Run south (a new direction) to Owen Sound

Saturday, June 24 -- Hopewell Bay anchorage to Owen Sound (70 miles)

This was a big day. It made our heads spin. We ran Craunological II south across the open waters of Georgian Bay (which was blessedly calm) to a nice marina in Owen Sound, which is a big metropolis compared to where we've been the last few days. Then we got a rental car and drove to a hotel near the Toronto International Airport (Janet at the wheel, John navigating, looking out the window, or working on a crossword puzzle). So we went from a secluded anchorage to a concrete transportation jungle all in one day. We're very glad that everything came together for this plan to work, but it was a bit dizzying and definitely tiring. 

Here is the approach to the town of Owen Sound, which is an old grain port. Note the green range lights between the two grain elevators.

To begin this crazy day we got up early and weighed anchor a bit after nine. We were out of sight of land for about an hour crossing Georgian Bay, with the south shore becoming visible much faster than the north shore disappeared because the former has lots of hills and the latter is flat. The total trip took four and a half hours. We didn't see another boat during our crossing, and for much of the way the water was dead calm. It was kind of eerie being so far from land with nothing to see but sky and flat water -- some wave action would make it seem more real. 

This is how the Bruce Peninsula appeared roughly ten miles out from the entrance to Owen Sound (the body of water leading to the town). In contrast, we couldn't see the NE shore of Georgian Bay this far out. 

Once we were tied up at the marina in Owen Sound, a very nice lady at the Thrifty car rental came and picked us up so that we didn't have to get a cab (which she said sometimes takes a while -- and there is no Uber or Lyft service available here, as we also found at the Soo). Once we completed our paperwork we went back to the marina, closed up the boat, and loaded our two small carry-on bags into the car. There was no need to pack much because we were headed for what was our condo, which now is owned by someone else, but which still contained much of our stuff -- including clothes. All rather complicated. It made packing both easy and hard -- easy because not much was required but hard because you had to remember which bits were required. 

P.S. Owen Sound is referred to by some wags as "the elephant's asshole". To understand this quip, you need to take a map of the southern portion of Ontario (between Georgian Bay and Lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario) and turn it 90 degrees so that west is at the top. The town itself, however, seems quite nice and undeserving of this unpleasant sobriquet. 

P.P.S. For those readers who like to see lighthouse photos, here is the Red Rock Lighthouse at the south end (main entrance) to the Shawanaga Channel, near the start of our day. This is the second Canadian lighthouse we've seen with a helipad retrofitted on top (the first was Gros Cap light at the far eastern end of Lake Superior). Not very attractive, but very practical.