Midland – the end of Georgian Bay

Wednesday, July 1

Happy Canada to all our Canadian friends and hosts.

We both slept soundly and were slow to get up this morning. The weather was overcast and looked like it could rain and we only planed to run about forty miles today to Midland, so we were in no hurry to get started. Finally just after 9:30 we decided to go ahead and get going. The rain had held off but the visibility was only two to three miles. In the poor visibility and a bit of open water I got disoriented and headed for the wrong buoy. As we approached the buoy I had the feeling things weren’t right. When we could read the buoy number, it confirmed it was not the inside passage we wanted. But we figured out where we were and how to get to where we should be. We found the buoy we wanted and things looked like the chart showed them.

About 45 minutes into our run the wind had built to about 15 from the west, we came to a stretch of the route that comes out from behind the islands and we were headed south with the waves on the beam. We were rolling pretty good and every so often a wave would catch us and we would roll violently. The deckhands weren’t happy, the admiral was not happy and the captain was tense. We but more power on and this helped reduce the roll a little, and shortened the time before we got behind the next set of islands.

Along tthe islands we have seen many places where people have stacked rocks, I believe there is a name for this practice, but it excapes me. This is one of the most elaborate.

After being sheltered for about 45 minutes the chart showed another stretch where we might be exposed. As we were getting near where the worst might be, the chart showed an alternate route through a couple of small bays that looked like they could be good anchorages. As we pulled in there were four other boats that looked like they had probably been anchored all night. We continued to near the exit from the alternate channel looking for what might be the best anchorage, although the wind seem to be down to about 8 to 10. While we circled a Monk 36 trawler that had been at Henry’s last night came through the channel. I decided that being a local he knew where he was going and we followed him out hoping the wind was down enough to make the ride a little smoother.

He was running at our normal cruising speed and although we still rolled a bit it was not nearly as bad as earlier. He fell in line about a quarter mile behind him and followed him for the next hour. Between the photographer waking up not feeling well, the bad visibility and the motion of the boat, today’s pictures are limited.

By 1:00 the weather had improved and we were out of the big water. In fact we were approaching Honey Harbor, a heavily populated area at the south end of Georgian Bay in very restricted waters. There were several areas with a 9 kph speed limit (less than 6 mph). Soon we came out into the relatively open waters at the south end of Georgian Bay and in quieter weather we crossed to the Midland Harbor Town Dock.

The town of Midland has commissioned the painting of many murals around town; Diana got a picture of a big one on a grain elevator on our way in. That is another on the side of harbor masters office. We took a short walk around town before dinner and there are many on the buildings downtown, they depict the history of the town.

By dinner time the sun was out and it was a pleasant evening. It was not the best of days but we are at another transition in our journey, from here it is about eight miles to the first lock on the Trent Severn Canal.