Run east to anchorage near Pointe au Baril

 Friday, June 23 -- Killarney to anchorage in Hopewell Bay (79 miles)

Another great day on the water. We had favorable weather for a 5-hour run to a beautiful, secluded anchorage in the archipelago of islands SW of Pointe au Baril, Ontario. This will give us a good jumping off point for our run across Georgian Bay to Owen Sound on Saturday.

We had a lazy morning at the Killarney Mountain Lodge. We did a load of laundry, updated the blog, and finally got underway at noon. In short order we entered Collins Inlet, which is a narrow channel carved by glaciers through red and pink granite. The channel runs about 12 miles almost due east-west with a small lake near the east end. Look it up on a map. It is hard to fathom the forces that created this. We saw one fellow cruiser the entire ride and a few local boats. Otherwise just rocks and trees and water. Absolutely stunning. 

John ran through Collins Inlet at least once back in the 60s with his family and then again in 1993 while cruising the North Channel on his dad's old Pacemaker with his son and his son's friend. He remembers that the boys (twelve at the time) drove the boat most of the way through the channel, which was exciting for everyone. 

At the end of Collins Inlet we ran south through Beaverstone Bay and out into Georgian Bay. We followed the coast of Georgian Bay down to the entrance of the channel that runs into Pointe au Baril. The coast here is low and full of rocks and shoals, so we ran a couple miles offshore and there wasn't much to see. This picture -- taken where Beaverstone Bay empties into Georgian Bay -- gives a sense of what this coast is like.  

We were greeted by a nice lighthouse when we entered the channel to Pointe au Baril, but we soon turned off the main channel and followed a side channel (thankfully well-marked) that winds its way south and east through dozens of islands to the Shawanaga Channel. This area is full of lovely little cottages, but we didn't see many boats or people. 

When we came to Hopewell Bay (near the NE corner of Shawanaga Island) we were pleased to find only a few small cottages near the entrance but none at the end of the bay where we anchored. If you look carefully at the third picture, which looks out Hopewell Bay towards the Shawananga Channel, you can pick out three cottages. That was the only sign of civilization, although we did hear the occasional boat go by. 

Once we were settled, we launched the dinghy so John could go fishing -- not with the expectation of catching anything but just to mess around a bit (and to take pictures of Craunological II at anchor). We had a bit of a rainbow from a brief drizzle and then a lovely sunset. A perfect end to a beautiful anchorage.