We eased into a quiet morning. I woke up a bit earlier and sat on deck watching the campers groan into the day and the early fishermen ply their trade before the busy weekend day began in earnest. Our plan for the day was to go about 33 miles to the famous Henry’s Restaurant on Frying Pan Island for lunch, and then go the remaining 30 miles or so to Killbear Marina for the night. The forecast called for storms and winds on the next day, so we were heading to Killbear to tuck in safely to sit to wait it out.

Henry’s is a Looper favorite. As a restaurant that can only be reached by boat or plane, Loopers love to stop for a meal. The fish and chips is said to be worth stopping. Knowing that it was a weekend day and would be busy, I called the day before to ask about the best time to stop. The docks are first come, first serve. They open at noon and the kind young lady on the phone said that their slowest time was between 2 and 3. Armed with that information, we planned to pull our anchor at around 10 AM and slowly make our way with a target arrival time of 2 PM.

We got a little antsy and pulled the hook at 9:36 AM. It came up fairly clean with a few weeds. Since we were already halfway down the island, we decided to go south a short way and go around the south side of Roberts Island to get to the Small Craft Route instead of going through the narrow and busy Big Dog Channel.

The Small Craft Route lived up to its name. It is an inside route than takes the boater through a winding path between islands and hidden rocks. It is well-marked, but unforgiving is you stray off of the course. Officially, the route is large enough for the Canadian Coast Guard’s 70-foot rescue vessels to navigate and has a controlling depth of 6 feet. Unofficially, it is not recommended for boats over 50 feet or for novice captains. Fortunately, we meet that criteria, but we ventured into it with all of the respect and prudence that the route demands.

The reward for taking the Small Craft Route is spectacular scenery. We made our way past the busy Honey Harbour around the top of Beausoleil Island, and followed the twisting path. It is very well marked, but goes through a few places with sharp turns that are barely 60 feet wide with stone walls on both sides. It also opens up in a few places where we could throttle up a little and cruise with some comfort. The reward was worth the stress as beautifully cottages were dotted along the thousands of jagged little islands.

At around 1:30 (a little earlier than planned), we came upon Frying Pan Island in San Souci. Henry’s was busy, but we could see several open spots on the docks. Not knowing the procedure, we began our approach to a nice spot on dock #2. The radio crackled alive with a “approaching vessel… what is your intent?” I replied that we wanted lunch and a young man cam spurting down the hill to help us tie up. Not knowing the depth, we approached slowly. Our caution was unwarranted. We tied up at the end of the dock in 33 feet of water.

We got off and were seated for lunch after a very short wait. We both ordered the fish fry. I got pan fried and Wendy got fried. It was delicious. To be fair, it probably wasn’t noticeably better than we could have found on the mainland somewhere, but the location was unmatched. It was fun to watch the boats come and go. There were also two sea planes and we watched one of them leave and take off. Good times.

Comfortably full, we cast off our lines at 2:38 PM to make our way to Killbear. The route gave us two choices. We could go the 20ish miles to along the west side of Parry Island to the marina, or we could take the longer 30 mile route around the other side of Parry Island, past the town of Parry Sound, and down actual Parry Sound to the marina. We opted on the long way. We didn’t travel 6,000 miles to skip the scenery.

We chose correctly. The trip up the South Channel was absolutely beautiful with narrow channels connecting a series of open spaces. It was lovely to see the families enjoying their summer cottages with friendly sun-kissed faces.

As we neared Parry Sound, we came upon the Parry Island Swing Bridge. At a reported 17 feet, we needed it to be opened. We hadn’t looked ahead as well as we should have, so the bridge was a surprise to us. We read the signs, called them on the VHF on channels 16 and 6, and waited. Nothing. Finally we called the number and a gentleman gruffly answered. Upon my inquiry of how to get the bridge opened, he informed me that they open every two hours on the odd hours. Glancing at the time, it was 4:02 PM. Ugh. We had an hour to kill.

We proceeded to idle through the Menomonee Channel, around Victoria Island, down the bay, and back. It was a pretty way to spend an hour. When we returned to the bridge, it opened at 5, as promised, and we continued on out way.

The rest of the cruise was more beautiful scenery and easy cruising. When we got to Killbear Marina, I radioed in and they directed us to slip G4. A couple of friendly dock hands helped us into the slip and we were greeted by some fellow Looper buddies that we hadn’t seen since Lock 45.

Settled in for the night, we buttoned up the boat and awaited the storms.