After a restless night on the hook we got up early for our 30 NM run to the Sportsman’s Inn and Marina in Killarney Harbor. It was a clear sunny day with high winds out of the north. Our route would take us through the Northeast Passage eastward then turning west into the Georgian Bay passing Scarecrow Island with a final northest run into Killarney Harbor.
There were numerous Loopers running west along with a few sailboats. Some loopers were headed to Killarney and a few were running up to Beaverstone Bay to anchor. As we approached the Killarney Channel there was a cruise ship anchored just out of the channel where they were shuttling passenger in and out o Killarney for their port visit.
We entered the channel from the east passing the Killarney Mountain Lodge and the channel was extremely tight and busy with at least ten boats looking for fuel or dockage. We were assigned a slip on the southside of the channel directly across from the Sportsman Inn where there was a tent set up for the Country Music Festival scheduled for this weekend. We backed into our slip where the water was clear exposing all the rocks that were three feet under the boat.
Killarney is a great town located on the north side of the channel opposite George Island. There are a few marinas and a ew restaurants on Channel Street. The only way we could get to the town was either by dinghy or shuttle supplied by the marina. We used the shuttle frequently to go to lunch at Herbert Fisheries, which did have good fish and chips and to visit the Killarney Mountain Lodge which had music nightly and a great bar that looked like a ski lodge. We had a huge docktail event at the lodge in front of the slips where we met a lot of new Loopers and old friends. we met up with “Gemini”, “Changin Latitudes”, “Katy B”, “Changing Latitudes”, “Pony” and many others. The music festival started daily around 1800hrs to an empty tent. There were a few paying customers but all us boaters had perfect seats on our docks where we put out chairs and cold refreshments and bug spray.
Our boat was having issues getting up on plane on the run today so I changed the filters and took apart the Racor water separator bowls that were extremely filthy. I did not have enough secondary filters so I only changed the starboard engine which was giving me the most trouble. A note to self “Don’t get over served with Gemini the night before crawling into the engine room with 80 degree heat to change diesel fuel filters.” While on the loop you will have to change oil and fuel filters and the biggest issue is disposing of the old oil and dirty fuel. The dockhand at the marina was able to take the small amount of fuel and filters I had. It pays to tip early on arrival for appreciation later.
After a great few days in Killarney it was time to plot tomorrow’s run and rest before our sunrise departure.
