North Channel Adventure - Day 7, Tuesday, July 17, 2012
I see I missed a day yesterday. We arrived in Little Current, Manitoulin Island, North Channel, Ontario, Canada, yesterday, Monday, July 16, 2012. Little Current is famous for, guess what, its current which is either a non-event or catastrophic. Docking for us yesterday fell under the former category - a non-event, which is the kind of docking experience you want every time. You really want boat-docking to be a ho-hum thing - kind of like watching paint dry.
We had been docked for several hours, when CSO - who was on the upper deck - opened the cabin door and said to me, "There's a boat out here having a dickens of a time docking. Want to watch?"
Sadly, one of the great marina pastimes and sports is docking watching. We all do it and anyone who says otherwise is not telling the truth. I went up on deck to watch the most painful docking procedure I've seen in recent years. The current was wicked and the boat's first mate had nary a fender or line ready. It was, as one might say, "a cluster". The Grand Banks trawler trying to dock did hit the Grand Banks trawler in the same slip. It took six people to finally get the boat tied up safely. Today all of the surrounding boats stayed put so there were no docking olympics to observe.
Little Current is an old, established community dating back to the mid-1800's and its history is prominently displayed everywhere. It has good shopping, good grocery stores, island-made Farquardts ice cream, outstanding fresh fish served in its restaurants, a strong wi-fi signal and an excellent butcher shop. I've actually been able to catch up on emails and clear out my Google Reader.
Tomorrow will find CSO and I out on anchor again, hopefully for five nights running as we work our way westward, preparing to cross the big pond, perhaps one week from today.
Until I can post again............
Ancora imparo
