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August 2, 2012  Day 83     Hopewell Bay, Ontario  Total miles to date:  1582.5

Our farewell party as we left our
anchorage

Our tightest fit yet between markers

We pulled up anchor near Pare Island early (7:05 am) and headed out for a 35 mile day.  We left under cloudy skies which turned to a fairly heavy rain within two hours, and were in 2 foot seas.  The water ranged from deep and wide to extremely narrow and surrounded by rocks.  This provided some challenges in certain areas to say the least.

We had selected an anchorage at Hopewell Bay and arrived there before noon.  The rain had stopped and the sun was partially out. There were already two sailboats and a cruiser there and after we anchored, Our Time arrived. Two more sailboats joined us in the late afternoon. Fortunately there was enough room for all of us!

Tomorrow we will head to St. Amant’s Marina in Britt, Ontario and spend two days there.  Rather than head up the coast line through all the rocks, we may “go out” into Georgian Bay a mile or more even though we will likely experience a rougher ride with the wind that is forecast.

Another note today is the Mayday call we heard on the VHS radio – a 55’ sportfishing boat had hit the rocks near the Pointe au Baril Lighthouse and was taking on water.  We were over an hour from them and could not have reached them in time to help. Fortunately, others responded and got the 2 people and their dog off into a dinghy and eventually got the boat pulled into shore.
We had dinner on board and got caught up with chart plotting and reading. While we are in Canada we cannot get any television reception, so we are missing the Summer Olympics.