AquaFennatic Great Loop Blog: Long Point Cove to Blind River Marina, North Channel, ON

Aug 10^th – There’s a Heat Warning today with stronger winds and gusts. We stayed anchored in Long Point Cove which offers great protection from the strong winds. We went for a hike on the rocks and the poor blueberries look small and dry ... probably since there has been no rain here for some time. We were extremely hot from our hike thus we tried to cool off by going for a dingy ride outside the bay, however we quickly turned around since the waves were building due to the strong winds. Most of the sailboats left the bay during the day and now we’re down to only 3 boats. During the last week or so we’ve noticed that there are a large number of commercial jets flying back and forth through the North Channel. We’ve seen as many as 5 jets at the same time. We also saw a couple shooting stars and we hear the show is going to get better over the next few days.

Aug 11^th – Guess what ... that’s right ... there’s another Heat Warning today with light winds. I don’t remember a summer where we’ve had so many hot days in a row. We've stayed anchored in Long Point Cove and went swimming multiple times in 78 degree F water! A few boats arrived in the bay today and everyone had the same idea ... in the water to cool off, out of the water to relax, and repeat. It’s hard to believe we are in the North Channel since I don’t remember the water ever being this warm. We went for a short hike however it was too hot on the shore since there was no breeze at all. We then went for a dingy ride to the mine in Spragge to take a closer look and it also helped us cool off after our hike. There’s not many good anchoring options West of here thus we may stay here one or two nights and then go to Blind River before crossing to Drummond Island for our entry into the US on August 15^th. I believe our travelling pace will pick up once we enter the US.

Aug 12^th – Today is much cooler and the winds have picked up again. We are still in Long Point Cove just relaxing since it’s a grey and windy day. We plan to go to Blind River marina tomorrow for a couple of nights before we go to the US border. Amanda wrote her last exam at University of Waterloo today and she is now officially completed her 4A term. She only has one more work term and then one school term to complete her University degree. Just thinking about it makes me feel old ;)

Aug 13^th – We woke up to cool weather with rain and winds this morning. We’ve been really lucky so far since we really haven’t seen much rain. It was our last day in Long Point Cove and we were moving slowly in the morning to wait for the rain to let up before we left for Blind River Marina. It continued to rain as we traveled 15 miles to Blind River and we encountered a following sea which continued to build as we got farther away from our anchorage. We arrived OK and docked in a slip which was small for our boat, however it will do for the night. It stopped raining thus we walked into town to look around and do some shopping. We may only stay here a night and then move to Drummond Island which is about a 45 mile run tomorrow (ie. Cross the US border).