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2006 Trip to the
North Channel
on our Searay Sundancer
400DA
the Get~Aweigh
III
Click on the
Pictures to Start Video Clips in Windows Media Player
 2006
finds us returning to the North Channel. This time we
are in our new (to
us) 1998 Searay Sundancer 400DA. More
room for us and our
gear, a very comfortable boat, and a chance to go back to some of the
spots we enjoyed so much in 2005.
 This
video is of us crossing lake Huron to goderich, Ontario. it was a
beautiful day with a very calm lake. We actually went from
Marblehead, Ohio to Goderich in the first day.
This is the cruise
from Goderich to Tobermory. Another great day. nothing of
significance along the way. just making our way to tobermory
because for us, that is where the vacation begins.
Tobermory, Ontario. This is one of our favorite harbors.
Plenty of shops,
 restaurants
and a grocery store surrounds the harbor. While here we met the
Hendersons from the Sailboat Adanaco (O'Canada spelled backwards).
They just returned from several seasons of cruising the Caribbean.
Marina neighbors are friendly and interesting people to get to know.
 More
video of tobermory. This includes scenes of the "land
yachts" loading onto the Chi-Cheemaun ferry for
manitoulin island.
 While
at tobermory we waited an extra day for a storm to pass. our XM
weather radar feed to our garmin GPS proved very useful on this trip as
stormy weather followed us on the whole cruise.
after the storm the marina at
tobermory was wrapped in a soft gray fog. calm, peaceful,
beautiful.
Time to leave tobermory and so we run across Georgian bay to beaverstone
bay and Collins inlet. the picture to the left is of lonely island
as we passed. the weather was cloudy but no ran and it was a
smooth run for a couple of hours until we settled into our (now usual)
spot at burnt island.
Burnt island in beaverstone bay offers a
 protected
area to anchor and spend the night or a few days. I
found out later that we were here only a few days from when Tim and Gina
of tick tock too anchored here. although We never met, Tim and I
trade emails and cruising stories. he has a great website (see our
favorites page) and we share a love of boating on the great lakes.
The
morning finds us dragging our anchor, however slowly, across the bottom
of the burnt island cove, heading toward the granite shoreline. no
great problem (the wind shifted in the night) but we're leaving anyway
so before we do, we look around the bay.
Here we move from Beaverstone
bay to mill lake via Collins inlet. we have some gorgeous pictures of
Collins inlet in our 2005 trip log. this time we towed the dinghy since we
were moving at a slow speed.
This clip contains scenes from mill
lake. we anchored here for a few days and just enjoyed running the dinghy
around the lake, fishing, and chilling out.
Here we go from mill
lake to killarney, Ontario. one of our favorite towns, the main
street is really the water that links
 Georgian
bay with the north channel. we stayed at the killarney mountain
lodge. they have a marina and a hotel and restaurant. if you
stay at the marina you enjoy all of the hotel privileges as well.
the picture on the right is of the "red bus", famous in the cruising
guides for the fish baskets. let me just say that when we're in
killarney, we eat at the red bus every day for lunch or dinner.
From Killarney, we went to gore
bay. we stopped briefly for the swing bridge at little current and
then started from
 little
current to clapperton island. on the way we were going due west
and the wind was coming due east and the waves began to pound.
they were easily 5' as we went on. at clapperton, as we came
around to head for gore bay we encountered an immense fog bank.
there was nothing to do but press on. with radar and GPS we
continued in perhaps our most tense boating experience thus far.
the video is very choppy because our 11 ton, 40+ foot boat was bouncing
pretty hard but the big thing was that for several long minutes we Could
not see beyond the bow rail. But such is life when cruising a boat
on the great inland seas!
Finally in gore bay,
the harbor was calm. gore bay is so protected that the storms
around us had no effect. we stayed here for an extra day, then
left for Presque isle Michigan and our return trip.
We made it to Presque isle and
tied
 the
boat into the dock with every available line because thunderstorms were
leaving significant damage across much of Michigan. But the storm
divided into two sections. one went north of us, one went south
and we were left with no wind, no damage, but spectacular skies to look
at.
Finally we make our
way home. Presque isle, Michigan to Sarnia
 Ontario
for the night then on to Marblehead by way of the st. Clair and Detroit
rivers. we refueled in Harrisville and then went on to Sarnia in
some strong wind and waves. didn't see another boat as we crossed
the mouth of Saginaw bay and rode the back of some fairly high waves as
the wind drove them from the northeast and we traveled southwest.
at times the sea was from our port beam and at times followed the stern.
but the Get~Aweigh performed superbly, the autopilot did the driving and
we enjoyed the ride.
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This site was last updated
06/23/07
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