Nervous About North Channel Canada

[quiesence65]

There are no Grizzly Bears anywhere near the N Channel!

Watch the cyrrent in Little Current.....6Knots
sometimes!!!

[scarlet]

Originally Posted by quiesence65

There are no Grizzly Bears anywhere near the N Channel!

Watch the cyrrent in Little Current.....6Knots
sometimes!!!

I've heard that. We are going in from the west... and only as far as spider bay marina... is it still rough there?

[LooseGoose]

Originally Posted by scarlet

We will be there the last week in august.. (24th - 28th).. I'm assuming mosquitos and people are still plentiful? I was hoping the kids would be back in school that week, and there would be less people...

Never really thought of mosquitos...we will have to bring lots of protection...

I agree you will be up there in the perfect part of late summer. You might like it so much you should look into leaving the boat at a yard around Mackinac for the winter, so you can go back next year.

And, by the way, fall boating is very comfortable.....never forget you're cruising in a tub full of warm water, which will take a lot longer to cool down than land locations, so you'll almost always be warmer and more comfortable than the weather forecast would have you believe.

Have a great holiday.

[Gialdini]

You have picked the finest. Fresh water cruising in the world. We are spending this summer just hanging out in this area. If you have any questions feel free to contact me. Will be in Gore Bay next Tuesday CSC does a good job getting people out and back. Follow the crowd to the more easily accessed anchorages to start. There are lots of rocks so allways have a bow watch when navigating narrow channels. As stated in other replies most anchorages are only 5 to ten miles apart. One of the best cruising books is Well Favored Passage by Pixie Haughwout.

[donregan]

Black bears are shy creatures, unless you get between a sow and cubs, almost always no problem. There are no grizzlies in that area.

Enjoy, DR

[Rumlater]

Thanks for the chuckle this morning re bears in the north channel.... and we don't have grizzly bears in southern Ontario, but nobody mentioned the snakes...... short fat Massasauga rattlers... not usually poisonous enough to kill a human, but a little dog might be a nice meal.....

[scarlet]

Originally Posted by Rumlater

Thanks for the chuckle this morning re bears in the north channel.... and we don't have grizzly bears in southern Ontario, but nobody mentioned the snakes...... short fat Massasauga rattlers... not usually poisonous enough to kill a human, but a little dog might be a nice meal.....

yes... they had quite a bit of fun with me regarding the Bears. Now, about those rattlers.... are you funning with me? or are you serious? If you are being serious, and they could be poisonous to my little dog, I may talk to my vet about bring along an emergency treatment...just in the unfortunate case of her being bit...

(which, as a note, it is my personal opinion, that when bringing dogs cruising.. they should have their own first aid kit, with stand-by meds from their vet to treat them in an emergency. Many cruising localities could be quite a distance to a vet... )

[Raggedglory]

Originally Posted by scarlet

yes... they had quite a bit of fun with me regarding the Bears. Now, about those rattlers.... are you funning with me? or are you serious? If you are being serious, and they could be poisonous to my little dog, I may talk to my vet about bring along an emergency treatment...just in the unfortunate case of her being bit...

(which, as a note, it is my personal opinion, that when bringing dogs cruising.. they should have their own first aid kit, with stand-by meds from their vet to treat them in an emergency. Many cruising localities could be quite a distance to a vet... )

There are indeed rattle snakes in the area but they are now a threatened species due to habitat loss and human predation.
They are shy and do not at all seek either humans nor dogs for sport or a meal.
One would have to step on one or a dog threaten one to get a strike which by the way is not potent although a very few cases of human deaths have occurred before antivenom was available.
All local hospitals carry antivenom.
You would be most fortunate to even see one basking on a rock outcrop in the sun.
Dont even worry in the least.
Bears will run if you bang a couple of pots together and i live in the area and have only seen two rattlers in my entire life.
Enjoy the natural beauty. You are the predatory creature not the wildlife.

[Rorzech]

I've only heard of about 12 people eaten by black bears in my entire life. I'll bet you at least that many get struck by lightning. So no big deal. Just don't run away from them and they won't chase you down and have you for their dinner. Now about the pesky rattle snakes. Even with anti venom , it usually ends up having an amputation, my sister is a ER nurse.
Do like the guy on Apocalypse Now. "Don't leave the boat" LOL

[DavesC34]

I was sailing the North Channel all summer and just returned home today. Of course the Bears at Heywood story was big news on the Cruisers' Net hosted by Roy Eaton. I was very pleased to be contacted by the young journalist named Warren Scholte who wrote up the story for the Manitoulin Expositor. He asked if I would post the following message from him to the various forums where this is being discussed:

*****
Hi everyone! I’m the author of the original story in the Manitoulin Expositor and I just wanted to say thank you for all the shares and discussion – it’s very neat for a budding journalist such as myself to see my story get shared around. I need to give huge credit to Roy Eaton who hosts the local Little Current Cruiser’s Net show. He’s the one who received the reports of the bears and passed them along to our office. Couldn’t have done it without him.

I noticed some talk about using a fire extinguisher. Good thought, and that’s the same thought process that was used when a fifth boat was boarded a few days after the others. There’s a follow-up article you should check out that includes a recollection of the effectiveness of the fire extinguisher, which is good to know in case you should ever find yourselves in a similar situation. https://www.manitoulin.ca/heywood-bo...strikes-again/

Again, thanks for all the shares and discussion! Really means a lot. As Roy Eaton said at the end of his final show for this season, fair winds, safe harbours, 73.
/Warren
*****

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Dave.

[KimSails]

Hi Scarlet,

If you are back from your trip, how did it go???? Awesome sights? Any groundings? Anything you were particularly surprised by (good or bad)?

I will presume that you didn't see a single bear, or at least did not have a negative run-in with one!

I was hoping to at least pass through NC next week as I move my boat from Detroit to Mackinac. But Alas, I may not be able to get away from work.

Kim

[kmacdonald]

Originally Posted by KimSails

Hi Scarlet,

If you are back from your trip, how did it go???? Awesome sights? Any groundings? Anything you were particularly surprised by (good or bad)?

I will presume that you didn't see a single bear, or at least did not have a negative run-in with one!

I was hoping to at least pass through NC next week as I move my boat from Detroit to Mackinac. But Alas, I may not be able to get away from work.

Kim

I just hope she wasn't on one of the boats boarded by a bear.
Glad we warned her.

[scarlet]

Originally Posted by KimSails

Hi Scarlet,

If you are back from your trip, how did it go???? Awesome sights? Any groundings? Anything you were particularly surprised by (good or bad)?

I will presume that you didn't see a single bear, or at least did not have a negative run-in with one!

I was hoping to at least pass through NC next week as I move my boat from Detroit to Mackinac. But Alas, I may not be able to get away from work.

Kim

Hi Kim!!
Yes, we are back. First off, we were NOT one of the boats boarded by a bear at Heywood. We might have been, though, had it not been for a really nice couple who shared the story with us. We had planned on going there and obviously changed our plans.



As for our trip, in the end it was absolutely what we wanted it to be. That being said, if I considered it a true vacation, it definitely wouldn't be one of our best ever. lol!



So, our goal was to do a charter on our own so that we would have a chance to be faced with the challenges of sailing without having someone else to bail us out. We do sail solo on our little lake in Kansas, but we have bigger plans for our future, and in the course of our sailing journey, this really was the next big step...



That area is stunning!!! truly. As far as the eye can see is natural beauty that takes your breath away. The water is so clear we easily could see the bottom at 20-30 feet. (which was great for checking anchor). Speaking of anchoring... we did amazing!! (tooting my own horn because I'm proud). We anchored 4 nights... added more scope than was advised because of strong storms... and we tied off to shore which was very easy. We were only able to put our sails up two days because there was either no wind, or we had too short of a distance to travel. (it was only a 6 night trip)



When we did sail, we did really well. That doesn't mean that things didn't go wrong. The first day we sailed, we couldn't get the mainsail all the way up. I checked everything and come to find out the previous renter had put two reefs in, and I hadn't been able to catch that before we tried to raise sail. We also had a problem with our roller furling genoa. When I was bringing it in, the furling line came out of the drum completely. It required about an hour to disassemble the apparatus, reattach the line, and reassemble. I didn't do it all myself as I didn't have the right allen wrench, but a wonderful man anchored next to us was able to help. I also got to work with a travelller, which we don't have on our boat. I learned a ton about sail trim. Since we had pretty steady winds, I could tweak the sails and see what difference that made in our speed.. I could adjust this or that, and see what happens. So that was really good.



As far as our locations, we stayed really close to the Gore bay area.. We hit Kagawong, Crocker Island which was so beautiful for Kayaking and paddle boarding that we stayed 2 nights, the Benjamins (beautiful, but our least favorite due to the partying crowds.. just not our style) And lastly we spent time at Eagle. That was my favorite place we visited.



The only thing that I would consider "bad" was that we had severe thunderstorms 3 nights in a row. There was a TON of lightening, and pretty strong winds. We were afraid for the obvious reasons (lightening strikes, and anchor drags). It was a dose of reality for us. Bad storms are going to happen, and we managed through them because we had a plan laid out ahead of time.



The last thing is the boat and rental service. We used Canadian Yacht Charters. They were not at all like the bigger charter company we used in BVI. I feel like they are more of a "mom and pop" place, although they do have a lot of boats. They were just lovely to deal with. We chartered a Gemini catamaran due to the fact that our future sailing plans involved purchasing a catamaran. I won't go into the boat much because it was never a boat we would consider for our purposes, but lets just say there was a lot NOT to like about the boat. But, it was perfect for what we used it for.



If I was to make any recommendations about this area, it would be.. "put this area on your sailing bucket list"....



Thank you all for your recommendations, advice, and "ribbing" about bears and snakes!!

[Mike OReilly]

I’m so glad you had a good trip Scarlet. Sounds like you had a fairly typical summer week up there. Thunder storms are a constant. You just get used to managing them, which is what you did .

The whole bear issue is completely irregular. Like I said, and as the conservation officer suggested, it’s likely a case of some idiot boaters deciding it would be cute to feed the bear. After that the bear learns where the food is, and that humans aren’t to be feared. So now we get a bear doing what bears do, which will lead to its death — hopefully before someone gets hurt.

Hope you get back up there. There’s so much more for you to explore. But a great start to your cruising career .