Hi All,

Yes, it is a long way from the Benjamins to Kincardine, but it has been a long time since I wrote. There's not much connectivity out there in the great white north, so I haven't really been keeping up.

From the Benjamins we sailed back to Little Current in 15 to 20 knots of westerly, so it was mostly downhill. Louise was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to steer downwind even with a breeze up and did quite well. In Little Current we went immediately to the Anchor Inn for a net fix, then met up with Laura in the early afternoon when she arrived by car after taking the ferry over from Tobermory. She brought plenty of the kind of provisioning that's harder to find in small places, including, of course, more President's Choice shrimp. Late in the afternoon we headed back out under the bridge, sailed around the back of Strawberry Island and anchored in Beaver Island Bay. The wind was still 15 or so from the West, and that was probably a good thing -- no mosquitoes from the swamp. We had a great scrabble game and I got creamed by Laura, and also by Louise. I'm trying not to pout ;-)

 I took the car to Monday morning we went up Strawberry Channel and back to Little Current.get a few more things, then Laura and I headed off while Louise took pictures from the dock and drove the car back to Kingston. We had an easy afternoon beating back out to the Benjamins to enjoy those big chunks of rock, before getting back into delivery mode.

Tuesday we went down to Vidal Bay, on the north side of Manitoulin Island just in from the western end. We anchored under Vidal Island in about 10 feet of water and had the whole place to ourselves.

Wednesday we sailed with the DRS in a light breeze around the end of Manitoulin Island, which then mostly faded out, so we motored the rest of the way to Great Duck Island, where we anchored off Desert Point in a  bay on the north side of the island. The bay was a huge flat expanse of sand, with about a mile and a half of deserted beach backed by sand dunes. This was the spot that Scott from Brinehog had recommended so highly. Heading ashore we expected to find a pristine beach, untouched by humans, but were dissappointed as we were getting there to see footprints everywhere. Then we were thrilled to see that they were not human prints, but deer tracks everywhere. We stayed over another day, sitting on the beach in the sun and building sand castles. We did see some other cruisers land their dinghy 3/4 of a mile away, but otherwise no signs of life, not even the deer.

From Great Duck we headed mostly straight south across Lake Huron to Kincardine. The wind swung further south than forecast, making the later part of the passage into a beat against 15 to 20 knots and the waves that go with them. We got into Kincardine about 1300 the next day with everything kind of damp. In the evening we got together with Scott from Brinehog and the two Jims from Aqualibrium and sat around the cockpit in good company. Barry Collins from Flying Circus dropped by for a brief hello, then headed off to see the pipe bands marching. We enjoyed the piping from a comfortable distance.

Today is Sunday and we will probably go racing with some of the Kincardine gang this afternoon, depending on who needs crew. Then Monday we will find our way back to Kingston somehow or other. I hope you are all having fun.

Life is still pretty good, if still kinda wet,

Rick