Day 102 to Little Current, Ontario

       We departed from the anchorage this morning just after 8:00 am, and our destination today is the town docks at Little Current, ON.  This is a 29.4 mile trip, and we hope to arrive by noon. The photo at the right shows our “busy” anchorage as we were about to pull out. We have been using the kayaks with the primary goal of taking Lucky Girl to shore. Lucky has turned in to quite the water dog.  It won't be long before she is following the Kayak because she decided to jump out of the kayak as the Admiral was just about to beach it. Also, this morning on the way back to the boat she got as far as dunking her head and her front legs under water before she backtracked back into the kayak.

      The photo at the left shows the other side of the anchorage as we are pulling out. That side was down wind, but it was also deeper water so it would not have been nearly as good an anchorage in any wind. We have to back track about 2.5 miles to the other end of Hotham Island to leave by the same narrow inlet through which we entered yesterday.  It is the same beautiful scenery, but of course we are viewing it all from the other side on the way out. As you may remember, we read to each other while under way, and we should finish our latest book today.  We are reading "Command Authority" by Tom Clancy and Mark Greaney, and of course, we are anxious to read the last 30 pages to see how it all unfolds. However, we are holding up on the reading until we get into more open water with less up close scenery.

      As we approached Little current we passed a small spit of land that protects a small bay with the town beach across the bay. The spit also offered this wonderful view of old and new co-existing. The photo at the right shows the walls of a long abandoned stone building. In the background is a modern power generating wind mill. The trip today was in winds of 12 to 14 miles per hour, but once we cleared the inlet at Hotham Island, we headed into  the wind for a couple of miles to cross the North Channel to get into the lee of Manitoulin Island. As we reached the south end of Manitoulin Island, we turned to starboard around the end of the island, and then we were headed once again right into the wind . Fortunately, there were some islands to block the waves.

     The photo at the left was taken from the aft end of the flybridge, and it shows the long main dock wall at the City Dock. At the east end of the marina there were three piers with berths formed by finger piers. We pulled in between two piers, and I turned Lucky Us around to back up wind into our slip. Suddenly I realized there was also a current of about 2 mph in the down wind direction. Suddenly, the simple act of turning to put the stern into the wind became a lot more difficult. It all worked out okay, but I was completely taken by surprise by the current. Okay, so I should have guessed from the name “Little Current” to be looking for evidence of a current… Manitoulin Island is so long and large that there is a current generated by the southwest wind pushing water through the channel at Little Current into the North Channel as a classic example of storm surge. Then when the wind dies or reverses direction, the water flows back out so the current is reversing.

      We checked in at the office and walked Lucky before heading about one block to the Anchor Inn Hotel right at the main intersection in downtown. I had a wonderful lunch with Whitefish, coleslaw and fries. We took a brief walking tour of the two main blocks of downtown, but I was anxious to get back to Lucky Us for a nap. When I woke up the sky was no longer beautiful (photo at right), and the predicted scattered late afternoon thunder showers were in the area.

      The swing bridge at the east end of town opens on the hour, and the photo at the left shows the bridge open for the 5:00 pm traffic jam. Evidently, the bridge was originally a railroad bridge, and it was later converted into a one lane highway bridge. We will have to pass through this bridge when we leave here to go to Killarney, but first, we are looking forward to a 2 night stay here. As you can see, the sky had quickly cleared into bright sun once again.