Baie Fine to Little Current August 15 to 18

From Bad River we went back out into Georgian Bay for a few miles before turning back Northeast to transit Beaverstone Bay and Collins Inlet. Collins Inlet forms the north side of Phillip Edward Island and leads past an Indian Reserve and Killarney Provincial Park. There was a narrow marked channel with signs warning about low water and indeed we bounced on a rock at the edge of the channel. But the scenery on the North side of Prince Edward Island was worth it with beautiful rock and tree covered sloops on each side. As we motored we were passed by several cruising power boats and in turn passed about a dozen kayakers.

Leaving Phillip Edward to port we headed back out into Georgian Bay. Bypassing Killarney Inlet and the town of Killarney we turned towards Frazier Bay. Our goal was Baie Fine (pronounced Bay Fin.)



We did our first med mooring in Mary Ann Cove of Baie Fine. We pulled into this cove with five other boats already tied up to the shore so we dropped anchor and backed up close to the shore. As I prepared to drop the dinghy to tie the stern to shore a man from Chicago came up and helped tie us off to a tree. This a peaceful and therefore popular spot. We enjoyed the night. The next morning I took the dingy nearby to a path that led to the crest of Frazier Bay Hill which the charts indicate is 573 meters tall. The climb was strenuous with many rocks and narrow passages to climb up and through. (See picture.)






The view from the top of Frazier Bay Hill was outstanding. I could see for many miles in spite of the haze. This picture shows Baie Bin with Mary Ann Cove just partially visible as a inlet coming towards me about 1/3 of the way from the right edge of the picture.

After I got back to the boat about 1100, we raised the anchor and headed down to the end of Baie Fin near an area called the pool. This was the location of a cottage owned by Frances Langford who was a singer/dancer that I remember seeing in Bob Hope USO Tours of WWII. She married Mr. Evinrude of the outboard motor fame and she kept a 100 foot yacht here in the summer until she died in 2005.

Our goal at the Pool was to go see the Topaz Lake. This lake is up in the hills and is clear with topaz colored water which comes from either acid from the pine needles or some leaching of a mineral - I heard both explanations from people. Anyway we dinghyed over to a grassy shore that we were told was the start of a path to the lake. After conferring with some locals about the path we started the hike up. It was partially in what appeared to be a stream bed and as it got rockier and steeper we decided Kaye should stop while I went up to investigate. Some of the path was like this picture but the last part was very steep.




When I got to the Topaz Lake I took several pictures trying to capture the stunning topaz color. Many people come up for swimming and snorkeling because the water is so clear.

After getting back to the boat we were hot and sweaty so we took a short swim off the back of the boat. Then about 1800 we took off for Heywood Island and an anchorage on the NE side. We anchored in a large bay called Browning Cove with about 20 other boats and had a little wind that made me get up during the night to make sure we were still in position away from other boats.

It was August 17 when we headed towards the town of Little Current and our first marina after nine nights of anchoring. We passed this light house on Strawberry Island.

We tied up on the wall of the Municipal Marina which was right near downtown. We strolled the main street and had lunch at a bistro. That afternoon we walked to the grocery store and went out for dinner where I had white fish - the prevalent local fish.

The main street with our dinner restaurant in the large building on the right.

The next morning Kaye wanted Fish & Chips so we walked down the boardwalk to this restaurant. The portions were huge so we saved half our food to take back to the boat. This left room for ice cream cones. The local ice cream brand was Farquhar's.

This picture shows a monument to WWI soldiers. Every Canadian town I visited had a prominent monument to WWI veterans. It was similar to the many towns in the US that have Civil War monuments in their town center. WWI was a traumatic event to Canada like the Civil War was to the US. Canada lost 64,944 soldiers or almost 1.0% of their total population. Compare this to US losses in WWI that were almost twice in number but only 0.13 % of the population. (Note that in the Civil War the US in total lost almost 2 % of its population, which is still much below what France, Britian and Germany lost in WWI.)