Baie Fine

Saturday – Today we decided to cruise to Baie Fine. Baie Fine is about 20 miles North East of Little Current. The weather forecast showed clouds and storms with an increasing wind to the West at 20 knots. We left the government wall and preceded though the swing bridge going East out of Little Current. The radio was filled with chatter from the sailboats regarding the weather, but we did not see any problems with in the next few hours when we would be in our anchorage.

Baie Fine is a narrow channel that runs between two mountain ranges. The entrance to Baie Fine is marked with a couple of red/green buoys, but it still presents a challenge to stay off the rocks. Once we cleared the entrance then we had a 10 mile cruise in a channel about a quarter mile across. At the end of this channel is a channel named “The Narrows” – which describes the size of the channel. Our charts did not show that there was enough depth to enter the channel, but our Great Lakes Cruising Club manuals showed there was enough depth and there were two sailboats leaving the channel as we entered. So, I closed my eyes and hoped for the best. Most of the entrance was 20 ft deep with only one spot going down to 6 ft. You then continue up the channel – about 100 ft across with 20 ft depths in the middle – for a mile and a half. At the end of the channel you turn to your starboard and enter the “Pool”. The Pool is a small anchorage area at the end of the channels.

We set the anchor and took the dinghy to shore to climb up to the interior lake. You hike up a rugged trail to a location close to the top of the mountain and you come to Topaz Lake. The lake is amazing – the water is a topaz color with huge walls of a “white” granite\quartz. There is a good chance that this lake was created from a meteorite many many years ago. It is just a large “bowl” in the middle of the mountain. We jumped off the rocks into the water and enjoyed some swimming in the crystal clear waters – amazing place. We then climbed up the rest of the mountain and looked down over the “Pool” in which our boat was anchored.

As you turn into the “Pool” there is a cottage on a small rock island. The Cottage is or was owned by the founder of Evinrude and his wife (some famous actress of her time) (both may have past away by now). Until recently, they had their 110 foot yacht docked right next to their cottage. The length of the rock island is probably 150 ft, so the yacht would have taken up much of the island. It is a shame that the yacht is no longer there, that would have been fun to see.

We met two couples (one from Minnesota) that spend their entire summers on the North Channel. They don’t rent slips during the summers, but instead just have the boat dropped in the water and off they go. When they come back at the end of August, they just have the boat pulled out of the water and stored for the winter – then back next year. They all seem to know each other and there is much chatter on the radio between the sailboats. We asked them how much they sail compared to motoring between anchorages – one couple said that they mainly motor between anchorages and the other couple laughed and said that they were scared to see the conditions of their sails that they haven’t used in years.

Spending every summer on a boat in the North Channel (or anywhere outside of a marina) – now that is for me! All ready planning next years summer cruise – probably out to the East Coast (start the Great Loop) where we’ll leave the boat for the winter and fly home – but we’ll see…

Internet Access: No Internet. We do have Verizon cell phone service with the Booster/Antenna.