Day 20 Friday July 12^th

Dawson blogging from the salon.  Footstool is assymetrical sail

Woke up in Mosquito Cove and headed to Little Current to pick up our guests Al and Karen Kettles-Smith.  We sailed down the Wabuno Channel as it was an easterly.  We got to the town at around noon and able to get a pump out and gas for the dinghy and top up our water tanks.  One water tank does us about 10 days.  As usual we had lots to do in Little Current.  After topping up we parked at the town docks next to a beautiful Tartan 44.   Dawson helped our neighbour Chuck over to the service docks and learns the Tartan had a 100hp engine and bow thruster.  Very impressive!

Time to clean the boat now, and get groceries, then head over to the cruisers net happy hour at the Anchor Inn.  We were expecting Al and Karen around 6, but they texted and were able to get away from Sudbury early so would arrive around 4:00 which is great as we are heading to Matheson to meet up with friends.

Al and Karen, our second set of guests

The happy hour was good.  We were able to meet Airtime which is an Abbott 36 out of Sarnia that is also heading to the Caribbean this fall.  We had met their travelling friends at Covered Portage earlier in the week so had been on the lookout for Airtime.  We also got to chat to Fairytale owners Venetia and Ted who own a Caliber 38 and have done lots of sailing including a trip to the Caribbean many years earlier.  Venetia’s advice was open all the cardboard boxes and packages on the docks, not in your boat as it will keep out cockroaches.  Sounds like a good idea to me.  We will have to keep that in mind once we start travelling south.  There are also a bunch of tugboats in town as they are part of the 100 year celebration for the swing bridge anniversary this weekend.

We hooked up with Karen and Al and loaded all the food and goodies they brought and are off the dock by 5:00.  The winds were suitable to sail up the Wabuno Channel.  We did have to tack but at least we got a bit of sailing under our belts.  Once we got into the north channel to head west, we could no longer sail as the wind had also dropped and time was a marching on.  We ducked behind Hog Island for the first time and there was lots of water, and tied up with our reservations by about 8:00pm.  Just in time for the mosquitoes to get Dawson while he was barbequing.  Dickieson’s, Trevisiol’s and Strange’s were to be our rafting mates for the weekend. 

Al on bow watch as we come into anchor late

We shared a sundowner with our boat mates and headed off to bed in reasonable time.  Hopefully Karen and Al can get some sleep in their “cozy” accommodations.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson