Sail Far Live Free

Little Current - Browning Cove (Heywood Island) 10NM We departed Little Current with clean laundry, freshly showered bodies and a full galley. The weather today was delightful…blue skies, temperatures in the mid 70’s and light winds from the southeast. Our eastward route took us through the swing bridge and very nearby the beautiful lighthouse on the tip of Strawberry Island. As Heywood Island grew larger on the horizon, we read up on its’ geography in our guide books. The low wooded island is know as a haven for many species of birds, including nesting bald eagles and loons. As a side note, it’s taken us a while to get use to calling the Canadian one dollar coin a looney like the locals do because of the loon pictured on the back. Heywood Island has one large and well protected bay on its’ northwestern edge with a small (~100 feet wide) channel stretching east behind tiny Browning Island into Browning Cove. This is where we chose to stay because of the privacy and the amazingly...

South Benjamin Island - Little Current 16NM The day broke with an overcast sky but the winds from last night had subsided. We pulled the anchor around 8am and began motoring east towards Little Current, the largest town in the North Channel. The wind was light enough that the bugs were out for most of the 3 hour trip. We carefully rounded our way past the Sow and Pigs (rocks just south of the Benjamins), Croker Island and then south of Amedroz Island. As we entered the channel leading to Little Current, we hailed Spider Bay Marina on VHF channel 68 and reserved our slip. Spider Bay was about a ¼ mile walk from town but the marina has free wi-fi and coin laundry facilities on site, so we decided to make it home for one night. After safely docking next to several chartered sailboats, we began cleaning Island Bound . Next it was off to town for a stroll through the gift shops and a stop at The Pantry Café for lunch. I was treated to the special of the day, a Texas brisket sandw...

Gore Bay to South Benjamin Island 14NM We left Gore Bay at noon under bright sun and scattered high clouds. The winds were heavy with a steady 20 knots blowing off our port quarter. There were gusts to 25 knots and waves building to 5 feet by day’s end. These weren’t ideal conditions, but we had a short sail planned and would have the wind and waves mostly behind us. Our original plan called for anchoring at Clapperton Island but with the heavy seas we didn’t think it would be safe to try and negotiate the many reefs guarding the western entry to Clapperton Harbor. Our goal is to make as much east as we can early in the trip, with Killarney and the end of Georgian Bay being our turnaround point, so Clapperton was to be a quick overnight stop on the way to Little Current and points east. The alternative we chose was South Benjamin Island, just a bit northwest of Clapperton. The sail over to South Benjamin Island was another rough ride. We had a double reef in the main and only ...

Meldrum Bay to Gore Bay 32NM After having had the rare cruising combo of a meal at a restaurant and hot showers the night before, we were all feeling fresh and ready to continue eastward. We left tiny Meldrum Bay at about 6am and quickly hoisted the sails for what was to be an excellent close reach all the way to Gore Bay. Winds were generally 10-15 knots, but gusted to 20 when we weren’t in the lee of the many points on Manitoulin Island’s north shore. The boat hurried along at between 6 and 7 knots and 20 degrees of heel for most of the ride. By this point , Island Bound’s crew now has their sea legs and we’re all quite comfortable with the rhythm of morning passages, afternoon explorations (either of an island or harbor) and evening fun (games, singing, fishing, etc.). We’re still surprised that there aren’t more cruisers out on the water. We only see about one or two boats a day, which is more than we saw while in Lake Michigan. The marinas remain less than full and the anc...

Just a couple of quick clips of our sail under the Mac Bridge...

Just a quick snipit from our approach to Mackinac Island Harbor...

Here's a brief video of s/v Island Bound rounding the light marking DeTour Reef just south of Detour Passage.

Here's a quick video showing our shore excursion on Harbor Island.  You can read more about our Harbor Island stopover in one of our previous posts.

Pilot Cove - Meldrum Bay 20NM The rain started falling at midnight in Pilot Cove and didn't let up until 8am.  Winds had increased to 10-15 knots from the east with gusts to 20 knots.  We pulled the anchor, which held very securely through the night, and started making our way east into 3-5 foot seas with the wind on our nose.  The ride was rough and wet, with spray and drizzle finding their way into the cockpit beneath the dodger and bimini.  We wore our foulies for the entire 4 hour trip over to Meldrum Bay on Manitoulin Island.  The girls brought their sleeping bags down to the floor of the salon and fell asleep for most of the passage.  As we cruised north of Cockburn Island and approached Missisagi Strait through the dense fog, we spotted a freighter between us and the shoreline.  It was difficult to make out the ship's heading through the fog, but was easy to tell we were getting too close for comfort.  I got on the VHF and hailed the "...

Harbor Island - Pilot Cove (Drummond Island) 20NM We all slept in and made a leisurely departure for tiny Pilot Cove on the eastern side of Drummond Island. The trip over was just under 4 hours. Hannah and I boarded Island hopper (our dinghy) to sound out the channel depth into Pilot Cove with our handheld depth finder prior to entering with the mothership. Unfortunately, the handheld depth sounder (Hawkeye XP100) wasn’t working, so we improvised and used a rope and rock to determine that depth in the narrow little channel leading into the peaceful and picture-perfect cove was only around 5 feet. This was too shallow to risk an entry with Island Bound. On paper, our sloop draws 4’6” of water, but we conservatively figure she probably has a draft of 5’ given the plethora of cruising gear we have aboard. No worries as the sand bottom and spit of land just outside of Pilot Cove provided a safe anchorage for the night as long as the wind stayed out of the south and/or east. Luckily, i...