A Rocky Day on the Georgian Bay

This blog will chronicle our (Pat and Patty Anderson's)

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 110 - July 19, 2017

We got away from the Pointe au Baril Town Dock much later than we wanted to, about 10:30 a.m., but we enjoyed our dockside conversation with a couple from Colorado who have a cottage near here. We passed the Pointe au Baril lighthouse on the way out.

Pointe au Baril Lighthouse

At son Austin's request for a "map" of where we were, we recorded our entire track for the day. I will probably do that for all subsequent days. I know Sam Landsman does that for the "Slow Boat" flotilla, and it really does help show where they were. So here is our entire track for today. The track covers a bit more than 40 miles, so there is not a lot of detail, but it shows generally where we were between Pointe au Baril and Dead Island, where we are anchored right now. The green track line starts inland up at the end of the Pointe au Baril Town Dock, runs west out Point au Baril Channel, and then turns north, alternately in the  "inside" and "outside" Small Boat Channel, up to the boat icon on the east side of Dead Island. 

Today's track - Pointe au Baril to Dead Island

There was a nice sunset tonight here at Dead Island, which is a Skipper Bob recommended anchorage, with no Active Captain entries. It is reasonably well protected, and has reasonable shore access in our kayak, so it meets our criteria! As we were reflecting, we anchor out most of the time, and we like it, while most of the other Loopers head for a marina every night. We almost always cook on-board, while most other Loopers seem to eat most of their meal in restaurants. Each to his own, I suppose. Swinging on the hook at sunset is one of the things we enjoy most!

Dead Island Sunset

Now, on to the rocky day! The day started our well enough as we cruised out the Pointe au Baril Channel, and passed the Pointe au Baril lighthouse. Almost immediately after leaving the Pointe au Baril Channel, we had to go "outside" to the big open waters. It was a bit lumpy, but that was to be expected. I had carefully marked where we needed to turn to get back "inside" at Hangdog Channel. There was just one problem, and this is where things got really harrowing for about half an hour.

Navigation apps all have a recommended course line.  The dotted red line showing the so-called recommended course, as well as the red and green channel buoys, would have taken us directly over a chain of rocks over which waves were breaking, or at least that is the way it appeared to me! No rocks are even shown on either the Garmin Blue Chart or the Navionics app, but there they were, staring us right in the face, right where the recommended course line was, or where it appeared to me to be. Patty is no so sure, but she was not at the helm! So we stopped outside the rocks pondering our options. The screenshot of this section of our track shows our indecision about what to do!

Track at Hangdog Channel to go back inside

In the end, we did not agree, but I could see that once we had gotten in among the rocks, it was impossible to turn around, and even if we had, we would still have been left with the quandary of what to do next. I could see a red day mark some distance away marking the entrance to the channel I wanted to take, but since we could not get there on the recommended course line, or so it appeared, I tried to pick out a course parallel to the recommended course line that (1) had no exposed rocks, and (B) did not have any waves breaking over rocks. This was a narrow pathway, with exposed rocks and breaking waves VERY close on both sides, but we went very slowly, and Patty watched for rocks, which she could see below the surface right next to and even below us. She was terrified, but I slowed to about two miles an hour, just enough to maintain steering, and picked my way toward the red day mark as best I could. 

We made it to the safely to the red daymark and entered the channel without hitting any rocks, and it probably helped that the water level is actually about three feet above the soundings, but this experience shattered my confidence in Blue Chart, Navionics and some of the daymarks.  Or maybe it should have shattered my confidence in my ability to follow a recommended course. Either way, this was just about as harrowing a situation as we have ever been in on the boat.  We did not take any pictures because we were both too busy trying to get safely though the rocks!

The rest of the way was a combination of more unpleasant things, but not really so harrowing. When we were inside following the recommended course line and the day marks, we were mostly dodging rocks a few feet on either side of the channel. I cannot imagine how the big yachts are going to do this. Perhaps they will run outside most of the time, but then they would miss the fabled Georgian Bay scenery. Then we had another long run outside, which by now was more than lumpy. where everything inside came crashing down to the floor, including the generator, which spilled a bit of gas on the cabin floor, and the Endless Breeze fan, which broke off one of the feet on which it rests. We'll be looking for some Super Glue and hoping for the best there. Back home I can fabricate some new feet, maybe nice hardwood, but here we are stuck with some kind of Bandaid solution!

We finally got to Dead Island, anchored, and I took Baxter to shore. Then we collapsed into our folding chairs in the cockpit with our G&Ts, pretty stressed out. My mood improved a bit, since Patty fixed one of our favorite suppers, yam and garlic filled enchiladas with mole sauce, with thanks to Boundary Bay Brewery in Bellingham for the inspiration!

We have heard many times that Georgian Bay is the "finest fresh water cruising in the world." We had three great days, at Frying Pan Bay, Port Rawson Bay, and Pointe au Baril Town Dock. But for us, it has been downright unpleasant at best and potentially disasterous at worst today. We went through all this today in our little shallow draft, narrow beam C-Dory feeling glad we do not have a larger boat! Right now we are both thinking that we cannot get down to Lake Michigan soon enough!