A trip to the North Channel wouldn’t be complete without a stop in Little Current, the biggest little city in the North Channel. It’s true that Little Current is not only the largest city in the North Channel, but has everything a cruiser might need with gift shops, parks, restaurants,…

Our second day, back at anchor in Marianne Cove, Jim talked me into hiking up Frazer Hill. He’d heard the view, overlooking the Bay, was spectacular and well worth the “climb” up. Well, it certainly was steep and very rocky, but we were rewarded with a view of Frazer Bay…

We returned to Marianne Cove to re-anchor and spend another peaceful night in Canada’s North Channel paradise. The view off the back deck of Kismet (above). Coffee in the morning on the back deck. I think I look relaxed. It’s a guy thing (above). I love trying to capture the…

We liked Marianne Cove so much, we decided to make it base camp for a few days. In the morning of our second day we pulled anchor to take a day trip up the majestic Baie Fine, a fjord which runs east and west. Baie Fine is a total of about 10…

On our way up Baie Fine, we saw this marker on shore. It’s a marking for the red buoy – the channel through this area is so narrow they had to mark it on the rock. On this day we chose to try a new anchorage (for us) at Marianne Cove….

While cruising through the Killarney Channel, on our way to Collins Inlet, we received a call on our VHF. After switching to channel 68, Bill, the guy hailing us, told us that, as he was standing on the balcony of his channel-side home, he noticed our red Ranger Tug slowly cruising…

Georgian Bay is on our cruising bucket list, a trip like this deserves a dedicated stretch of time to explore properly. With that said, we decided to get our toes just a little wet. After we left Covered Portage Cove, we passed through the channel in Killarney for a short,…

Around lunch time, our second day, we joined Charlie and Linda in a dinghy ride over to Killarney to take advantage of the famous fish and chips at the Red School Bus, located right on the channel in town. The fish and chips are very good, a little pricy but…

Doubling our pleasure comes to mind when we think of our visit to Covered Portage Cove in the North Channel. Not only was it our first time anchoring in this cove, we also had the pleasure of  rendezvousing with friends Charlie and Linda on Freedom’s Turn (above). We met them in 2008…

From South Benjamin Island we made our way past Little Current, Strawberry and Heywood Islands as we skirted south of Frazier Bay to enter Lansdowne Channel on the way to Covered Portage Cove, just west of Killarney, the old provincial outpost that separates Ontario’s North Channel from Georgian Bay. We had…

Topping off our great anchorage find is the incredible view from the top of this South Benjamin Island. This is where Jim found all those yummy blueberries and where we went to stretch our legs and enjoy the view when we felt cramped on the boat. Great weather during our…

It is often said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder! I reference this because we recently spent time at the Benjamins, South Benjamin specifically, and it is our contention that the rocks on this island are gorgeous. We recently cruised Lake Powell, in Utah/Arizona, the landscape there…

It’s amazing how we can spend a few days on the hook and not get bored. We both had chores to do, organizing our stuff on the boat, we swam in the unseasonably warm water, played games, read books, cooked, ate and just plain relaxed. This is our big trip…

We left Spanish early the next morning and made our way through Little Detroit, a channel so narrow it’s customary to make a, “Securité.` Securité.` Securité.” call to announce your intentions so boaters, on the other side of the channel, can stand clear. You wouldn’t want to be passed by…

In light of some of our road trips recently, the one we took today was relatively short. We started by heading north along the scenic route of northwest Michigan. We drove Kismet across the Mackinaw Bridge, through the Upper Penninsula, across the border into Canada and finally, 260 miles later,…

The North Channel is one of our favorite cruising destinations, there I said it! For those that have been, it most likely is one of your favored routes as well. If you haven’t been, the following photos, although very, very nice can never do justice to what Mother Nature provides…

Kismet is heading back to the Torch Lake Bridge after a nice weekend at anchor on TorchLake, we just barely squeaked under the bridge with only inches to spare (below). As we made our way through Torch River we were reminded once again how beautiful this stretch of water is….

We enjoyed a relaxing day floating on the hook on Torch Lake, as the day unfolded, we had done a few boat chores, caught up on some reading and before we knew it we were getting ready to join our friends, Jim and Cindy, at their cottage for dinner. We…

Torch Lake has lots of fond memories for Lisa and I. We each boated here before we were married and began our boating adventures together on this lake. We used to trailer our 21-foot Four Winns Sundowner to Torch Lake to spend long weekends on the hook, but since our…

Jim and I started our boating adventures in the early 90s with a 21-foot Four Winns Sundowner. On many weekends during our short Michigan summers, we’d trailer it to Torch Lake for a relaxing few days on the hook. Jim was studying for tests at the time and I’d catch…