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A half-hour later, a
33' Tiara Open pulled into the cove just west of us and anchored. The
couple walked
along the shore towards us and introduced themselves; Gary and Debra from
Dreams & Schemes. They are from Farmington Hills, Michigan.
They keep their boat at Michigan Harbor, which is in Lake St. Clair..
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We exchanged a
few stories
and then they told of us a distress call they heard on the VHF radio from Mytigood.
It was something about “send props and shafts to Killarney”, and
that there was a "problem" in Collins Inlet. Based on further radio
transmissions they overheard, it sounded like Mytigood could only travel
slowly at limited power. Oh my!
Around 11:30,
Andiamo,
a Cruisers 3375, pulled into the cove and came by us. They had
befriended the Instead Of crew a few days ago, so we
invited them to raft off with the two of us for the afternoon.
Their starboard engine was overheating and the exhaust was
steaming big time, as they tied up off of Instead Of. Believe it
or not, there were ten people on their boat.
The captain,
Rich, and his wife Paula are from Michigan too. In fact they keep
their boat at MacRay Harbor, on the Spindrift docks. Small world I
guess. Here were are in the middle of nowhere, and in the last
hour we met a couple that lives a few miles from our home, and now
a family that keeps their boat just a few hundred feet from us at
the marina.
Onboard Andiamo was another couple, Tom and Heidi, along
with six kids (5 girls; Hillary, Erin, Maggie, Laurie, Hannah, and
1 boy; Dirk).
It turns out
they don’t really all sleep on the boat in such cramped
quarters. Tom’s family is traveling
with their camper, and they follow Andiamo around, setting up
camp, and then jumping on the boat for day trips. A really unique
vacation strategy! We then invited them to go on a hike to the top
of Frazer Bay Hill with us.
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Dinghy to Hike
Arriving at the
Trailhead
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Just before noon, we left in
three dinghies and motored east through the cove, between the
small island and shore. On the island there are a couple of
cottages with million dollar views. Our route took us past
them, where we were found a red ribbon on a stick,
marking the trailhead. We beached the dinghies,
and grabbed our gear of water, cameras, and binoculars.
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What A
View!
A Well
Deserved Rest |
The
trail was steep, rocky, and cut right through tall trees. The
weather was overcast today, and a little on the cool side.
We took raincoats, but any precipitation held off. It was rather
strenuous climbing! You had to watch the ground at times to
know where to set your feet, and there were places you had
to go over or around tree branches. There were also some
pretty narrow rock passages. We just kept following the red
ribbons marking the ‘trail’ for almost an hour.
At the top, were rewarded
with one heck of a view. Standing on the white quartz rock,
looking to the west you could see all of Baie Fine, and out
into Frazer Bay. And to the north McGregor Bay was in full
view with its many islands. Looking down, we could just make
out Mary Ann Cove, but couldn’t quite see our boats. The
emerald water with the white and gold rock with dark green
trees was just an awesome sight.
A few of us picked a bunch
of blueberries from the numerous bushes. Gary and Debra from
Dreams & Schemes were already up here, so we all
spent some time catching our breath, slugging down some
water, and taking some great pictures. This was making up
for what I had regretted on our 2004 trip; of not
exploring the land a little more. This hike definitely added
to the whole boating experience.
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| At 2:00 we started heading
back down and I checked my handheld GPS, which I brought to
record our track. It indicated we had gone up 600 feet in
elevation over a 2/3-mile hike. Coming down the hill was
faster than going up, but it did take its toll on Gina’s
bad knees; they were very sore. We launched the dinghies from
the sandy shore and made it back to the boat by 3:00.
Andiamo
had to make two trips to get all their clan back, and taking
the outside route around the island and out into Baie Fine
they were able to see a black bear on shore! Wow, Gina was
jealous
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| Gina
hooked up her 75ft. worth of line to all of the inflatables
and sent the six kids tethered together drifting around the
cove. They had a blast. Mary and I then took our turn
relaxing in the chairs, while Jim and Laurie donned wet
suits and went swimming. A few of the kids were fishing off
the swim platform on Andiamo, and were all smiles as
they reeled in a couple of small ones.
A
little later we were all hanging out for a nice ‘backyard
party’ when Greg and Debra from Dreams & Schemes
came motoring by in their dinghy. It was a special delivery
of some freshly made blueberry bread. Just cooked on their
boat using the blueberries picked on the hike, they used
their oven to make what looked like a giant muffin. The
plate was passed around so everyone could get a piece, and
they then motored around the cove to share with other
boaters.
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'Blueberry Muffin Express'
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