Things have been going well and we've been visiting several new areas as well as trying new passages into some of our favorite places. Our biggest problem is that we get into a beautiful cove and we hate to leave. When we do leave we only travel a short distance before we find another "perfect" anchorage. Yesterday we covered all of .7 miles!

A few nights ago we were talking about how most articles you read on sailing and cruising always talk about the storms, bad weather, and major problems. Now it's true that this is part of cruising and as the editor of our favorite cruising magazine says, "It this stuff was easy everybody would be doing it!" We were guilty of this in our first two letters! This time we're going to tell you about the neat and fun stuff. I've taken some excerpts from our log and printed them below, but to start with let's talk about right now.

As I write this we are anchored at the far northeast corner of an area referred to as Oak Bay. This bay is about 5 miles long and filled with many small rock islands. We are tucked in behind one of these islands. The bay is bordered on the north by the LaCloche Mountains and on the south by Hotham Island. As I look out the port the water is like a mirror and there is a slight fog covering the area. The mountain peaks are reflecting off the surface of the water and the air is filled with aroma of cedar. The only sounds you can hear are the singing of the birds. Just a few minutes ago the loons were calling to each other. (Hey, that's pretty poetic for an old crusty sailor!)

Last night we were visited by Frank DeVries, a real character, from the Netherlands. Frank had apparently heard about our dinghy being lost and decided to look for it. He had sailed his boat from Spragge to Turnbull Island and then went visiting friends, by dinghy, in Long Point Cove. On his way back he went through Taschereau Bay, Beardrop Harbour, and John Harbour searching for our little lost boat. Somehow (the Dutch are incredible) he happened to find us anchored in Cleary Cove. Unfortunately, he didn't find the dinghy! Oh well, at least he tried. We did have a nice visit and talked about the Village of Barneveld in the Netherlands.

We got two hooks down and one line to a tree and we were settled in by the time the rain started. It rained, rained more, rained still more, in fact it was an all day rain! We read, baked a cake, and played games. It was a relaxing day until I noticed that we hadn't closed the port in the vee-berth. Now we had a very wet quilt, sheets, and mattress. Luckily it dried enough (sleeping on damp sheets is fun) so we could sleep on it later.

At about 7:30 we actually started to get some blue sky and by 11:00 PM it was crystal clear. We went out on deck at mid-night (the mosquitoes are gone by then) and watched the stars. It's amazing how beautiful the sky can be when there are no lights to interfere with your view. Next we were treated to a short but incredible Northern Lights show. The lights were only visible for about 5 minutes but it was great!

Once our work for the day was complete we went out to play. We decided to row (it seemed like a good idea at the time) the old dink over to Moiles Harbour and then have a picnic on the way. It was great fun! We just piddled along (this old man can't row too fast) and had a ball. At one point we were moving downwind and used Robins sweatshirt for a spinnaker. We found a nice flat rock just outside the harbour overlooking the Whalesback Channel and had our picnic.

After we got back to the boat we did a little berry picking. Right now it's kind of like work to find the ripe berries. In another week they will be all over the islands. While we were picking we noticed that a boat was pulling into Midway (Our Bay) Bay! Oh Well, you can't have the anchorage to yourself every night. But you can hope.

After dinner we went ashore for a campfire. Our neighbors joined us and we had a nice visit. The neighbors were April & Dean who were on a Catalina 38 named April First. Even though they have been sailing for 20 years this was their first visit to the North Channel. They actually found Midway Bay by mistake, they thought they were pulling into Moiles Harbour but when they realized their mistake they decided to stay. Apparently April is a diesel mechanic, I wish she was on our boat. Our campfire was ended abruptly when the damn mosquitoes decided to join us.

We took a long dinghy ride and then went to White Chart Cove to pick berries. As we approached our boat we noticed that a dinghy was starting to row into the cut. Once we were aboard, the dinghy pulled up and the first thing the guy who had been rowing said was, "When you have an outboard engine you should never go further than you are willing to row!" The "rower" was a man named Phil, he had taken his niece and a friend's son for a dinghy ride and the engine quit. Since he had already rowed a very long distance and still had to go to Beardrop Harbour, also a long distance, we offered to pull him back to his boat.

Phil and his wife Mary are from Detroit and sail on a C&C 44 , Phil had done the Port Huron to Mackinaw Double handed race and was now cruising the NC with several other boats who had also raced. As Phil said, "It's a great way to get the boat up here from Detroit fast without having the hassle of provisioning for 10 people!"

It's always fun to start the day with a surprise! We decided that we would head for Cleary Cove today, since we didn't have a dinghy last visit we wanted to do some exploring. Robin went to start the engine, it would turn over but it wouldn't kick in! TROUBLE, out here in the middle of nothing this is not good news. We took the stairs out and uncovered the engine. Yup! The engine was still there! We had fuel (thank god) in the separator. Then I noticed the engine kill lever. Could it be that it wasn't pushed in? I looked in the cockpit and that was the problem. Robin had turned the engine off last night but didn't push the kill handle (right now a vice grip) back down. We both took a deep sigh of relief and then tried the engine again. It started!

Usually it's a pain when you have to crawl out of the vee-berth very early in the morning to go to the potty. Today it was a real treat! At 5:00 AM I reluctantly crawled out of bed for the morning duty. As usual I looked out the vee berth port and saw the full moon just above the horizon. At first I thought it was the sun rising but then I realized which direction we were facing. The moon was huge and had a beautiful golden color. It was so neat I just had to wake up Robin, I'm not sure she was all that happy about it but she said it was great. What a great way to start a day. Unfortunately it was too early to start it just yet so we went back to bed.

Once I was up for real I had a busy morning! I cleaned out the dinghy, took pictures, picked berries, and did a little rock climbing. All this before breakfast!

The Great Lakes Cruising Club ports guide describes Armour Island this way: "Armour Island is a wild little anchorage tucked in between the Northwest corner of Eagle Island and the eastern shore of Armour Island. It is a scenic unspoiled but small harbour." Today we found that this is very true. This is one of the most unique anchorages we've been in so far. The water is very clear and the rock formations are stunning.

Tonight after dinner we sat in the cockpit to relax and watch the scenery. After a few minutes I noticed an animal swimming along shore toward us. Robin got out the binoculars and whispered "it's a beaver!" We had seen what looked to be a beaver lodge in the corner of the anchorage.

Mr. Beaver put on quite a show for us. He ran up on shore and then we heard some noises. Shortly he returned to the water pulling a limb from a tree. He soaked the limb and leaves for a short time and then he started eating. After no time at all he was left with just a bare stick. Next he headed for the reeds, apparently for dessert, and started consuming several of them. He was just "busy as a beaver" repeating this sequence several times. This show went on for almost 45 minutes before he headed to the other end of the cove.

North Channel 97 Page