Port Rawson Bay

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

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 108 - July 17, 2017

This morning we had a very leisurely morning at Frying Pan Bay. We spent a bit of time with Skipper Bob and Active Captain on the iPad, trying to figure out exactly where we wanted to go today. We thought Twelve Mile Bay sounded good, and Skipper Bob said there was a place to go ashore. A neighboring Canadian boater heard us talking and offered to let us look at Ports cruising guide. When we checked the Ports guide, it was clear that no shore access of any kind is allowed at Twelve Mile Bay.  We probably should get a Ports guide, and we have lost a bit of confidence in Skipper Bob for sure. Also, too many of the Active Captain entries have only one review, by the person who created the entry for the anchorage. We now think in order to have any kind of confidence in an Active Captain anchorage, there needs to be at least six reviews. Not many places in Georgian Bay have six Active Captain reviews. Skipper Bob mentioned Port Rawson Bay in the Missasauga Provincial Park, without any detailed information, but there were eight Active Captain reviews, all good, with a lot of information. Since it is a park, we knew there would be shore access, so that is where we decided to go.  

So we took the bikes off the bow rail, folded them up, put them back in their bags and loaded them back up on the roof. Then I loaded the kayak, and we headed out about 10:30 a.m. - late for us! Port Rawson Bay is about six miles off the inside Small Boat Channel (there is an "inside" and an "outside" Small Boat Channel - the inside channel is more protected and preferred), and it is about 20 miles from Frying Pan Bay to the channel back to Port Rawson Bay, so it was not a long day. We like short days and early arrivals! Cruising from Frying Pan Bay to Port Rawson Bay was a very pretty cruise, with the Small Boat Channel weaving among a lot of small dot islands, mostly just big rocks, several with lighthouses, and almost all the other rocks had a home or cottage on it! The channel back to Port Rawson Bay was also lined with homes and cottages most of the way.

Lighthouse along the route

House on a dot island rock

Active Captain Screenshot - Port Rawson Bay

The Active Captain entry for Port Rawson Bay is a bit vague to say the least! The anchorage symbol is in the middle of a bay that is about two miles long and half a mile wide! We first cruised to the anchor symbol to look around. Port Rawson Bay is more like a big lake than a San Juan Islands type anchorage. We were a bit bewildered where the "park" was!

We noticed a lot of boats that appeared to be rafted over in the southeast corner, and so we headed over there. Actually, most everything is part of the Massasauga Provincial Park, and we also noticed one or two boats in various other spots. But the facilities - the rings for stern ties and the dinghy dock - are all kind of in the southeast corner, where the the we saw the most boats.

Stern-tied boats on Port Rawson Bay

We anchored in about 15 feet about a 50 yards off the dinghy dock. I got the kayak down, and took Baxter in to shore. The dinghy dock is actually too high for easy access from the kayak, but there is a very nice rock ledge covered with about a foot or two of water extending six feet or more out from the shore, which made a very convenient landing spot!

One thing that is apparent is that garbage disposal is going to require a marina stop and a fee! There is simply no publicly accessible place that has trash cans, which we had become accustomed to before we entered Georgian Bay. Pumpouts, we understand, are outrageously expensive because the sewage has to be collected in tanks and hauled away because there is no way to infiltrate it into the solid rock of which Georgian Bay is made. For this, we are thankful for our composting toilet!

I took Baxter on a recreational paddle when he had done his business, and talked to one of the people on one of the half dozen or so boats that were stern tied to shore. They looked like they were all rafted, but they weren't. I was surprised to learn that the people who were all stern tied and looked like they were rafted were not in fact travling together. I guess it is just the way the stern tie rings are set in the rock that causes people who want to use them to need to become rather social! He asked about our boat,and when I told him it was a C-Dory, he immediately said he thought so, and he had read "River Horse."

We had a great dinner of tonkatsu pork and toast - we are kind of out of side dishes, except instant grits! We had no tonkutsu sauce, but a plum sauce we had bought a ways back made an entirely satifactory substitute! I was thinking of cleaning the waterline scum off the other side of the boat from the kayak, but decided that after a G&T and wine with dinner, that was probably not a good idea! We are headed tomorrow for Snug Harbour or Snug Haven, which are right next to each other. We MAY have a restaurant supper tomorrow, Gillies is supposed to be really good! And because it is also a marine store, we are hoping to get our own copy of the Ports guide. We have about 2/3 of Georgian Bay and all of the North Channel to go, so it will most likely be worth it!