No Salt, No Tide, No Current … Best Freshwater Cruising in the World?

It’s 9 PM on a dark starry night and we are laying on the top deck of Optimystique watching for falling stars (otherwise known as the Perseid Meteor Shower). Earlier we sipped a glass of wine on the back deck watching the brilliant colors of sunset while reminiscing about our first day in The North Channel.  Once again, we are cruisers at anchor, not a canal boat and not marina hopping.

First thing this morning we cruised over to Covered Portage Cove, the beginning of The North Channel, a spectacular fresh water cruising area: no salt, no tide and no current!

Some claim it’s the best fresh water cruising in the world and it’s easy to see why. Dropping anchor in Covered Portage, we admired the view – towering white quartz cliffs studded by dark green trees seemingly growing directly out of the rock walls.

We “discovered” the path to the top of the cliffs which provided a stunning view of the boats at anchor far below, dinghied around the cove to “discover” the Indian head everyone talks about and we shared docktails aboard another Looper boat with three other couples.  Then watched the otters play beside the boat as the sun set. Life doesn’t get much better!

The North Channel is formed where Manitoulin Island, the largest freshwater island in the world, creates a sheltered cruising ground between it and the north shore of Lake Huron dotted with rocks, island and anchorages.

We enjoyed several anchorages in The North Channel as well as Little Current – the eastern gateway on Manitoulin Island.

Cruising up Baie Fine, was our first time in a “fjord”. What is a fjord? Fjords are long narrow inlets with tall mountains or highlands on either side. They are generally cut from the surrounding bedrock (or quartzite in this case) into U-shaped valleys by fast moving glaciers pouring into a basin – Lake Huron. The fjord was spectacular, ending at The Pool, a popular anchorage with a great hike to Topaz Lake.

Anchoring at Heywood Island just before Little Current proved almost dangerous.  There’s a bear that started boarding boats the night we were anchored there.  Luckily we anchored on the other end so didn’t get boarded by a bear – luckily no one has been hurt so far, but 5 boats have been boarded and one trashed.  The bears are hungry because of the drought – no blueberries to stock up for winter. Here’s my out of focus photo of the bear swimming across the cove – it startled us while out dinghy exploring.

A stop in Little Current allowed us to restock on provisions as well as take in Roy’s famous Cruisers Net broadcast from The Anchor Inn.  And see the Strawberry Island Lighthouse on the way in…

More highlights included “conquering” pink granite islands floating in sapphire blue waters against a clear blue sky in the famed Benjamin Islands. We spent a few nights here, including weathering a “norther” with strong gusty north winds – cozy and safe tucked away under the cliffs, anchored in a solid mud bottom (after clearing the rock bottom further out).

The Benjamin Islands.

We chose to move on to beat some nasty weather, so unfortunately our final stop was Beardrop Harbor.  Leaving Beardrop Harbor was difficult.  We knew we may never be back to cruise The North Channel and at least for me, it was THE highlight of our Great Loop so far… so I didn’t want to leave.