Hopewell Bay to Killarney

 Here we go again...just before 7.30am. Leaving Hopewell Bay on the way to Killarney.

No rush, but we have quite a long trip ahead of us today...relatively.
We liked the look of this house...too bad the photo quality is so poor.

Its not that the water is very shallow, at least in this channel, but there are lots of rocks which make it NARROW!

 Nothing else on this rock, just the cross.

These folks have covered all the bases...

 and these folks had all the toys! That is a floating climbing structure, by the look of it! lol.

 Have Golf cart can get to boat!

 The last house before we went out into the Bay proper. It is very isolated and very open to the weather.

 or...maybe this was the last house, on the right...hard to say when they all appear to be the last ones, lol.
Waves were getting a little choppy....the wind was variable, but there was a distinct swell and as we entered Georgian Bay, the chop and rock and roll got more pronounced.

 Here it comes...Pointe Au Baril Light House.

 Sheesh...closed? and I was sooo looking forward to a visit. I don't think we would have fitted on the little dock at the bottom, though, do you?

 Love the laundry on the line, the flowers in pots...petunias are everywhere this summer...and the old anchor and wheel.

 The seagull thought the Barrel was the perfect place to sit, today.

.... and finally leaving the 'comfort' of the channels to go out into the Bay

This is why it is called Pointe Au Baril...because there was a Barrel to mark the safe passage channel in this place, originally.

 Goodbye...you can just see the light House in the distance.

The clouds didn't look so encouraging, but they were behind us and we didn't expect a thunderstorm immediately. As long as they stayed in that direction we were fine.

 

 

Just when I thought we had seen the LAST house in the bay...maybe THIS one is it?

And so ...we motored out into Georgian Bay, on a more or less direct course to Killarney.  I say more or less, because the course Waz had planned and charted occasionally went over a rock, albeit 20 feet under the surface, but being the paranoid polly I am, I had to do a detour around it! just for luck!

Now we were out in the bay, it didn't mean that there weren't rocks evident above the surface too. I didn't bother taking photos of those, coz they are a dime a dozen in these parts:)

The wind was still variable, and we had our sweaters on ...still...and our longs...still....but the waves were side on to us...again...which meant that at the relatively low speed of 7.9 knots we were rocking and rolling. Sitting down, this did nothing for my stomach....Waz seems to have a cast Iron stomach! so he didn't burp the way I did!

Ok..stand up! Well, that gets a bit old too after a while. The answer was to up the revs and to have a bit of speed, at 12.2 knots. This was good!! but then at that speed we were also guzzling gas. Not good. So we backed off to a more reasonable 10 knots which kept the roll under better control. It also meant we got to Killarney faster! We have plenty of diesel in the tanks, so we weren't too worried...but it has to get us back into the USA...we aren't paying the stupid Canadian prices for it! We filled up in Point Breeze, last time, with the idea that the diesel would last us until we hit Michigan (state).
Sorry...no photos of the bay...well, there is nothing to see, to be frank. It was a  3 3/4 hour trip, once we cleared all the shallows and rocks out from Pointe au Baril.

The clouds were fascinating...

and the trip was otherwise uneventful, which is a really GOOD thing!!

We saw the white rocks of the mainland in the distance, from a long way out. Waz has better eyesight than I do, and he saw them long before I could. This is a white quartz rock

At the entry to Killarney Harbor.

 See the white patches in the distant hill? That's the white quartz!

 Of course there is a light house at the entry to the harbor....oh, and ROCKS!!lol

We had trouble raising the Marina on channel 68, and it wasn't until we were marking time right outside that they responded to our call..bah! The channel is wide enough for a couple of boats to pass, but not much more, and there was a wind blowing...not too much fun!
So, they insisted on parking us on George Island, across the channel from the mainland marina. However, it is less expensive over here than over there!:) A bonus of kinds. They still are charging us $1.75 per foot!
We are rather captive here...as in so many of these out of the way places. No other services in the area!
We got settled on the dock and then took the 'taxi' pontoon boat across to the mainland marina...which is only a couple of hundred yards away, lol....they marina kids come and pick us up in the pontoon boat called TinkerBell...coz you have to ring the bell on the island to get their attention, to pick you up!

Tinkerbell the pontoon boat.

 

 

The movies ran after 10pm, when it finally was dark. They ran Rambo 6, I think. You watch the movie and get the sound track on a radio station. Novel! We hate Rambo, so we didn't watch. Plenty of folks did...all sitting upstairs in their boats:)

When I come back...to this life..I want a toy box like this! :) He was putting some gas into the jetski!

This ferry does the North Channel route for sightseeing and transport for those who live out that way...where we are going.

 The fuel dock is busy busy ALL day.

 We sat outside on the deck of the Inn and watched the parade of boats, after we walked down to the Fish and Chip shack to get our lunch, at 3pm. Starving! But we had to go and taste the famous Herbert's Fisheries Fish and Chips. Were we impressed?? ummmm the chips were floppy, but the fish was great...very light batter. We waited a long time for them, but fresh fish is great!

 

Waz is waiting for our order to be cooked. It was frantically busy here when we arrived, but this is the least people we saw at the window on the left side...the Chippy.

 We took our F & C's to the dock at the waterfront and ate them there at the picnic tables, then went across the way to get an ice-cream...got to do the lot, right?, and walked down the road to the General Store...original!

 I had used up the last of my Canadian cash...and there was an ATM at the GS, but it was OUT OF ORDER! yay! Well, a good opportunity NOT to spend more money. We looked around the store at the prices, and decided not to re-provision here. VERY expensive.

 On the way back up the road...couldn't help taking a photo of the sagging boat shed.

 This little shed is on the Island, and looks 'original'..as in, been there a looong time.

 And of course the church, which looks really old but was built in 1953. I know this because it is in one of the corner stones...large! The fence posts haven't fared that well tho!

 

 

We went to the marina office and checked in and paid our money..gulp! and came back to the boat to do the usual docking things. We were tied up, connected to the water and electricity, but we hadn't done any clean up etc...hunger will do that to you.

We ate on the boat, as I had meat already thawed, and cooked the last of our German Butcher sausages from Port Charlotte...I think we will take a whole lot more with us next time!...Oh! There is a next time? :)

 

Lots of other boats had docked since we arrived and the docks were pretty much full. Our first load of laundry, which I insisted on putting in before we originally left the boat, was ready to hang and the second load went in on our return. Sheets, towels, clothes etc...EVERYTHING got washed. A nice feeling to be clean!

Our food supplies are much diminished, but we wont starve. A good opportunity to be creative with whatever is in the pantry.

 

It was too cold to shower off the back, and a few too many CLOSE neighbors. One of the things we dislike about Marina...and our neighbors could actually look straight down into our bathroom, should they feel inclined..Bah!

Time for me to close this...we are off out of here (Killarney) today. I have missed our day off, in recounting this, but it will have to wait, the 6th of August! We just tootled around, picked wild blueberries and raspberries, tried to get some spider poop off the gelcoat...only Soft Scrub (jif) worked, Im afraid.

 

 

 

We are on our way to Baie Fine, today. Only three days out of Drummond Island and our re-entry into the USA there.

Some of our boating friends with whom we reconnected, while in the marina, have given up on the shallows, narrows and rocks...They are SO over them, they are missing some of the good parts and heading straight for Drummond Island. They cant wait to be back in the USA.

 

I am humoring Waz and just going where I am taken. I would have jumped ship and gone with the others, otherwise! lol.

I will see this trip through, but I'm not inclined to do this again. My poor heart wont allow it. I just chatted with our dock neighbors, and told them that if I don't have a heart attack by the time we reach Florida, I will probably live to be 100!

On that cheerful note, I leave you:)