We stayed in Little Current for a total of three days (8/9 to 8/12) due to rain, high winds and high waves on the North Channel. This gave us the opportunity to explore the community.
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| Anchor Inn at the top of the business district. Note the clouds. |
Little Current has the amazing Water Street Bakery. People lined up for their daily baked fresh creations. On Saturday we tried their almond croissants. They were out of this world.
The Loco Bean coffee shop with its motto - "life's too short to drink bad coffeee" served great coffee. They also had a map of the world which showed that people from all over the world stop at their shop. This is not surprising. The North Channel is one of North America's prime cruising grounds.
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| World map in the Loco Bean Coffee Shop |
Saturday we took advantage of a break in the rain and went for a five mile walk that took us along the channel, across the swing bridge and then to Harbor Vue at the east end of the channel. The single lane swing bridge is the only way on and off of Manitoulin Island.
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| View of the single lane swing bridge and pedestrian walkway |
As we walked along the road we came upon the Manitolin Countryfest, a country and western music show running that weekend. At first we thought it was a trailer park. Then we walked up to the gate and discovered that they wanted $101 per person. We took a pass as we are no country and western fans. Unfortunately, the fest got mostly rained out - all three days.
The winds and rain finally abated on Sunday morning prompting us and our cruising friends, Bob and Jan (Jan's Tern - 45 Tollycraft), to continue our journey west. We departed Little Current at 9:00 AM. The first segment of our 2.5 hour cruise took us 20 miles north and then west to The Benjamins, the most talked about anchorage in the North Channel where we stopped for a long lunch. We were not disappointed.
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| Unique to this area red colored rocks on the approach to The Benjamins |
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| Guided Discovery rafted with Jan's Tern in The Benjamins |
When we arrived at 11:35 AM we rafted off with Jan's Tern and joined the for lunch on their boat. As we ate we debated launching the dingy to visit the island but hesitated due to the rocky shore. As we were discussing where to land, two people cruised by in a large hard bottomed dingy. I flagged them down to get a little local knowedge. Instead we got an invitation to join them in their dingy, with the dogs (Kodi, Daphne and Kaylee), to vist the island. We also learned that the secret is having a rubber strip on the bow of your hard bottomed dingy.
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| Jan and Bob on Jan's Tern |
Jerry and Lynn, two lovely people, ferried us to shore and joined us on our exploration, which involved walking up the rock hill (approximately 60 feet high and 300 yards long). Kodi and her friends had a spectacular run up and down the hill. Unfortunately, Daphne cut her right hind paw when she stepped on something sharp requiring Bob to take her back to the boat for first aid. The rest of us stayed on the island.
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| Diana, Lynn and Jan on Benjamin Island |
All good things must come to an end. We departed the Benjamins at 2:20 PM for the 17 mile journey to Gore Bay, a small town further west on Manitoulin Island. We arrived at the Gore Bay Marina at 3:45 PM.
Diana and I had dinner at the Cafe on Bay, which overlooks the marina and the bay. Then we explored the small town.
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| Cafe on the Bay |
Side story: While dining at Cafe on the Bay I asked the waiter about a nice looking facility across the bay that looked like a motel but also appeared to be empty. I got a strange response. The waiter said the building was called the Gordon Inn and he could not comment but that I could go on line to get the story. He also said the the lodge was threatening to sue anyone who made a negative comment. Just for curiosity sake, I checked the reviews; 33 out of 47 were "terrible" There were none in the "Excellent or Very Good category. The narratives were extremely negative.
Written by Les.
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