Bear Drop, Blind River

We left Gore Bay Marina Saturday and headed for Bear Drop anchorage. The trip to Gore Bay wasn't smooth and as it turns out the trip to Bear Drop wasn't a smooth one either. The conditions in the bay were fine but when we hit the open North Channel the winds picked up and so did the waves. We slowed a bit to make the ride more comfortable, around 8 mph. We rode that way for a while as the seas built. Generally slowing down in rough weather makes the ride a little better, but that means you have to endure it for longer. For grins we sped Fryedaze up to almost 11 mph. I know, i know we are really flying now :-) This brought her bow up and with the wind and wave direction off the starboard bow the ride was smoother so we kept it that way into Bear Drop. To get that extra 3mph we go from burning 3.5 gph to about 10 gph. We made the turn into the cove and everything was flat. The winds were still there but we had plenty of protection.

 The plan was to stay one night but the winds changed that. They were calling for 15-20 with possible 30 knot winds. We settled in and enjoyed the scenery. As the day progressed several other boats came in to get out of the weather. After two nights we got antsy and decided to poke our nose out for a run to Blind River marina. The winds in the cove were lite and once we went outside it wasn't bad at all so we made the 2.5 hour run to Blind River. Loopers Ariel, Time Out and Chester B made the same run that day.

 This never gets old.

 Storm passing through Bear Drop. The boat got a nice bath to get rid of all the mess the spiders had made.

In 1929 the Carpenter Hixon Company built a state-of-the-art pine sawmill producing 89 million board feet of lumber in its first year. Through boom and bust the mill survived under the name 'McFadden Lumber Company' for over forty years as the largest white pine sawmill east of the Rocky Mountains. It was the Great Mississauga Fire of 1948 that led to a depletion of timber, difficult economic conditions and the eventual closing of the mill in 1969. The only thing that remains today is the large "burner" just off the harbor.

I found this structure fascinating. It is the only structure left from the old sawmill. It is a burner for waste products from the saw mill. When you produce 89 million board feet of lumber in one year that must me a lot of sawdust. Now days all that sawdust and pulp would go to make other products. This thing is a huge steel structure with a mesh cage on the top that I assume prevents sparks from leaving. It was left in place as a visual for mariners.

We need our old friend Nick Lavato here to teach us how to take great sunset pictures.

 Pink sky at night, Sailors delight!

The weather the last several days has been causing high winds on the North Channel of Lake Huron. We could have left today from Blind River but Environment Canada has wind warnings again today. I think they missed it because Passage Weather has light winds up here for the next five days. Cruising to Drummond, Mackinac and on to Manistique should be great.