Parry Sound to Killbear Island

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After a short meeting to go over charts this morning (31 July), everyone began making preparations to leave Parry Sound, heading to Killbear Island. Some of the folks stopped along the way at one of the MANY anchorages to swim for a while before making their way in to Killbear Marina. Today is another warm and gorgeous day in Canada, and a great day to be on the water.

We traveled through “Hole-in-the-Wall” passage this morning. This passage was another NARROW passage, but there was plenty of water under the boat, which was a change from previous passages that we have encountered. The passage was short, but beautiful.

At Killbear Marina there is an office and a separate store and restaurant. That’s about all there is here, and there is not anything within walking distance. Today will be a good time to catch up on boat chores since there is nothing around to distract us. The restaurant has been reserved for the Loopers this evening for dinner.

We will leave early Wednesday morning (1 August) and cruise inside to Pointe au Baril; then outside to Byng Inlet and stay at Wright’s Marina in Britt, Ontario, for a night. This trip will be about 50 miles.

We passed several lighthouses and many more islands and cottages today.

We arrived at Wright’s Marina around 1:30 p.m., and were assigned our slip. If we haven’t said this before, marinas in this part of the country are not marinas as we know them. Oftentimes, the marinas are outfitted for much smaller boats, so that means we don’t always have the 50 amp power we need, or a slip long enough for the boat, so we often hang out over the end of the slip. However, we have made it just fine and consider this one of the adventures of this trip.

Late afternoon there was another gathering of the Loopers at the restaurant for drinks and finger foods. After dinner, Bob and Karen Jantz, the Canadians who are leading us on this part of the adventure, were presented a gift as a small token of appreciation for making this trip possible. They are great people and a joy to be around.

The morning we departed Wright's Marina, there was a huge fuel tanker passing through the narrow channel. We later heard that this tanker provides fuel for all the marinas in the area.

Tomorrow we will be on our way to Killarney. Stay tuned…