The next day we headed out towards the Benjamin’s, The Benjamin Islands were high on everyone’s suggested lists as a must see in the North Channel and they didn’t disappoint.

Close to the Magnetic Anomalies

We planned to catch up with Matt and Julia – Sea Jay – Owen Sound.  We hoisted the sails and set the chart plotter for the 21 nautical miles north west, we had the wind hard on the nose all the way, tacking our way across until we had to drop the sails and motor our way through the rock strewn entrance.  
Once we arrived at the suggested anchorage, we could see it was extremely busy with motor boats so we scouted around and chose a spot just outside the main area that was less congested.  Within half an hour of us arriving just about all the boats left but they were replaced later in the afternoon by another group of noisy partying motorboats we were happy to be away from them all. We let out 30mt of chain with only winds of 10 nm  forecast.

Look behind Craig you can see the motor boats

Matt and Julia arrived later in the afternoon and we caught up for a beer on board Adriana, we had picked up a part for Sea Jay from Wiarton Marina and we had to return the cruisers association  book Julia had lent us for navigation and also return what was left of the special UHMW plastic (Ultra High Molecular) that Matt had given Craig when he was installing the solar panels.

The next day the wind was forecast to increase in the afternoon, so we did our planned visit to Matt and Julia’s parents (Cheryl and Peter) and their friends, who were anchored at Fox Island.  It was a 15 minute dingy ride across open water, I was a little out of my comfort zone but as I had hopped into M & J dingy with Matt driving and Julia navigating I felt in competent hands these guys have been in boats on the water just about their whole life.  As we steered through the unexposed rocks close to shore. Craig followed in our dingy M & J dingy is faster and the theory is our dingy will only plane – get its nose out of the water and skims across the top, hence going about 4 x times faster - with one person whereas M & J’s will do it with 3 people onboard.  After a mosey around looking down the inlets and all the little tributaries of the main channel we parked the dinghies and had a walk around the rocky shoreline. 

Waterlilies ready to burst into bloom

Behind, where we had landed there was a huge lake full of pond lilies ready to burst into flower. We saw frogs, a different type of dragonfly and a mink ran past us, it was not worried by our presence. Everyone was so lovely Matts mum presented me with a bag of blueberries she had just picked, they were for herself but when she realised we were moving on the next day and this was my last chance to pick some, she gave me what she had picked that morning. 

So many blueberries

We headed over to Blue Corona and had blueberry muffins and coffee onboard Blue Corona is a twin hull and I was able to have a look through,  it was interesting to see inside a different type of boat, it was very spacious and all white and blue inside and the outside dining area was a great place to sit and chat.  I was also invited over to see Event Horizon, Cheryl and Peters boat, wow I actually don’t remember the manufacturer or the size of it but they had gutted the interior and had a professional refit the inside to their own design, it was very comfortable, practical and also very beautiful with stunning craftsmanship in the woodwork, it even had custom made stained glass windows. I’m just sorry I didn’t take any photos. 
These two boats were rafted up together and M & J will tie up next to them too.  Its called Gunkholing what they do is throw out an anchor then tie the stern to shore , this means they can squeeze into cute little spots totally sheltered from the wind and very secluded and private. We saw boats all over the North Chanel tied up like this.

We headed back to Adriana, getting drenched along the way, it didn’t matter as the sun was shining and we were soon dry.  Back on board I did some washing and Craig had another swim before we headed over to visit M & J for a beer. 

The water temp reached 24/25c amazing considering this whole area is frozen over again in just a few months

Sunset at The Benjamins

Craig had been chatting to Matt about the fact that we blew a portside navigation light and he thought he had a spare, but the one in the box was blown too, Matt said “oh that’s easy, we can make a light bulb”  and he was serious. These marine light bulbs apart from the fact they are really hard to source they also cost a fortune.  When we realised that we didn’t have a working bulb Craig had called all the marina shops in Little Current but we couldn't source one.
Matt instructed Craig to take the glass off the light bulb but keep the bayonetted intact, then Matt soldered a red LED globe to the contacts, filled it with hot glue and then sprayed the whole thing with a special waterproof silicone spray (conformal) coating  - Valla a functioning port navigation light.  

Julia is a research geologist and gave us the low down on the surrounding landscape and such things as the Benjamins have magnetic anomalies  – there are rocks that contain more magnetic force than the earth’s magnetic field. I believe our gps was affected - we were using autopilot when suddenly the boat swung out of control for no reason, it was easily rectified but gave us a fright.  She pointed out where there were random rocks off a different type that would have been picked up by glaciers and deposited far far away from where they originated. The landscape has been totally different in all the areas we have visited from pink granite to quartzite to basalt to sheer escarpments or steep cliffs covered in vegetation so many trees clinging to incredibly steep rock walls. 

Its time to move on and start heading out of the Great Lakes.

After a very windy night we upped anchor and headed back to Little Current.  Things can change so quickly when you are sailing, here we were sailing along averaging 4 knots, we had just tacked to change direction to keep in the wind when an alarm went off inside the boat, it was the high water bilge alarm!! 

I had to finish winching in the main sail while Craig dived downstairs – This alarm means the bilge is full and the boat is sinking-  The bilge is at the very bottom inside the hull where any overflow from water tanks, toilets or blocked sinks pours into. 

Craig could not see anything wrong, it was not full of water so he disconnected the alarm.  On coming back up to the cockpit we realised that during the tack one of the ropes had flicked the test alarm switch on !!!

The North Channel is dotted with these cute Pepper Shaker shaped lighthouses

We dropped the anchor at the same spot in Little Current jumped in the dingy and motored into town.  We walked the half km to the supermarket, we had to buy a few things that were not on the list at our last visit.  We have to stock up as we will now be heading down the other side of the Bruce Peninsula from Georgian Bay, all the way to Sarnia at the bottom of Lake Huron, where we enter the St Clair River through to Lake Sinclair, into the Detroit River, past Detroit on the USA side and Windsor on the Canadian side, out into Lake Eire, across lake Eire to the Welland Canal system probably without stopping at any towns or Marinas.

Amzing Sunset at Club Island

We are leaving Ontario it is all downstream from here.

We pass back through the Little Current swing bridge and sail back to Haywood for a planned overnight stop.  Next day we sail down to Club Island to a little alcove anchorage, this is the last night of our Georgian Bay/North Channel adventure, tomorrow we cross opposite the top of the Bruce Peninsula and head down lake Huron to Sarnia at the very bottom.  The East side of the Bruce Peninsula is totally opposite to the Wiarton side, it is all sandy like a beaches or marsh it is very shallow close to shore so there are no anchorages, there are a few Marinas slightly inland but we will be sailing well out from land so no stopping we will be doing an overnighter.

We bumped into this family a couple of times have a look at the set up !! There were 2 little boys with every toy imaginable, dad had a depth sounder on his upright sort of fishing dingy they had a big roll out square of foam that they could use as a swimming platform, Craig wont let me get one :(

This family had all the toys.