Friday August 13 – Got up at our usual time and I made coffee. I mad myself an egg-in-toast and peameal bacon – yes, I am beginning to really like that! I got Kathi up around 8:30am so she would be ready for the Roy Show. So far no Northern Lights and just a few meteors… better than nothing… we will try again tonight. We checked-in with Roy and we did not need a relay this time. Kathi took her normal swim, but I did not like the murky algae water so I skipped it for later.
We finally pulled up anchor and as usual there was mucky stuff on the last part of the chain and on our Bruce anchor. I had Kathi leave the anchor down a couple feet in the water as I motored out of the Thomas Island anchorage slowly hoping it might get cleaned off, but no such luck. This stuff is like glue. We sure miss the sand bottoms of Christian Island and Kidd Bay at Flying Cloud Island on the Bruce Peninsula side of Georgian Bay. We carefully maneuvered around the No-Name Island and through the passage between it and Abigail Island. We could head directly south towards Passage Island and towards Little Detroit. With the wind out of the Southeast, we got to sail just about the whole way, but we did want to have all sails down for the Little Detroit passage. It is only about 100ft wide at its narrowest point and 16ft deep, with some nasty rocks on the sides in places.
As we were approaching Little Detroit we were about to make our Security Call (you are supposed to announce your transit of the strait, size of boat, direction going and in how many minutes), we heard another sailboat (Carousel) calling and saying they would transit East-to-West in 5 minutes and were under sail. I responded that we were another sailboat about to enter West-to-East. I should have simply said we would hold off, but I left it up to them, after all they did say 5 minutes and we were ready. The lady on the VHF immediately said they would hold off. Because of the direction of the wind (SE) it was obvious that we were motoring. 30 seconds the husband came back on and firmly said they were entering now and were under sail. I responded that we would hold off, and we brought the boat to a stop waiting. I guess they were a little annoyed and did not even wave back when we waved to them. Overall, I think I did the right thing: announced our intentions and started the conversation, and when asked held off.
From then on the wind was on our nose. Our intention had been to head into Amendroz Island (or Amedroz depending on which chart you look at), but with the Southeast wind forecast to pipe up to 15 knots, I was not sure it was the best anchorage, although we would be mostly protected there. Kathi was down reading the PORTS book and read about Croker, which was a 90° right turn back west, but not really too far. After we passed Fleming Bank, I jumped down below and quickly rerouted the planned course into Croker Island anchorage, the little one. Then we hung a right and sailed to Croker, turning the motor off finally. Of course the wind started to drop, but we stuck it out with the wind almost directly behind us until we were just off Secretary Island.
It was a little trick getting in there with the zigzag route I needed to take, and then everyone was tied to shore so anchoring etiquette dictates you anchor how everyone else is anchored. It was a little tight and the crosswind was not helping. I had to choose a spot where we could back in with sufficient depth, had a stout tree on shore and while preparing to tie to shore not swing into any boats already positioned. I circled first, going as close to shore where I saw a candidate spot to check the depth – looked OK. I had Kathi drop the anchor in a select spot in 17 to 18 feet of water and had her only let out about 60ft of anchor rode. We did swing and ended up probably about 15 to 20 yards from the next boat – he was on deck watching carefully, and I made sure I was ready to move if we got too close to them or their anchor line. The boat settled and we were OK. I got out the second anchor line and took it to shore in the dinghy, having Kathi payout the line steadily. This time there was no knotting of the line and all went perfectly. I got ashore (without falling in!) and up to my selected tree and tied off. Kathi pulled in and tie off so we would swing back away from our neighbor. When I got back to the boat we adjusted by letting out anchor line and pulling in the tie-off line. We ended up with about 10ft of water under the stern and in a nice position. There was a nasty rock about 6ft down a bit to starboard, but I was pretty sure that if we swung in its direction we would be out farther from it and the rudder would be OK.
It was nice and sunny so we swam and lay out in the sun. Early evening another sailboat (Spirit) from Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan entered the anchorage. There really was no room for him to anchor in the middle and etiquette dictates that you do as others. Not them! The dropped their anchor right on top of where ours was – we had about 90ft of anchor rode out in front of us. The guy to the left of us got on his bow and told them he was leaving in the morning and they were right over his anchor, and besides “everyone here is tied to shore!” They acknowledged him and said they would move. They pulled up anchor – I watched to make sure they did not foul our anchor. They circled around and ended up dropping anchor maybe another 20 yards forward, now directly over our anchor, and maybe 20 yards off our bow.
Spirit was maybe 33ft long and was carrying 6 shirtless men and boys ranging from about 14 years old to maybe mid-twenties, and two adults in their 40s or 50s. It was quite a site and very entertaining. As they re-anchored they lost their “anchor ball” and one youngster dove over the side (with the boat under motor) to retrieve it. Later we saw them put four big guys in their small inflatable dinghy with a 4hp or 5hp that had very little freeboard (not much distance between the water and the top edge of the sides). Kathi and I were laughing as we could easily envision the vessel going submarine! They also had a second vinyl inflatable that was on the bow. They eventually threw it off into the water and towed it with the other motorized one. The same teen was always driving the motorized dinghy so I started to call him “dinghy boy” – Kathi was laughing constantly. Dinghy boy ferried crew back and forth to shore on the opposite side of the anchorage. They built fires and would leave them unattended! One time dinghy boy sat in the motorized alone and towed a chubby boy in the other dinghy – Kathi laughing again! Eventually they all went to shore and hung out around the biggest fire that was showing a 6ft of greater flame high. These guys were like a disaster going some place to happen! But they did keep Kathi and I amused – however, I am concerned about them leaving in the morning.
Kathi was not very hungry, so I just cooked up some hotdogs. Off to bed after dark and upon the attack of the mosquitoes – they were really not all that bad.
Saturday August 14 – Got up around 8am and made coffee, and two fried eggs and peameal bacon. I got Kathi up for the Roy Show, coffee, and her piece of peameal bacon. No Northern Lights, no meteors – it was overcast in the middle of night. We checked-in with Roy as usual and did a couple relays others including 4th Dimension who was in the other Croker Island anchorage - we met them at dinner in Gore Bay; they were anchored out and not at the dock. It was an on and off cloudy day, but we swam and I lounged in the cockpit until after lunch. Kathi went cleaning crazy – cleaning carpets, cleaning under the cabin floorboards, and washed out some clothing items.
Kathi made the last sandwich – the heel of the bread loaf is all that is left - and I made a tortilla wrap. After another swim and a rest, we headed out for a dinghy ride around 3pm. We visited the other Croker Island anchorage that only had one trawler and two small sailboats left in it. Our anchorage - recommended one – is shallow enough to anchor in the middle, but most (as noted before) drop anchor and back to the shore. The other anchorage is very deep except for a few spots, with the two sailboats anchoring in 20ft of water of more and pretty close to shore, but not tied off. After viewing the ‘sandy beach’ we headed back to our anchorage and to shore at a landing behind our boat and the one next to us. We followed trails up the rock knobs. Kathi insisted she needed to take her phone and that was because she needed to text if we got a good cellular signal. There is a photo below I took from a rock knob at least 75ft to 100ft above the one she stayed on and you can clearly see (if you zoom in) texting! She needed to know from Tim (our son-in-law) if Jenessa had made it to Miami and then to Haiti. She did and will have email access when she is not working. She started out on a night shift. She has not done that in awhile.
Back down to the dinghy and luckily neither of us fell down rocks or into the water. I made souvalki skewers over wild rice with mushrooms and salad for dinner. We are starting to run out of ice and cranberry juice. We are already out of OJ – need to start sucking the last of the limes to prevent scurvy! Since it had rained and then got hot again, it was pretty humid and the mosquitoes were out early. We went down to bed and I read my ‘How the Scots made the modern world’ book (interesting: macadam, a method for creating roads, was named after a MacAdams who created roads all over Great Britain and particularly was responsible for creating canals and roads in the Highlands of Scotland – Scots account for a major numbers of inventors and engineers in the 1800’s and early 1900’s).
Kathi got up in the middle of the night to check for sky activity, but it was overcast again.
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