Left for Collins Inlet early in the morning. The forecast was grim. Winds by noon 20 knots from the west and building for a few days. When we left we saw 4 feet waves and 15 knots.
Collins Inlet separates the North shore from Philip Edward Island. Steep cliffs and all that, protected against any wind and Mill Lake in the middle, a nice anchorage. We were looking forward to the trip. The first 6 miles through open water was a roller coaster ride, but then, once in, all was still and quiet. The shore line steep, the water dark, no traffic. The weather was dark as well. Just not right.We were waiting for our "ohh and ahh moment", as we had had in Baie Fine, but no cigar. Some pretty sights, but not yet spectacular.
Arrived in Mill Lake. No cell phone coverage, no internet, and it is hard to hear the coast guard and weather. Met up with Dick & Jen, and their friends Diana and Michaux. Gave them the latest weather forecast (winds form the SW 25-30knots and rain), and anchored one island down from them to be out of the wind. Spent some really good time together, and then the rain came and we each stayed on our own boats and would call each other in the morning and decide where to go, or what to do.
Tim and I decided that maybe we should go back direction Killarney and Little Current. Mill Lake seemed very remote. The most life we saw was big, huge, snapping turtles, and I knew that Tim would go stir crazy without any means of communication, and thus I would not be able to read my books.
Sheet Music (Dick and Jen) decided to stay another day and hoped the weather would change for the better. They really wanted to show Diana and Michaux the Bustards. We hauled up our anchor, they came in kayaks to say good bye, we stopped by putting engine in reverse, heard this awful, high, whining sound and Tim knew right there and then, our transmission was dead. Here we are, in the middle of nowhere, no communication, dead in the water. Now, we know how to anchor, and leave an anchorage, without engine power. We practiced that a lot in the past year, just for the fun. We anchored beside Sheet Music who were in awe over this and said "what a great way to say good bye". Once they heard what happened they said: "we are here together, we leave together" and they ended up towing us back to Killarney in 20 knots of wind on the nose and some waves to go with it. We are very lucky to have them for friends.
We all ended up at the Killarney Mountain Lodge at the dock.Celebrated our 20th anniversary there and were not too worried apparently about the transmission. Dick and Jen are musicians and had the whole lodge singing. Great time.Friends of ours, who knew what had happened, called the lodge and told them to serve us wine and charge it to their credit card. We just felt overwhelmed.
Tim being Tim, had already some phone calls out etc. To make a long story short, we had a really good time with Dick, Jen, Diana and Michaux. The "wine friends" came to our rescue by providing a ride from Killarney to our car in Penetang. From there back home to Lucan. Tim sourced a transmission in Kingston and drove there, and then to Penetanguishene in his car. I drove with Max and all the fridge stuff to Penetang and we met up Hindson, our marina. From there in Tim's car to Killarney and on August 6 the new transmission was in and we left Killarney on Friday, August 7 for Pointe au Baril. Winds form the NW at 10 knots, and we were SAILING.. The sun was shining and all was well.
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