Thursday, 6/11 Hopewell Bay to Kilbear Marina, ON
This morning after breakfast,
we took a nice leisurely dinghy ride around the various fingers, backwaters and islands near our
anchorage in Hopewell Bay. It was around 45 degrees so it was pretty cool but
soooo spectacular! Our cruising guides strongly encourage taking a handheld GPS
in order to not get lost. Now we know why! The area is rugged, beautiful and
quite disorienting. Lots of little bays, lots and lots of little islands and
rocks and even for the short time we were riding around, easy to get lost.
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| A little man cairn |
There are lots of “cairns”
all over up here. Most of them are supposed to look like a little man with 2
feet, and torso. Some even have facial features.
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Notice the cairn's eyes & nose?
OK, so they're both little men. :-) |
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| Hiking around during our dinghy tour |
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| A solitary cottage a mile or so from us |
There are lots of widely dispersed cottages all over the area. Most
are only accessible by water and seem to be glued to the tops of the rocks they
sit on. We haven’t seen anyone at any of these so we don’t know if
they live there year round or whether they are just used in the summer. Probably the latter.
After our dinghy tour, we headed off to Franklin Island through
a nerve-wracking 10 miles of twists & turns through a maze of islands and
very shallow and treacherous water. It took a lot of concentration and teamwork
to make sure we stayed on track – phewww!
We stopped at Franklin Island which is where
ladies used to come in the early 1900’s to the YWCA to learn to sail. Though
the island is beautiful and wild, we couldn’t find any traces of trails or any buildings. Hmmmm
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| Franklin Island |
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| Franklin Island |
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| A Lady's Slipper orchid we saw on Franklin Island |
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Regatta Bay on Franklin Isle where young ladies
came during the early 1900s to learn to sail. |
After our hike, we decided to up the anchor and head to a
safe marina to wait out the next coming storm which was predicted to start Thursday
evening and last until Friday evening.
Kilbear was about 5 miles away so away we flew – well sort of.
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| Some of the rocks are marked with large signs |
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| Kilbear Marina |
We discovered that there is actually nothing at
Kilbear Marina and no place to visit. Due to the cold, rainy weather, no one else, either. Oh
well, at least it is protected and we have power to charge our thirsty
batteries.
There are lots of “cairns”
all over up here. Most of them are supposed to look like a little man with 2
feet, and torso. Some even have facial features.
