Observer

Sunrise in Meldrum We said 'good bye for now' to a number of boats we've been traveling with in Canada. Saying bye to Lynne on Fins They are a great group of people who we've really enjoyed. They are off to the states and we will spend a little more time in Canada to meet up with some college friends who have a summer place not to far from our present location.  Today we had a bumpy ride across the North Channel to Blind River.  It is a small, quiet area.                   There was one other Looper here - Jeff & Brenda from Georgia on Satori.  Satori with the sun setting behind her We spent a little time trading stories of our adventures.  They are heading back to the states early tomorrow morning (see a trend here?) All our dock mates got a kick out of Millie posing with this boat Alice and Millie on an evening walk across from the stern of Observer

As bad as the conditions were yesterday, they were perfect today.  Had a nice four hour trip over to Meldrum Bay.                            Nice little town.  Got here early enough to enjoy a bike tour of the island. General Store Downtown Meldrum Breakwater Park Observer with Breakwater park in the background Saw this deer on bike ride Millie visiting her buddy, Captain on Fins and clean up the boat (trying to keep ahead of the bugs).  John and Sandy hosted a wine tasting aboard Seascape Invitation 5 out of the 6 wines were quite high end.  The 1 that was not (2 buck chuck) got the most votes! Nibbles to compliment the wine tasting (super fun, but in a blind tasting '2 buck chuck' did surprising well).  Had a great dinner over at the Meldrum Bay Inn. We know we have said this before but it was one of the best dinners out we have had this trip.

Today's weather was not conducive for moving Observer to the next port so we hung tight.  Plenty to do on a down day, trust me. .   Finally started to clear in the evening

Left the dock at 9 with a dramatic (thanks again to the current...Little Current is definitely a misnomer), but successful departure from the slip.  We had one of the most perfect days we have had with crystal clear sky, flat sea, light breeze and perfect temperature- oh and the sun was out .  Loved these two clouds  Close up of the larger one We had a relatively easy jaunt over to Gore Bay where the marina had nice wide docks which made for easy maneuvering. View of the Marina Observer, Fins, Hour Plan, Seascape, and Shell Belle all lined up View of the anchorage off our stern We dropped some $$ at the local grocery store. Boat of the day - Lady Marion 1 - how's that for a salty Tug.   Dinner at Bouy's on the water with the gang.  Lynne from Fins presented all the ladies ankle bracelets she made.  So sweet! Mine is a scallop shell with beads

We got up and were not sure conditions would be favorable to move to our next destination.  We heard from some other Loopers that it wasn't too bad so we dropped the lines a bit after 10 and off we went. Our fearless leader, Fins Strawberry Island Light, North Channel Our destination was Little Current and just before entering the harbor / marina, there was a swing bridge that only opens on the hour for 15 minutes. A gang of us were lined up to make the 1:00 bridge and that went fine.   Port of Little Current Marina was experiencing ''big current' and strong winds.  We had to wait for dock assignments from the marina one by one til we were all secured.  We ended up waiting over an hour and a half out in the channel, maneuvering so we'd stay were we were supposed to be.  As someone mentioned somewhere along the Loop, the first 30 seconds (getting off the dock) and the last 30 seconds (docking) are the most exciting (read challenging) of every day. Ours

Lay day. Being Sunday, I thought I post a picture of a church. This is the Catholic Church of St. Bonaventure, Killarney Tim had dropped his glasses off the dock right near Observer yesterday afternoon. Tim dove in and despite there only being 8 feet of crystal clear water at the dock, he could not find them.  Our dock neighbor, Vicky, aboard the Tug, Hoot was bound and determined to find them so she studied the scene this morning and was sure she spotted them under the dock.  Tim jumped in, swam down to the spot directed by Vicky and 'voila' got em. Vicky and Lori from Hoot THANK YOU VICKY!  We were introduced to another boating custom today, Champagne Sunday. The crews of Fins, Hour Time, Seascape, Shell Belle and Observer all got together for brunch aboard Fins for a fabulous champagne brunch.  Each boat brought a bottle of champagne and a few brunch worthy dishes to share. Bacon, veggie egg cups created by Lynne from Fins The rest of the day was cool

We have a bit of a trend going here as we were once again off the dock at 8 this morning. We had nice conditions (following East wind) as we took the very beautiful Collins Inlet route to Killarney. It's been a while since we have seen mountains Really pretty house right before Killarney We had reservations at the Sportsman's Inn Marina.  Killarney is a very busy place and a bit small for all the activity and boats there.  Considering we were in the middle of no where, it felt a bit like arriving in Edgartown on Saturday afternoon.  Killarney even had a bunch of seaplanes docked around About 1/2 the dock space is across the river on George's Island.  George's Island The marina runs a pontoon boat ferry back and forth called Tinkerbell and you ring the bell for service.  We tried the pub at the Inn for dinner and it did not disappoint.