Segment #9 Georgian Bay to Mackinaw City

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Interlude in Blind Bay, near Parry Sound, Ontario
July 24 - August 2, 2010

We spent a wonderful ten relaxing days at the cottage of my cousin Marianne and her husband Herbert Koenig in a little bay that ends blindly as the name indicates. We learned a bit about the “cottage culture”, which plays such a great role in this part of Ontario. Just like the thousands of cottages we had seen on the Trent-Severn Waterway the Koenig’s cottage was located right on the water’s edge and was built on rocks. Their only access was by boat. So they had to get out of their car near a little dock where about a dozen other cars were parked, pack all their belongings into a small motorboat and ride for about ten minutes across Blind Bay before they reached their own dock in front of the boathouse. This was also the garage for a bigger boat used mainly for excursions.

Over a series of steps we reached the living area of the cottage, which has a large living room and kitchen, two bathrooms, a study, a small bedroom and a master bedroom. Downstairs was the guest bedroom into which Manfred moved after our arrival. The Marilsnick was parked securely a mini-boat ride from the dock. Wilfried and I spent the nights on the boat and also napped there in the afternoon.

During the first day Wilfried installed the AGLCA (American Greater Loopers Asscociation) burgee on a little teak mast on the bow as one of his many gifts. He took full advantage of Herbert’s tools in his boathouse. Herbert’s tools are legendary. He had virtually everything to repair faucets (which he did on the Marilsnick) up to attaching the large hoses leading from the cottage to the septic tank. Nothing could be hidden in the soil since this consisted of pure rock. Marianne’s kitchen was not equipped quite as well as the tool shed, but tools in it in such a remote place and such a hostile environment can be literally life saving. Marianne and Herbert have begun a discussion about putting the tools in the kitchen on the same level of modernity as the tools in the boathouse.

Herbert and Marianne were a most hospitable couple. They did anything to make us, that is Manfred, Wilfried and me comfortable. For the first meal she had prepared a chicken fricassee, as her mother made it, which is one of my all time favorite dishes. They had planned an extensive entertainment schedule, which we could not even halfway manage to meet.

Marianne invited their neighbors and friends Uwe and Mareile who had sailed in the Georgian Bay and North Channel area for nearly forty years. We looked at charts and Uwe advised me on the passages to take (all) and to avoid (hardly any). He pointed out anchorages and gave us time estimates. It was a great afternoon not only because of the pie and coffee. Uwe and Mareile returned another afternoon to clarify any further questions. Local advice cannot be overestimated and we appreciated it.

One day we went to Parry Sound by boat. It was a 45-minute ride leading us through narrow passages and along the coast of several islands. Through the trees, which amazingly grow on this soil beautiful cottages peaked through. They actually do not deserve the name “cottage” because some of them cost millions. We also passed a resort with several more moderate cottages owned by a German from Bielefeld through whom the Koenigs had made their connection to Blind Bay thirty-five years ago.

We toured the port of Parry Sound, found the boat harbor. Originally we had planned to keep the Marilsnick there. But at the site of the harbor and comparing it with the anchorage near the Koenigs we decided to remain with the Marilsncik throughout our stay in Blind Bay.

Herbert and I enjoyed some ice cream that was tastier than the fast food Marianne, Wilfried and Manfred had in a restaurant, where we joined them later.

We returned to Blind Bay at nightfall. It was not difficult to find the Koenig’s place because the Marilsnick was a great marker.

On Sunday Herbert went fishing and the three of us went to church in Parry Sound. It was a Presbyterian congregation. The sanctuary was filled to the last seat. The celebrants war no vestments, the service did not include the Lord’s Prayer or a confession of faith. Two young college students who worked in a First Nation camp presented their testimony. I was amazed to see how different this Presbyterian congregation was than the one I attended in Dallas some forty years ago.

One day Manfred and Herbert spent attaching a swim ladder to the swim step on the Marilsnick. An old ladder we had purchased was too short but a neighbor offered another used ladder that did work well. It took the two most of two days, a couple of drawings and many tools from Herbert’s limitless supply to finish the task. The next morning I tried it after swimming and it worked.

One of the best ways to entertain oneself at the Koenigs was swimming. Especially in the morning the water appeared to be luke warm. I used a “noodle” to keep myself above water because I was too lazy to swim. Everyone enjoyed swimming, Marianne several times a day.

On the 25th of July we took Wilfried to town. He left by bus to Toronto and from there on to Rochester, NY to visit friends. The next night Marianne, Manfred and I attended a concert in the new concert hall in Parry Sound where an orchestra and a choir from Toronto presented Bach’s A-minor mass. The hall was sold out, which I found amazing since Parry Sound has only about 7500 inhabitants.

The Koenigs were nice enough to also invite the Bergs into their home. The Bergs were my next crew, who arrived in Parry Sound on Saturday, July 31 from Puyallup by plane and bus. We picked them up at the Bobby Orr Museum next to the concert hall and drove them to the little dock from where Manfred ferried all of us to the cottage. While the Bergs slept on the Marilsnick Marianne prepared all our meals and we ate either inside or when the sun had come out on the deck of the cottage. We all were in true vacation mode and I began to relax after realizing the stress from three months of living on the boat, navigating through locks, dealing with groundings and avoiding rocks.

The hospitality of the Koenigs is legendary. I do not know if everyone gets the treatment her oldest cousin received but he was treated like royalty. Not just three square meals but also the traditional German coffee with home made cakes in the afternoon. Herbert did not tire to ferry us back to the Marilsnick several times a day. The mini-vacation at Blind Bay was necessary for me after almost five months of cruising with only an occasional day off.

On Monday the Koenig’s daughter Annette arrived with her daughter Anna and a friend of Anna’s. Since they wanted to join us for a day on the Marilsnick we changed our plans slightly and left Monday also. We leisurely traveled to a wonderful bay where we anchored - for the first time during this cruise. Several other boats had arrived already. We got into a conversation with a nice couple, which had circled the Marilsnick with their dinghy. We invited them for a glass of wine after dinner and they brought with them two bottles and a loaf of freshly baked bread. He turned out to be a head master of a private school in Barrie, Ontario. The evening was filled with lively discussions of educational and health care issues as well as political matters. We got to bed only late.

The next morning we left early and wound our way through some tight but well marked passages. The highlight was the narrow Hanging Dog Passage. When one sees acres of rocks barely sticking their tops out of the water one is very grateful to previous sailors, who have charted and marked the waterways so well that we never got into trouble. Unfortunately one cannot enjoy the scenery as much when one has the responsibility for the boat and its crew as when one sails on the Crystal Symphony. The scenery cannot be described except with words including “spectacular, majestic, leaving me breathless, stunning etc.” During the portion of the cruise the rocks seemed to be laid out like an obstacle course. They were not more than five to six feet above the water line but the area covered acres after acres. We passed several light houses and only one area with cottages. Many of those could not be reached from the road. After a couple of hours of slow cruising we finally reached our first destination, Bayfield, where Herbert and Marianne Koenig were already waiting with their guests. Marianne, her daughter and the two girls joined us as we continued for a few hours toward the long Byng Inlet and the town of Brit.

Formerly Brit was a commercial harbor, first serving the logging industry then as a supply station for coal for the Canadian north. Today it would not be much of a town if the retired former inhabitants had not returned from the towns where they had spent their later working years and had turned their old houses in Brit into summer residences.

After a picnic on the shore with food that Marianne had brought and that Lucretia Berg had prepared the Koenigs left by car, which Herbert had driven to Brit from Bayfield. Marianne had made her cousin happy, and she had restored his spirits.

In the afternoon I had an opportunity to talk to son Nick who had a birthday and also to the grandsons and their mother Cam. A feeling of missing them was hard to suppress during such a moment. The strings to which I am attached to family begin to pull.

After the Koenigs left several other boats arrived at the public dock. Most had experienced some rain while we had remained dry all day. In the evening a couple came by who also had done the Loop to tell us about inlets and anchorages in the area. We could have spent the rest of the summer in Georgian Bay.

Killarney, Ontario
Roques Marina
August 5, 2010

The trip from Brit to Killarney was a little more than forty miles. The seas were moderate and came from the beam, which made the ride a little uncomfortable. We had intended to visit the Bustard Islands and possibly anchor there but changed our mind due to the weather and arrived in Killarney after about five hours. This small town was located between the mainland and an island along a narrow passage. On either side of the passage boats were docked. We had made reservations at the Roques Marina, where friendly folks assisted with the docking in a narrow slip.

Lucretia and Mike had become a good crew. They were eager to learn all maneuvers and they had keen eyesight to discover the navigational markers long before I did. Lucretia in addition was a wonderful cook and always had surprises for me. In the first evening at Killarney both she and Mike “abducted” me to a large rock from where we had a view of a bay and witnessed a stunning sunset. In their backpacks they had brought wine and a piece of my favorite pie: strawberry-rhubarb.

Since we had not seen the Beaverstone Bay and the very narrow Collins Inlet we decided to stay in Killarney another night and spend the day discovering those winding passages for which this area is so popular among sailors and cruisers.

We cruised a few miles back in the eastern direction and then turned into Beaverstone Bay. The bay had hardly any cottages. I think we saw only two. Then we had to pass through a passage not wide enough to meet another boat our size before we entered Collins Inlet. At one point we only had 2.5 feet under our keel. Since the bottom consisted of rock one does not feel comfortable with such “depths”. But we made it into Collins Inlet. Some rocks seemed to climb steeply out of the water in other areas the shore was marshy. Everyone on board enjoyed the scenery and Mike Berg took hundreds of pictures. When we arrived at the entrance to the Killarney passage a nasty wind had kicked in and I wondered how we would be able to get into our narrow slip.

As we returned into Killarney and tried to prepare for docking the dock master, a kid of about 22 told us over the radio that our slip was no longer available. Since I had paid for it I got a little upset and asked him for alternatives. His answer of the radio: “Negative”. That really got up my ire and I told him that as late as last night the harbormaster had assured me of a slip and that it would be his responsibility to provide one for us. In the meantime the wind from the northwest was directly blowing into the channel and made docking even under normal circumstances difficult.

The “dock master” then became friendlier and directed us into a “smaller” slip, into which we probably would not fit but which turned out to be more than adequate. He changed his request to tie the Marilsnick stern first but after the confusion and with the help of several other boaters who had also fought the wind when docking and were aware of our predicament we were able to tie on. The wind was making a lot of noise during the afternoon and night and we were glad that we had found a safe harbor. The “kid harbormaster” explained that a bigger boat had tied on in the slip next to our old one and that the dock could not take two such trawlers during heavy winds.

Little Current, Manitoulin Island, Ontario
City Marina
August 6, 2010

The next morning we decided to take another sight seeing tour and to visit Baie of Fine. The wind had died down in the morning when we threw off the lines. The water was smooth. We passed a few mines although we did not find out what was being mined. The islands appeared deserted, however there was much activity on the water consisting mainly of sailboats. During the morning we saw only two trawlers. After negotiating some well-marked narrow passages we reached a wider bay from which the Baie of Fine departed through a very narrow channel. Most confusing was the red marker at the entrance, which according to the chart we should have left at our port side against all common sense dictating “red, right returning”. We followed the chart and were not the only one. As we exited another boat was also confused and made the same mistake. Fortunately nothing untoward happened to either one of us.

The Baie of Fine is famous for its rocks consisting to a large extent of quartz giving them a white appearance. Another cruiser had described it as a looking like snow. The bay itself was fairly deep so that navigation was not a problem after passing the entrance. At the end of the bay it continued through a second passage that this captain did not dare to transit although the end of it, called the pool was a “must see” according to our guidebook. We turned around and cruised another 15 miles or so to Little Current. This turned out the busiest port we had visited so far. The main street was a lined with a long dock, where we tied up. The wind was so friendly to our docking maneuver that we did not realize that “Little Current” was a most inappropriate description because when the wind kicked up in the afternoon I estimated it to be stronger than that at the Narrows near Tacoma.

Little Current provided lots of shopping opportunities. Lucretia and Mike filled up our grocery supplies and I bought a new fender, which we must have lost in Killarney and also purchased the charts for Lake Michigan.

Gore Bay, Manitoulin Island, Ontario
Gore Bay Marina
August 8, 2010

The distance from Little Current to Gore Bay was only about 16 nautical miles. We decided to take a detour and cruise the Benjamin Islands providing precious anchorages for local boats. We found two anchorages, the bigger one occupied by about fifteen boats the other by fewer. The popularity of these anchorages was obvious: they were protected from most winds. Additionally the natural beauty being surrounded by shallow rocky outcrops and small gnarly trees which grew to our amazement on these islands covered only with minimal soil. It was impressive to observe how nature adjusts even to minimal conditions. The animal world was equally as sparse: we saw occasionally loons, a few sea gulls but not the multitude of animals we witnessed in the southern latitudes.

Shortly after we arrived in Gore Bay a couple of ladies knocked on our window to introduce themselves as the Great Loop Harbor Hosts. They spend the summer in this area and have a car, which they offer to other Loopers to do errands. Fortunately my crew had all provisions and the Marilsnick did not need anything either. This was only the second time that we had met a harbor host. It is a purely voluntary position designed to help out other Loopers. This couple had made the Great Loop several years ago but still talked about their experience in glowing terms.

In many ports we met boats we had seen before. This was the case with the “Takitez” (pronounced “Take it easy”). The Marilsnick had been through many locks with her although I do not remember any longer if it was on the Trent Severn Waterway or the Erie Canal. The ports even blended together for my crew, who has been with me only for a week and was significantly younger. So it was no wonder that it was also happening to me after about eighty ports.

In Gore Bay the Bergs had received an invitation from a couple from Michigan. They had retired from their software business and were sailing along the eastern coastline of Lake Huron. They served us wine, hors d’oeuvres and to top it off a fantastic pie so good that Deanne Dally could have made it. It contained among other things rhubarb and strawberries, a favorite pie combination for me.

During Sunday we lounged around in Gore Bay. While in Little Current we had survived a stormy night here we suffered through a severe rainstorm. Our dinghy was filled with water that, thanks to new technology, was fairly easy to drain.

Meldrum Bay, Ontario
August 9, 2010

When I got up in the morning Lucretia mentioned that the fog had just lifted over Gore Bay. We got underway but found ourselves in moderate fog as we proceeded westward. We turned on the radar and followed other boats as they passed us by in some distance. One sailboat contacted us over the radio to find out if we were going to stay our course. Less than half a mile was between us but we could only locate each other on the radar screen. I assured them over the radio that we were not going to change our course. An hour later as we approached Meldrum Bay the fog lifted and we could sail into the harbor without difficulty.

Over the radio we witnessed how Canadian sailors solved the problem of a partially disabled boat. Apparently one boat could not get one of its two engines to start. Whenever the captain tried to start it his radio transmission did not work. One captain sailed towards him while the others tried to solve the problem by giving advice over the radio. Finally one captain decided to follow the disabled boat to the nearest port where the others would try to locate a mechanic.

With Meldrum Bay we had reached our last Canadian Harbor. The village itself hardly deserves this attribution. There was one hotel run by an East Indian family who had overpriced coffee and an unfriendly attitude according to Lucretia and Mike. The liquor store was closed, the museum was closed and besides the marina there was no commercial activity. Another Grand Banks had docked already and the harbormaster assigned us a dock next to it. During the afternoon several other boats appeared one of them being a Looper.

It was always enjoyable for me either to take a nap or have a docker (a Bloody Mary) after tying up. In Meldrum Bay I enjoyed both. Lucretia and Mike went for an extended walk and an hour’s swim although the water was cold. But it was unusually clear so that we could see the bottom in our berth at ten feet depth.

Mackinaw City, Michigan
Municipal Marina
August 13, 2010

When we untied from the dock at Meldrum Bay we again had moderate visibility due to the fog. As we cruised further along the northern coast of Manitoulin and Cockburn Island the fog even thickened. Although I am a timid person the empty radar screen being empty of reflections was reassuring. Neither other boats nor land came close to the Marilsnick. Later in the morning as we entered US waters the fog lifted. Around this time we passed the furthest northern point on our journey, 46 degrees and 7 minutes. We the found the green markers showing us the entrance Drummond Island Harbor, where we entered the US officially. A young official with patches on his uniform from the US Customs and the Immigration Services and Homeland Security dispatched of the formalities quickly so that we could be under way quickly towards Detour, MI. The sun had come out and a young lady welcomed us first on the radio then at the dock to help us tie the lines.

Detour Village is as the name says a village. It had a clean swimming dock, friendly staff and clean facilities. I did not even explore the village and Lucretia and Mike reassured me it would not be necessary. They did their laundry and prepared for their departure, which they anticipated for the morning after our arrival in Mackinaw City. We watched many large commercial ships passing the dock on their way further north. Apparently there are many mines and the ships transport the ore. During the winter the shipping lines are closed from the middle of January to March, although we were told that an icebreaker keeps the waters partially open on the orders of Homeland Security.

It was most surprising to us how clear the water had been especially between Drummond Island and Detour. It had an azure color, which reminded me of Tahiti. Unfortunately for the swimmer Mike the temperature was too low.

Mike reminded me that during our segment we had experienced several firsts: most rain per unit time in Gore Bay, first time running in heavy fog relying on Radar only, reaching the most northern point on the Loop and also traveling the longest straight run from point to point.

The next morning we left Detour, negotiated our course through fishing boats ready to set their nets and trying to give a large cargo ship enough room. Mike found a great object for his photographic intentions at the narrows point of Detour Passage: the lighthouse. Subsequently we passed several other light houses. The most picturesque was the one at the narrowest point of the Straits of Mackinaw

At the same time as Mackinac (notice the difference in spelling, the pronunciation is identical) Island came into sight we began to see the outline of the bridge over the Mackinaw Strait from the mainland to the upper peninsula of Michigan, abbreviated UPI. With almost six miles in length it still is the sixth longest bridge of its type in the world. It was constructed in the fifties.

With the help of our computer charts we found the entrance to the municipal marina in Mackinaw City. As we tried to tie on at the fuel dock I had a terrible scare. The control of the Marilsnick was stuck in forward and I could not dislodge it. As I approached the breakwater with my bow I used all the force I had and was able to get the gear to shift into neutral. We did not stay at the fuel dock because only gas was available and no diesel and then we made it very gingerly into our assigned slip.

The great advantage of the municipal marina was that in walking distance was a reputable boat repair shop. It belongs like many things in this town to the Sheplers, who have the same reputation here as the Dog River Marina in Mobile. A mechanic was available within half an hour and found the cause of my problem. A stainless steel rod from the bimini top had loosened and fallen on the upper helm control so that it prevented the forward-neutral-reverse control from being moved by normal force. The repair was easy: the rod was reattached and for $ 27 of the repair cost I breathed a sigh of relief.

In the meantime the Bergs had confirmed a reservation for their flight back to Seattle. Lucretia spent most of the afternoon cleaning up the boat. Their room and bathroom looked spic and span when they left at 5:30 AM the next morning. We had a drink the night before and remembered our experiences together: the wonderful time with the Koenigs in Blind Bay, the passage through Hang Dog Channel, Byng Inlet, Brit, the Benjamins, Baie Fine and the nice people we met in the ports. Mike described his experience as a dream having come true. We had gotten along well because the Bergs had been patient and because Lucretia’s cooking was imaginative, especially her Mackinaw Stew, which she invented here. It consisted of hamburger meat, mixed vegetables, pasta and potatoes. By the time the Bergs left there were no leftovers in our refrigerator. We laughed a lot.

From Mobile, AL to Mackinaw City, MI we had covered a total of 3027.9 nautical miles in 454.8 hours. I have been on the Marilsnick for five months!

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