Gore Bay, ON, CA
We apologize for falling behind our postings - it’s been a busy summer, and as much as we like to share, we get caught up the adventure and before we know it, days have passed. So here we go ….
The morning we departed Kagawong (our previous entry), we walked up to the weekly farmer’s market, which was pretty impressive. To our surprise, it had 80 vendors and was well attended by almost everyone in the county on a Wednesday morning - shocking! The vendors had fresh produce, including the most flavorful amazing wild blueberries we have ever tasted! We wandered each isle, each one better than the next and bought lemon honey, baked goods and some hand knit items. It’s surprises like this market that never cease to amaze us. You just never know what you might encounter in these small towns.
We decided to do some sight seeing on the trip from Kagawong to Gore Bay, and ventured north to Croker Island and the Benjamin Islands, which are very popular anchorages. It was a beautiful travel day and the anchorages were packed. The islands consisted of high cliffs, beautiful lush green forests and appeared to be spectacular anchorages ….but as we have learned, as appealing as they look, many of these anchorages are full of submerged rocks and shallow spots, and boaters have to pay VERY close attention when coming and going. We opted out of anchoring, and headed to our next marina at Gore Bay for the night. Ann has classified herself as more of a “marina girl” - if for no other reason than to have electricity and air conditioning.
We spent two nights in the picturesque Gore Bay at a marina that was tucked behind a large breakwater. It was very peaceful and surprisingly busy, with lots of boats coming and going. We spent most of the time we were there getting the boat pulled back together, grocery shopping and just walking around the little town. It was a fairly sleepy place during our stay, as apparently there had been a big Marina Festival the week-end prior, and the town and marina looked like they were still in recovery mode. One of the funniest things we noticed when we started walking in to town was a stack of shopping carts lined up on the dock. When asked what they were, the Dockmaster told us the grocery store in town allows boaters to walk up, do their shopping and roll the carts back to the dock, and the store collects them at the end of the day! Talk about top notch service :)
Like Kagawong, Gore Bay is another village on Manitoulin Island, where people born on the Island are called “Haweaters” after the berries from the hawthorn trees that helped keep early settlers from starving during a famine in the 1860’s. Many of the local shops have jellies, t-shirts, hoodies and other things that reference the Island and Haweaters. Who knew!
Because it’s such a great marina, Gore Bay is a popular stop for boaters on the North Channel. It is very popular with Michigan boaters because it’s easy to get to. We met some really nice people with interesting stories and valuable information about cruising the Great Lakes and North Channel. These stories and lessons learned from others are what we have grown to appreciate so much on this trip, because personal experiences are so valuable. Love the human connection!
