Cold enough for ya? It was so cold this week - how cold was it? - that the part of Cooks Bay we can see from the Boogaboo house froze completely over on Thursday. That's a first for this season. I'll take that as a positive sign. Now that it's frozen, we can look forward to it's melting :-) PLUS, at 12:47 pm this Monday afternoon, the sun will be aligned over the Tropic of Capricorn and, if you listen really carefully, you will hear it begin it's northward journey of warmth and extended daylight! That means the days start to get longer again and it's only three months til the first day of Spring!! I told you it would go quickly . . .
So, that means we gotta get on with the show. I know by checking my visitor logs for this site that there's a few of you out there that are here a number of times throughout the week checking for new postings. Tell me, is it because you are excited to see what new stuff you might find, or are you anxious about what I might actually post here??? Don't worry, you can trust me to spare you any embarrassment that I might have in my digital collection. The really juicy stuff is held back for the Year End Video. And the really, really juicy stuff I save for my personal collection ;-)
Oh man - there goes two more FFFvIX cancellations :-(
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Now, let's continue on with the Chimney Bay Adventure > > >
It's the next to last day of our anchorage in this spot when we find the Water Wings crew pulling in. And they brought some more nice weather, too;
Von A gives the Commoboar a wave. Glad to have you here, buddy. HOO-HA, IT'S SUMMER HOLIDAYS!!
Later that day, Anchor Girl & I took a dinghy ride to shore to do some exploring on Beausoleil Island. I'll tell how well that went after we look at this shot of our boats at anchor in the bay of The Bay. The boat on the left (starboard) side of Water Wings was some new friends - Steve & Brenda - that signor Von A. had met the night before at lock 45. It took a lot of coaxing (all 12 of them), but he was able to talk them into joining us out on Georgian Bay;
So, the big hike into the wilderness took A.G. & I all the way up to a small, inland body of water called Fairy Lake on Beausoleil Island. Not that small, really - probably roughly the same size as Chimney Bay. It was quite pretty;
The amusing part of the story is that when we initially hit the trail to Fairy Lake, poor Anchor Girl experienced a bit of a panic attack. Ya, seems she was overcome by the anxiety of being confronted by a Massasauga Rattler. So, the long & short of the whole trip was that it was very short.
For the most part, users of the Beausoleil Island National Park services are supposed to pay by the honour system. There's a fee for camping, one for staying on the docks and another for using the hiking trails. Being the honourable person that I am, I dutifully went to shore, picked up the form, took it back to the boat and put the appropriate $ in the supplied envelope. Truth be told, I used the toonies we had on the boat and actually overpaid the required $11.60 by a whole 40 cents. Big spender, eh?
So, we got onto shore, deposited the cash & form into the box they have up there for this sort of thing, and got on our way. Anchor Girl made us turn around no more than 3 minutes into our hike for fear of the snakes. . . After a bit of coaxing (there goes that power of persuasion again) I was able to get us back on track to Fairy Lake. But all in all, the whole escapade only lasted about 15 minutes. . .
Here's some video from the return trip of our big hike;
A.G. took this shot of our anchorage on the dinghy ride back from the hike. All three boats firmly secured on one anchor. Nice spot, eh?
Here's a 'backside shot' of the boats. I think we saw another 'backside' here, too - but we'll have to wait for the Year End Video to see it all. Why do I hear music from The Carpenters?
Here's one from later that evening. Sanja has now joined us & I had just set SunAria's anchor. Ya, like that was gonna be a big help :-) I think this has got to be one of the nicest 'Boats On The Water' shots of the year. All of us at anchor with the late evening sun reflecting off the hulls in a spectacular setting. Even caught the rising moon in the sky! Wow!!
Now, this photo is of particular interest. See those big boats in the background? They are the very same that we very nearly drifted into the next morning!
Video from here. All the coughing you can hear at the beginning was as a result of us all laughing at the sight of those famous Georgian Bay false teeth that we were wearing. I think we may see a bit more on that in the Y.E.V. (Year End Video). As well, there's some comments about the giant Bosnian Burger that Sanja had just prepared. The thing was bigger than a plate!
A beautiful evening twilight sky. No worries about anchors or high winds on this night. Only another great view;
Some video that I took just before we headed out; Von A. was straightening up his dinghy, Anchor Girl was having her morning swim shower and I was looking around at all the boats anchored so close by. Now, it may not appear that the boats were all that close, but when you consider that in less than an hour from the time this was filmed, we would be pulling out of there - four boats abreast - picking our way past not only all those boats, but all the anchor lines that were sticking out all over the place, it certainly felt close! Oh ya, the wind was blowing pretty good at that time too.
Here we are, four boats tied together, heading down into Beausoleil Bay. For those of you who haven't heard the whole story, here we go.
It's the next to last day of our anchorage in this spot when we find the Water Wings crew pulling in. And they brought some more nice weather, too;
Von A gives the Commoboar a wave. Glad to have you here, buddy. HOO-HA, IT'S SUMMER HOLIDAYS!!
Later that day, Anchor Girl & I took a dinghy ride to shore to do some exploring on Beausoleil Island. I'll tell how well that went after we look at this shot of our boats at anchor in the bay of The Bay. The boat on the left (starboard) side of Water Wings was some new friends - Steve & Brenda - that signor Von A. had met the night before at lock 45. It took a lot of coaxing (all 12 of them), but he was able to talk them into joining us out on Georgian Bay;
So, the big hike into the wilderness took A.G. & I all the way up to a small, inland body of water called Fairy Lake on Beausoleil Island. Not that small, really - probably roughly the same size as Chimney Bay. It was quite pretty;
The amusing part of the story is that when we initially hit the trail to Fairy Lake, poor Anchor Girl experienced a bit of a panic attack. Ya, seems she was overcome by the anxiety of being confronted by a Massasauga Rattler. So, the long & short of the whole trip was that it was very short.
For the most part, users of the Beausoleil Island National Park services are supposed to pay by the honour system. There's a fee for camping, one for staying on the docks and another for using the hiking trails. Being the honourable person that I am, I dutifully went to shore, picked up the form, took it back to the boat and put the appropriate $ in the supplied envelope. Truth be told, I used the toonies we had on the boat and actually overpaid the required $11.60 by a whole 40 cents. Big spender, eh?
So, we got onto shore, deposited the cash & form into the box they have up there for this sort of thing, and got on our way. Anchor Girl made us turn around no more than 3 minutes into our hike for fear of the snakes. . . After a bit of coaxing (there goes that power of persuasion again) I was able to get us back on track to Fairy Lake. But all in all, the whole escapade only lasted about 15 minutes. . .
Here's some video from the return trip of our big hike;
A.G. took this shot of our anchorage on the dinghy ride back from the hike. All three boats firmly secured on one anchor. Nice spot, eh?
Here's a 'backside shot' of the boats. I think we saw another 'backside' here, too - but we'll have to wait for the Year End Video to see it all. Why do I hear music from The Carpenters?
Here's one from later that evening. Sanja has now joined us & I had just set SunAria's anchor. Ya, like that was gonna be a big help :-) I think this has got to be one of the nicest 'Boats On The Water' shots of the year. All of us at anchor with the late evening sun reflecting off the hulls in a spectacular setting. Even caught the rising moon in the sky! Wow!!
Now, this photo is of particular interest. See those big boats in the background? They are the very same that we very nearly drifted into the next morning!
Video from here. All the coughing you can hear at the beginning was as a result of us all laughing at the sight of those famous Georgian Bay false teeth that we were wearing. I think we may see a bit more on that in the Y.E.V. (Year End Video). As well, there's some comments about the giant Bosnian Burger that Sanja had just prepared. The thing was bigger than a plate!
A beautiful evening twilight sky. No worries about anchors or high winds on this night. Only another great view;
Some video that I took just before we headed out; Von A. was straightening up his dinghy, Anchor Girl was having her morning swim shower and I was looking around at all the boats anchored so close by. Now, it may not appear that the boats were all that close, but when you consider that in less than an hour from the time this was filmed, we would be pulling out of there - four boats abreast - picking our way past not only all those boats, but all the anchor lines that were sticking out all over the place, it certainly felt close! Oh ya, the wind was blowing pretty good at that time too.
Here we are, four boats tied together, heading down into Beausoleil Bay. For those of you who haven't heard the whole story, here we go.
As you saw from the previous pictures, we were happily anchored and enjoying the day. There was some discussion earlier as to whether we should pull out and head north or just wait another few days there. The weather reports had been calling for some strong winds that day, as well as the next few to follow, so we had planned on staying there a little longer to see how things would pan out with the option of maybe leaving later in the day. With that in mind, I had just ran the gas out of the outboard on the dinghy and returned to Boogaboo when A.G. said she thought we were all drifting. Initially, it didn't appear so, but as soon as it became clear to me, A.G. & Von A. that we were drifting fast - and picking up steam!! Ya, the three big boats behind us were getting really close, really fast! My immediate concern (fear) was getting tangled in their anchor lines.
So, I threw the dinghy line to Anchor Girl, jumped on Boogaboo, started the engines and put her into gear! At the same time I was doing that, A.G. quickly tied off the dinghy, ran to the front of the boat and pulled up the anchor faster than you have ever seen anyone do it before. Meanwhile, Von A had started Water Wings and ran to the front of SunAria to pull her anchor - all the while we are all yelling at Sanja to start her engines and help drive us out of there.
The problem I quickly discovered when I tried driving us all forward (remember that we are still four boats tied together) was that since Boogaboo was on the port-most side of the flotilla, the result of my efforts was that we were moving as much to the right as forward. While we were all running, pulling and yelling back and forth, Sanja was slowly starting her blowers, and generally taking her time to prepare for a leisurely departure. Despite all of our excited yelling, poor Sanja was blissfully unaware of the predicament we were in and had no idea of what was actually happening until we got to Honey Harbour. . .
Here's me - barking out orders like I knew what the hell I was talking about;
Finally out of harms way, we all untied from each other;
Safe and sound in Honey Harbour at Paragon Marina.
Nothing like a good ice cream cone to calm the nerves;
Steve waves goodbye as we head off from the gas dock. As this was their first trip up this way, he & Brenda were more concerned about making it back to their home port on Lake Scuggog in time, so they bid us farewell at this point;
So, I threw the dinghy line to Anchor Girl, jumped on Boogaboo, started the engines and put her into gear! At the same time I was doing that, A.G. quickly tied off the dinghy, ran to the front of the boat and pulled up the anchor faster than you have ever seen anyone do it before. Meanwhile, Von A had started Water Wings and ran to the front of SunAria to pull her anchor - all the while we are all yelling at Sanja to start her engines and help drive us out of there.
The problem I quickly discovered when I tried driving us all forward (remember that we are still four boats tied together) was that since Boogaboo was on the port-most side of the flotilla, the result of my efforts was that we were moving as much to the right as forward. While we were all running, pulling and yelling back and forth, Sanja was slowly starting her blowers, and generally taking her time to prepare for a leisurely departure. Despite all of our excited yelling, poor Sanja was blissfully unaware of the predicament we were in and had no idea of what was actually happening until we got to Honey Harbour. . .
Here's me - barking out orders like I knew what the hell I was talking about;
Finally out of harms way, we all untied from each other;
Safe and sound in Honey Harbour at Paragon Marina.
Nothing like a good ice cream cone to calm the nerves;
Steve waves goodbye as we head off from the gas dock. As this was their first trip up this way, he & Brenda were more concerned about making it back to their home port on Lake Scuggog in time, so they bid us farewell at this point;
Water Wings leads us out of Paragon Marina and onward and northward. Remember folks, like I keep hearing, 'it's red right north' from here;
Coming up next, the journey continues as we head north for three fun filled days and nights on and around beautiful Echo Bay. . .
