July 7, 2011 Sandy Cove

Today is the day we go through Presqu’ile Bay and the Murray Canal. My blog from our last voyage here said it was 28 miles to the end of the Murray Canal where we tied up last time. Our original plan was to stay there again. However, two sailors we met recommended that we stay at Sandy Cove, a beautiful little anchorage that is past the canal.

There is a lot of navigation to do on this leg of the trip. You really must concentrate and stay within the buoys as shoals are everywhere. My instruments are so nice. On some of the trickiest parts there is a course line on the chart to follow. Just keep the little sailboat shown on the chart plotter on the line and you should be in good shape. My chart is 3 years old so a few buoys have changed. Some new ones are added and some others removed. It’s strange to round an invisible buoy that is not there.
 

We were at the end of the Canal by 12:30 and decided to keep going, either to Belleville or to Sandy Cove about 3 miles past Belleville. BTW, the Murray Canal is really easy to transit. It is an arrow straight 5 mile waterway. Two swing bridges need to be passed. The cost to navigate is $4.90 and when you pass the first bridge the tender holds out a 10’ pole with a basket in which you put your toll while motoring by – kind of neat.

The wind strength and direction turned out to be good for anchoring so we decided to go to Sandy Cove. It was nearly empty when we arrived which was a relief. It’s a very nice anchorage, deep to shore with good holding. It is 45.5 miles from Cobourg. We arrived at 3:30, so it took us 7 ½ hours. We motored all the way although I did have a job open for the last 2 hours of the trip to help speed Excalibur along.

When we anchored we tried to split the distance between the one boat here and the shore so that Lew would have room to anchor between us and the shore. The wind shifted after we anchored so we ended closer to shore than anticipated. Lew ended up anchoring between us and the other boat. I thought he ended up a little close so we picked up our anchor and moved a little further away.

Kerry wanted a dark rum and tonic as soon as we were set, so at 3:50 I made us 2 tall ones even though I knew a sweet drink at that time would screw up my normal 4:00 PM martini. Hey, anything to keep the princess happy!

Lew came over in his dingy after his nap to take us fishing. I caught 2 fish so small they could have gone in my aquarium at home. Lew got skunked. Kerry made a tuna fish casserole for dinner once I returned from fishing. It was such a beautiful night that we sat out and sipped a glass of wine while watching the sky turn from fire gold to pink and gray pastels.

They have huge mosquitoes here. We watched them swarm at the screen on our V-berth hatch. They really wanted to get it. We held our fingers up to the screen to tease them. If they could have gotten in I don’t think we would have any blood left in the morning! I thought that if it started to rain we would be better off getting wet than opening that screen to close the hatch.

It is Friday morning as I write this now. I’m sitting in the cockpit enjoying the anchorage and gentle breeze and watching the day develop. It is just beautiful. We really love it the places we visit on this trip. One of us even mentioned coming back again sometime.