Thursday, July 2, 2009

Henry’s

Tuesday, June 30

We awoke early at anchor and after our usual cereal, banana, and juice breakfast and had the anchor up before 7:30. Last night Diana got pictures just before sunset of the anchorage and the colors in the clouds from the sunset.







We rounded the end of the island we were anchored behind and were back on the inside small boat passage headed southeast down beautiful Georgian Bay. There are many light houses that the Canadian Light Service used the same blueprint for.

Many of the islands on Georgian Bay are beautiful pine covered and many have cabins on them. But all of them are accessible only by boat. I have included pictures of a few of them. Not the one all alone on a baron piece of granite. Others of the islands are just big granite pancakes, and each has many cousins that are lurking just below the surface. It is very important to find each buoy and round it properly. The more buoys the more important to be careful and slalom through them.

Many of the channels are marked with ranges, a range is a pair of markers one behind the other, that if you keep them lined up, you are in the channel on the right course. Many on the inside passage are simple day ranges with white backgrounds and an orange or black strip down the middle. For the channel into major ports from the open portion of the bay they use lighted ranges such as this one at Pointe Au Baril.

Pointe Au Baril received its name because early fisherman but a barrel on a stake and placed a lantern on top to help guide them in. The picture is of a replica barrel on the original site. It is just in front of the front light of the range pictured.

The day started overcast and not really pleasant, during the late morning we had a light drizzle then it cleared and by the time we got close to our destination we had moderate rain for half an hour; that stopped just fifteen minutes before we docked. Note the different sky conditions in the pictures, often it was a matter of looking right or left.

We have seen very little boat traffic in Georgian Bay, an occasional cottager running in and out of the channel since they know the water well, an occasional fisherman and very occasionally another cruiser. Just as I made a turn to line up a couple pairs of buoys I had two cruisers coming at me. In watching them and staying clear of them I failed to watch the chart as carefully as I should. By the time we pasted the second cruiser we were through the second pair of buoys and when I went back to the chart I realized I was on a plot route, but not the one I wanted. The one I wanted had done a 90 degree turn to port just before the second set of buoys. We stopped, did a 180, went back 200 yards and made the turn to follow the channel we wanted.

The course we were following lead to a section call Canoe Channel (describes how big a vessel fits). We headed in and took it real slow. As the picture looking back shows, we made it. The depth finder in the narrow stretch never showed less than 9 feet. A little later it gets done to 7.






























We were now getting close to Parry Sound, the largest town along this side of Georgian Bay. We did not plan to go into Parry Sound since it is ten miles each way from the small boat passage, but with tomorrow being Canada Day (like our 4th of July) there was a lot more boat traffic. We were now along a section where the port shore was mainland not an island. One cottager decided it was easier to build a foot bridge then get there by boat.

Finally after a run of almost 70 miles we pulled into Henry’s Fish Camp on Frying Pan Island. Henry’s is famous for their fish dinners and provides transient overnight dockage for dinners also. We had heard several other boats calling on the VHF during the last hour and when we had Henry’s in sight we called the harbor master/manager (owner??) told us were we should dock and to hold, the dock boys were helping two other boats that were just coming. They have eight docks perpendicular to shore, each about 120 -150 feet long.

Soon he radioed that he would come down and help us in. We headed in and he indicated we should pull right into shore, as we got there he kept on just a little more, there is good water right to shore. The pictures show we had the bow only 5 or 6 feet from shore, the depth finder still said 19 feet.

It was about four, the rain was gone, the sun was trying to come out, and we settled back to unwind after a long day on the water. Finally about 6:00 we walked up and had a delicious pan fried white fish dinner. In addition to the 14 or 16 boats that spent the night there were maybe half a dozen (probably locals) that came for dinner then left. Since it is an island you have to come by boat or you can fly in. The plane in the picture brought four people, plus pilot, for dinner then left again. I understand that later in the summer there can be three and four planes at a time in.

After a long day we were both ready for an early night. All in all it was another very good day.

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