We departed Little Current on Thursday 8/4 after a two-night stay. Little Current provided us with an opportunity to get in a nice bike ride, two delicious dinners out at the famous Anchor Inn, a huge grocery provisioning, and plenty of walks for Millie.
Quick Millie Update: She’s doing great! She enjoys her time in the marinas where she can get multiple walks each day, and she seems to enjoy her time on anchor as well. We’ve started to give her a little freedom when we hit the shore with the dinghy – just letting her run off-leash. She’s been doing great with it and comes back to the dinghy – pretty well. She particularly enjoyed romping around on the Benjamin Islands. There were huge rocks that provided her with lots of space to run back and forth between us.
The Benjamins are a small cluster of islands just outside of Little Current. We received multiple recommendations to anchor there so it was high on the list. We were anticipating a little weather coming through so Chrisy made the astute recommendation to anchor in the less popular and smaller anchorage off the southern Benjamin Islands as it provided better protection from the anticipated wind shift to the northeast. The Benjamins did not disappoint. Our anchorage was small by Canadian standards and there were several boats ahead of us so we needed to select our spot carefully. Once we were settled we took a hike to try to reach the anchorage on the east side and meet up with fellow Back Cove owners, Brad and Susan, on Northern Light. A deep ravine got in the way and we were only able to yell back and forth to each other from our cliffs. Fortunately, they were able to dinghy over to us.
We dinghied over to the small, southern-most Benjamin Island before our departure on Friday and it provided one of those “pinch me am I really here?” moments. We climbed the massive rocks and had spectacular views of the North Channel.
Our anchorage in South Benjamins
The girls enjoying the views
As we speak with Canadian cruisers who are in these waters every summer, we have been told numerous stories of people doing the Loop and bringing their boats back to either Michigan or Canada so they can cruise these waters again and again. Without exaggeration, these are the nicest cruising grounds we have ever been to. Maine is a special place to cruise with amazing harbors, wildlife, and quaint towns. We love our home waters of Narragansett Bay along with Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, and Block Island, but it’s pretty tough to beat the Georgian Bay and the North Channel. The scenery is amazing, the towns are fun, we are swimming in seventy-degree fresh water and there’s hardly anyone up here.
We left the Benjamins Friday 8/5 and went to Hotham Island. The cruising guides told us about a small anchorage, well up a narrow bay where there was one house on the shore and the owners invite you up to their porch for cocktails every day. Who would do that – every day? We had to go. What a nice couple, Norm and Elaine. Elaine kayaked over to Egret in the early afternoon and gave us the ground rules – 4:30 pm, no dogs – Millie had already made her presence known, and no food – just drinks – that’s fine with us. There were three other boats in the harbor and everyone came. Norm regaled us with stories of how the house was built – it’s completely off the grid, generator, solar power, septic tank, and freshwater filtration from the lake. Elaine handled all the introductions, took all the pictures, and supplemented the stories. Great fun and one of those moments that you only get cruising. Incidentally, we were the “newbies” at the gathering – the other 3 boats had already met Elaine and Norm over the years and always return to Hotham Island when they are in the North Channel to say hello.
Our weather has been a steady rhythm of two or three days of spectacular sunshine followed by a day or two of a cold front and rain. Departing Hotham, we were looking for sanctuary from the approaching cold front. For some of the cold fronts we have jumped into marinas, but for this one, we decided to head to a protected anchorage on John Island. There’s great holding, plenty of swinging room, and the nearest boat is several hundred yards away. We stayed here for two nights – saw a bear walking the shoreline at dusk and an eagle in the morning – and met 2 fellow cruisers as they dinghied by us in the anchorage.
Our time in Canada is drawing to a close, and we are beginning to schedule our return. If you couldn’t tell from this and previous posts, we will miss Canada. After two years of closure due to COVID, the Canadians are particularly happy to welcome us back. The cruising from the Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence to the North Channel has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Again, we will miss Canada – and the many nice Canadians we have met along the way.
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