Author Archives: JH

After the high winds at Logan’s Bay on Clapperton Island, we left to to to Little Current so that we could get the water heater welded. We arrived in the morning and Dennis immediately tore the boat apart in order to get to the heater. Once he had it, we called the welder and a taxi, and he headed off the island – he went to Goat’s Island which is just across the bridge, and had the heater welded. He returned within the hour and proceeded to re-install it. Once he got everything in, he realized that there was a leak! So, he had to take everything back apart, call the welder (this time he asked if they could pick up the water heater) and then waited for it to be repaired.

Again, within the hour, it was repaired and then Dennis reinstalled it for the second time. This time it worked and then he spent the rest of the afternoon putting the boat back together. By 4:30, he was done and now we have extremely hot water! It must have been dribbling out for a while because I never had hot water in the aft bathroom, just lukewarm. So, hopefully it will stay welded until we get home.

We met a guy on a 64 foot sailboat who is a retired Hydro One worker from Kincardine (he knows Allan Cornthwaite) and had a tour of his boat. Pretty big! He also has a great Portuguese Water Dog named Josh (after Joshua Slocum). Check out this picture!

Josh waiting patiently for his walk

I was very impressed with the amount of space on the boat – he even had a bathtub! Here are some pictures of it and the owner.

The Epicurus

The owner of the Epicurus

Inside the main area

Onboard the Epicurus

After the tour and some supper, we were sitting on our boat and some town kids came down to the dock to go swimming. This is a bone of contention between the town and the boaters because the kids are very often loud and obnoxious and use a lot of very colourful language. One boater did speak to someone of authority and really complained, so the staff took the safety ladders away (so that if you fall into the water, you can swim over to a ladder to get back up). This did not deter the kids and I would imagine that there will be some letters written to the Town Council. However, taking the ladders away is not the solution – I would imagine there are some safety concerns!

In other marinas, people are not allowed to wander up and down the docks or swim – it is kind of like complete strangers wandering around in your yard, but in Little Current, the docks are in a very public area and people take advantage of this. If you are docked “on the wall”, then you become the tourist attraction and everyone wants to talk to you (which is fine for the first ten minutes, but it wears thin very quickly). If you are on the finger docks, then it is much better except for the kids who go swimming off the docks. Because the boaters pay for the dock slips (well, most people do but I noticed that some tie up for the day and use the showers as well as the electricity and then leave), they feel they have the right to privacy and should not be subjected to the swimming show which takes place several times a day. So, I am curious to know how this will be handled – we shall see!

We are heading back tomorrow and will probably spend the night in Covered Portage Cove. We have to be in Parry Sound for Thursday night – we are going to see Jimmy Flynn at the Stockey Centre. Should be fun!

We left Gore Bay on August 8th to go overnight to Logan’s Bay. It is a nice anchorage that doesn’t have many people. We spent the day swimming, kayaking, fishing and relaxing in the sun. The weather forecast was not favourable for the next day and now on Day Three, we are still here. The winds are gusting to 30 knots an hour! Our anchor is holding though, so it is not so bad although the boat seems to be spinning around a lot.

We have managed to occupy ourselves very well in the past two days. Lots of kayaking because the anchorage is huge and fairly well protected, so we’ve practising going into the waves. That’s a lot of fun, especially because the water is so warm.

Dennis now has a new project – the water heater broke this morning so we are going to Little Current tomorrow to get it welded and he is spending the afternoon tearing apart the entire main cabin, trying to get at it.

Not much else is new – I am getting a lot of school work done today. All necessary and a good day to do it!

Cockburn Island (pronounced Cogburn) is a great place to visit if you want to get away from the crowds of Meldrum Bay! It is very isolated – there wasn’t even electricity until eight years ago!

"Old Pink" makes yet another appearance

We arrived on the Government Dock and two boys helped us tie up. They were working for their uncle, the lone year round resident, so I am sure any excuse to leave their task of painting a dock was appreciated. They gave us the low down and even offered to take us on a tour of the old school house after they finished work at 2:30. We declined.

We wandered around the “town” of Tolsmaville for a bit and met up with the uncle. He and his dog were very friendly (although he didn’t have many teeth – the uncle – not the dog) and gave us a bit of history of the island which used to have over a thousand people living on it at one time. The people were homesteaders but it must have been a terrible life. Farming was not great, so they fished and worked in the bush in the winter cutting down logs. Eventually, everyone either left or died. The only people who live there now are summer residents except for the man (the boys’ uncle) who lives there alone all year round.

The man gave us the key to the school house and church, so we walked up the road to see both.

The church at Cockburn Island

Inside the church

Inside the school

Dennis mentioned that he had gotten the strap quite a bit when he went to elementary school - somehow that doesn't surprise me!

After visiting the church and school, we talked to some of the summer people and then went swimming. After supper, we took a walk down another road and ended up visiting people that we’d met that afternoon. It turns out that they knew a bunch of people that we knew from Sudbury.

The next morning, we left early and motored over to Meldrum Bay where we checked in with Customs in the new marina building. Quite an improvement! We had a very nice dinner too at the Meldrum Bay Inn.

Today, at 7:00 am sharp (the captain wanted to get going), Dennis rowed me and my bike over to the dock, and I drove my bike to Gore Bay while Dennis sailed. It was 75 kilometres and the first twenty minutes was great as I had favourable weather. The rest of the trip (about four hours in total) though, was not quite as pleasant as it either drizzled or poured the entire time. Luckily though, I had my rain jacket and the rain was warm so it wasn’t so bad. The only exciting thing I saw on my trip was another osprey’s nest – right on the side of the road in a hydro pole. I stopped and took a picture – unfortunately, the osprey was not impressed and let me know by squawking at me!

I arrived in Gore Bay at 11:30 and had packed away my towel, soap and a change of clothes in my Mountain Equipment bike bag so when I arrived at the marina, I just hopped into one of the showers and had a wonderful shower! I then sat around and waited for Dennis who showed up at 1:30.

Anyway, all in all, we had a good time and learned a lot of interesting things!

Osprey nest right beside the road