Still at the Pool

7-1-12

Today is Canada Day

We enjoyed the pool so much, we decided to stay another night.

We saw in the cruising guide that there is another lake up in the mountains nearby.  Artist Lake.

It sounded interesting, so we dinghyed ashore again and started out to find it.

Turned out that the lake is mis-named.  It should be called mosquito breeding lake.  It’s a low swampy place that is so thick with mosquitoes, that if I stopped walking, I had to hold on to a tree to keep them from carrying me off.  A big tree.

As for wildlife up here, we haven’t seen anything we don’t see at home.  And, not as much as we see at home.   This deer waded into the water and ate some seaweed.

And yet another snapper.  I see these things everywhere I go. Other than Pam’s brother, Ty, I’m not sure they have any natural predators.

 

The Pool

6-30-12

Today would have been my father’s 100th birthday.

We wanted to go up Baie Fine to see what they call “The Pool.”  Baie Fine is about 9 miles long, and resembles a fiord.  I’ve pronounced it a hundert different ways, but it seems “Bi Fin” might be right.  Except for the shoreline, it reminded me of parts of the Ohio River in Indiana.  Both the shore, as well as the islands here would do more damage if you hit them.

There are cabins hidden along the shore.  This one had a suspension bridge over to the outhouse.

I was afraid that there would be a crowd in the pool.  Tomorrow is a holiday here--Canada Day, and there had been 14 boats anchored around us last night on Heywood Island.  I’d heard the pool is one of the most popular anchorage spots.   We got to the pool around 11 am to find it empty.  Almost everywhere in the North Channel is scenic, but this is exceptionally so.  Here’s the view from the boat.

I had read that we could dinghy over to the shore and hike up through the woods and maybe find Topaz Lake—a secluded mountain lake.  So off we went.  The trail up through the woods was similar to hiking up the hills at Pam’s family’s cottage on Lake Cumberland--times one hundert.

Finding and following the path was a challenge.  Since I had heard that there were snakes and bears in this area, I had Pam walk in the lead, and I made sure that nothing could sneak up from behind us.

On the way, we picked some wild blueberries for my oats tomorrow.

When we finally saw Topaz Lake, the climb was worth it. What a view.

 

By the way, when we got there, we found a group of girls skinny dipping in the crystal clear water.

Here’s their clothes. 

Unfortunately, Pam wouldn’t let me post photos of the girls.  I guess it’s just like that "clothing optional" hotel where Pam’s sister stayed in Key West.  No photos from that either.

Heywood Banks

6-29-12

We had our first bug-less night while in the slip at Little Current.  Not sure why we had no bugs, but we enjoyed it.  I thought today about some more possible entry points for the mosquitoes.  Under the gunnels, some cables pass through an opening, leaving some openings, so I plugged them with some paper towels.

Dave and Barb from “Robert Sydney” stopped by to see us on their way to breakfast.  Dave says he makes sure the drain is pugged tight in the sink because mosquitoes can crawl in through there.  They also told us of some of their favorite anchorages.  They usually spend July and August cruising the North Channel.  (That’s Spring, Summer, and Fall here.)

We left Little Current around 1:00 pm, and motored on to Heywood Island.  Before dropping the hook, we toured the shoreline of Heywood Island.  It was a regular Heywood Banks show.  The wind is blowing 20+ knots, and we had a difficult time getting the anchor to hold.  Several other boats have come since we got here, and all anchored upwind of us.  We relocated out of the potential path of anchor draggers. (Dragging the anchor is yet another trick I learned from my pal the Dawg.)

Because of the wind, I’m hoping that the mosquitoes will not be able to fly out to our boat tonight.  The horse flies here are like flying sharks.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned how clear the water is up here.  We can watch the anchor go to the bottom in 15 or 20 feet.  And people actually swim in this water.  I stuck a thermometer in today, and it’s 66 degrees.

Little Current

6-28-12

More winged visitors on the roof this morning.

May flies.  In June. 
This has got to be the buggiest spot on earth.  Last night, we had biting flies followed by swarms of mosquitoes.  I have a tennis racquet bug zapper that provides a shock when you hit a bug and at the same time activate the battery powered charge through the wires of the racquet.  Not only do I now have tennis elbow, but we also have a six inch thick carpet of fried mosquitoes on the floor.  I don't know how they get into the boat. We close (and lock) the doors and windows, and Pam has taped plastic over the bottom of the solar vents.  I guess the next thing is duct tape over the edges of the doors.

Cruised into Little Current today.  Evidently, we are here pre-season. Several of the businesses don't open until July.  There are not many boats here yet.  It's 75 degrees today.  The weather forecaster calls it "very warm."  It's a hundert and one at home in Indiana today--now that's very warm.

They refurbished the waterfront here a couple of years ago.  The docks and showers are really nice.  Of course they only get used that one week a year that they have summer here.

We were sitting on the boat this afternoon when we saw another Rosborough pass by on a trailer.  Turns out we had met the people in February of 2010 when we were both in Punta Gorda, Florida.  Dave and Barb from Toronto.  She walked back to say hi later in the day.

Cutknife

 6-27-12

There was a little light rain this morning, so we motored East for a little while.  I think we’re going to stop at Little Current tomorrow, so we anchored not too far away in Cutknife Cove on Bedford Island.

 

N 46 degrees 01.735 minutes  W 082 degrees 01.393 minutes.

The hills are part of the mainland as seen from our anchorage.

That’s us in Cutknife Cove.  Didn’t need Cajun music today.  There’s no one else around.

The bugs continue to be troublesome.  Last night, I heard the rear door sliding open, and looked up to see several mosquitoes and some horse flies working together to open it.  I guess we’ll have to keep the doors locked.

We had different type winged visitor today.  First, he landed on the roof and stomped around—waking up Pam.   

Then he took up bow watch on the rail.  

If you’ve ever wondered where that “fresh caught” salmon comes from, here’s where they grow them.  Actually, I don’t know what species of fish they grow, but this is a fish farm.

South Benjamin Island

6-26-12

I thought I had been places with a lot of bugs before, but I was mistaken.  The mosquitoes and biting flies here are ferocious.   

I pumped up the dinghy, parked the Ford truck—left the key in it, and we departed Spanish Marina about 11 am.

Since our return from Florida, I purchased an ASUS transformer android tablet.  I also purchased the US and Canada Navionics  programs for both the android tablet and my phone.  Both the tablet and phone have a GPS built in, and don’t need wifi service to work.  I had programmed in the course to the Benjamin islands last night.   There would be little or no hope to find your way through the North Channel without some sort of chart plotter. In one spot it's 150 feet deep.  One boat length away, it's 1 foot deep.

We anchored in a cove on the south side of South Benjamin Island.  When we went in, there were several other boats anchored nearby.  Using a trick I learned from my pal the Dawg, we soon had the place to ourselves.  If you go in playing very loud Cajun music while dancing naked on the roof, most everyone will soon depart.  (This only works if the naked dancer is an old man—naked women of any age seem to have the opposite effect.)   

We motored the dinghy all around South Benjamin, and took hunderts of photos.  I imagine they will all look alike when I get them out several years from now, but this certainly is a beautiful place.

 

We climbed up some of the granite rocks and walked through the woods.  We hoped to see some wildlife, but all we found was this lean-to where a hermit lives.

If we were still in the sailboat business, this would have made a great ad for Hunter Marine.  We sold a lot of boats just like that one.

North Channel

It's been very hot and dry in Indiana.  The lake level at our house is so low that we had to pull our sailboat and ski boat out of the lake on the first day of summer.  So we decided to travel NOrth into Canada, and launch TONIC at Spanish, Ontario.  (N 46degrees, 11.036 minutes W 082 degrees, 21.602 minutes.)

As I age, my memory must be fading fast. For example, I'm still driving that piece of **** red ford diesel truck. My grandchildren call it "Clifford the big red truck"  because there's a "Clifford, the big red dog" in some of their books.  So I now call it "Clifford the big red dog turd."

We had planned to stop overnight in a Walmart parking lot in Gaylord, Michigan. I had programed in the address on Edelweiss Trail.  Just like in the movie "Summer Rental" the Walmart was actually on Edelweiss PARKWAY.  When we got to Edelweiss Trail, we were in the middle of an old run down mobile home park--full of old pick ups with gun racks in the back window.  Wouldn't you know that's when Clifford decided to loose power and start billowing out black clouds of smoke.  After discovering the error in my navigation skills, we were able to limp to the Walmart on Edelweiss PARKWAY.   We slept in the boat, and this morning, when the wonderful Ford truck wouldn't move at all, I took apart the EGR valve to find chunks of crud stuck in the valve, preventing it from closing.

We were able to drive on up into Canada, and launch at the Spanish Municipal Marina.  However, the truck is now blowing out white smoke.  Pam and I are taking a vote whether we want to give up this trailer cruising altogether, or get a different (Chevy) truck.  Right now, it's 1 to 1.  If we make it home, we can make a final decision then.

There's an overlook at the top of the nearby hill.  We're in the bottom left of this photo.

There's one of the first wind generators at the top of the hill.  We saw lots of new ones on the way up here.

I was down on Lake Monroe a few weeks ago, and was plagued by a snapping turtle.  Couldn't get in the water to swim because he was always right at the boat.  Looks like the same problem here.

Our phones and internet connections don't work in Canada, so our communication and postings will be limited to the times we can find a marina with wifi.  We plan to anchor out most nights.