Georgian Bay Islands National Park

 

 
 

Georgian Bay Sailing-Camping Day 1

 

One can dock and pay an extra docking fee, or beach the boat at no extra charge. The campground faces a long, wide stretch of beautiful sandy beach. Water is exceptionally shallow here; at 300 feet off the shore the water is no more than knee deep. Normally I would haul the boat up so that the bow is sitting on land and then tie it to a stationary object, but here the water is too shallow and the rudder would be scrapping the bottom. So I had to anchor the boat about 100 feet offshore, the bow facing land and tie to my Danforth. That’s the only anchor I have, so for the stern anchor I found a large rock and tied it to the anchor line. Here’s Optimystic , in the company of a dozen power boats and two larger sailboats:


        

Nightfall revealed a beautiful starry sky reflecting off the calm water. As we lay on the sandy beach, enjoying roasted corn and watching the Milky Way, two exceptionally bright meteors shot through the horizon. One visibly brightened up as it burned through the atmosphere before it disappeared off the treetops. At around 10:00PM the curtain of stars were dimmed by a full moon, rising from the east and off Roberts Island. The humid summer air amplified the harvest moon into a large, orange smiling face that cast a long sparkling gentle glow on the water, broken only by the motionless sailboats.


 

 

 

go to Day 2