Georgian Bay: Midland to Killarney

 Georgian Bay:  Midland to Killarney
  
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Over the weekend, our adult kids had joined us on our adventure.  They left about 10:30 am, and we prepped for our next leg of our loop trip...Georgian Bay.
About 1 pm, Dream Chaser joined the mass of boats exiting the south end of Georgian Bay from Midland and dodging the boats entering.  Dream Chaser experienced lots of chop from the busy Sunday afternoon and it will continue until we get around Giant’s Tomb, a large island 8 miles out. 

In 1820, Georgian Bay was named in honor of King George IV.  Georgian Bay is almost as large as Lake Ontario.  This area of Georgian Bay is known for its windswept pines, lush wetlands, and glacier scraped rock.  Water depths here are 132 ft.

Two fast boats screamed by us at 75-100 mph.  Imagine burning 1/2-3/4 gal of gas per minute.  Cha Ching!

               A helicopter rescue training session was taking place in the bay as we left Midland. 


By 3 pm, we reached Giant’s Tomb, a local island, where the water calmed and the traffic was minimal.  After 1 1/2 hours of choppy water, we enjoyed the 3 hours of peaceful, big open water in Georgian Bay.  We chose the open water to avoid the Sunday traffic of the small craft channel. Dream Chaser began her calm cruise to Henry’s Restaurant, a local icon, for dockage and dinner tonight. 

At Giant’s Tomb Island, Dream Chaser turned to the open water for 16 miles.  Then she turned into the entrance to San Souci and resumed the inner island small craft route.

About 6 pm, we arrived at the summer community of San Souci on Frying Pan Island.  What a charming and picturesque area!  Dream Chaser slipped up to the dock at Henry’s Restaurant and was secured for the night.

Henry is know for his fresh fish, so dinner was Henry’s battered pickerel, french fries, cole slaw, and baked beans.  Delicious!  In the U.S., the fish is called walleye and in Europe it is pike perch.

                Dream Chaser is in the middle of the docked boats.  What a wonderful, quiet spot!


Monday, July 13, 2015 

Morning dawned with clear blue skies   Our overnight at Henry’s Restaurant dock was quiet and peaceful.  So pretty this morning!

By 9 am, Dream Chaser is on the move and heading out to explore more of Georgian Bay.
We are following the inner island run through thousands of island in Georgian Bay.   Some islands have large houses and other islands are just big enough to hold a seagull’s nest.

                                  Many of the houses are tucked into the trees.

You can tell which way the winds blow.  The trees are bent to the northeast due to the strong winds from the southwest.

             Many loopers take the turn to Parry Sound, but we diverted west out to the inlet.

There are islands of all sizes everywhere.  Many are barren others have houses tucked into the trees.

                                        Closer to the big open water, we see only a few boats. 

We are about 10 miles from Parry Sound, and we see larger homes near the mouth of one of the inlets.

                                   Lighthouses peek up above the rock and windswept trees.

Our route takes us through forested islands, and then we return to where the bare rock islands go on and on.

 About 11 am, we spotted this house on Nias Island (we think) to our port side.  With some checking on the internet, we discovered that the Nias islands (6.3 acres) have been owned by the same family for more than 50 years and are for sale.  There are multiple buildings and the islands are joined at low water.  There is a main cottage with 1140 sq. ft.  designed by John Stark in 2004 and built in 2004.  This may be the "bunkie" built in the 60's with 400 sq. ft.  It was very interesting and unexpected out on these barren islands.  We loved the design!

Could it be a surviving tree hundreds of years old?  Perhaps a new hybrid pine?  No, its a communications tower in the form of a tree.  And this is supposed to blend into the scenery?!

After traveling quite a while and seeing very few cottages, we saw this off in a bay...

This is The Ojibway Club, an island community at Pointe au Baril, ON.  This is a rare example of the wooden resort hotels once common in the Muskoka region of Georgian Bay.  It is one of ten surviving today.  Built in 1906 by Hamilton Davis, this hotel was built for privileged clientele wanting the wilderness experience, but also having all the comforts of home.  This is the main 3 story hotel structure with a tower.  The complex includes cottages, also. 

We have been looking for wildlife along the route, but other than birds, this moose was the only find.


Everywhere we look, we see rock islands, some with houses perched on the barren rock slabs.

With temps in the low 80’s, we are navigating from the upper helm as we enjoyed our lunch of stuffed cabbages rolls followed by the remaining apple crisp.  Quite the day, cruising Georgian Bay with a wonderful breeze off the water.

We navigate through miles and miles of rugged rock islands with large and small cottages scattered along the way.


About 3 pm, Dream Chaser left the inner passage (by parks info lighthouse) for a two hour cruise across to Byng Inlet.  A treat of Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia  ice cream added to the excitement of crossing the big water.

Heading back from the outer areas of barren rock to the inlet, we found more interesting houses and people with a lot of water toys.

How would you like to live in this house? Yes, 4/5ths of the house or more in suspended off the ground.

                 Talk about water toys:  diving board, wave runners, and the floating gymnasium!

                                                         We turned into the Byng Inlet.

                            This was an interesting house along the Byng Inlet on the way to Britt.

          We are docked at the Britt city dock.  Our only neighbor was an old 50's steel sailboat.

By 6 pm, Dream Chaser had arrived in Britt at Byng Inlet and slipped up to the city dock (which was use at your own risk).  Captain and crew are ready to stop for the night after covering 80 miles today with intense navigation in three stretches of the route.  After a quick dinner aboard, we kicked back and enjoyed the welcomed cool breeze.  An old 50’s steel sailboat was docked next to us, but there were no neighbors to chat with.  Our entertainment ended up to be the locals who came for a dip off the dock.  Three grandmas brought their grand daughters (visiting Britt during summer vacation) who filled the air with screams and shouts as they jumped or dived off the end of the dock.
With night falling and the locals dispersed to their homes, we settled in to read.  Sleep came quickly as we were lulled to sleep by the slight movement of the boat.



Tuesday, July 14, 2015 

 Dream Chaser was docked overnight on the left side of the old city dock.  The price was right!

 Our morning began with temps in the low 60’s and cloud cover.  The captain began checking weather reports and radar about 5:30 this morning and although it hasn’t arrived yet, rain is in the forecast.

After breakfast about 8 am, we pulled the lines and Dream Chaser slipped back into the inlet headed for the Bustard Islands.  Without a breeze, the bugs are pesky, but the captain has a fly swat in one hand and the boat controls in the other.  With a large mug of tea delivered to the upper helm, we are ready for a day of cruising.

                                       Lighthouses like this one peak out along the shore.

As we head towards bigger water, the breeze picks up and there are massive amounts of granite outcrops on both sides of the channel.  Hundreds of little heads of mostly bare rock lay above the water like little rock islands.  The marked channel has had good water depths so far, but you don’t want to venture off the line very far.  At various points in our route, the channel has made dramatic turns.

At one such spot, within a length of 200 ft., the 60 ft wide channel took a 120 degree turn.  As we continue working our way north, the route winds us through rocky areas like an obstacle course.  
We met our first boat of the morning just prior to Roger’s Gut.

Roger’s Gut is a narrow section of our route which was blasted through rocks many years ago.  This passage is a potential area of concern due to water depths of less than 5 ft. (periodically) and the narrow width, so the captain went on VHF marine radio to announce our entrance into the passage.  It is one of those periods of time where the crew remains totally silent due to the tight navigation.  Whew!  No incidents!

           It is actually much narrower than the picture shows, and the turn is extremely tight.

Today’s morning treat, while we cruised through the rocky islands, is coconut butter tarts with coffee.  Butter tarts are really popular in Ontario, and we picked them up at the outdoor market in Midland.  Yum!

        We weren't too sure what this was all about...rather surprised to see a painted sign out here.

    These areas are somewhat freaky to navigate.  The green marker is on your left and the red marker is on the right and you must stay within the channel even on tight turns!

                           This was another very tricky passage that required total concentration!


About 11 am, we passed the Bustard Islands on our port side.  These islands are rugged and rocky but are inviting with lots of trees and little protected coves for anchoring out. We can hear the birds chattering as we pass by. 

                       At the north end of the Bustard Islands, there are islands of white granite.

                            These lighthouses are on the north end of the Bustard Islands.

A storm was predicted for today, but the weather radar, which the captain has checked every hour since leaving this morning, shows that the storm is passing to the south of us!  Hurrah!
We had lunch (stuffed cabbage rolls) while navigating from the upper helm.

                      At the end of Bustard Islands, we cruise out into the big waters of Georgian Bay.

While auto (pilot) is navigating the open water, Captain Steve is doing a little clean up.

Finally off the big water at the Chicken Islands, we entered into the small craft route which took us through Mill Lake, a three mile lake.  We hadn’t see any boats or many cottages, so were surprise to see the small Mill Lake Lodge on shore.  The rock walls are awesome.

                                     The big massive walls of granite line the shores.

                             Here and there, we see little cabins perched on the rocky shores.

                                  Dream Chaser noses her bow into the inlet for Killarney, ON.

First settled in 1820 as a fur trading post, Killarney was originally called Shebahonaning meaning safe passage.  Once a quaint fishing village, it is now a tourist destination.
 
The Sportsman’s Inn Resort and Marina in Killarney is our home for tonight and is quite the place.  The marina has live entertainment on Saturdays, Wifi, laundry facilities, and the restaurant provides meals throughout the day.  Across the waterway, they have a spa, cabins, and additional boat docking which is reached by a free boat shuttle.  We haven't seen facilities this fancy for some time.

                    In the picture above, Dream Chaser is docked (in the middle just above center).


One unique thing about the marina is that they have a boat drive-in theatre (when working) which we had never seen before.   Great idea!

We chose to have dinner on board (haddock, baked potatoes, and peas), due to the high cost of meals in the restaurants.  Actually, we have been happier with our dinner choices aboard Dream Chaser during the last several days.  Provision before you enter Georgian Bay as there are few stores and everything is over priced.  However, we did splurge on ice cream!
The Killarney area has been popular for tourism since the lumbering days and various important people of that day were known to have visited frequently.  Among these were the ex-mayor of Chicago who had a cottage on Threenarrows Lake and Al Capone who would holiday in the area.

Our walk after dinner took us through the little town of Killarney. We popped in and out of a few shops, and we followed a walkway along the waterway passed quaint cottages & small resorts to some beautiful views.

                                               St. Bonaventure Church in Killarney., ON.

                                                                Gorgeous area!

We are exhausted, for today was one of our most demanding days for navigation.  The three rocky areas with really tough narrow channels demanded constant vigilance.  It is an early bedtime.

When we leave Killarney, tomorrow, we will be entering the North Channel of Lake Huron.