Well the cold front went thru yesterday and we had a huge rain storm but thankfully not a lot of thunder and lightning. The temps this morning were comfortable and the plan was to go to the Byng Inlet.
The Byng Inlet is the outlet for the Magnetawan River where I have been a member of Morton’s Point Fish Camp for the last 30 years. The camp is probably 30 miles or so up the river past several rapids and waterfalls.
We will be traveling with Pete and Carolyn of the Nordic Tug, Humbug. They are from Mystic Connecticut and are only on the start of their Loop. We first met Pete and Carolyn at Liberty Landing Marina in the New York City area. We also shared Docktails with them in Peterborough on the Trent-Severn for Canada Day. Pete and Carolyn arrived at Killbear Marina the other day a couple of hours after we did. We will travel with them for the next several days. It is always nice to travel with a buddy boat.
The winds this morning were out of the northwest and blowing moderate, maybe 15 mph. We were going to do the small craft route all the way to the Byng Inlet but we had been advised due to the low water to go outside for the portion from Pointe Au Baril to Byng.
The small craft route was great. Lots of pictures of the rocks and the channel in several areas had the narrow channel between the buoys. The area as we approached Pointe Au Baril becomes more populated with cottages and boaters in their runabouts. There was a fair amount of “big” boat traffic headed south that we passed.
The route we took was a little different than in years past. It wound thru the small islands
and came out about 1 mile from the Pointe Au Baril Lighthouse. The wind intensity had picked up somewhat since we saw the Bay just outside of Killbear. The route we were taking was about 3 miles offshore. We travelled out about halfway to the turn and the waves were larger than we wanted to struggle with for the next couple of hours so we called Humbug and let them know were going back in. They did not take too
long and decided to follow us back.
We went back about 7 miles to Hopewell Bay. It had been recommended to Pete by the Owner of Bayport Marina in Midland. He had sat with Pete and went over the entire route from Midland to Killarney, including places to stay and anchorages. Hopewell Bay
is as good as advertised. A well protected anchorage. We had no problem anchoring in about 7’ to 8’ of water with plenty of room to swing. The bay is carved out of granite but has a good mud bottom.
The only bummer was I could not get the outboard started. I even replaced the spark plugs but it did not help. I will have that looked at in the Byng Inlet if I can find a mechanic.