Friday - August 6, 2010

The winds have died down and we have departed for the north part of Georgian Bay. We traveled down the Shawanaga Inlet, through the Middle Channel, and passed a monument to Champlain who passed this way in 1615 – almost 400 years ago. What a wilderness it must have been then. I don’t know how they dealt with the bugs, but perhaps not taking showers or bathes helped. We didn't go into Point au Baril, but we did passed by the famoius lighthouse and the barrel on the rock. Rather than go through the channel at the end of the Point au Baril Channel, we traveled out into open water to rejoin the snall craft route into Hang Dog Channel. Hang Dog is a windy narrow channel of water that allows little room for error – rocks on both sides. I had heard that some boaters go completely outside to Bayfield inlet in order to avoid it. However if you go slow it's not that bad. We finally made it through, and we had a decision to make continue on for a while, find a spot to anchor or go into Bayfield and stay at Thompson Marina. Brenda elected the later, and went to Bayfield – a very, very small town and tied up at the marina for the night.