Roy had a final broadcast where he gave the year's stats: 4,760 total call-ins from 825 different boats, a 4-fold increase from the first year, 2005, where there were 1,024 call-ins. Boats called in from as far as DeTour Village to the West, to Parry Sound in Georgian Bay and as far South as Winfield Basin. He even had a pilot call in.

After the broadcast, we sailed north out of Browning Cove barely clearing the Buoy off of East Mary Island before we were able to fall off a little for the entrance to McGregor Bay. We then chickened out, taking the sails down to motor by the many rocks in McGregor Bay. We picked our way through the islands and rocks finally coming into the western most portion of the East West Channel. It's getting late enough in the season that we only saw one boat on our way in and there were none in our selected anchorage.

This is another of those picturesque anchorages where there is enough to do to keep you busy for a week. One day, we dinghied around East Sampson Island taking our chart to make sure we didn't get lost. Nearing the end of our excursion we saw Invictus (whom we met in this same anchorage last year) and stopped to visit for awhile. We also tried to get through the cut at the end of the East Channel into the North Channel of McGregor Bay. We made it this time but just barely using our hiking sticks as poles in one area.

Another day, we dinghied around Iroquois island again with a chart. There are so many passages and islands that they are seem to look the same after awhile. Rain threatened us this day but we escaped only getting damp. No rock climbing this trip though there are plenty to climb. At dusk each evening we were anchored here, a fishing skiff would come through the shallows from the west, head for a spot on shore marked by a red ribbon, drop off one of the men and the rest would motor off to the east. Some nights they would come back around 22:00 and pick up the guy they had left. We never did find out what was going on but it did provide some entertainment.

It rained all night but stopped at about 9 o'clock. After sitting in indecision for awhile we decided to leave and see if we could meet up with Quintessence. We headed out of McGregor under motor (still a little leery of sailing amongst all those rocks but raised sails as soon as we got out). We had a nice sail south and Craig decided to turn into the Lansdowne Channel a little early. He didn't see the red Buoy and cut it a little short going inside the buoy. Fortunately, he saw the rocks before he hit them and quickly sailed back out around the red buoy like he should have. Now that we were safe again we sailed east through the Lansdowne Channel to Snug Harbour.

Snug Harbour is another one of those harbors everybody talks about staying in. We had never been there so we stopped. Snug Harbour is snug and DEEP. We kept thinking it would get shallower as we got closer to the west end of the harbor but it didn't. We went from 20 some feet at the east end to 40 some feet at the west end. We went back and found a 21 foot area to anchor in. It was secure but we had to let out a lot of scope. It is a pretty harbor.

As we were deciding stay or leave a group of jet skis powered into the harbor and seemed to be surprised to see us. Their chase boat soon followed and Day seemed to hear them say "Let's head to Hole in the Wall instead". We must have scared them off.

We talked to Quintessence and they were heading to Covered Portage Cove. We headed out of Snug Harbour and sailed to Covered Portage. It wasn't far but it was a fun sail. We decided to go into the inner harbor and anchor. A mistake, even though there were no other boats in there, it was full of weeds. We finally got the anchor down and waited for Quintessence. For the first time Day noticed that the Indian (stone formation) head changed depending on where you were -- besides a Viking she saw a Cubbie Bear (I think she just needed a Cubs fix). They arrived and away we went to hike to Frazer Bay. Frazer Bay is a different sight from land. Karel pointed out different anchorages. With all the rain the trail was a little damp but not that bad. The only disconcerting thing was that we saw a lot of bear tracks going up and down the trail. Day wanted to see another bear but not that close.

There is so much to do in Covered Portage Cove . September 7 we hiked up another trail that led to an overlook on the south side of Covered Portage overlooking Killarney, Georgian Bay and Odjig Island (formerly Squaw Island) in the distance. After we got back down and were drinking some wine on Quintessence, Craig, looking at Toucan and thought she was getting closer. Pretty soon we were all analyzing Toucan and the consensus was that she was in fact dragging her anchor and attempting to join the cocktail party. Day, Craig and Karel got into the dinghy (it wasn't happening that fast and the wind wasn't blowing that strong) and we motored over to reanchor Toucan. Karel said that he never anchors in the inner harbor as the holding isn't that great and it's usually too crowded. Taking his advice, we moved Toucan out to the outer harbor and got a good set right away. We then dinghied back to Quintessence and continued the wine tasting. At the end of the day, Karel and Mila gave us and our dinghy a ride back to Toucan as they moved to join Toucan in the outer harbor.

The next day we hiked up the north side to view the inner harbor with no one there and overlook the outer harbor looking at Killarney. We could also see Frazer Bay with white caps and Little Current in the distance. We can't even get away from freighters; there was one heading to the limestone plant at the entrance to McGregor Bay. Karel and Mila were going to be heading back to Midland the next day so we had a going away party to speed them on their way.

The season is ending and it's time to be heading back to Harbor Vue Marina to take Toucan out. However we heard that Fairy Tale is taking out the 11th and is in Browning Cove. We had to stop by to say goodbye for the season. We gave them a call on the radio and they said that they were in the east end of Browning Cove but would guide us in once we got there.

We sailed west to Browning Cove and there was Ted and Venetia ready to guide us from the west end to the east end. No problem getting in but it took us three tries to get the anchor down and holding. Westwind was also there and actually moved quite a ways away from Fairy Tale because they couldn't get their anchor to hold. Any way they were pulling their boat out off the water September 15th in Gore Bay and invited us all over for a wonderful dinner of beef stew. We had a very enjoyable evening discussing sailing and playing Mexican Train, a game played with dominoes.

Time to get Toucan ready to be pulled from the water.

The day has come. We sailed to Little Current to get the sails off and folded, the dinghy deflated and cleaned, and the tanks emptied and filled. One last time to Wally's for diesel and then to Harbor Vue.

Toucan was pulled out of the water on the 12th and we spent the next 4 days putting stuff away and loading up the Explorer. During this time we stayed on the boat but ate breakfast ashore at Garry's Restaurant with Ted and Venetia and dinner at several different locations many times with Ted and Venetia.