the anchor and headed north for Fryingpan Island via the Burket Rock entrance. We followed the "dotted line" on the Garmin GPS into the main Small Craft Channel and then on to Fryingpan Island. As we approached our turning point onto the harbor the wind kicked up to 23 knots (we still had the full main up) and we tried to stay in the channel and make the turn into the harbor... no problem. We dropped the main as we turned. We had to anchor a few times to choose the right spot. This "harbor" is a little tricky, small and narrow, but we were finally (third try) in a good spot. We had no idea of the bottom conditions, so not so sure how the anchor will hold with rock shores all around. We were hoping for a more pristine anchorage, but this area is well "cottaged" and we are not so sure we are welcome to anchor here (F-em)... We went into the local LCBO and grocery store to get supplies – paid $100 for $50 worth of supplies!
Tomorrow we are looking at moving a few miles to Echo Bay... I hope there will be no "unfriendlies" in the area... More tomorrow...
Echo Bay where we may move tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment