Stats for (what day is it?!) July 27th

Origin:  Tobermory, Ontario

Destination:  James Bay, Ontario

Distance:  30 miles (maybe?)

Average Speed:  10ish mph

Time on the Move:  3 hours or so

**this is all kind of sketchy because the captain took his phone swimming while we were at James Bay and that is the closest/easiest place for me to get the above data at this moment….so those are guesstimates.  😉

We left Tobermory Harbor, heading for an anchorage in James Bay on the morning of 7/27.  We loved Tobermory!  It was beautiful and bustling and full of fun places to explore, but honestly we were tired of the hustle and bustle and wanted to spend some time at anchor.  We had hoped to get further, but as moving day neared, the winds were expected to build throughout the day and remain high for a few days so we wanted to get somewhere and get tucked in before it got too windy.  James Bay turned out to be the perfect place!!

 

We swung past Flowerpot Island on our way out of Tobermory.  These rock structures are famous and the island is covered with trails to hike.  We enjoyed our view from the water.

 

 

The middle third of our trip was through unprotected waters and we had some waves to contend with.  After we were far enough north, Manitoulin Island blocked the waves and the ride was much more calm.  Toby took care of some chores on the honey-do list.

 

As we got closer to the bay, Colin helped us do some scouting.  This area of the island is pretty remote and we had fun using the binoculars to search the shoreline for any signs of people.  We ended up seeing 2 tiny cottages, a chair set up by a fire pit, and two campers tucked away in the woods.  Other than that, it was pretty desolate.

 

After lunch C + H tested out the new tube behind the dinghy and it was AWESOME!  They liked going over the waves the best and Mike and I loved that we got to check out the shoreline a little closer as we zoomed around.  Toby liked all the extra space he had without all of us crammed in there (but we couldn’t get him to go for a ride–even with an ice cream bribe!!)

 

We landed the dinghy and did some exploring along the beach.  There were tire tracks in the sand, so we weren’t too surprised later that night to see a car drive along the beach to one of the remote cottages.  No animal prints except for some dog tracks, a few deer footprints, and lots of Canadian geese markings.

 

After dinner from the grill and a **busy** game of Yahtzee, we were treated to an amazing moonrise.  This picture doesn’t begin to do justice to how big or pink the moon was.  It was breathtaking.

 

The next morning Toby was obsessed with fishing from the moment he woke up, so Mike got all the kids set up with poles after breakfast.  No luck on the fish, but they are already begging to try again!

 

We had just about zero connectivity out there, so we were pretty in the dark for weather, etc, but we were just hoping for the best.  Luckily we were tucked in tight and had great holding.  It was pretty windy on our first evening, but settled down by bedtime.  On the 28th, it was overcast in the morning, but was bright and sunny in the afternoon.  Perfect!

We went on another dinghy ride hoping to get some signal to check weather, and then we went for a hike along the shore.  According to my map app there is a lake close to the shore, so we were hoping we could get to it.  However, the brush was too thick (Mike’s scared of poison ivy!  I’m scared of anything that could be living in the woods or building webs in there!) so we just enjoyed the hike.

 

The skies cleared during our hike and we were ready for some water fun.  The big kids went kayaking (Colin actually kayaked to shore and spent about 2 hours building a dam), and we all went swimming, and even Toby jumped in right off the swim platform.  It was COLD!  Like the kind of cold that you can’t catch your breath and you just want to get out as quick as you can, COLD.  It was about 62*.  Brrr…

 

**While he was cleaning up from our afternoon of fun and water toys, Mike took an unexpected swim off the dinghy with his phone in his pocket.  The NEW PHONE that we had to make a few special trips to Verizon and the post office for right before we left.  He was totally fine, just wet and surprised, but this means we’re down one cell phone (unless the rice trick works…).  It’s always something!!

 

After dinner, we put Toby to sleep early with our Harry Potter read-aloud, and then we had another game of Yahtzee.

 

We had another beautiful sunset.  What an amazing few days in James Bay!!

 

Everything about our time in James Bay was amazing except one thing.  We realized on our second evening that our invertor wasn’t charging like it should.  We did some trouble shooting and finally decided we had to unplug anything that wasn’t absolutely essential.  Mike assured me that our starter batteries wouldn’t be affected (so we wouldn’t be stranded out there), but he didn’t seem too confidant that we would have power in the morning.  Sure enough, we woke up with barely any power left–not even enough to charge my cell phone over night (and remember, we’re down to just 1, so I feel like it’s really pretty essential!!).  So, our plans to head to another anchorage changed so that we could head into a marina and get shore power.  We’re hoping we’ll have a marine electrician who knows just what to do to fix our problem in a jiffy.  If not, 2 nights at a time on the hook will be our limit.  Off to civilization in the morning!  Killarney here we come!