If you asked us to sum up our thoughts on the Georgian Bay we’d say this: it’s Rocky Mountain National Park on water. For the past week we’ve been reminded of our beautiful home state of Colorado as we cruise by huge lichen-covered boulders, miles of coniferous trees, the sweet smell of pine sap and deep blue skies. Just add water and you’ve got the Georgian Bay.
We spent the week anchoring in spots ranging from pristine, quiet getaways to bays filled to the brim with other boats. Everyone who owned a boat was out on Canada Day weekend and we watched a private fireworks show on an island right next to us (scared poor Scully nearly to death!). We spent July 4th at anchorage with our American friends, Tom and Julie.
Canada didn’t escape the early summer heat wave so when it got too hot to handle, we jumped off our boat and took a dip in the clean, refreshing water. That was a first for me and I loved it! Craig had a blast diving off various parts of the boat but hasn’t found the nerve to plunge in from the fly-bridge yet. Other days were cool and windy, requiring sweat shirts.
Christian Island was a very special, peaceful anchorage for us, made famous by Gordon Lightfoot’s song of the same name. His lyrics summarized Craig’s mood perfectly…
I’m sailing down the summer wind
I got whiskers on my chin
And I like the mood I’m in
As I while away the time of day
In the lee of Christian Island
We traveled through easy, broad bays then, just around the corner, channels so narrow that we held our breath as we squeaked through, boulders surrounding us on both sides and below us, their sharp edges visible through the clear water. Check out this video…
We are now in Killarney, Ontario at the base of the North Channel, an even more remote area. If you, like me, said, “Huh? Where is that?” see the photo below:
After about a week anchoring in the the North Channel we will be back in the States on Mackinaw Island on July 18th. Hope everyone is well and happy!
Team Joy Girl Adventures 
The Wisconsin glacier really scoured the rocks around the Great Lakes. If you look closely, you may see long north-south scar marks on the high points. Nice pic at Scott’s Island. (No discernable family relation.) The e-mail version had captions, but the web version doesn’t.
Gnats… yuck. The ones at Lake Powell are herbivorous, so we don’t park the boat near heavy foliage. Good luck with that strategy in the Great Lakes. 🙂
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To see the captions sometimes you have to pull up the photos and swipe through them in the photo window.
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Hi from Anne at Park Place! I’ve been enjoying your adventures and your latest Georgian Bay -beautiful. Keep them coming. I will have brunch with Shirley soon and will tell her about it.
Best regards
Anne
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Anne, it’s so great to hear from you! What a wonderful surprise to know you are following our blog. We would LOVE IT so much if you might be able to share our posts with Shirley. Would that be possible for you to do, maybe on the library computer? She’s interested in what we are doing but has no way to see our posts. Hope you are well and happy!
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