30,000 Islands

On Saturday we headed up the small craft route from Midland, the boat traffic and number of boaters hanging on the hook within 15 miles of Midland was amazing. These Canadians don't hang around at the dock on beautiful weekends. After about 20 miles of cruising we ventured off the small craft route and traveled through the Monument Channel checking a few anchorages that looked promising on the charts. After checking out the quiet anchorages we went to look at an anchorage in Indian Harbor. There were 16 boats back there but its large enough so we knew we could find a spot. We enjoyed watching the boats go through the channel, went for a dinghy ride to explore areas where a big boat can not go and had some "free entertainment" watching other boaters raft up, set anchor, etc. It is so peaceful and quiet and the scenery is beautiful. It stays light until almost 10 and you really need to get up in the middle of the night to appreciate the stars.

Watching the other boaters rafting up.

View from our anchorage.

Sunset at Indian Harbor.

Sunday morning we headed to Echo Bay. Mark chose this bay because it is a short (2 mile) dinghy ride to Henry's Fish House on Frying Pan Island. We went to Henry's for a late lunch. People come from all over the area, by boat, dinghy and sea plane. We relaxed in the bay and Mark caught 3 northern pike and a couple of perch. It was another beautiful sunset. There were 5 boats spending the night (including us). The water is so still, not even a ripple and it is so quiet you can hear the conversations on the other boats.

Mark relaxing on the bow.

Boats, dinghy and sea planes frequent

Henry's Fish House.

Mark and I on the ride back from Henry's.

Captain's Choice anchored in Echo Bay.

 

On Monday, the weather forecast for Tuesday was for high winds in the afternoon along with thunderstorms so we decided to find an anchorage not to far from Parry Sound. It was a great spot with a lot of depth and warm water (81.6 degrees). Somehow none of the other boaters anchored here and we had the whole bay to ourselves.

Traveling through narrow passages to get to the anchorages.

We found a little waterfall on our dinghy ride.

Water temperature 81.6 degrees....hung out in the water all day.