Saturday June 24

We left Queen’s Cove at 10:30 our plans were to go and anchor out at either Hope or Beckwith Island.  The wind was fairly brisk, we were somewhat sheltered as we passed Port McNichol, Midland and Penetanguishene.  Once we hit open water, the waves were about ½ meter, and the wind was blowing from a westerly direction. It was a great day for sailing, and we saw many sailboats out on the bay.   We passed Giant Tomb Island and went on to Beckwith.    The islands of Christian, Hope and Beckwith are owned by the Beausoleil First nation.  There is no development on either Hope of Beckwith, but they have sandy shores and Caribbean blue waters.  They are a popular spot for anchoring.  We arrived by 1:15, and there was only one other sailboat there.By nightfall, we were the only trawler, with 7 other sailboats anchored out, and  a collection of 7 small run-a-bouts rafted together at the shore.

We  did some craft beer tasting in the afternoon, Brian and Helen had brought a jug from Bancroft.had a quiet night once the winds settled down and the rocking stopped.  From the anchorage we saw a cruise ship go by.On Sunday morning we left at 9:45 en route to Beausoleil island, by going around Giant Tomb island and then cutting across on the Whaleback channel,to the Muskoka channel and around past Frying Pan bay towards Honey Harbour.  We had been watching the sky all morning, as there were some ominous looking clouds, and a squall warning come over the radio at about 11:00.  We had just called Beausoleil Island to see if there was room at the docks when the skies opened and thunder and lightning started.

We pulled off and tied up at the Delawana inn at Noon for about 30 minutes while we let the system pass through.   We arrived at Beausoleil at 1:10 and tied up.  We have repeatedly come to the island for the benefits it has a dock, showers, washroom, garbage disposal and is covered by our Parks mooring pass.  It also has very knowledgeable employees who give talks on different subjects, Helen and Andy went to a talk on the archeology of the island and Helen stayed for a talk on the 3 bears that can be found wandering on the island. We also saw this kindergarten class of ducks– we didn’t think that one duck could have this many offspring.That evening we walked up to Thumb point bay, to see the facilities there,and stopped by the stone chair for pictureswe also noticed this grouping of inukshuks that seemed to be having a party in the water.We noticed when we arrived that the floating docks had risen about 6 inches, likely due in part to the excessive rain that had fallen in the area over the weekend.

On Monday morning, Helen and I wanted to go for a walk, leaving the dock, we noticed this snake and chipmunk eyeing each other- no lives were lost while we watched. We took the walking trails to the Lookout point, where we were ravaged by mosquitoes, luckily we both had long sleeves, but neither of us had brought repellent.  Here’s what we saw more trees.We followed the trails back, and went through the cemetery of early island  inhabitants.

Later we saw these boxes, which were labeled as research projects, along one of the pathways.I later asked about them at the office and was told that they were covering up Map turtle eggs, keeping them away from other predators that would consume them.  We also saw these cabins which had verandas and screened in porches and a play area on our way back to the boat.

We left Beausoleil island at about 11:10, hoping to miss some of the predicted rain showers.  We arrived at Queen’s Cove at 12:30 a small band of showers passed through just before our arrival.  We checked in, and bought a new boat hook, as somewhere in the last two weeks, one of ours had gone missing I’m thinking it may have gone overboard when we had the big waves leaving the Bustards.  We went to the Village Mercantile for lunch, and I did a couple of loads of laundry; by this time it was pouring.  We then drove to the Canadian Tire in Midland to buy a toaster and groceries.

We returned to Queen’s cove, and awaited our new crew.  Brian and Muriel arrived at about 6:00, Brian and Helen left taking Brian H’s car to Couchiching lock, where we will be on Thursday.  After dinner, we played several hours of cards, before retiring for the evening.