Fox Harbour what a beauty!

We ended up staying in Gore Bay at anchor for 3 days and had beautiful weather.  Brian and I enjoyed walking the town and the boardwalk.  We had the best Dumplings and bread pudding at the Rocky Racoon Cafe. On the evening we had fellow sailors over and shared stories. Our old boat Verity iii pulled in on the second day.

From there we sailed to Turnbull Islands.  After staying there we have determined it is in our top 3 places to go.  The anchorage is surrounded by small little islands and we enjoyed a secluded inlet all to ourselves.  Our 46-foot sailboat with 70 feet of chain out just fit.

We left the Turnbull Islands and headed for Moiles and tried blueberry picking.  It seems that the plants are behind by 2 weeks so not enough ripe fruit for pancakes.  When leaving Moiles, we brought up a huge log with the anchor but was able to quickly free it without any damages.  We then headed for Eagle Island and spent 2 days sheltered from high winds.  Our dinghy decided to take an adventure and wander off so Brian jumped in and saved it.

After a short sail to Fox Harbour, we celebrated our 24th anniversary at anchor.  This place topped our list of numbered places to be and bumping the Benjamins to 2nd.  It is similar to the Benjamins, but on a smaller scale with a bunch of small granite islands with a small wetland made by the beavers.  this is another narrow anchorage so we set a stern anchor to stop our swing. It is here that I caught my very first yellow bass of approximately 16 inches with a month old worm from Tobermory.  We also met sailor Mike and his dog Chestnut from Pirate Shanty and had him over for pizza and rum for dinner.  Matt and Julia from Sea Jay came over to introduce themselves.  They are also leaving this August for the Bahamas and we are planing on meeting up with them at some point.  On our anniversary day, Matt's mom came by with her kayak and delivered blueberry muffins and Mike invited us for homemade blueberry pie.  I guess our 24th anniversary's theme was blueberry.  Fox Harbour had a lot of blueberries and we picked up enough to make blueberry pancakes.

After a couple of days, we left Fox Harbour as we had head issues and we desperately needed a pump-out to deal with them so we motored to Little Current and took up some free wall space for the day.  Before sunset, we motored to West Rous again to shelter from high winds.  The next morning I decided to fix our fishing rod's line.  I pretty let out all the line and reeled it back in.  To my surprise, I caught my second yellow bass.  We left the next morning to join the Cruiser's Net broadcast in Little Current and to pick up Brian's mom, sister, and nephew.  They are joining us for a couple of days.

Interesting statistics, we have anchored out now for over 28 days and when we filled up in little current it only took 50 litres of fuel to top us up. We've spent more on emptying our holding tanks.

Eagles, falcon, and water snakes oh my!

We met Brian's sister Christine and brother in law Marc at the town docks in Little Current.  From there, we sailed to our favourite spot, the Benjamins.  The island is mostly covered with granite and the trees look like pictures out of Dr. Seuss' books.  There used to be a sand beach but it is now underwater as the lake is 4 feet and 4 inches over chart datum.  We did a lot of swimming and cards and board games.  Christine was the champion of "Walk the Plank".  We also explored the Benjamins by hiking the island as well as circling the island by dinghy. The views from the top of the island are spectacular.

We also took our dinghy out at night to catch the beautiful sunsets.

The next day we all headed to Bell Cove.  Christine and I fished and had several bites but did not bring any onboard.

Additional pictures to prove we had fun!

We sailed back to Little Current and joined Roy Eaton for his Cruiser's Net broadcast.  Each morning at 9am he has a VHF program that allows cruisers to call in their boat locations and any questions they may have.  He also provides local/world news stories as well as an update on the weather at the beginning of his program.  Here's a picture of Brian and me with Roy.

After the broadcast, Christ and Marc left.  Brian's childhood friend, Rick arrived with his kids, mother, aunt and uncle.  We took them to Rous Island for lunch on the boat.  We shared many stories and laughs, but the visit was too short as they needed to go back to Sudbury.  After taking them back to Little Current, Brian and I returned to Rous Island for the night.  While Brian worked on caulking our toe rail and replacing the anchor wash pump, I did the laundry.

That anchorage was active with wildlife.  We shaw a couple of eagles, a falcon, and 3 water snakes for which one tried to board our boat.

We left the next morning for Clapperton and stayed for a couple nights as it afforded great shelter from high winds and rain.  I tried fishing and managed to catch a clump of mussels.  The one mussel managed to eat the worm on my hook.

Morning of July 12th, we enjoyed a sail to Gore Bay.  After lunch, we walked downtown and enjoyed ice cream and beer.

I'm not sure how it started but there is a red chair in our home port of Sarnia, and he/she who sits in it has to tell a story.  Here in Gore Bay, they must have big stories and big white lies to tell.

Sun sets and foggy mornings

My parents arrived and we had a lovely time and the weather cooperated.  Upon their arrival, we dropped off their vehicle to our friends' place and had our first of several rounds of Euchre.  We paired up husbands vs. wives.  Dad and Brian are cheaters that’s all I’m saying.  My parents survived their first night on the boat at the dock.

The next day we spend the day in Owen Sound shopping for groceries and a dinghy.  Brian found a good deal at Georgian Shores Marina and bough a Highfield dinghy.  It was interesting putting the dinghy on top of a Kia Soul.  We definitely had a few looks driving back.  The guys at the Marina never seen a dinghy mounted on a Kia Soul.  

The next morning, we took the parents for a short sail and an overnight stay in Dunks Bay.  They sailed before but never stayed at an anchor overnight.  The weather was nice.  We tried fishing but had no luck.  As usual, we ended up cleaning our lures. 

After my parents left, we said goodbye to Tobermory and set sail to Cover Portage and stayed two days.  From there, we then had a wonderful sail all the way to Haywood using the Lansdowne channel.  We have had beautiful sunsets and foggy mornings.

This blog is being posted from the Anchor Inn in Little Current where we have stopped for lunch.  We will continue this afternoon and motor sail to the Benjamins as there are barely any winds.  As of now, our plans are to come back to Little Current on Friday to join Roy Eaton's meet in greet at the Anchor Inn.