| For
breakfast today I had a banana and Gina fixed the leftover cheddar
cheese bread we got in Little Current. I washed it all down with
my second pot of coffee. I then blew up the inflatables and tossed
them in the water. At the same time I noticed a 55 Sedan Bridge
come through the cut between North and South Benjamin, where it
proceeded to anchor in the cove to the west of us.
It looked like a great day for
another dinghy ride. You could motor around these islands for a
week and always experience something different. After topping off
the motor from the spare gas can, we headed out to explore.
We headed southeast around the cliff
of our South Benjamin anchorage, and traveled south along the
shore. To the east we could see Croker Island, and to the south
are the infamous Sow and Pigs, and some islets known as The Boars. |
Dinghy Tour
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| We
followed the shoreline as it headed back west along the southern
shore of the island. We were still zig-zaging between several
islets. The south side of the Island is very interesting. We made
our way through a narrow channel of rock on both sides. In this
small deep canal we encountered three boats tied up. Hard to
believe they could get in here. This would be a great spot,
especially if you were alone.
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Interesting
Rock Formations
Shoreline at
South Benjamin
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We continued west a little way
further, then turned north and followed the rocky shore on the
west side of the Island. We motored up to the cut between North
and South Benjamin, and stopped to check the fuel. We had only
used about a third of the tank, so we decided to go all the way
around North Benjamin as well.
Once
we hit the northernmost tip of North Benjamin, we tucked
into a little cove. The water was very clear, so even though
it’s quite rocky, navigating was not too tough. The rocks
and shoreline were very interesting landscape. We then went
into the next larger cove just to the south. As we made our
way along the eastern shore on the way back, we could see 11
boats all in a line making their way towards us from near
Secretary Island. We figured this must be the Marine Max
group we saw in Killarney. Oh well, so much for quiet we
thought.
We made it back to South
Benjamin and beached the dinghy in the large cove west of
our anchorage. We hiked up the smooth rocks to the top of
the hill to enjoy some fantastic views. After hiking
around for a half hour, we met a couple of sailors out of
Port Elgin who took our picture.
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| We
returned to the boat at 2:00 after this fascinating 4.4
nautical mile dinghy tour. It was still very hot so we swam
a bit before having tuna fish sandwiches for lunch. We
noticed that there were some weird small black bugs that had
congregated on the MYRC burgee, as well as the bow and
starboard stern anchor lines.
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| Now it was time to just
float in the inflatable lounge chairs for a while to relax.
Gina washed her hair and then read a book, while I had a
couple of beers watching the activity in the harbor. Besides
the Marine Max group, about ten more boats had entered and
anchored. I think they saw our prime spot and were a little
envious.
One
of the boats that were anchored nearby had a jet ski with
them and was flying around the bay fairly fast. Between the
loud sound and the large wake, it was pretty obnoxious,
especially considering the serene anchorage of the
Benjamin’s. A few of the boats left the anchorage after a
while. |
Around the
Islands
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| At 4:30 I put up the
isinglass and screens, while Gina started preparing our
dinner to take to shore. I then enjoyed a cigar on the bow
to take in the sights, before firing up the generator to
charge the batteries, make some ice, and downloaded the
day’s pictures to the laptop. The cooler is almost out of
ice now. I also download the tracks of our dinghy ride I had
recorded on the handheld gps. |
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Beached on The
Rocks
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I
loaded up the dinghy to
make a trip to our ‘porch’ on shore to set up dinner at 6:15. I took
the chairs, grille, plates, and drinks, as well as a small table this
time. At the dinghy landing spot I had figured out just where to ‘gun it’
and lift up the engine so as to glide to a nice flat rocky spot.
This would allow us to get out of the dinghy easily without getting wet. After unloading and
getting the grille started, I returned to the boat to get Gina.
For tonight, Gina had made salmon and
chicken, along with grilled onions and rice pilaf. Dinner was fabulous.
We each had our own thermos of drinks, and afterwards, we ferried some
of our gear back to the boat. We also grabbed a sweater and jacket, as
it started to cool down some. |
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