The famous home of Ralph Evinrude and his wife, Frances Langford in The Pond at Baie Fine, North Channel, Ontario

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

It’s hard to believe it’s August already.  Tomorrow it will be three months that we’ve been living aboard.  We didn’t start Looping till May 23d, but I must count those prior three weeks as live-aboard time.  

We’re sitting at anchor in “The Pool” of Baie Fine, a not-to-be-missed fjord-like body of water in the North Channel.  We had to bypass this beautiful area a few days ago when the shift rod broke and we had to go straight to Little Current to get the new part.  I’m glad Captain W. agreed to backtrack so we could come here.  

We left the City Dock at Little Current at 7:45 AM, making the 8:00 AM opening of the historic Manitoulin Swing Bridge – which will celebrate 100 years of existence in 2013.  We traveled across Frazer Bay and passed our friends, Marc and Michele in Marc’s Ark,  Jerry and Janet in Wind Song, and Craig and Barbara in Blue Heron who had all spent last night anchored here. 

We arrived at Baie Fine (pronounced Bay Fin) around 11:30  AM and anchored in “The Pool” at the end.  The scenery is spectacular with crystalline blue water and high cliffs.  At the entrance to the pool there is a home built on a huge rock. The original home was built years ago by Ralph Evinrude, of Evinrude engine fame, for his wife, Frances Langford.  The story goes that Ralph and Frances had a 120’ yacht which they brought to Baie Fine from time to time over the summer months and tied it up against the rock.  The boat was then connected to the house and the power generated by the boat ran all the systems (electrical, water, etc.) for the house while they were there.  It is said that the boat was larger than the rock causing the bow and stern of the boat to stick out on either end.  We don’t know if the current home on the rock is the original Evinrude home or not.

Of other special interest here is a trail to the top of one of the cliffs that leads to beautiful Lake Topaz – a lake high up in the cliffs.  We hiked the trail which followed a dry river bed.  Lake Topaz is beautiful and well worth the hike just to see it.  We met about a dozen other visitors coming and going along the way – it’s quite popular.  Sadly, we saw some burned and charred trees in the middle of the pathway near the top.  The smoky smell was still pervasive and we believe the fire was the result of a lightning strike from the big storm two nights ago.  Someone we encountered on our hike confirmed it and said the Canadian Parks folks came and spread out the burned trees so no sparks remained.  

When we were almost to the top just before reaching the lake, our path took us through a dense section of foliage where I got stung by something that left a puncture mark just above my sock.  It was quite painful and I now have a bruise there about the size of a silver dollar.  Capt. W. didn’t want to be left out (just kidding), so he got stung too – same low area just above his sock. We believe we must have disturbed a ground nest of some sort. Someone we were walking  with told us that the deer flies bite like that and might leave a welt or a bruise and they are quite prevalent in woodsy areas.  I guess I’ll survive.  I put a poultice of meat tenderizer on it.  I guess I’ll survive but I was happy for the 5 seconds of sympathy I got from Capt. W. until he got stung! 

At sunset which is almost at 9:30 PM, there were 15 other boats anchored here and a few are tied to the shore.  We learned this is called “Mediterranean style anchoring” with a bow anchor and a line off the stern tied to a tree or rock on shore.  We anchored like this in our travels somewhere along the way, but not today.  Here are a few photos of God’s magnificent handiwork:

Frazer Bay, North Channel

Frazer Bay, North Channel

Baie Fine, North Channel

Water skier at Okeechobee Resort, Frazer Bay

Fjord-like passage in Baie Fine

Frazer Bay leading to Baie Fine

Nearing The Pool at Baie Fine

Setting the GPS before hiking to Lake Topaz, Baie Fine

Hitting the trail to visit Lake Topaz

Hiking across the river bed leading to Lake Topaz

The trail is well-marked

Another trail marker

Lake Topaz nestled in the cliffs at Baie Fine

At the summit, we met fellow-hikers coming down

Toads galore!!

Say Good-Bye at anchor in The Pool of Baie Fine

Last night's backyard, Baie Fine

Two steel tugs, built by their owners