After a cold and wet spring with an overload of mosquitoes, summer finally started just early July. Stella turns out to be a really good boat dog. Took her out for a week around July 1 and still had some hesitations, but all in all she seemed to like the boating life (probably because everybody wants to pet her).
Decided to go for a 3.5 week trek north. If there were problems with the dog we could always have short sails and stay local.
Left on July 23 and made it to Echo Bay. Stella did well and we took lots of pictures, but will spare you most of them.
After that, we went straight for the Bustards. Yes indeed, a 11 hour trek. What were we thinking? We stopped halfway at Josephine Rocks in Pointe-au-Baril area, dropped the hook and gave Stella some shore leave. After 20 minutes we were gone, figuring we could always go to Britt if things were not right. Stella was a trooper dog, and we arrived in the Bustards at 5 in the afternoon or so. Did we ever feel giddy. We knew the weather would turn for a day with winds from the west and rain, and stayed for a day. Gave us a chance to get some rest, but also to see if "our blueberry patch" still had any berries left. We had already heard that there weren't many berries around and what there was, was small and sour. Our patch delivered 1 small container. Enough for 2 blueberry pancake meals.
Headed out for Covered Portage on Sunday and stayed for a few days to catch our breath. Temperature was great, lots of sun, and the water temperature was up there as well. Even Tim went for a swim. Met quite some unique people, a rower from Oregon, who had converted an inflatable paddle board to a rowing unit, and an inventive person who went for cocktail hour.
Heard from Tug'n who were going to Little Current to attend the Cruisers' neta potluck there. We all wanted to meet up, so off we went to Little Current for the night.
After that we headed out for the Benjamins, planning to head west.
First stop was Hotham, where we met up with Georgian Mist and Robert Sidney. By then winds were from the west at 10 knots and forecasted to go to 20, but where we were we had very good protection. We would just postpone heading west for a few days. Met some really nice other boaters there and the wind just kept blowing and all of us just kept staying.
After 5 days we figured that heading west was not going to happen this year and maybe just head east instead. So, to Little Current for supplies, then off to Croker, and when the wind shifted, back to the Benjamins.
By the way, did we mention the snakes at Croker? They love to sunbathe on swim ladders.
After that back to Little Current and our weeks were over! Go figure. Bill and Jill met us there and they are now sailing the boat back for us to Midland. Except they are stuck in Britt because of winds. Story of this summer: No wind, or too much for days in a row.
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