Well, here we sit in The Bustards, 9am Thursday, on a glorious day, as was yesterday. We arrived here yesterday about 8:45 am, having left Britt at 7 am. The wind of the previous day had died down and we had only small waves to contend with when we started.

Reversing back down the South Channel out of Byng Inlet, you have to make a crossing to the North Channel just west of Bigwood Island, and then pass the McNab Rocks on your port side. Phil waved goodby to his Coast Guard friends who live at the lighthouse here. Around the marker at Lamondin Pt. and it’s into Cunningham’s Channel. You can always tell on the charts when you are entering difficult waters as there will be a red box around the area on the chart with an arrow to a much larger chart of the small boxed area. The small chart for Cunningham’s channel shows a scale of 1:6000 (about 3cms on the chart equal to 200 m.) The regular chart is 1:20000. The worst part about this channel is its approach: from the south east with two port markers then a set of markers to go between at an angle of about 50° to starboard around these markers and then head for the next red. The biggest problem is that as you look for the 2 port markers, you can’t easily see the second red around the corner until you are practically there and you really don’t realize how sharply you turn back on yourself. Anyhow, we had done it before and our charts are well written over with “SLOW DOWN - HARD TO SEE” all over this area. The other problem is that we seemed to hit these turns when the sun came out from behind the clouds which means that you can’t tell the colour of the bouys and must look for either flat or pointed tops.

Cunningham's Channel

Safely out of Cunningham’s Channel, (you can’t get lost as there is a cottage on the east island and they have painted the Channel name on the rocks), there are two more sets of markers close together and then a 90° turn north-west past Golden Sword Island with its large, safe anchorage behind. A quick loop into and out of the Sandy Bay outlet and we are heading for Roger’s Gut. Another area of enlargement on the chart, this time the scale is 1:5000. My chart is overwritten with “SLOW. DEAD SLOW. HARD TO SEE. WHITE ROCK.” etc. This is not a terribly difficult channel except for the entrance at another sharp angle. The actual “Gut” is a blasted out channel with piles of granite boulders on each side to thread. Not good in a wind.

There seems to be a lot of water on the east side of the island behind Roger’s Gut and its name is “Free Drinks Passage” - it’s on the chart! Suspect the boys were sitting in the bar one day and the bet was on “If you get through there without hitting anything, there’ll be free drinks for all.” Phil wasn’t about to test it.

Roger’s Gut leads to the entrance to Henvey Inlet and, although we had considered exploring up there, we decided to go on to the Bustards instead. One more last tricky passage near Bigsby Island, well marked with range finders and bouys so no difficulties here, through Dead Island Channel. The French River estuary, an area about 15 kms wide, full of 100s of small channels and 1000s of rocky outcrops and islands, starts at about Bigsby Island. We spent quite a bit of time on our last trip doing Dorés Run through the back area and anchoring up the Main Channel so we skirted all this and into the Bustard Islands. An ideal place for kayakers.

We anchored at “The Tip” in a well sheltered marshy area at the end of the long skinny channel. By the end of the day we were accompanied by 5 sailboats and a trawler.

Water's Edge anchored in The TipThe Bustards - I think a Bustard is a large bird but couldn’t find it in my bird book - are a fairly large group of islands with some cottages on them and several old lighthouses. As kids living in Midland, we used to hear the weather reports from the Bustards. Now everything is automated.

Phil just came below to edit this and says that the sailboat that was directly behind us just pulled up anchor. He had about 100 ft of rode out in 10 ft of water. Good thing the wind didn’t shift on him as the shore on either side was closer than that.

After dinner and I continue.

We spent most of the morning dinghy-ing around the anchorage and wandering in and out of rocks, almost 5 kms of wandering. This is a most magnificent place. A huge loon kept us entranced for awhile and as soon as I would get ready to take his photo up close, he would dive. We tracked him once for quite awhile and he kept just ahead of us out of camera range. As soon as we gave up and went off, he rose out of the water and spread his wings to shake the water off. Another missed shot. Oh well, Phil already has a pile of pictures to sift through this next winter - this one is better than that one but not as good as this other one.......I only took 86(!) photos today so lots to do.

One of the many anchorages in the BustardsWe paused in our dinghy ride in For(e)Shore for a picnic on the outermost rocks at the anchorage entrance and we could see the mainland and the Gull Islands to the south-east. While there, Phil remembered that the digital camera has a timer feature which we have never used. So he plays around with it for a bit, then crawls over to the next rocky ledge, gets down on his stomach (which is no mean feat as his feet are just about in the water behind him), sets up the camera so he can see where I am sitting, pushes a few buttons, then he has just a few seconds to get to his feet, back down the rock, sit down beside me, smile and look relaxed. Actually the photo isn’t too bad.

Phil & Eleanor on the RocksGoing through our anchorage to the northwest, there is an anchorage called Bustards Harbour and there were half a dozen boats in there. There are quite a few rock ledges in this anchorage and many small “islands” and some of the boats were “spidered” off the shore with numerous lines to keep them from swinging onto the rocks. It also enables them to get into much smaller spaces than if they were to swing free. From this anchorage, we could see the first glimpse of the white quartzite hills of Killarney Provincial Park, one of our favourite spots.

A quiet evening

We returned to Water’s Edge via the shoreline rather than the sort-of marked route and it wasn’t long before the sun disappeared behind a cloud and we couldn’t see the rocks under the water and there was this BIG scraping sound. Stuck. Sun came out; very timely of it. We are stuck on a pile of rubble on both sides of us and just enough water to get through the middle, which we had missed. Out with the Zodiac oars, if that’s what you can call them. And pushing this way and that and with a little rocking, we got out safely leaving just a small mark on the rock.

Just one of the day's 86 photosReturning to our boat, we weren’t back very long when Phil raced up top and announced that our stern anchor had pulled completely out in a gust of wind. He must be a true mariner as I never heard or felt a thing. So off he went in the dinghy with the stern anchor in tow to entrap it on shore behind some rocks. Started up the dinghy (4hp) and just then the wind decided to gust again and here he is in the little marshy area, doing zig-zags back and forth in For(e)Shore trying to get the **** boat to move against the wind and get itself lined up properly. Couldn’t start the engine as it would have been right over the anchor rode and probably would have been tied around the prop pretty quickly. Anyhow, he got the anchor jammed in behind a rock and Phil safely back to the boat and about 10 minutes later, “PRANG” and “*******” and the anchor has come out from behind the rock he used and has got itself behind the next rock in front of it. And we have been sitting quietly ever since. If that’s where the anchor wants to be, whom are we to say no?

About dinnertime a nice Monk 36 came in for the night and she is our only company today as everyone else has gone. Looks as if it will be a quiet night and a very early morning as we have a long outside passage to do before the waves get up. The winds this afternoon were about 15 kn and we heard on the radio today that Miami was in a tropical depression with winds up to 10 miles/hour. If that’s all it takes to put Miamians into a depression, I sure hope none of them move up here.

We will probably spend a night in Mill Lake, part way along Collins Inlet and then into Killarney to re-supply the grocery shelf the next day, whatever day that is. I seem to be losing count.

Location