Exploring more of the Turnbulls
We didn’t have to get up too early this morning. Captain and I took Kona to shore and he brought his drone. When we were here last time we got so caught up being social and high winds that he didn’t get any footage. It was windy yesterday was well, but this morning created an opportunity. We have been lucky to get footage now of every anchorage (and other bonus material) except Haywood Island this summer. Kona and I hung out and played fetch while he played pilot.
We were on our way through the narrow west cut between North and South Benjamin Island around 9:15. We had a lovely motor sail/sail/motor for our trip. Eventually the wind was right on our nose so we couldn’t sail and took the sails down. I read my book up deck and didn’t take too many pictures. We have been here many times before now and the lighting wasn’t the greatest so we just enjoyed. The Whalesback Channel marks the end of “close to land” sailing and we just soaked it up. We arrived at the Turnbull Islands shortly after 2pm and dropped anchor in our favorite spot tucked behind a small island.
We briefly met a couple who had passed us along the way on their cute trailable trawler and then the three of us went on a dinghy adventure. There are two main islands that make up the Turnbulls and dozens of small islands in between. We have always favored the eastern island but wanted to check out the one to the west. We heard it had a nice beach and it provides much better protection from westerly winds should we ever need it. We did find a large beach that was dotted with plants and not fully clear, but Kona loved it anyhow. It had a very long slope and Kona had to do more running in water then swimming. We found really cool frogs in the sand pools just off shore.
The rest of the afternoon was chill. I’m really into my book so there was a lot of that. We had skipped breakfast and only had a few light snacks in us. Cory made us a wonderful charcuterie board that ended up killing our dinner appetites. Captain had bought me these raspberry drinks in Little Current. Not quite the same ones (same brand) as we got in Killarney that were 7%. These were smaller but a whopping 12% so even drinking that slowly put me to a nap around 4:30.
The fire ban had lifted and we all really wanted to have at least one fire before we left Canada. Since we knew we would be out late doing that Cory wanted us to finish our movies before sunset so we did. I enjoyed Venom more then I thought I would. Captain, Cory and Kona headed to shore around 8pm to start the fire. I stayed behind to read and then to play Last Post. Captain came and got me at 9pm. We enjoyed a fire ashore with a nice couple and their really sweet elderly dogs. Kona got super wet and sandy and we all brought a ton of sand back to the boat. I guess it is just a tease to the next three weeks as we seek out all the sand!!!
We decided to head to Cockburn Island for our last day in Canada tomorrow. It is a bit closer than going all the way to Whiskey Bay which is right at the border. We went there two years ago and it has a really large and beautiful beach. It is exposed to the south and full fetch of Lake Huron but the winds are to be light and favorable. We have favorable winds for at least the next two to three days so we hope to be enjoying Michigan soon and done with these longer pulls for a little bit. We have gotten very used to short trips and multiple options to drop our anchor in the North Channel. It has been wonderful to be up here for over a month this year and we are already talking about what we want to do next year.
