While we were at Killbear, we ran into another Looper whose journey had come to an unexpected end. They had left the area to head further through Georgian Bay when the unthinkable happened. They hit a rock. Thankfully, their boat had not taken on water (a miracle, in this situation!), and no one was hurt. They had to be towed for several hours to the Killbear Marina, where the boat was hauled out of the water. It will take months to arrange the insurance and to have the boat repaired. The couple decided to share their perishable items with other boats and fly home to Florida. We commiserated with them and wished them well. They are such a nice couple, and we hope things work out for them. It was such an emotional time for them and for those of us who are so sad on their behalf.

On a personal level, knowing this happened is a little jarring. The couple was kind enough to share with all the Loopers there exactly where it happened and what went wrong. It was one tiny error that any of us could have made, coupled with a little bit of wind that caused a whole lot of damage. That, and a big ol’ rock.

We talked to a lot of people in Killbear, including boaters on either side of us. One boat invited us over for docktails, and we exchanged notes. They are doing the Loop in the less popular clockwise direction, so they had just been where we were headed and vice versa. On the other side, we had a couple who live in Canada, but they are from elsewhere. Ireland, we think. They could have read the phone book, and I would have happily listened. Their accent is enthralling! They have been all over Georgian Bay and the North Channel, and they had tons of advice. We were so happy to take notes from them!

Since we had an unexpected day in Killbear, we were happy to be able to explore Killbear Park. There are multiple paths throughout the the park, and Owen found a five-mile roundtrip walk to a lookout. Cool! The park was pretty busy, and we encountered many people doing hte same thing we were. The park is really nice, as has been our experience at all the parks in Canada we have visited. We got to the top of the hill and were treated to an extraordinary panoramic picture of breathtaking Georgian Bay beauty! Truly, when God made Georgian Bay, he put an extra sprinkle of “stunning” in this part of the world. That view eased the pain of our five-mile walk actually being eight miles. Those kilometer to mile conversions continue to kick us in the behind (divide by two and add 10%!).

From a timing perspective, we were bummed we had to stay in Killbear for an extra day due to winds, and we were eager to get going on Tuesday morning. Armed with our new information and a healthy respect for paper charts and navigational markers, we made our plan to cruise over to the Bustards. We made a pit stop at the fuel dock for a pump out, and we were on our way. We had decided to skip the spot where our fellow boaters hung up their boat and instead rode completely outside the small boat channel and in Georgian Bay. We had a good start, but then it got pretty bumpy. We decided it was not worth the discomfort, and we chose to pull over. The winds were expected to die down in the next hour or two, so we tucked in behind Franklin Island, dropped the anchor, and had lunch. By then the lake had indeed flattened a bit, and we were on our way.

After a bit on the outside, we reconnected with the small boat channel. On the radio, we heard there was a group of twelve boats traveling together on their way…somewhere. Later, we heard another few who were trying to catch up. We were in between. One thing we have noticed about boats that travel together is that there’s always one in the group, or more than one, who seems to feel the need to be in near-constant communication. For example, in this group, there was one who made comments about what speed they were going, apologized for for slowing down while going by something or other, telling the boat behind that he was speeding up, pointing out something along the channel, and other frivolous radio babble.

And that’s why we travel alone.

Anyway, we made our way over to the Bustards to an anchorage suggested by our Midland Marina neighbors. We needed to go around the north side of the island, through a passage called the Gun Barrel, and around some rocks into a cozy little spot.

We made it through the Gun Barrel and into an open area, but we could see there were other boats tucked into the cozy little spot. That’s okay. We anchored in the open area near another Looper, and we were just fine. What a beautiful place!

We had dinner, dropped the dinghy, and went for a ride. This island is such the perfect place for a dinghy ride! There were little dinghy-sized openings just perfect for exploring. We were able to go all over the place around the island, sometimes with the motor, sometimes using the oars. It was peaceful, quiet, and we felt like we had the whole place to ourselves.

On our way back to the boat, we went out one part of the island and back in at another spot that would take us through an open bay before reaching a tiny channel that would take us back to our anchorage. Guess who was there? It was members of the Rendezvous we had followed through the day. They had 31 boats anchored in that bay, rafted in groups of three.

We made it through the little channel and back to the boat. Owen dropped me off, then went and found the perfect spot to take pictures of the sunset. Another perfect anchorage on beautiful Georgian Bay!