Friday, July 15, 2016

Day 105 to Killarney, Ontario



      Today we left the anchorage after clearing the anchor of weeds (photo at right) and are headed 28.8 miles to Killarney, which was about 5 miles from our anchorage as a crow flies.  After watching two other boats struggle with weeds as they pulled their anchors to depart, we finally decided that it was our turn so the Admiral set off in her kayak. It definitely helped to have the windlass since we could get some weeds off just by pulling the chain up and down. Neither of the other two boats that we had watched had the benefit of an electric windlass, but we were sure grateful for ours. However, once the anchor cleared the bottom it was my turn to head up to the fly bridge and get ready to do my captain “thing”. I did have to briefly leave the helm to help pull the Admiral’s kayak up to the flybridge where we store them during travel.
      It was nearly 9:00 am by the time we cleared the anchorage, and on our way out we got this view of our part of the Pool (picture at left). You can see how it had nearly emptied of boats by this time. At this point the sky was still largely sunny, but that would change later in the morning so we enjoyed it while we could.

       We continued the 10 mile trip out of Baie Fine before we could turn back south and head to Killarney. As before the scenery was beautiful as is shown in the photo at right as we approached the mouth. Just as we exited Baie Fine, the weather started to change into a damp, cool, dreary morning just as predicted.  The skies were spitting at us and sometimes being even more rude. It was only after we exited the bay that we felt the full extent of the 14 to 16 mph wind.

      For the remaining about 18 miles until we entered the channel at Killarney the wind and waves made for a bumpy ride. However, Lucky has turned into a pretty good traveler since with the help of a (vet recommended) sea sickness pill, she sleeps most of the trip (photo at right). Since she has had the medicine, she has been sick fewer times so it really does seem to help.

     There are a lot of islands with channels between them in this area, but we chose a slightly longer route with a much wider channel. As a result, we were a little more exposed to the weather, but we had less worry about drifting off course. Our first sight as we approached the channel at Killarney was the Killarney West Light (photo at left). Killarney was first established during fur trading in the 1820s and later the fishing industry expanded. There was no access to town by road until 1962 so boat traffic has always been important. The first lights at the east and west ends of the channel were built in 1867 when Canada officially became a Dominion, and the lights today were built in 1909. The East and West Lights were tended by a man living in Killarney who travelled by boat to light them. My reference did not say, but I would guess that he rowed to both lights in all kinds of weather.





      Shortly we turned and headed into the channel at Killarney and finally got out of the wind and waves. The photo at the right was taken from Lucky Us at her berth at the Sportsman’s Inn. They have docks on both sides of the channel, but we did not want to deal with the free ferry that the marina offered. It turns out that by wanting to be on the town side our berth was located down a narrow channel with 2 right angle turns. There were four helpers on what they called our “team” to help with our docking. Their first question as we turned in from the channel was "you have thrusters right?"  The Admiral calmly answered no, and according to her, they looked a little worried. We had to weave our way around their fuel dock and then quickly turn left followed by a right. They had people at the fuel dock and the dock across just in case. After I managed the first turn without hitting anything, you could see they all relaxed a bit.
       We will be here for at least two nights. We checked in at the office, and then we went about a quarter of a mile along the waterfront to the local fish and chips diner recommended by the dock hands. The local commercial fish company has run this diner for many years, and it is something of a legend amongst boaters in this area. Sure enough, the fried whitefish was delicious! It was at lunch that we noticed the swelling in my left hand (photo at left). I had been bitten there by a large horse fly the day before, and obviously I was having a reaction to it. After I was bitten I had a pretty good case of hives, but some Benadryl Itch Stopping Cream handled that pretty well.

      We did not have internet or cell service at the anchorage so it was nice to have those luxuries (?) once again.  We had not been back to Lucky Us for that long until we looked up and sure enough the three go fast cigarette boats arrived. They laughed later when I accused them of following us. The idea of boats capable of speeds up to 70 mph following us would be like the tortoise and the hare…

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