Day 15 - Westward Ho! — Captain Father John

Killarney was our eastern most port on our cruise. We thought we might stay one more night but there was no room at the Killarney Mountain Lodge Marina. We had to depart by noon. We had breakfast at the local greasy spoon and had one last swim in their pool. We headed back out the small boat channel and went to Heywood Island for the night.

When we arrived in Killarney on Wednesday we went to lunch at the Herbert’s famous fish ‘n chips. Herbert’s has their own commercial boat and catches fresh white fish each day. I heard them go out at 5:00 am this morning. Herbert’s used to have a red school bus they converted to a kitchen to serve the whitefish. Over 20 or so years the bus could no longer meet health department standards so they towed it away and they are building a fancy new restaurant. In the interim they are serving $16.00 fish ‘n chips from a construction trailer. It will never be the same.

Dinner at the Lodge was an experience. As I mentioned before the decor is time warp 1950’s. Who knows, Jimmy Hoffa might have sat at our same table.

The waitstaff are a mix of locals and co-op college students from a culinary school. They have a long way to go to become competent waitstaff, but make up for experience with enthusiasm and politeness . The food was excellent.

Once we arrived in the Heywood anchorage we launched the dingy and motored over to check out a stunning sailboat anchored near us. She is an Outbound 46 named Hedonist. The cruising couple are heading out the St. Lawrence to start a circumnavigation of the world. The boat looks equipped for the adventure ahead. Their website is www.hedonist1.ca.

We were waved over by the skipper on Adria, a green 40’ Willard trawler. He noticed we were Great Lakes Cruising Club Members as were he and and his wife. They invited us over for sundowners which lasted from 6:00 pm until well after sundown. Richard and Joan Miller are from Chicago (Evanston). They have owned their trawler for six years and she has never been in fresh water until this summer. They have been cruising New England and the east coast. Joan is from Newcastle, Australia and they have been married for 50 years.

On Friday we will make a 60 mile run back to Meldrum Bay. I think there is some bumbleberry pie in our near future. We will shoot for the 8:00 am bridge opening at Little Current. It is a 7 mile trip to the bridge from Heywood Island so we need to have the anchor up by 7:00 am. The dingy is already on the swim platform so that saves time in the morning.

We will spend Friday night in Meldrum Bay and enter the USA on Saturday. Then we will only have a 300 mile cruise to get home. Our goal is to arrive at our home port of Waukegan on Saturday, August 1.

For those of you that are tracking us on AIS we learned that we will only show up on the AiS app such as Marine Tracker when we are near a land station. We can see and be seen by other boats up to 20 miles away. We will be passing through Little Current today so we should be visible on Friday morning.

Photo – wooden schooner in Killarney

Our Great Lakes Cruising Club friends – Richard and Joan Miller