Frying Pan Island ,Kitsilano Bay and Bustard Islands

We left South Bay Harbor in Honey Harbor at six am along with Brown Eyed Girl, Kismet and Cbay it was another nice day to cruise.

Ouch !!

Grilling at it's best

Ginny, Rusty and Bill awaiting dinner at Honey Harbor

Thanks to all the Cook's

We went through some very well marked channels on what is called the small boat channel in Georgian Bay.  This area is beautiful with many beautiful cottages along the granite shores.  We arrived our destination for the evening at Henry’s Fish Camp on Frying Pan Island.  This was a must stop according to fellow Loppers.  We had 12 of us Loopers for a pretty good fish dinner. Some times its not the food but the experience and location.  We certainly enjoyed the company.  We were able to meet Henry and he was interesting to talk to.  We had noticed that their were at least three sea planes that had flown in for lunch as well as many others arriving by boat.  He told us that he has had some well known people come in for fish in the past.  One name mentioned was Jimmy Buffet who flew his own plane in.  We were also told of the Black Bear that was seem many times down by the garbage, he had tried to shoot it the night before but had missed.  Needless to say we stayed put in the boat after it got dark that evening.

Loopers enjoying dinner at Henry's Fish Camp

more Loopers enjoying dinner at Henery's

The next day was Monday and we all left around 8 in the morning.   We ran to Killbear Marina.   It was forecast for winds to be increasing tomorrow and several of the others had decided that they would stay another day.  Brown Eyed Girl would be heading across Georgian Bay to Tobermorey so that they could then head back home and complete their Loop in the next couple of weeks. We will miss Ginny and Craig but we hope to possible meet up with them again over the winter months.

After talking with Pam and Bill on Seabiscuit we made a plan to travel with them through the small boat channel tomorrow.  They like to do some anchoring and we made our plans for the next day.

The Killbear Marina had a German restaurant on site so we enjoyed dinner with Pam and Bill, Jan and Rusty, Joe and Tara, Dean and Beth and Craig and Ginny.  The food was very good but John said the spaztel was good but not as good as the one Don makes. 

Killbear Marina at sunset

Tuesday morning we said our final good byes to Craig and Ginny.  We have said good byes before but we seem to meet up either a couple of days or weeks later.  This time was harder because we were both headed home in different directions.  We wish them safe travels on the last leg of their Loop and will work on some sort of get together over the winter.

Both John and Bill wanted to go through Canoe Channel when leaving Killbear, but Pam and I vetoed it.  We took an alternate route around it and it did not look bad at all.  We then continued on the small boat channel to Kitsilano Bay.  Both the weather and the scenery were great and the times we were outside of the channel  the wind and waves were not bad. 

There were two other boats anchored in the bay when we arrived, both from Michigan.  One stores his boat the same place we do.  Three other boats came in later in the day, one was another Mainship like ours and also a fellow Looper.  It is amazing how many Mainships we have seen along the Loop and that the company just filed for Chapter 11.  The anchorage was very nice and peaceful.

Wednesday we awoke to a partly cloudy and cool day.  Today we had to go through the Hangdog Channel.  This was a bit more of a challenge than the Canoe Channel would have been, but there was no way around it.  Again the scenery was awesome.  The clouds and wind increased as the day progressed.  We had to run on the outside for a bit to get to our next anchorage in the Bustard Islands and it was a bit uncomfortable. 

Narrow passages

John trying to pay attention, with help from the co-pilot

Seabiscuit going through some tight areas.

At anchor for the night.

The bay we anchored in was quite calm and peaceful, though where we both anchored we felt our sterns were just a bit too close to the rocks.  John launched the dinghy and Bill and him took it through a small cut to the anchorage at the other side of the island.  They came back and said it was

very pretty and a bit more protected but it was getting late and it would take at least an hour to move over there.  Bill and Pam tried to reset their anchor and ended up moving further into the bay.  We reset our anchor and got us a bit further from the rocks just as it started to rain.  The rain continued all night.  The wind shifted and because of our location we picked up the “flop flop” sound that these boats are known for.  The noise doesn’t bother John nearly as much as it does me.  It is amplified in the front cabin, so I slept (or tried to)  in the salon. 

Hugs,

Mary & John