A really interesting anchorage that we stayed at is Wingfield Basin. It is near Cabot Head on the Bruce Peninsula. On the right-hand side of the anchorage is an abandoned burned out ship, half submerged in the water. Nature is taking over though and grass, shrubs, and critters are turning it into their homes. Dennis spotted a big black snake in the stern.
In addition to the ship, there is a trail to the lighthouse which is now a bit of a tourist attraction as it is no longer used as an aid to navigation. We went inside the lighthouse and climbed to the top of the tower. Very impressive view!
We had an uneventful time (this is a good thing) at the anchorage and relaxed, especially after being in the carnival atmosphere of Tobermory! We went to bed fairly early but at midnight, the wind picked up and changed direction. It was coming from the northeast. By three o’clock, it was pretty much howling and all the boats had swung around on their anchors. This led to a powerboat dragging its anchor and getting within fifteen feet of our boat. Dennis had already been up several times, checking things out, and by five o’clock, he was ready to go and wake the powerboat owners up. He waited until 5:30 and then quite politely knocked on the stern of their boat. Of course there was no answer, so he dinghied around in the anchorage trying to figure out what to do. We couldn’t move our boat because the powerboat was right on our anchor, so if Dennis tried to pull our anchor, he would have pulled our boat onto buddy’s boat (very complex!).
Finally at 6:15, he went back over to the powerboat and banged on their hull until somebody answered. He told them the problem and they came on deck, surveyed the situation, and pulled their anchor. They then moved to another spot. We though, were we ready to leave, so we pulled our anchor, and headed out of the harbour to be greeted by six foot waves within minutes of leaving!
The crossing from Wingfield Basin to Parry Sound was rough for the first three hours and we had to motor the whole way. The water settled down though as we got closer to Parry Sound and by 3:00, we were anchored at Killbear Park.
We are heading into town for a couple of days and then we are going back out for our second loop for another couple of weeks. Last night the temperature dipped to 9 degrees!
Check out the pictures below of the burned out ship.
Split Crow 