Day 31
Travel Time:
2.5 hours
NM today: 14
NM total: 692
Locks today:
0
Locks total:
70
As predicted
it started to rain in the wee hours of the morning, and we woke up to a soggy
day. With no good reason to stay in Echo
Bay, we got on our way to our next stop, Parry Sound, around 9:45. Although we were basically ready to be
underway much earlier, it took quite some time to deal with the anchor. Clark had put a bridle (a Y-shaped
arrangements of lines) on the bow with chafe guards to protect the lines last
night. In addition to undoing all this
line protection, the anchor itself had to be hauled up by hand. I told Clark that I needed to take the helm,
and he needed anchor duty to deal with the 100 feet of line and the weight of
the anchor, so we switched jobs for once.
When we
finally headed out of Echo Bay, the captain posted me at the bow of the boat to
be lookout for rocks in the way of a clean escape. With no markers to show the way in or out of
an anchorage, the term “gunk holing” is used meaning that you are on your own
and need to feel your way in and out. I
had on full rain gear, but at 61 degrees, it was chilly standing out there with
the water dripping from my hat. Oft
times, when doing something mundane, my mind wanders to entertain myself; I
never know where it will go. Today, as I
stood there at the bow of the boat looking for rocks, my mind turned to stories
of Horatio Hornblower and seaman on lookout duty for hours during the Napoleonic
wars and how they must have felt. I’m
almost never bored as my mind takes me off on interesting paths.
At the main
channel, the captain said I was relieved of my post so I came in out of the
rain. One thing we have found up here in
the land of 30,000 islands is that after a while they all look alike. We see some have signs up showing the name of
the island, but with the bad weather and poor visibility, we were having
trouble making sense of the chart compared to the island layout. At one point we followed a “magenta line” on
the chart thinking it was the course we needed to follow. As we proceeded the water became more and
more shallow with the chart showing first 5 feet ahead and then 2 foot
ahead. Yikes! “Uh, Clark, I think we’re going the wrong
way!”
We had to
backtrack to where 5 magenta lines intersected on the chart, sort through the
comparison of the chart to the land once more, and try a different route. Our second choice was much better as it had
some 20 feet of water and buoys! Oh
boy! I had pointed out this specific
channel to the captain earlier because it did have buoys and other boat
traffic. Of course I had a good time
telling him “I told you so” after the fact.
After a wet,
miserable boat ride we arrived at the Parry Island swing bridge, which only
opens every hour on the hour, at 20 minutes to 12:00. I asked the captain, “So what is the
clearance on that bridge anyway?” because it looked to me like we might be able
to squeeze under if we tried. The
captain was thinking the very same thing, so he went me down below for the boat
clearance requirements. Our sheet said
that we need 15’ 3” if everything is folded down except the Bimini top. Hmmmm!
Clark called the bridge tender who said that the current clearance is 16’4”. We decided to go for it though we knew it
would be a tight fit.
Clark
lowered the two antennas on the boat as well as the radar tower to bring us
down to our 15’3” height restriction. I
asked if we had current to push us into the bridge if we decided to bail; Clark
said, “No, but we have wind pushing us in instead.” Great!
Here goes! We told the bridge
tender we were coming through and asked him to let us know if he saw any
difficulties as we made our attempt. I
guess he wanted to watch the show because he came out and stood on a ledge where
he could see our boat and the bottom of the bridge as we went under.
We were
completely under the bridge when, with a smile on his face, he held up his hand
with his fingers showing an inch of space between his thumb and his pointer
finger and said, “You’re good”. Heaven
sakes, if we weren’t good by then we would have known before he told us as we
would have snagged our Bimini top on the bottom of the bridge. He
went home after work today with a story to tell his friends as I am sure he
could not believe that we even tried it, let alone made it. I love the feeling of exhilaration after
successfully pulling off something a little daring like that.
We cut 20
minutes off our ride in the rain by pulling off the “limbo act” with the
bridge, so we pulled into the Big Sound marina at a few minutes after
12:00. We found Ariel in the slip next to ours with a report that Rock Me Baby and Sno Daz had already arrived.
Shortly after we were settled in place, we saw the boat that had been
anchored next to ours at Echo Bay pull into a slip just a few down from
ours. Seems like we all had the same
destination in mind.
 |
| Docked at foggy Big Sound Marina in Parry Sound |
We plan on
leaving tomorrow but Ariel plans to
stay for two nights and Rock Me Baby
will be here a few days before heading onwards.
Unlike the others we have nothing to hold us here and Clark is excited
to try his hand at some more anchorages and “gunk holing”.
Still taking
care of business with our South Jersey house, we had some mail to send and we
needed some groceries like bread and such.
We found out that it was several blocks to the post office and several kilometers
to the grocery store. We planned on walking
in the rain to do our errands, but as we were just about to leave the marina on
our way, Bill and Annie from Rock Me Baby
pulled up in a rental car and told us to get in and that Bill would drive us to
the stores.
What a treat
especially since we planned on going to Canadian Tire in search of a temporary
docking cleat like the one we had borrowed in Frying Pan Bay. Annie and Bill had already been there in
search of the same thing and knew that we would be disappointed as they did not
stock them. Darn! Anyway we did get a few essential groceries
and we did post our letter, and we didn’t get soaked in the process. After Bill brought us back to the marina and
we had put away our supplies, Clark and I decided that we wanted to walk into
town in spite of the weather.
An Arts
Festival is happening this weekend, and we decided to walk around and see what
they had for sale. On our retirement
budget I am trying very hard not to buy unnecessary items, so I looked but did
not buy any of the merchandise on display at the fair. It was basically a craft fair though the quality
of what I saw was excellent. I just didn’t
need any of what they were offering.
Even in the rain it is nice to walk about the towns we find along the
way so we get a feel for the area. I
would hate to leave tomorrow and not have seen any of the downtown.
 |
| Soggy Arts Festival in Parry Sound |
We read menus
on the way back to the boat, but since we ate out at Henry’s yesterday, we ate
dinner on the boat. We put on a DVD of a
comedian we had seen at Middletown Arts Center to entertain us while we
ate. After dinner Clark did travel
planning while I worked on my financial bookkeeping records as well as my blog. For some reason tonight I felt I needed
entertainment. We scanned and found that
we got exactly 0 analog and 0 digital TV stations and two hard-rock radio
stations from which to choose. I
suggested Clark play his guitar, but he didn’t pick up on that idea, so I went
and dug out my mp3 player, so I could listen to music I like instead of stuff
that made me want to cover my ears. All
too soon it was time to call it a night in preparation for another boating
adventure tomorrow.
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