James Bay July 3, 2016

Originally we had planned to go to Club Island and anchor today. But Peter had talked with a local sailor who recommended James Bay. It was prettier and also had better holding he was told, so we decided to come here. It is on the east side on Manatoulin Island, open to east winds. But today’s SE winds present no problem. The Bay is really big though, and lacks the intimacy of Cove Island. Here is Brillig anchoring for the first time this trip.

The trip here took 4 hours. We left at 8:30 and arrived at 12:30, just minutes ahead of Peter who motor sailed with his jib from Tobermory. It was 29.1 NM at an average speed of 7.3 knots.

Kerry watching for shoals as we leave Cove Island

It was beautiful at Cove Island. Last night I did a solo kayak trip around the bay. The winds were calm and the ride pleasant. It is easy to paddle the kayak, and it is very stable.

We put our solar Christmas lights up last night, draping them around the upper deck. There are 200 of them on a long string. They were very pretty, but so far it has been too windy for us to be up there arranging them like we want.

I got Kerry up early to enjoy her tea and our powdered white donuts on Annie’s upper deck. You should have heard her reaction when she realized it wasn’t even 7:30 – pretty funny.  She slept all the way over - to get even?

The anchor was really buried in the mud, and brought a lot with it when it popped up. But with the hose it is easier to get mud off the anchor than all the weeds we find in the Thousand Islands.

It has been so windy today, much more than forecast. I was hoping to get the kayak out and paddle over to Brillig, but the combination of distance and strong wind convinced us not to do so.  Instead, we applied RainX to our windows and spent the afternoon lounging and reading. I have never used RainX but we are hoping that it will help keep Annie’s windows free of water spots. Annie sure does have a lot of windows.

Kerry made us tea twice today. Her water heater draws almost 200 amps, perhaps even more than her sister Marty's hair dryer. Thank goodness it only is on for a couple of minutes - not the case with the hair dryer though! Motoring over here and the solar panels have the batteries back at 100% now. I think I will run the generator tomorrow just to exercise it.

Well, it’s cocktail time now. Dinner tonight will be chicken chow mein, but LaChoy and not take out. Tomorrow we are off to Killarney.