After an 8 day stay on the dry in Killbear it was finally time to move on. The weather window was very small and if we didn’t leave today we would have to wait through the weekend. Our objective was to get to Wrights Marina in Britt, Ontario in the South Channel, about a 45 NM run.
It would be another day of rocks and wind and rocks. Yes I did say rocks twice. The coast is extremely beautiful but sometimes it’s tough to enjoy when a lot of your focus is either on the chartplotter or just off the bow of the boat. But I can’t complain this is a great adventure.
We headed south to get around Pleasant Island then turning northwest to start our winding course through The Pancakes, Fitzgerald Bay passing Snug Harbour and Shebesh Kong Channel and Bay. The homes were perched on the rocky islands looking as if they could just slide into the lakes with ease. After passing Shawanaga Island we turned west to get out into the Georgian bay and set a course northward in hopes that the wind has settled down enough to make the open water run tolerable.
Once passing the Pointe Au Baril Light and the Armstrong Rock is was open water and with 20 knot winds at our starboard quarter it was tolerable enough for us to make a change in destination to the Bustard Islands Harbour East Anchorage where we noticed a few boats on NEBO had anchored. It would add another ten miles on the trip but would put us within striking distance of Killarney for tomorrow. We turned north around Perkins Rock and the Gull Rocks into the Northeast Passage. The Bustard Islands are a group of rocky islands just south of the Northwest Bank. With the wind out of the north we chose a popular anchorage between Strawberry Island, Northeast Island and Tie Island with about 17 feet of water and a mud/clay bottom and yes a lot of big rocks.
We arrived at the anchorage right at sunset giving us enough time to set anchor with some daylight. There were two boats already at the anchorage (“Jagger” and “Changin Lattitudes”) so we picked a spot between them and after dropping the hook. Maria spotted a large dead head right next to the boat so we had to raise the anchor and move east to a spot closer to Northeast Island with a little less wind protection but plenty of room to swing as the wind changed throughout the night. This was a super buggy area so docktails with our neighbors was not an option. I set the anchor alarm and we settled in for a semi-sleepless night as I got up numerous times to check our movement as there were big rocky shores all around us.
