Thursday, August 9-Friday August 10

by jgshort@aol.com · August 10, 2018

We are headed into the Parry Sound. The route in brought us thru several very narrow areas where you have to issue a Securite (yep, that how you spell it) call on the radio to determine if we have traffic headed the other way. It goes like this “Sécurité, sécurité, sécurité This is Short Vacation a 44 foot vessel entering the south end Two Mile Narrows. Any concerned traffic answer on 16. A number of times we did have responses from big boats or even small barges headed in the opposite direction. We would make arrangements to wait or proceed until the other vessel cleared.

We had to wait for a swing bridge to open before we could enter Parry Sound.

We were aware that this was a major area for float planes either taking off or landing and of course they have the right of way so it was up to us to stay out of their way.

We got into the Big Sound Marina area in the early afternoon. Before moving to our assigned slip we arrange to stop at the municipal wall to pump out our waste holding tank. Often it is interesting/challenging to either pull into or leave docks. In this case, we were able to casually land on the wall because there was a lot of room. While we were pumping out a huge excursion boat showed up, turned around and maneuvered directly in front of us (like within a few feet – just part of the adventure).

After some fancy maneuvering, we moved to our assigned dock. Just as we got there, our friends Steve and Diane from Aurora were taking off in a float plane exploring the islands. Diane was surprised when I showed her this picture of them in the plan taken from our back deck (a long way away).

Tom, Colletta, and Pam walked into town to check out the shopping and the locale. That evening we went over to Aurora (Steve and Diane’s boat) for happy hour. Catalina Jack (another 44’ DeFever) was also there.

Catalina Jack (another 44’ DeFever) pulled in shortly after we did.

The next day, we cleaned the boat and Margaret and Duane (Canadian friends that we met in Mesa, AZ) came over from their cottage at Port Severn. We showed them the boat and then we went out for lunch. They were kind enough to drive us out to Walmart, the Beer Store and the LCBO (liquor store) to help us provision our boat. We aren’t close to very many towns now so it was great to stock up.