FIVE DAYS OF “WOW!” WITH AN OCCASIONAL “OH SH*T”
August 17-23, 2026
Leaving Baie Fine and heading to Port of Little Currents, we officially moved from the Georgian Bay to the North Channel.
Port of Little Currents is located at the bottom of the ‘e’ in Channel on the map.
I am including the two anchorages and two marinas where we stayed in the North Channel into one blog. We moved each day and after Thessalon, Ontario, headed to Detour, Michigan.
Going through some granite outcroppings as we head toward Little Current.
My usual spot when the boat is underway. I would like to say that Howie and split the driving 50/50, but I would say it is more like 60/40 (guess who is driving more?!?).
The Little Current Swing Bridge is the only vehicular and land access route connecting Manitouline Island to Goat Island and the mainland in Ontario, Canada. It opens at the top of the hour, so you don’t want to be pulling up at 10 past the hour as you will be waiting awhile. I think we had to wait about 15 minutes, which isn’t too bad. Once past the bridge, the marina is a couple of miles away along the town concrete wall. Easy docking and tie up.
Took Bella on a walk, got some groceries and went to the local LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario). I hate to disparage the Ontario government’s decision-making, but the LCBO stores are absolute crap when it comes to wine. They typically have a decent selection of gin, vodka and whiskey, but the wine is worthless. I did find one unoaked chardonnay that was tolerable (keeping in mind we have been in Ontario for almost 6 weeks-that is a long time without good wine). It would be best to open up the alcohol business to capitalism. I also understand if they want to boycott US alcohol, but damn, bring in some French, Argentinian, Spain or Italian wines.
Had to run through the rain to a local diner in Little Currents, got there drenched, but no one seemed to care. Got up the next morning and went to the local coffee shop for quality coffee and a breakfast sandwich. Headed out around 8 a.m. for Eagle Island.
Bella resting her head, smelling the air and contemplating life as we journey toward another destination.
It was only about 20 miles from Little Currents to Eagle Island. We had initially wanted to stay near the Benjamin Islands, but there was too many other boats at the various anchorages, so headed northwest.
Beautiful day as we headed into Eagle Island.
This is a typical planning map of our route. Howie will plan in Aqua Maps and uses various sites to check where other loopers have gone and to make sure we don’t hit something in shallow water. Each one of the numbers on the map is a turn or movement. We have had some routes with so many turns (over 250 turns) that Howie has had to create a second route as Aqua Maps gets overloaded.
Once in the Eagle Island bay, there was only one other boat, so pretty perfect. We set anchor, found a spot on land that we used as our bearing (this helps us to know if the anchor is dragging), and got the tender ready for a ‘tinkle ride.’
Once the tinkle part was completed, we drove around in the tender looking at the island. As we approached this granite outcropping, we both spotted a black bear ambling along. It was too far away for a decent picture, but I attempted to take one anyway. Apparently, black bears are strong swimmers that travel to islands to forage for fish and aquatic plants. They use a dog-paddle style of swimming and can move through water at speeds up to 6 mph.
Can you see him? Ok, I know what you are thinking, Sasquatch is right behind him, but I swear that bear is really there!!
There was a nice beach where we swam and threw the ball for Bella. This is essentially her ‘utopia’ where we are both engaged with her while she swims and retrieves the ball. It also creates a job for Howie as Bella will need the ‘tinkle tender’ every 30-45 minutes after swimming. It usually takes 3 tender rides to get all the lake water out of her system.
Tinkle Taxi
As we were anchoring again the next day, we hung out a bit before leaving for Turnbull Island.
It was a pretty decent ride to Turnbull. Some waves, but manageable.
We didn’t take any pictures on Turnbull Island, not sure why. Maybe getting tired.
Had to captain the boat inside on our trip from Turnbull Island to Thessalon, Ontarion as the weather had turned bad.
Thessalon was a pretty nondescript town, though The Roasted Bean Cafe had good sandwiches and we struck up a conversation with a couple of locals and had an enjoyable time talking with them. The weather was not so great, I only walked the dog around the neighborhoods near the marina. We headed out early for Detour, Michigan-heading back to the states!