Anchorages, Amazing Adventures and Awesome New Friends!

The final stretch of the Georgian Bay is called the Collins Inlet Channel!  It was very narrow and shallow turning into it, but once in, it was miles of scenery like that above!  We were headed on Friday for Covered Portage Cove, an anchorage just beyond Killarney.  Killarney is a small town that obviously caters to boaters.  They even have a “Boat in Theater”.  We headed back into Killarney on Saturday by dinghy to check email and have fish and chips at Herbert’s Fisheries which is in this red bus!  We are now in the North Channel!

 


We arrived at the anchorage on Friday afternoon!  Our plan was to stay one night and move on but it was such a beautiful spot that we decided to stay a second night.  There is a hike up to the top of the ridge that overlooked the anchorage and it was spectacular!  You can see “20BUCK$” along with several other boats at anchor!

An added bonus to this anchorage was that there were three other Looper boats anchored too!  We enjoyed cocktail hour both Friday and Saturday nights with them.  Catherine and Bob on “Next to Me”, Gary and Christelle on “Time and Tide”, and Jim and Ann on “Wild Goose” arrived on Saturday!  Always fun to laugh and share stories with other “loopers”!

Ann, Jim and Christelle

Bob and Catherine

Gary

We hiked up to the top of this hill and looked down on the 20BUCK$!

We have mentioned folks from the Cruisers owners internet forum that have followed our travels and met us along the way.  Above is Phil, Lise and their daughter and son in law!  They keep their boat at Little Current and happened to be anchored in the next bay over.  Saturday they walked through the woods to visit us and today they pulled into Mary Ann’s Cove right after us to spend the afternoon hiking!  So fun to meet them!  Tomorrow we will  go to their marina, Spider Bay, in Little Current and may or may not see them again!

We left this morning headed for Baie Fine.  This is described as the closest thing you will see to a fjord.  It is a 10 mile long bay with several popular anchorages ending with one called the “Pool”.  We opted to stop at Mary Ann’s Cove and anchor and take the dinghy up to the end of the bay where there is a hike up to Topaz Lake.  This has turned out to be one of our favorite stops!  After getting settled at anchor, we dropped the dinghy and headed up to the end of the bay!    We began our hike up to Topaz Lake, 0.6 miles and a 400 foot vertical climb!

It was so worth the hike!  At the top of the ridge is Topaz Lake!  These pictures will show you how beautiful it is!

We visited with a wonderful couple and swam with their three boys, Tyler, Cameron and Laucklin(not sure of his spelling).  Turns out they own the grocery store in Little Current where we will be tomorrow buying groceries.  Thanks for the use of one of your towels!  That’s Catherine from “Next to Me” swimming with the boys!

The water was crystal clear and so refreshing!

On our way back to the boat I told Ken this was such a special day that we should have one of the beautiful pink rocks to put in our waterfall rock garden at home!   A memory of this day!  He headed over to shore and I climbed out of the dinghy!  It was deeper then we thought and as soon as I stepped down I slipped!  I was wearing one of the life jackets that inflates when wet!  Well we laughed until we cried!  It would keep your head above water but it about choked me in the process!  Not my most graceful move.  We got the rock though and will remember this day forever!

See....aren’t these rocks pretty??  I picked out a great one with pink coloring after I quit laughing!

Time to put the burgers on the grill and enjoy this beautiful evening!

Pat