Sailing the Great Lakes: The Pool back to Mary Ann Cove

Wednesday July 28 – We did have rain and a mild thunderstorm over night, but it had pretty much stopped in the morning. I got up around 8:30am and made coffee. Kathi got up at about 8:45am. We are running low on refrigerated supplies, so it was granola bars, coffee and OJ for breakfast. At 9:00am we listen to the Cruiser’s Net out of Little Current. We checked in when it came to the Baie Fine area, added that the ‘St. Lawrance II’ tall-ship was there with us, and listened for boats we know. Mast Transit reported in as being at Hotham Island. After that we shut off the VHF and got ready for our expected anchor hauling ordeal.

I floated to shore in the dinghy to untie our stern line. The boat did not swing badly so we knew our anchor line was not sweeping through the weeds. I went up forward with Kathi and slowly hauled in the anchor line. We also brought the boathook up to use to scrap and pull off weeds as the line, chain, and anchor came up. There were some weeds and Kathi plucked them off carefully as we went. When we got the 35ft of chain there was mud in the links and some weed build-up, but not near as bad as we had seen with others anchored on the other side of The Pool from us. Since the chain goes into our manual windlass, Kathi did the cranking and I leaned over using the boathook to pull off the big clumps that formed around the chain. Finally the anchor was up, but it was full of mud and weeds. We were lucky the wind was not real bad in The Pool yet and the boat only drifted a little bit. I had Kathi keep the anchor just above the waterline and I went back to the helm. I moved the boat to a clearer and much less weedy location near the head of The Pool and put the boat in neutral. I went forward again and proceeded to dunk the anchor and chain up and down in the water and used the boathook to rip off the final clusters of weeds. Clean enough we pulled it all the way up and into place on the bow roller.

By then we were near the St. Lawrence II and Kathi, still on the bow, talked to a crew member. They are a square rigged training sailboat (with a diesel engine), draw 9ft of water and come from Kinston, Ontario, at the northwestern end of Lake Ontario. They come through the Weland Canal into Lake Erie and then followed much the same route we did getting up here into the North Channel. The crew was mostly teenagers, so I think this is like an outward bound type experience.

We had a pretty uneventful trip reversing our route back to Mary Ann Cove. I was concerned that it would be very full with boats hiding from the forecast 25 knot winds from the West and then the Northwest. The wind was on our nose all the way through the narrows and then out into the bay where it really picked up. We were the only boat that left that end of Baie Fine, we did see a few boats anchored in little nooks along the way, and we did not pass anyone coming up-bound. As we approached Mary Ann Cove we saw a couple powerboats and a sailboat leave and head west out of Baie Fine – not what I would be doing, but it was still just after noon. Once we entered the cove we were surprised to see half as many boats as anchored on our previous stay, and one powerboat and one sailboat were hauling up anchor and leaving. We putted around until they vacated and we chose a spot on the west side close up to a rock wall. Like in The Pool and previously in this cove, we dropped anchor and backed down to 40ft from the rock wall. I did take a pass-by first checking dept in the area and had Kathi look down and survey the sub-surface terrain. It looked like it was at least 12ft deep to within 10ft of the rock wall. After dropping the anchor, I took a line off the stern to a stout tree and had Kathi back the boat closer so I could get the line ashore. Eventually, due to the wind shifting a lot and the boat swinging back and forth, I added a second line off the other side of the transom that stabilized us well.

We swam and lounged around, also taking a nap for an hour or so. Beef chili, hotdogs and green beans for dinner. Glad we did not go hiking, I had had enough over the last two days. We went below early and I read. We will see what the Cruiser’s Net reports for weather in the morning, but we do plan to head to Little Current tomorrow. Man do I need a haircut! It is at a length that bugs me more each day – and who knows what is living in there! We will probably go to the town docks – everyone recommends them. We will see tomorrow – it is another day…