Even though it was still foggy, we decided to up anchor and head someplace west. After much discussion, we were able to get underway before noon and motored north then west in no more than 1 mile visibility. We weren't alone. You would think that in such a large lake you wouldn't see anybody but we passed too close to a three sailboat convoy (the lead boat had radar) just north of Odjig. We had the VHF radio on the weather channel and wouldn't have heard them if they called, we've since changed our procedures to always keep the radio on 16 when in the fog.

Just as we were turning west past Bernard Rock and under Badgeley, Center, Partridge and Heywood Islands we saw the strangest sight. It looked like a tug boat pulling a huge cage draped with nets.

We stayed clear and still don't know what it was. After turning west, it cleared a little and we had a good motor to Beaver Island Harbour.

Beaver Island Harbour is well protected, especially from west winds. Since there was a prediction of a strong westerly wind, we stayed put for a couple of days. When weather permitted, we took the dinghy up the Strawberry Channel looking for some cell phone coverage. We dinghied all over the channel and only found weak signals -- not enough to place a call. Time to go, we were running out of propane and water, and the holding tank was filling up -- besides there was a party in Little Current tomorrow.

We were underway by 06:25 (WOW!), made the 08:00 bridge, pumped out and filled up, and were at the dock by 09:00. As is typical for us during on our few days at the dock, the day was chock full of chores, shopping, laundry, and of course talking and partying. We even ponied up and spent the night at the dock.

We hadn't finished all of our chores so we spent most of the day in Little Current; but all good things must end and we got underway that evening. No problem. We were anchored in Eaton Cove by 20:15. Such a long trip, we were just plain tuckered out when what should we hear but country music. The Manitoulin Island Countryfest had their speakers pointed toward us plus at the end of the show we had by FIREWORKS. An enjoyable evening.

It was raining pretty hard and we were going to stay put but it stopped in mid-afternoon so we left. We made the 15:00 bridge but still weren't sure as to where we were heading; we didn't really want to go to Heywood again. We had heard about West Mary Island being a good anchorage and well projected from all but north winds, so we went. It is an easy anchorage to enter if one pays attention to the wreck(!) blocking about a third of the entrance.

We woke up to fog but it cleared by 11:00 and we were off exploring. We looked over the wreck (easily visible in the clear water and it isn't that deep), and circumnavigated the island dragging our fishing lines. We caught supper, a 3# Smallmouth Bass (19" long).

A nice day so we decided to move on to Baie Fine. We had a beautiful sail to Baie Fine where Day relented and let Craig sail all the way into the entrance to the Narrows (a mile channel leading to "The Pool" until Day made Craig take down the sails and motor in (we actually had to motor through a calm along the rock wall next to marker EH4). Quintessence was already anchored and Karel guided us in to our new anchorage.

What a lovely anchorage and so much to do. The first day Karel and Mila led us on a hike to Acid Lake, an eventful day. First, before we had even got started, Day stepped off Toucan's stern missing the dinghy, straight into the water. Then, we were supposed to be there and back by mid afternoon but were only as far as the lake by then. Craig has but one speed and gamely tried to keep up but hiking is not exactly his forte. Karel said it was the longest hike he has been on (meaning time) and Craig agreed (meaning exhaustion). All in all it was fun.

The next day we kayaked up to "The Pool" and generally messed around. We had heard that Heart Tug and Crescendo were anchored up in Marianne Cove so we dinghied there, (Craig hit a rock out in the center of Baie Fine, found out later it was on a chart we didn't have), and invited ourselves to their party. Crescendo mentioned that they had never been to "The Pool" and since Quintessence had left the day before (to get a better view of the meteor shower in the west), we invited Crescendo up to our anchorage.

The next morning Crescendo motored to the Narrows and anchored where Quintessence had been. We dinghied up to "The Pool" and hiked up to Topaz Lake for a swim (a much more manageable hike) and then had wonderful homemade pizza on Crescendo.

After all the previous activity, we just hung out the next day.

Crescendo had never been into McGregor Bay and we offered to guide them in. Unfortunately, the fog was so thick you could hardly see a quarter mile. The fog was still thick by the time we made it out of Baie Fine, so we decided to skip McGregor and head for Snug Harbour. Pulling into Snug Harbour who should we see but Quintessence? Happy Hour ensued once we anchored.

Heavy wind, rain, squall watch but we were snug. Snug enough to have desert on Crescendo that evening. The next day was a little better and we hiked over to Frazer Bay and saw the waves we were missing.

We sailed to Killarney to pump out and take on some water before motoring over to Covered Portage. We got our anchor down rather easily (knock on wood) but some others with a lust for life seemed to have problems. A lot of the Midland Sailing Club's boats, on their way home, came in later and pretty near filled up the outer harbor.

Before the anchorage began filling up a sailboat had problems retrieving their anchor. After about 30 minutes they pulled up two anchors -- someone had left their anchor and chain behind. We were unable to convince the sailboat that we would take the anchor off their hands -- it was a much larger plow than ours.

That morning we missed all the excitement. A boat inboard of us broke loose, drug its anchor through the full anchorage and missed everyone. They finally woke up, came on deck and recovered their anchor just before drifting out to sea.

Other than watching other boats anchor and drift around, we pretty much just hung out. We did go for another hike with Karel and Mila, a much more reasonable hike just over to Frazer Bay.

There was a Cruisers Net party on the 23rd so we got an early start and headed west. Another good sailing day. We sailed out of Killarney Bay, west of Kokanongwi Island, tacked to miss Badgeley Island then beam reached south of Badgeley Island to Partridge Island and then sailed wing and wing between Heywood Rock and Split Rock, keeping an eye out for Watts Rock (so many rocks to navigate around) until we arrived off of Browning Cove. We paid for watching others have problems anchoring in Covered Portage by taking two tries to get our anchor to set in Browning Cove but it held all night.

We left Heywood and sailed under jib alone (we're getting lazy) past Strawberry Light to Little Current. Made the 15:00 bridge then lazily sailed to East Rous anchorage. Anchored at 16:30 and had a beer -- we're in transport mode.

A short but cool sail on a beam to broad reach from East Rous to Picnic Cove. Nothing exciting.

Roy arranged for two nights mooring for the price of one with the Port of Little Current so we motored in. Once we were tied up we got in the car for a tour and reprovisioning. We ended up in Cheboygan, MI to check it out for winter storage and other stuff but we decided to stay in Harbor Vue for this winter. We also went shopping; prices in the US are a lot lower.

We joined Roy while he broadcast the Cruisers Net; then had breakfast at the Anchor Inn with Fairy Tale. Roy led an excursion to Cold Water Fisheries stopping along the way to ring a rock. You hit the rock with another rock and the bigger rock rings like a bell (why they are called La Cloche Mountains). After ringing the rock we went to the trout farm. Really cool. They let us throw some feed in and the water boiled like a bunch of piranha.

That afternoon we went to a presentation by Mystic and Sound of Silence on their favorite anchorages followed by a Cruisers Net potluck with local whitefish cooked by Roy and Margaret. After the party we entertained Fairy Tale and Crescendo with a movie night on Toucan (Captain Ron). Then fell into bed.

After a late start we had another fine day sailing up the Waubuno Channel. It was a little more interesting getting into Sturgeon Cove as one of the range markers was missing. Never the less we made it and were soon anchored with Fairy Tale and Westwind.

Didn't do much but relax and visit with Fairy Tale and Westwind.

On the way in we mentioned that the marker on "Ted's Tree" had fallen off making the passage into the harbor a little more difficult than it already was. So before leaving, we mounted a repair party. After several bouts of freely offered advice from several parties the marker was reattached to the tree.

That done we left, headed for Little Current, made the 18:00 bridge and then headed to Heywood.

We put up the main before leaving the harbor and sailed east. We had never been in Frazer Bay so we decided we would give it a try, sailing all the way in. We first tried to anchor by Rat Portage but a couple of boats had already had taken the best spots sheltered from the strong west wind that had brought us in so, after futzing about for awhile we went east of Blueberry Island and got a nice well protected spot all by ourselves, for a short while. It was still nice even after we were joined by a couple of other boats.

With such a nice anchorage we stayed put for awhile and explored and just had fun. We fished and caught a nice sized bass, dinghied around the entire east end of Frazer Bay, kayaked over to Gord Blake Island, swam (not all at the same time), saw lots of wildlife including a Black Bear and just relaxed.

An early start this time. Winds were from the west so we had to tack out of Frazer Bay, then after passing around Boat Rock and inside of Steamer Reef we sailed downwind through the Lansdowne Channel and into Snug Harbour (Day is getting adventuresome letting Craig sail into some narrow spots). There was all kinds of traffic into and out of the anchorage. The one powerboat that was there when we arrived left, but 3 sailboats and 3 powerboats arrived later, including Cakaro. A brief swim followed by cocktails on Cakaro.