Days 331 and 332 - Orillia — Captain Father John

Miles cruised 15, locks transited 0, fuel purchased $0, slip fee $60, daily high temperature 73°f

As of today we have been on the Loop for 11 months. We will cross our wake in one month in Waukegan, Illinois. Thirty-one days to go. “Someday this cruise is gonna end”- CFJ.

The torrential rains ended briefly at noon on Tuesday. We decide to head over to the pump out station at the Lagoon City Marina. We had so many weeds wrapped on the props we could not back out of our slip. The marina staff came over and pushed us out. We crept back with no control. When I had enough room ahead a put the engines in forward and spun the weeds off the props. Then I had control. The marina staff said the outline of our hull was clearly visible in the weed bed. We pumped out and cruised west on the canal to Lake Simcoe. We knew the breeze was up and the lake would be lumpy. We were headed Northwest and then North with winds out of the South. The waves were larger than expected with 6′ – 8′ with the occasional 10′ we were surfing our 45′ boat. We only had a few miles to travel so we carried on. The key to comfortable cruising in those conditions was once again getting up on top of the waves and cruising at 20 mph.

When we arrived at the north end of the lake we entered a narrow canal and were fully protected. We gave the reef that Laura and Artie hit a wide berth and pulled into the Port of Orillia Marina without incident. It was still very blowy on the beam. The two girls that helped us dock had quite a challenge keeping us from getting blown off the dock. We got settled, plugged in and all is well. The Loopers from New Castle, England are in the slip next to us. A gold Looper named On Business pulled in across from us. We will have to meet them.

Orillia has a monument to commemorate the arrival of the “white race” to Canada. I am not sure how this would be accepted in the USA.

The monument complete with subjugated indigenous people.

Artie and Laura stopped by to say hello and we invited them back for sundowners at 5:30 pm. We want to hear all about their recent adventures.

Artie and Laura joined us for sundowners. The wind had shifted from 15 – 20 mph from the south to 20 – 25 mph from the north. It was damp and cold topside so we cocktailed in the salon. The stories they told about Artie’s near death experience from blood poisoning and their grounding in Orillia that banged up both of their propellers, one rudder and a shaft were horrific. Three weeks and $20,000 later they are ready for a sea trial to make sure everything works again. They started their Loop in Marathon, Florida so they still have a very long way to go. Hopefully they have put all the bad times behind them,

As the six of us headed out to dinner we met Andy and Twylla McKendry the gold loopers from Midland, Ontario onboard On Business. They joined us for dinner at the Brewery Bay restaurant. Andy and Twylla are returning from a trip to Georgian Bay. Andy invited us to his boat at 9:00 am on Wednesday to review his charts of Georgian Bay. He got our attention by mentioning there are some poorly marked 180° turns along the small boat channel that we will be cruising. Sign me up. Needless to say Artie and Laura will be in the front row.

Andy and Twylla’s boat On Business.

Andy and Twylla did a good job of laying out the route through Georgian Bay. Here is our revised schedule.

August 22 – Big Chute – tie to upper wall overnight.
August 23 – Queen’s Cove, Victoria Harbor for fuel and overnight at marina.
August 24 – Henry’s Marina – San Souci Island
August 25 – Windsor Bay on Franklin Island – anchor out
August 26 – Byng Inlet – Wright’s Marina
August 27 – Collins Inlet – anchor out.
August 28 – Killarney Mountain Lodge Marina
August 29 – Little Current Marina
August 30 Meldrum Bay – anchor out and eat bumble berry pie.

Andy also introduced us to cardinal buoys. They do not exist in the USA. The shape at the top indicates the safe side to pass the mark. The other way to know which is the safe side is to follow the sail line on te GPS.

We are still surrounded by weeds in our new marina in Orillia. We cleaned the filters which were getting seriously clogged. When we were crossing Lake Simcoe in adverse conditions I was carefully watching the temperature gauges. That would not have been a good time to overheat.

Yes, these raw water strainers need cleaning.

We are aware of a Looper doing the Loop on a paddle board. Now we have confirmation of a Looper doing the Loop in a dingy similar to ours. He also camps out each night.

Bonus photo

Carl (Chef) Wooden – quote of the day.

“Some day this voyage is gonna end. That would be just fine with the boys and gals on the boat. They weren’t looking for anything more than a way home. Trouble is I’ve been back there, and I knew it just didn’t exist any more.”

Chef