The Islands of North Channel

Large granite slope on South Benjamin

We left Little Current on Wednesday morning, Aug. 22^nd, after sad good-byes to the crew of After Taxes.  The sun was shining and the water was fairly flat so we had a pleasant three hour run to the Benjamins.  The Benjamins are broken into north and south with sister islands, Croker and Eagle.  We chose to anchor in the main harbor between North and South Benjamin.  Several other boats had the same idea and we had to drop anchor twice before we found a space with good holding and adequate swing room.   The Benjamins are different from most of the surrounding islands in that they are formed mostly of pink granite.  We hiked both days we were there and were rewarded with great views of the area.

Linda by Canadian flag on S. Benjamin

vVew of Raydiance at anchor
in main harbor at the Benjamins

View from top of North Benjamin

How these gnarly trees can find any soil is beyond me!

Sow and Pig Islands at entrance to the Benjamins

View from the granite slab.  Several boats in the harbor.

 The water is a bit chilly 66 degrees, but that hasn’t kept me out.  It is so clear that we could follow our anchor line to the bottom.  Thursday night we had a thunderstorm roll through with a lot of lightning   and some heavy rain.  Raydiance stayed put though we rocked a bit.

Gotta have at least one sunset picture at each harbor!

Shortcut out of the Benjamins which we did not take.

Friday we awoke to cloudy skies and a forecast for more rain with possible storms.  We waited until the radar looked clear and took up anchor around noon.    Even though we had scoped out a clear shortcut with the dinghy, we decided to retrace our entrance path out of the Benjamins.  Not worth taking a chance of that lone rock we didn’t see to save a few miles.  We headed north only traveling about 12 miles before reaching the next anchorage at Hotham.  Only two other boats were there, and one of those left shortly after we arrived. A bit later a woman came by in a kayak and invited us to her cottage for cocktails.  We have read so much in the guides about cottagers not wanting boats to anchor in their coves that I was sure she was coming by to ask us to leave.   Her invitation was a nice surprise!

Elaine and Norman's cottage (right) and
guest cottage, "the bunkhouse" (left)

Cocktails on the cottage porch
L-R  Tom, Elaine, Frazier and Kathy (aboard Lily Rose) and Norman

The next morning, Norman dinghyed to our boat to ask if we would like some pickerel (walleye) for dinner.  A friend had brought some over to them that morning and they were sharing with us and the crew of Lily Rose.  Without question, the answer was YES!  We had cocktails on our boat that evening and then everyone went back to their respective “homes” for delicious walleye dinners and a fine sunset over glass-smooth water.  A loon was calling that night. They chatter during the day and have that wonderful three tone melody at night. Tom knows how much I have enjoyed them, so he bought me a hand-carved loon as a belated birthday present when we were in Little Current.

You may wonder what we do all day at anchor.  Well, Saturday we cleaned the ising glass windows (which needed it badly as the diesel soot had really accumulated on them), scrubbed the back deck, read, swam in amazingly clear, cool water and went for a long dinghy ride with Tom attempting to fish at least part of the time. We are  contemplating adding an inflatable kayak to the fleet next year—for those times when I want to explore, but Tom doesn’t want to set up the dink.  The crew of Lily Rose has one and it looks like a lot of fun without much hassle.  

Did I mention boat baths???

Sunday we left Hotham and journeyed about 20 miles to Bear Drop Cove.  Legend has it that the indians used to drive bears to the edge of the cliff here and force them off.  Grizzly, eh?  Bear Drop proved to be

a difficult anchorage for us.  After three attempts we finally got a set on our anchor and spent a calm night there.  Monday, a gusty wind came up from the west, northwest  (an exposed sector in this anchorage) and we lost our set.  So we moved to a more sheltered part of the cove, but this area had a very weedy bottom.  Finally after resetting the anchor four times (each time it seemed to hold, and then an hour later we were dragging) we finally gave up and made a run into Blind River Marina.  The water was windblown into 3-4 foot choppy seas so the trip was not too  pleasant, but it was only 18 miles.  We arrived at the marina around 7:30 p.m. very grateful to be securely tied to a dock.  Bear Drop will be one of the few places on our Do Not Return list!

We will leave Blind River early Wednesday morning, if the weather stays as predicted.  Then it is good-bye to Canada after two wonderful months here.  We have thoroughly enjoyed the country and the people.  A return trip is definitely in the bucket!