Wednesday August 18, 2009 - Discovering Bliss

Indian Harbour to 12 Mile Bay

I woke up to PP driving his dinghy out to retrieve his second anchor. To his credit, we never hit in the night. Actually, if we did, I slept through it. PP was out in his dinghy, coiling anchor rode when the boats finally did come together. I scrambled up on the bow, and fended off his boat. He yelled at his wife. I asked the kids to go find Mommy. Designer wife couldn’t figure out how to work the winch from the fly bridge. I held the boats off each other until PP came and pulled his bow anchor in. Then they left.

Bliss.

We had breakfast, and got our day underway at a leisurely pace. Only travelling a few hours a day means we can sleep in, have big meals, and not worry about meeting schedules. With PP and the cuss pot both gone, things were actually peaceful in the anchorage. We left at 10:00 before that could change.

Just north of Indian Harbour, we went to King Bay Marina to get milk, and much deserved ice cream cones. We had handled PP with decorum, and it was good to be away. King Bay Marina looks like it could use a little more business or maintenance. The docks were like a labyrinth, and the store was mostly clad in plywood. Some of it had been painted.

We looked at the milk, but it only came in 1 litre cartons, and cost as much as PP’s boat. Instead we bought gas (out of pity really, we didn’t need it), and ice cream, and mortgaged the house to pay for it. After sitting on the dock to eat our ice cream we were on our way at 1:30, and arrived at 12 mile bay around 3:30. 12 mile bay meets Georgian Bay at O’Donnel Point. Around here there are dozens of spots to drop the hook, but many are quite exposed. Most folks go to an anchorage just inside the point called Wani Bay, but I wanted to go up the bay to a spot that looked interesting, but inaccessible on the charts. I figured we’d just prowl around in the deep water, and if things looked hopeful, we’d go inside the potential anchorage for a closer look.

When we go to the target spot, another boat was already anchored there. Surely if they could get in, so could we. I nosed the boat gingerly between the bleach bottles that marked rocks at the entrance, and carefully picked my way through the minefield to the deeper water of the anchorage. Past the rocks, the bottom turned to fine sand, and deepened to around 10 feet, before coming up in a beach. We dropped anchor, and Cutie asked if I had seen the other boat.

Me: “Of course I saw the other boat” (In my head – it’s a tiny anchorage, how could I not see the other boat!)

Her: “But did you look at the other boat?” (In her head – How can he not be noticing this? OMG!)

Me: “Yeah, it’s some guy and his girlfriend.” (In my head – Gees, they have a right to be here too!)

Chuck: “Can I go swimming?” (In her head – Nice beach!)

Her: “Only on the side of the boat away from the other boat. Honey, do we REALLY want to stay here?” (In her head – SAVE THE CHILDREN!!)

At about this point I glanced over at the other boat and got the full meaning of Cutie’s message. A big red ass was all I saw. It was badly sunburnt. It wasn’t pretty. Flabby 60 year old men should not parade about in the nude. At least this one had on a thong. A very tiny one. The only thought that entered my mind was “How will he put pants on without that burn causing some discomfort?” I would make a terrible nudist.

Within half an hour the nudists left, which provided relief to us. I felt a little bad about breaking up their party, but if you wanna be naked, you should probably expect interruptions. And if you are a flabby 60 year old man with a big butt, you should probably bring extra sun block. When that starts to peel...

Our anchorage in 12 Mile bay was everything we had come looking for (plus nearly naked retirees!). Sand beaches, bare rock, twisted pines, fish and quiet. There was room for maybe 4 boats. Maybe. 2 should be rafted together.

After we had been there for a couple hours a second boat came into the anchorage. He had an 11 year old and 13 year old aboard. They played with Chuck, and we explored the backwaters of the anchorage, went swimming and had fun. This was definitely the high point of the trip. Good company at a beautiful spot, and peace and quiet. We could have stayed forever. We stayed for 2 days.

On our second day in the anchorage we got reports of tornados hitting towns close to home, so we sent off quick messages on our neighbour’s computer to let folks know we were OK. We had some rain, but no severe weather, and in fact we had been having a great time. The other boat (L’eau Rider) was out of the same marina as “All the Right Reasons” who we had met at Doral back at the start of our trip. His kids hit it off with Chuck, and we were likely playing cards while the tornadoes were ripping apart York Region.

On the evening of our second night, L’eau Rider shared with us, and we had a combined dinner, with everyone crammed around his salon table. After that we went on his back deck and swapped stories until way too late. It was after midnight when we piled into the Barbie Dream Boat and headed back to Iris.

It was another night with amazing stars. I felt lucky to be part of the world.