Day 30
NM today: 25
NM total:
678
Locks today:
0
Locks total:
70
Our plan for
today was to move from Frying Pan Bay to Hockey Stick Bay. The Captain seemed in no hurry to leave
because of the short distance between the two and no threat of bad weather, so
we hung around the boat at Frying Pan Bay and relaxed. I read some more of my never-ending book that
I have been reading since NJ. It is one
of those that is hardly worth reading but not bad enough to stop reading, so
here I am after several weeks still trying to get through it.
As we sat
around the folks on Ariel pulled out
their boat toys – inflatable paddle boards.
I could tell Clark was chomping at the bit to try this sport, so when
Robert yelled out, “Who’s next?” Clark
stepped up and asked if he could give it a go.
Not knowing about Clark’s extraordinary balancing abilities, his
audience for his first time on the board fully expected him to take a
swim.
Clark and I
had more confidence in his ability to stand up on the board than the others
there. Regardless of that, they convinced
him to change into something more appropriate than jeans, so he changed into
shorts. To the disappointment of his
spectators, he did not take a header off the board and found it quite a bit of
fun. Fortunately he said he is not ready
to buy one to add to our collection of boat toys.
 |
| Clark trying out a new toy |
We finally pulled
out of Frying Pan Bay just before 11:00 a.m.
I was busy reading the boating guide, and the captain was busy with the
VHF radio as well as watching the channel markers when all of a sudden he says,
“Whoops! I missed the turn off to Hockey
Stick!” “How far back?” says I. “Too far to make it worth turning around”, he
said. “So, what’s plan B then?” I
asked.
We ended up
at the next stop on our itinerary – Henry’s World Famous Fish Restaurant. We heard about Henry’s at the AGLCA
rendezvous and everyone we have met along the way has told us we have to go
there for dinner. We reached Henry’s at 2:00
– too late for lunch and too early for supper, but we had planned a little for
that and only had a light meal at noon to tide us over until we got to Henry’s. We had Pan Fried Pickerel from their dinner
menu which was quite good.
 |
| Proof we ate at Henry's Fish Restaurant |
After tying
up the boat we found Rock Me Baby was
there ahead of us. They too had planned
on an anchorage but aborted that plan on purpose because their chosen anchorage
was not well protected and high winds are predicted for tonight into
tomorrow. Next to pull in was a boating
couple we had met along the Trent-Severn on Sno
Daz, and then here came more friends to pull in on Ariel. Mind you that all
three of these vessels plus ours made a total of four Mainships in port at
Henry’s. Annie from Rock Me Baby said, “There goes the neighborhood!” as she walked
over to greet us.
All the
other Mainships / Loopers planned to stay at Henry’s for the night, but Captain
Clark was anxious to anchor in one of the bays.
We were told by the Canadian boaters that we met at Frying Pan Bay that
Echo Bay was a good anchorage close to Henry’s, so we decided to go there for
the night. It was indeed a short hop
over to Echo from Henry’s; however, we had to take it very slowly coming into
the bay which had no buoys or day markers showing the way in. I went up to the bow to hang over the railing
to look for rocks or obstructions in the water – I saw none!
When we came
into Echo Bay we could see many boats already at anchor with their sterns tied
to the rock walls surrounding the bay.
Apparently there are rings of some sort provided there, embedded in the
rocks to tie stern lines to. We decided
to just drop anchor in the bay somewhere but had to decide where. We sidled up to another boat that had just
anchored and asked them where they recommended we anchor. They told us anywhere was good except for the
“dead head” marked by the plastic container floating in one section of the bay.
A “dead head”
is a log or tree stump under water that is a hazard for anchoring as the anchor
can get hung up on it, provide no holding power, and make it a devil to
untangle yourself from once hooked. We
certainly wanted no part of that. We
drove in circles for a while scoping out depths and checking for swing
proximity to other boats then Captain Clark decided to drop his anchor. We use a CQR-type anchor in NJ that is shaped
like a plow head and holds very well, but we could not get it to grab hold of
anything on the bottom of Echo Bay. It
slid right through like it was gliding through butter.
We tried to
anchor twice with the CQR but after that Clark said what I had been thinking, “We’ll
have to go with the Danforth”. A
Danforth anchor is built like a set of sharp teeth that bite into the ground
underwater. They are ideal for mucky
bottoms. The only problem is that our
Danforth is our “spare” and is stored in the compartment under the area on our
boat where we store our bicycles.
We had to move
the bicycles and then pull out this huge anchor from the locker in the bottom
of the boat plus the 200 feet of line and drag it around the boat to the bow to
throw over the side. It takes two of us
to carry – Clark took the heavy part which is the anchor and attached chain,
and I followed along carrying the 200 feet of line behind him trying not to
trip over the ends that kept wrapping themselves around my feet.
As soon as
the Danforth hit bottom it grabbed on and took hold! Because it is hard to know where the anchor
lines are once they are under water, the boaters here tie a float to the anchor
line that sits on the water surface so others entering the anchorage know where
the anchor lines are hiding. I wasn’t
sure what the captain was going to do about that if anything, but sure enough
he asked me if we had some thin line and something we could attach to it to
mark our anchor. I pulled out my clothes
line and my empty white-plastic spray bottle and offered them up for
sacrifice.
I had them
in my hands ready to attach to the anchor but the captain lowered it so quickly
(mostly due to weight) that I had no time to even suggest that we tie the spray
bottle on to the line. He turned around
and saw what I was holding and immediately starting do the heave-ho to pull the
anchor line back up to where the chain started so we could attach the bottle
and drop the anchor line once again. The
whole procedure of finding a spot and then getting our anchor to hold must have
taken well over an hour. It is important
to get it right especially with potential strong winds in the forecast. We don’t want to visit any of the other boats
or rocks during the middle of the night.
 |
| Anchored in Echo Bay |
 |
| Sunset in Echo Bay |
Anchoring
turned into hot work and we had both worked up a sweat by the time we were
done. Clark was still in long pants and
said he was going to change to shorts. I
suggested bathing suits and we both jumped off the back of the boat into the 72
degree water. 72 on the top 6 inches that
is. Below that it is much, much colder
motivating either floating on top or swimming vigorously. We were quickly refreshed and decided that we
should pull down the kayaks and go for a look see in the area. I left on my wet swimsuit figuring I would
get wet paddling anyway as I am a very sloppy one with the paddles. Somehow Clark can stay completely dry in a
kayak while I look like I took a shower in mine.
Having eaten
dinner at 3:00 we were in no mood to eat anything until quite late. Fortunately we had some leftovers from last
night’s dinner as well as some take home from Henry’s that were sufficient to make
a meal. The captain said we were leaving
early tomorrow to try to beat the bad weather to the next port, so after a long
and busy day on the water, it was an early night to bed for me.
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