Benjamin Islands to Drummond Island, Michigan

Thursday morning the skies were calm and the weather forecast was calling for light to no winds. As we made our way out of the anchorage and rounded Benjamin Island we saw a wall of fog over the small craft channel and decided it was best to stay on the outside for the day.

pigs and sows channel.

Fox Island 

The small craft channel is back there somewhere.

Thesssalon, Ontario our last stop in Canada. We were decided on whether to anchor out or take a slip. When we decided to head over to Drummond Island and be back on US soil. We enjoyed our time in Canada but were feeling the pull of being back in the states.

Drummond Island, Michigan

Back in the USA!! We cleared customs rather quickly since we arrived 20 minutes before the customs closed for the day. Two other Loopers were at the marina, Sweetgrass and Love Shack. They both arrived hours before us.

We will be crossing Lake Huron and Lake Michigan tomorrow. The weather forecast showed two storms and winds close to 30 miles and hour today over Machinac Island. Instead, we will reprovision and have a cookout with Love Shack.

Baie Fine to Benjamin Islands

We awoke to a fog on the morning of August 17th. The temperatures have been dropping into the low 60's at night making for wonderful sleeping weather.

The lighthouse and bridge at Little Current.

We were at anchor for a few hours before the Gail storm hit. It is always impressive to see the storm moving over top of you. 

The storm passed in time for a gorgeous sunset.

Killarney to Baie Fine

The trip from Killarney to Baie Fine was wonderful. We had another gorgeous day on the water and loved looking at the natural Quarts Rock in the LA Cloche Range.

Evinrude Family Cottage at The Pool

 We anchored out at the pool and dropped down the Revenge so we could hike up the Blue Ridge and over to Topaz Lake. We were barely on the trail for 3 minutes before we saw a mamma and baby black bear off to our right about 100 yards away.

 I was glad Paisley brought her whistle and I was carrying a machete.  The bears turned to look at where the whistle sound was coming from and turned and walked the other way. Paisley kept blowing the whistle every few minutes and we alerted hikers heading back down to the pool that we saw bears. The hike up to the top was worth it. Words cannot describe how blue the water looked at Topaz Lake. While we were admiring the view and drinking our water we wanted to jump into the lake but didn't have our suits with us. The kids and I decided to hike back down to get our suits and then come back up with Andrew. We felt he needed to see how gorgeous it was and there were great cliffs to jump off of. 

Yes, the water really looked this blue. We packed our snorkel gear to get a better look.

Inconceivable in the pool.

Bustard Island to Killarney

A beautiful Monday morning. The winds died down over night and the sky was clear blue. A gorgeous day to cross the last bit of the Georgian Bay.

Bustards Island

The lighthouses on Bustard Island

We made it to Killarney!

The weather was warm and we took advantage of it by jumping in the water. 

Twelve Mile Bay to Bustard Island

We really enjoyed our night in this cove. Andrew and I had some adult time on another boat and the kids had a friend over and a babysitter on our boat.  It was wonderful for all of us. While we were chilling with the adults we talked about where to anchor out and what our possibilities would be. Bustard Island was our long distance goal of 70 miles if the weather cooperated. Sunday morning was chilly and high winds. Bustard Island started to look like a no go. So we played safe by starting out on the small craft channel. By the time we reached the Point Au Baril lighthouse the winds died down and and the sun was out. We decided to make a run for it on the outside.

Trees permanently leaning to the right just a bit.

By far our favorite house in the Georgian Bay. We loved the exposed wood beams.

 Point Au Baril Lighthouse

We got Inconceivable up on plane and were cruising at 13 knots. We felt like we were flying compared to our normal 7-8 knots.

We made it to our anchor spot before 5:00pm.  A truly sucessful day.

Sabastian was the brave soul to jump in the water and swim to shore with our med moor line.

Water Snake swimming past Inconceivable after Sabastian was safely back aboard. The snake did not stop us from taking a swim. I took a picture of Inconceivable on the hook.