Out on Anchor; July 31-August 6, 2013/Thunder Bay, Loon Harbor & Otter Cove

Today is Thursday, August 8 & we are in the small town (pop 100) of Rossport, Ontario for the night to get fresh water & pump out, luckily we don't need fuel, because they don't have a license and they have portajohns, that's it!  Needless to say, we leave in the morning, but we do have a slow, slow wifi. I will back track from where we've been since last blog. Thanks for your patience.  

Continuing to back track; 

Left Isle Royale Weds morn, July 31st, later than planned due to fog this morning. You just never know when it will appear. Yesterday was sunny with very low humidity. We left @ 8:30. Air temp 54 & water temp 43. 

Trow Bridge lighthouse built in 1910, 25 foot tall on top of the Island, still has its Fresnel lens.

Cruising along a spectacular group of islands, cliffs, lots of different elevations. 

     Pie Island light elevation 1460

Pie Island Lighthouse, elevat 1460

Getting closer to Thunder Bay, air temp up to 73, water temp 56-yahoo, maybe summer will stay this time. Our cruise to Thunder Bay was awesome. 

Arrived @ Thunder Bay around 2:00. The dock hands; Kevin & Brendan were really nice & helpful. The pump out was the coolest yet. It had an elbow for attaching the hose & it flushed automatically in the same hose. The Harbor Master, Kevin even picked us up from the grocery store, the next day.  I spent the most I have ever spent @ a grocery store & didn't even fill my refrigerator. It is definitely more expensive for goods in Canada. 

We docked along a wall on pier 3. The Marina is very spread out. The office & comfort station was a long walk. The wifi was acting up-aghhh! They had a nice laundry set up, just had to pay the harbor master $4.00/ load, so I just had him charge my card $20 and I did 5 loads, I didn't have to scrounge up $20 in Canadian quarters. Alizann met up with us here. They squeezed into a 60(no Doug, not a 100) foot space on the wall & did an excellent job. Everyone was so nice. Offering us rides, asking if we needed anything. Always impressed with those Canadians. 

Alizann invited us over to their boat for cocktails & we accepted. We were there catching up for hours, then we walked into town across a pedestrian bridge & enjoyed dinner @ the Prospector. 

Thursday, August 1, we were there to do chores, grocery, liquor & laundry stores, so we could be out @ anchor for the next month. Waterford hosted Docktails for the 6 of us, then in between the rain drops we walked up to a restaurant very close to the Marina, called Bight, dinner was very good, but their corkage fee was a tad overpriced; $20/bottle. 

Porphyry Point Lighthouse est 1873 on Edward Island, Ontario

Left Thunder Bay on Friday August 2, morning, good water, partly sunny, great 6 hour cruise. 

Sleeping giant island, 1800 elevation.

                                                      Arrived @ Loon Harbor around 2:00 PM, we anchored in a well protected spot. We are all alone today. We put the kayak down & went exploring. Lots of green & rock cliffs-gorgeous. This area of islands is just called the North Shore, I think they should have a more creative name that captures their beauty. 

We are as far north as Vancouver in relation to lat/long.  We enjoyed dinner on Waterford, Jacque made yummy comfort food: beef stew & muffins. The wind picked up some & it's quite cool. Some stars are out. The landscape is rolling mountains of various elevations with a mix of tall straight pine, cedar & aspen. Smells are fresh, clean & refreshing. 

Sat morning, August 3, we slept in, overcast day with some wind. Kayaked 4 miles, returned to boat, ate lunch,napped then took the dinghy along w/ Garry & Jacque in their dinghy & went exploring. We found a sauna that Bonnie Dahl had written about. Very interesting. The skies cleared after a quick rain so we were able to have our campfire & s'mores. During the day, the same 2 sailboats (USA) that crowded us in Isle Royale, entered our harbor & crowded Waterford this time. It's frustrating because there is so much water & snug spots that we would not have to be near another boat, yet they choose to anchor irresponsibly close. It is like close talkers who get into your personal space. 

Sunday morning, August 4, beautiful sunny day-yahoo, already 65 degrees @ 10:00 AM, which feels warmer due to the wonderful sun!! We pulled up anchor to cruise a short distance to Otter Cove. 

Arrived Otter Cove, had to be look out on bow coming thru the narrow channel but it was worth it. Raydiance was anchored in the east cove & he called us on the radio & welcomed us & informed us that there was good water in the west cove but there was a sailboat anchored there, but lucky enough the sailboat was just leaving. We were leading today so we moved in, close to the end & the stream which leads to Cascade waterfalls. Then Waterford followed us in & stayed closer to the mouth. Keeping a respectful distance b/t the 2 of us. 

We put the kayak down & Waterford got their dinghy down & we went up the stream following Tom & Linda from Raydiance who had headed that way while we were anchoring. We beached our crafts & followed the path & sound of the waterfall. The waterfall was raging & high. We have pics of it when we were here in 2001 & there was hardly any water going over it then. The path took us higher & then to a lake. It was pretty rough terrain, but we made it and it was worth it. 

We invited Tom & Linda (Raydiance) to join us for cocktails on Day Dreams. They are in process of traveling the Great Loop but have taken a detour to cruise Lake Superior (great idea). They have many good stories of their grand adventure. It was a pleasure to meet them. They hail from Missouri. 

Monday morn, august 5, Raydiance headed out & we were all alone.  It was an overcast day, so Doug was completing some chores & I was listening to music from my hard drive that my good friend Barb had given me. My vantage point was looking up the stream from where I sat. I kept an eye out & I was well rewarded with a Moose spotting. I quietly yelled to Doug then we attempted to get Waterford's attention, luckily they had their marine radio on. We got in our kayak, Garry & Jacque rowed in their dinghy & we stealthily moved closer to the moose. We were able to get some nice pics. 

The other great highlight of the day was Garry fishing & catching 2 nice fish; a big rainbow trout & a smaller but decent sized Lake Trout. He released the lake trout.  We had purchased a Cutco fish filet knife for Garry for his birthday, which is August 6, (tomorrow) & we told him if he caught a fish he would receive his gift early, well he had one day to go, but he did it. Jacque & Garry shared their fish with us; nothing like fresh fresh fish for dinner-yum!

Tuesday August 6th-Happy Birthday Garry!! And we are fogged in. The plan was to leave and head to Woodbine Channel, 27 miles away. We kept changing our minds all morning and just as we were out on the bow to pull up anchor a trawler pulls by Garry close enough to talk & they said it was still very foggy out, so we stayed put & that rude trawler actually squeezed in between us.  Not only can I see what they are wearing, I can see their facial expressions. There were no other boats in the whole cove, yet he chose to crowd us. I guess we are in the minority, wanting a bit of privacy & safe distance. 

Alizann in Otter Cove

Alizann pulled in during the afternoon, they had a short ride from Loon Harbor in the fog. Glad to see them. Invited them over to have a birthday cocktail party for Garry. 

It was cool most of the day, then it rained. We had put the kayak up cuz we thought we were leaving, so we didn't bring it or the dinghy down. Everyone came to us. Alizann didn't stay for dinner, but we enjoyed running into them & hope to again.  (No, we do not think you are stalking us, lol) We grilled lamb chops & Jacque made delicious strawberry shortcake. The fog rolled back in for the evening. 

 We do not have a good cell phone signal, which I paid extra so I could talk in Canada, but just know that I am thinking of all of you & miss you.

Belated Happy Birthday wishes to nephew John & my friends Doris & Melinda.

Happy Birthday today to Craig, sending you a hug & kiss!!

Early Birthday wishes to my friends Karen & Linda!

 We are truly enjoying our Adventure!