Today we move on from Twelve Mile Bay to Beausoleil Island
which will be a quick jump off spot to get to Midland which is our destination
for August 1st. The last week
basically has been a transit to get to Midland where we will leave the boat
while the canvas is being made and fitted.
Back to the day at hand though, we decide to stay on the
small craft route which zig zags around rocks and shallows throughout the
eastern coast of Georgian Bay. Typically
we would head out to the big water but the winds are not favourable and neither
of us is interested in tacking our way to Beausoleil. Plus we have been told it is a neat trip
along the shores.
We head out around 11:00 (having had tea and no coffee this
morning) and quickly find the buoys and day markers. There are 5 sea doos on our tail and another
boat headed at us. Some of the channel
ways are pretty tight so it is interesting to move over a bit to give right of
way, but not too much that you are outside the channel.Camp Queen E |
Both of us are quite amazed at the wealth. There is just beautiful cottage after cottage
after cottage. The cottages are magazine
style summer houses (not camps like northern Ontario’s standard), absolutely
huge properties with lovely docks etc.
After about 3 hours we are at the north end of Beausoleil and Julie
spots “good old Queen E”. This is the
childhood summer camp that Anne, Heather and Diana along with Julie went for a
couple of summers back in the 70’s. Wow,
sure tugged at Julie’s memory banks.
We round a corner and there is Honey Harbour, boats
everywhere, as well as boat wakes. The
channel is so narrow, that big boats call ahead to ensure there is no oncoming
traffic. We pass a grocers with dock
space, but decide to keep going as we are not sure of the depth and we need
slightly over 5 foot to avoid hitting bottom.
Another 15 buoys and we are now on the eastern shore of Beausoleil and
ready to anchor. Again there are lots of
boats, but lots of space to anchor.
After the boat is secured we decide to launch the dinghy and
head over to the grocers and get some coffee as this morning we did not have
any which is a crisis by our standards.
It is only a couple of miles and the channels are well marked so we are
off. The store is a great general store
with lots of selection on most things.
Not enough coffee selection but oh well, coffee none the less.
On the way back we beach at the office of the National Park
to find out about fees etc. We walk up a
lovely interlock and brick walkway with fresh sod and planted trees. Julie is disgusted as this goes against the
whole National Park idea. Where is au
natural?? Is this how they spend our taxpayer
dollars. I think a woodchip path with
wild grasses is a bit more suitable and more in line with managing the parks
properly. Anyways, no fees for us at
anchor in the bay unless we want to use the facilities, which we do not.
The night turns out to be a long one, as the winds did not swing west until the wee hours and were more from the south vs. southwest. Drats!
Cheers Julie and Dawson
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