ssloop: Britt-Killarney

Wednesday morning the winds had calmed down so we left the marina at Britt and headed out to the Georgian Bay. Our destination for the day (a 27 mile jaunt) was the Bustard Islands. The Bustard Islands are well known as one of the most scenic and unspoiled island groups of Georgian Bay. As we approached the island chain, we could see that one of the popular anchorages had at least a dozen boats already anchored there. Captain "I don't need to anchor in a Walmart parking lot tonight" decided to continue on and pick and weave our way into the back side of the island group. Boy did this pay off! We found a gorgeous spot without another boat in sight. We dropped the anchor in a nice little pocket in the rocks and then used the dinghy to get to shore to tie a stern line to a tree on the rocks. Of course, such a beautiful spot called for a dinghy exploration between the islands and rocks. At one point we even had to portage through a narrow shallow cut. What another sunny, hot wonderful day!

Thursday morning it was a bit of a struggle to hoist the anchor and remove the stern line while fighting to wind to keep the Pura Vida off the rocks. All ended well. Our first stop of the day was up Bad River where we dropped the anchor and the dinghy to go run the Devil Door Rapids. The rapids are created where the French River is pinched between two granite walls as it merges with the Bad River. As we approached the Rapids we came upon 2 guys on shore in their underwear repairing their canoe and drying out everything that was in it. They told us they had capsized while attempting to canoe up the rapids. Oops! With the advantage of a 15 horse motor we gracefully shot up the rapids. Wheeee! After exploring some other rapids and the area above, we shot back down Devil Door. We checked in with the soggy canoe boys and brought them some supplies from our boat to help repair their canoe. They assured us they would be fine and had a marine radio before we moved on. We cut across the top corner of Georgian Bay and into the Killarney Inlet. We passed through the town of Killarney and continued a few more miles to Covered Portage Cove where we dropped the hook. This is a large cove surrounded by granite and tree covered cliffs nearly all the way around. We found a spot on the west end of the cove where we could land the dinghy and hike a trail up to the top of the cliffs. Stunning! After taking in the magnificent views we stopped to pick wild blueberries and kept an eye out of bears! Just before dark, we watched a couple large beavers dragging sticks along the shoreline. What a grand day!

We woke to a misty rainy morning on Friday. We pulled the anchor and moved 3 miles to the Sportsman's Inn Marina in Killarney. We took a slip here to wait out rain and winds that were forecasted for the upcoming days.

The forecast proved accurate with on and off rain and lots of wind. Friday, Saturday & Sunday we spent our days hiking, biking and dinghying around the Killarney area.

Probing the anchorage.