Blind River Canada

It had rained all night and was raining and very windy in the morning. There was a very strong wind pushing the boat away from the dock. It was so strong that the boat was heeling a little with no sail up. It was also a deep dock and we had pulled deep into the dock to more easily reach shore power. Backing out of the slip would have been difficult as the wind would have pushed us into the neighboring boat or dock. Not to mention that I would have on line in my hand and have to jump on the boat as it was being pulled away from the dock. I'd almost certainly have fallen into the water. As luck would have it, the captain of the neighboring boat offered to help us get out. First we move the boat to the end of the dock one cleat at a time, then he held one line and I another as I jumped onto the boat. It was a very smooth launch that could have been a disaster.

The high winds died down almost as soon as we were out of the marina. We had set a double reef to shrink the mainsail to it's smallest size because of the wind. After about an hour of light winds we decided to remove the reef and go full sail. We had about an hour of wonderful sailing. It was cool and threatened to rain but never did. But the wind did pick up and reached what I'll call maximum comfortable level for wind and waves. We had to put the reef back in and reduce the foresail. We didn't lose any speed shrinking the sails and added a lot more comfort (boat being more vertical). The winds were up and down all day but mostly pretty high. We made good time. Winds were high as we approached the marina. The attendant that assigned our slip was concious of the wind speed and direction and assigned a slip accordingly, plus he had two other attendants to help us dock. By the time we had docked and hooked up shore power, the sun came out. It had threatened rain all day with maybe a couple of drizzles at most. So walking to dinner was comfortable unlike the deluge we walked in yesterday.

Little islands of rock that we had to be on the alert for. The are marked on the navigation charts. You may have to zoom in to see it.

Rain off the back of the boat that we hoped wouldn't catch us.

Approach to Blind River marina.

The entry to the marina.

View of the marina from shore.

We ate at Restaurant 17 in "downtown". It was a Greek diner. They had Alexander Keith IPA that was an OK beer but not an IPA. The also had Manitoulin Brewery Cup and Saucer English Brown Ale. It was very good and malty as you'd expect from a British Brown Ale. After that we went to Pier 17 Bar. Both have 17 in the name because they are on highway 17. There I had Manitoulin IPA. It was excellent. Manitoulin Brewery is in Little Current Ontario Canada, a place that we plan to stop. Since we ate at 17 Restaurant, we did not eat at Pier 17 but looked at the menu and it was very good and the place was nicer that 17 Restaurant.

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