August 1 & 2 – Somewhere on the Georgian Bay

We anchored out two nights after leaving Midland.  The first night was along Beausoleil National Park.  Which is an island and a great park with trails and a lot of people tent camping.  We took the dinghy to shore and walked around.  It was great to see people enjoying themselves who were later going to sleep on the ground.

It was Friday night of a three day Canadian holiday weekend and the natives were restless.  The anchorage was chock-a-block full of boats rafted up with their jet skis and fast dinghies.  We rocked on the anchor until about 6:00 and then they fired up their Honda generators sitting on their swim platforms.  We settled down to a nice evening listening (rocking) to the native music until into the wee morning hours.  Nice calm evening.

Later in the day Bill and Lannie Rourke and their grand-daughter Riley met us at the anchorage in their Monk.  Bill keeps his boat across the bay at Penetanguishene (or something spelled like that).  We had happy hour on their boat and breakfast on ours.  Bill gave us an orientation to the area and (most importantly) encouragement that we could make it through the rocks.  We weren't sure.

The forecast was for calm winds and Bill recommended Sandy Bay at Hope Island.  We left Bill and Lannie and went over to Sandy Bay and, while still busy, it was a big open bay with 90 percent sail boats (and no jet skiis).  The sandy bottom was 10 feet below us and we could clearly see the anchor and chain below us.  We swam around the boat and cleaned the waterline, and enjoyed a calm, dark night on the anchor.  It was beautiful.