Hello family and friends!

We are at the town docks in Tobermory listening to the raindrops on the deck above. When it stops raining we'll go for a walk but now is a good time to send a short update of our trip so far. I decided not to put photos in the email but instead put album links below so you can flip through the photos that way.

The trip started with the best Fathers Day weekend, as Eric and Kevan kindly agreed to drive with us to Parry Sound and then drive the car back to Ottawa. I'm so happy we got to share the experience of Parry Sound with them - the beautiful drive along Highway 60 through Algonquin Park, Henrietta's Pine Bakery (which we got to just before its 4 pm closing - in fact she was flipping the sign from Open to Closed just as Andy approached the door, but let us in), Sound Boat Works in all its lovely scruffiness, living on the boat, and sailing her.

When we arrived Eric and Kevan did a mini-boat delivery for us as they rowed Boatex, our dinghy, from the boatyard over to Heartbeat, with a detour to take a look at the salt pile. Just next to Sound Boat Works is a giant asphalt lot used as a transfer point for road salt coming from Goderich (we think) by boat and then trucked from there out to the domes you see on Ontario's highways ready to salt the roads in winter. The salt pile was pretty small when we arrived but in the middle of the night on Sunday Andy was woken by a bright searchlight and ship as big as a building gliding by in the harbor to start unloading salt. It reminded me of the Evergiven that got stuck in the Suez Canal. The unloading continued until around 11 am the next day and there were two new salt mountains when they were done.

The wind was light on Sunday, our day to do a sail with E and K, but good enough. We stopped at the town dock first (and this is the only portion of the day's trip that got recorded by the Spot, as we were still figuring it out) to fill the water tanks and walk up the street to Bearly Used Books. Then we headed out of the harbor and into the big sound. It was fun for me as I didn't have to do anything, with two other crew on board handling the jib sheets and winches and helm. In the afternoon the wind died for a while and HB was going slow enough that we were able to swim while underway. It was a beautiful sunny day, great for drifting along. The wind later picked up so that we could sail back. That night we walked to Trestle Brewery for dinner and appreciated the local names given to all their beers: Hole in the Wall, Boneyard Bay, 30,000 Islands.

Photo album: Father's Day in Parry Sound

Monday morning we said goodbye to the boys and watched the Subaru muscle its way up the granite and gravel road out of Sound Boat Works. Then we turned and walked down B dock for the last time ever, and headed out. It was blowing hard and we had an exciting sail with whitecaps, waves splashing over the bow, and some hitting the dodger cover under which I was sheltering. One wave, only one, actually drenched Andy at the helm, leaving him surprised and dripping. We anchored in Kilcoursie Bay at Killbear Provincial Park and put on all our warm clothes. The temperature had dropped to 14 degrees, brr.

Tuesday morning we each went for a row - separately as the dinghy rows better with only one person in it. It was cold and sunny and calm on the water, and rowing is a meditative activity as you watch the pattern of widening circles that ripple out from each stroke of the oars. Just like the sailboat, the rowboat leaves a fleeting track on the water that disappears fast. When the wind picked up mid-morning we left. We reefed both sails (made them smaller) so the boat didn't go too fast in the high wind. We had some tricky bits to get through as there are lots of rocks and shoals on this part of the bay. We went to Franklin Island, anchoring just outside Regatta Bay. I had lost a bucket here several summers ago in a few meters of water and thought I might look for it with the mask and snorkel. It was alas a bit too cold and windy to swim, and besides the bottom was barely visible when I stuck my head in over the edge of the rowboat. We walked on the rocks and Andy led us in a yoga session. We tried to spot a red-eyed vireo which Andy's birdsong app identified. It was singing repeatedly and we could see the tree it was in but could not spot it. We later found out it is an olive green color so very well camouflaged. Andy spotted it at the end although I did not.

Wednesday was our long day straight across Georgian Bay to the Bruce peninsula. It is so hard to estimate how long a distance will take because we're completely at the mercy of the winds. We might be travelling at 2 knots per hour, or 5 or 6. Andy calculated 10 hours if we averaged 4 knots, and it did take us 11 hours. We truly said goodbye to eastern Georgian Bay where we have explored happily for 3 previous summers. We passed Red Rock light, a massive squat lighthouse, and then it was nothing but open water for hours. There is a period where you are out of sight of land, and I took a short video of this, 360 degrees with only water. Then - land ho - we could see the bluffs of the Bruce peninsula in the distance. Still several hours to go though. We entertained ourselves with stories of Samuel de Champlain that Andy read aloud from a book on his Kindle, and a podcast about Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the Rime of the Ancient Mariner. We are not going to shoot any albatrosses!

It was quite cold the whole day, until we got close to land and a startling blast of warm air came off the bluffs. The wind is cool when it travels up the open bay, but warm when it's come off the land. There were swirling gusts of hot wind from the cliffs, feeling a bit like two taps, hot water and cold water, that haven't properly mixed yet. We made our way carefully, under power, into Wingfield Basin which has a very narrow entrance. The water around the Bruce peninsula is very clear, distinctive and blue-green. I guess this is why it's such a popular spot for scuba diving.

Thursday we stayed put and went for a walk to the Cabot Head lighthouse, now boarded up and with a modern much less romantic light atop a metal tower next to it. We walked along a dirt road and listened to birds, saw a garter snake, and, a real highlight, saw a turtle. We looked at it for a while, admiring its dark green shell and red and black body coloring, from a respectful distance. He saw us and wasn't sure whether to move or hide, retracting his hind legs but leaving his front legs out ready for walking. We left him in peace. We picnicked at the lighthouse and walked back to spot we'd parked our dinghy, and found an interesting info plaque about the formation of the surrounding bluffs and beaches. Apparently after the last ice age there was a catastrophic sub-glacial meltwater pulse that brought tons of water and sediment rushing from northeast to southwest Ontario and caused a lot of interesting features. Try saying catastrophic sub-glacial meltwater pulse a few times.

Friday we sailed around 4 hours across the top of the Bruce peninsula to Tobermory. The wind was perfect, a south wind for us to travel west. Tobermory has two harbors, Little Tub and Big Tub, and Little Tub is the center of all the tourist traffic. Kayak rentals, boat tours, a ferry terminal. We radioed ahead to ask for a berth assignment and (thought we) asked for a port side tie-up. The side matters because you have to put out docking lines and fenders on the side that is going to be next to the dock. We had a bit of a surprise when coming in to the slip with the teenager standing at the end ready to help us, because it was going to be a starboard side tie-up! Andy bravely took this in stride and said he could back in. This was his first time doing so! Not easy but we managed, with the help of the two staff (another one motored over as soon as he could see the situation). For a while it was touch and go whether we were going to collide with our neighbors. Docking is hard enough without trying to do it in reverse.

As I mentioned it started raining, but eventually let up and we went for a walk to see the national park visitor center and walk a few steps of the Bruce Trail which runs from here along the length of the Niagara escarpment all the way to Queenston Heights near Niagara falls. We ate out, fish and chips (A) and fish tacos (D) and are getting ready for our next leg, which is to be an overnight sail to Kincardine. I'll let you know how that goes - I'm feeling a bit nervous about taking my turn on deck while Andy sleeps.

Photo album: Kilcoursie Bay, Franklin Island, Wingfield Basin, Tobermory

Spot link

FAQ: What are all the numbers next to the dots? Answer: The number shows how many readings are associated with the dot. If you zoom in the numbers will disappear. We send a reading every 10 minutes.