Sailing the Great Lakes: Fryingpan Island to Haggis Island

Friday July 9 – We finally headed out of Fryingpan Island Harbor and headed up the Small Craft Channel. We decided to go to Haggis Island and anchor in the very small anchorage north of the island (sheltered by both Wilcox Island and Haggis Island). Being very proud of my Scottish heritage and a lover of real Haggis (the beasty) this sounded like the perfect place. There is one cottage cluster on the south end, but the only thing we see from our anchorage is a stone fire ring and some collapsible camp chairs lying on the ground. To the west there is an abandoned mine with a pile of mined rock, but it does not look all that bad. This is one hell of a lot better than Fryingpan Island and any of that cottage crap around Beausoleil Island and Honey Harbor. We have been told as we move north of Parry Sound (near where we are now) things will get a lot better – too far for most cottagers (most of whom come from Toronto). Kathi was listening to CBC Radio and the 400 north out of Toronto to Barre is jammed up already! We still need to figure where to go next, but wherever that is, it will be moving is further north and into the wild!

The skies did clear and we have sun and broken clouds now. We both had a swim in 81°F water and then I went for a dinghy ride to check out the area. These are interesting anchorages that can fit maybe two to three boats in each. We are the only ones here except for the “cottagers” on the southern end of the island. On our way in I saw a “hunter orange” sign but could not make out what it said. While I was out in the dinghy I went by and it had a tent symbol on it and a number 111 – I can only assume it is “Campsite 111”. I did not go ashore, but it looked like there were camping amenities there. I also went around the other way from where we were anchored and down to the cottage cluster. There is an entrance about 60ft wide, but it looks deep enough to get into, but at the end near us it is too shallow (fine for the dinghy). As I was going past the docks of the “cottage cluster” a Boston Whaler came flying in to the docks that were full and then zoomed out past me with his big 60hp Mercury outboard and around to the front of the island where the largest cottage is perched up on a big rock outcropping and has a dock down below. The owner evidently came out to meet them and help them tie up… not very friendly types however…

Looks like hotdogs and baked beans for dinner. We had a late lunch of ham sandwiches, so not really ready for a steak to night. I was going to have peameal bacon and eggs for breakfast, but I did not pull it together this morning – maybe tomorrow morning? We may stay here a couple days, or maybe not… tomorrow is another day!

Saturday July 10 – It was a beautiful day, and we got up late. No big breakfast again. I decided to take a bath and just as I finished washing my hair and getting back out of the water and into the cockpit – butt naked – two small powerboats come zooming around the corner in to our little Shangri-La. They looked very disappointed that what was probably their favorite spot was taken. They tried moving past us into the smaller and shallower anchorage, but they must have seen the cottage around the corner. Zooming back they came and left. At least their little side investigation gave me time to dry off and get some shorts on.

Back to pristine solitude… wait not so fast. About an hour later three large powerboats (40ft to 50ft) pulled around the corner and again seemed disappointed that we were there. They did anchor to the southwest of us, rafted up, and then took lines off each stern and tied it to trees on shore. Now we had just read the other day that this is really bad for the trees and you should only do it when you have to, avoiding trees with signs of prior usage. Of course, sooner than later, the generator came on for their air conditioning (come one, it was only 75°F out), and of course there was also a yapping little dog.

Kathi read and took a long nap most of the day. I worked on checking out the cockpit RAM mic, which I noticed via the handheld VHF we have has a bad hum and weak voice modulation. The navigation station radio (the one the RAM mic connects to) works fine with a good clear signal and clear voice. I checked for back connections, tightened thing, and also uncoiled the excess cable to see if that was a problem – nope. Then I tried removing the stereo speaker in the cockpit that is near the cable connector – nope. Of course that caused other problems as the speaker connectors were brass and old and broke when I tied to tighten them. I had to crimp on a new set. Next thing to try with the RAM mic is to pull the cable back out of the duct along the starboard side and run the cable straight from the nav station up through the companion-way and into the cockpit. It could be because it is running next to some wires that are causing interference. If that works, I will find another path to route the cable, but I have a feeling that either the part of the radio that handles the RAM mic or the RAM mic itself has gone bad. At least the nav station microphone is working fine.

After all that work, I was sweating and hot. I took a couple swims and then worked on the dinghy tow lines to more evenly distribute the pull load on the tow points. I also tightened lock nuts on the tow ring that sticks out of the front of the fiberglass hull portion of the dinghy (it is an AB 9.5ft Rigid Inflatable Boat, meaning it has fiberglass hull with 2.5ft inflatable tubes).

We had our steak for dinner with red beans and rice, and corn. After that we set-up or mosquito netting: it worked really well. We left it up over night.