Benjamin Island's

Thursday – today we left Little Current for the last time on our trip. Little Current is just a small community, but we had grown to enjoy the sleepy little town. The Government Dock was a bit expensive, but the dock hands were very helpful and created a relaxed environment. We made our way to the Benjamin Islands. The weather forecast had predicted 10kt winds from the West increasing to 15kt winds in the afternoon. The closer we got to the Benjamin’s the higher the waves became – still within the pretty easy range but we started to hit 3 footers as we turned into The Bay of the Benjamin’s.

The Bay of the Benjamin’s is one of the gem anchorages of the North Channel. The rock formations (smooth rocks) are just amazing. There are many places to explore the rocks and hike the woods. That being said, the anchorage can get very crowded. When we got into the anchorage, there were probably 10-15 boats already there. Most of the anchorage area is 20ft deep which makes it hard to set the anchor. The wind was blowing through the anchorage pretty good and the recommendation of chain anchor rode for a 20ft depth would be +100ft. With the number of boats in the anchorage, we were only able to let out 40ft of chain rode – not enough in normal situations, but if we let out more – we would swing into the other boats. As we left to explore the islands another 8 sailboats showed up at the anchorage trying to get out of the pounding waves. After some exploring, we noticed that our boat was dragging anchor – just not enough chain rode out. We hurried back to the boat and tried to re-set the anchor without luck – so we moved across the bay to Croker Island and stern tied to the shore and enjoyed a quiet night completely out of the wind and securely tied to the shore.