From Clapperton to Gore Bay

DAY 8   Continued...

It’s 8:30 am and Todd has been sleeping since 9pm. And it’s getting colder. The universe must have decided we don’t want to swim today. Last night at dusk we were surrounded by hundreds of seagulls. I guess we must have been sitting on their fishing spot.

This morning a flock of grackles swooped in and attacked the sumac berries. The ground cover on these islands seems to be poison ivy. It was growing right down to the water’s edge in some spots on the beach.  Yes, Mom, we were careful. We have calamine lotion and rubbing alcohol,  just in case!

Todd just wolfed down his breakfast and headed to the front of the boat with his fishing rod.

We are still doing minor renovations... we have power and lights now. AC and DC ! the solar panel is working extremely well. In fact we met someone in Little Current with the same solar panel who told us he never turns on his wind generator because he doesn’t need it.

We decided to head out for Gore Bay. The fish have disappeared and Todd is anxious to catch some. We readied the boat for sailing. It took an hour...good to know. We need to decide at least two hours ahead of time when we want to move!

We left Clapperton Island at 2:45 pm and motored through the buoys. The water is so shallow we couldn’t risk sailing it and going aground. Once we passed the last buoy, we shut off the motor and sailed. It was rough and this time Todd felt the waves a bit. He sipped on ginger ale and sat in the cockpit. It took 2 ½ hours to reach the bottom of Gore Bay.

 We anchored and went ashore.

 We  arrived in Gore Bay, the spider capital of the universe around 5:00 pm. We anchored in rough seas and 5 feet of water, but it's now quiet and calm and the sky is pretending that tomorrow will be a great day.  Except that there are THUNDERSTORMS forecasted again!The docks are expensive here too...$1.75/ft . Todd found another “favourite” restaurant and a park.  When we got back to the boat we played cribbage again. He almost beat me!

We are loping along making sure that we are doing the legs as safely and comfortably as possible, so those of you who are concerned that we will miss our weather window to the sunny south this winter...not going to happen!!!!We will cut short the trip to Lake Superior if we have to.

DAY 9

Ugh! Grey...misty and dead calm in here this morning. We are going for groceries and to give Todd some land time with his scooter. Rick needs to get a fuse for the radar and micro-switch for the pressure pump.  Then we’ll see how the day looks for moving on. We could try for Meldrum Bay  or Cockburn Island.