Ten days with the Trailer Sailors

 We have been very busy.  I've only read 1-1/2 books since we left Superior on June 25.  Spending much of my "leisure" [i.e. not sailing or motoring] time reading cruising guides and studying charts, figuring out where we will go next. Or occasionally, blogging when we can get WiFi access to the Internet. That's why we don't publish daily.

We have sometimes been in marinas (like tonight, in Killarney ON); the other nights anchored in various locations in the North Channel. Killarney is a great town - the main street is a channel about a mile long between the mainland and an island. [There is a road also, but it's really more like a wide alley - the water is the main story.] We are at a dock on the island side; a water taxi continuously takes us back and forth across the channel to town - although we could use the dinghy.

It seems to be a lot more crowded all over the North Channel this summer than in past years; sometimes it is difficult to find a good spot to anchor.  For example, last night outside of Covered Portage Cove we put out two bow anchors and two lines tying the stern to shore, so we wouldn't swing into other boats.  Good thing – strong winds. Decided to pull all this out this morning after the overnighters left; we had to motor the Bruce anchor out as we couldn't pull it out by hand. We needed lots of room to do all this maneuvering and decided to do it when the other boats were gone.  After that, we headed to Killarney to grab a dock and hook up with some of the rest of the Trailer Sailors.

It has been GREAT hooking up with old and new friends here.  There are about 30 boats in our "flotilla", although most of these come and go.  There are only 5 boats here tonight in the "main fleet" [all from MI, MN & WI]; great dinner at the Sportsman's Inn.

There are about 100 boats in the North Channel - at least those who radio in to the morning Cruiser' Net where we can all find out who is here, who is where, and the news, and unreliable weather forecasts.

It has been and will be sad to leave these friends.  Thanks to John Travis ("Traveler") for planning and leading this organized adventure. We can't believe how many people we know here (now, and from before), and how helpful everyone is.  We met the Fraks again, the couple we met in Marquette on our way across Lake Superior, who trailered their boat here for these two weeks. And many others.

We expect to leave them all on Thursday (wind and waves permitting), to make a 40-mile crossing of northern Georgian Bay – should be easy after some of those 60+ mile crossings on Lake Superior. After that, we should be in protected waters (somewhat), all the way to Port Severn where we start transiting the Trent-Severn Canal.

One possible snag is that the Canal is at low water levels. If they don't get some rain, it may be too shallow for us when we get there in a few weeks.  No way to know now; it probably won't be a problem.  Onward.

Will upload pictures separately.  Stay tuned.