McGregor Bay

Leg 15 of our 2022 cruise up north

(to read my last post, Hike up to Casson Peak at Maryanne Cove, click here)

The loon calls echo here it’s so quiet! We can also hear them flap their wings.

We’ve spent two days exploring some of the little channels and bays in McGregor Bay via dinghy. We’ve never been here before, so everything here is new to us.

Super calm this morning.
There are many, many cottages in McGregor. It’s a big reason why we anchor where we do here… to avoid spoiling their view.
Some cottages are hidden.
We anchored in the “East West Channel,” which doesn’t have any cottages in the anchorage.

McGregor Bay’s waters are extra complicated, with hundreds of islands and narrows that look very similar to each other. As we dinghied around or paddled around in our SUPs we’d come to what looked like a dead end… until just a few feet away a narrows would appear and lead us to another wide open bay. One could easily get lost here.

At first I thought this was another dead end…
…but it leads to another section of McGregor’s North Channel…
…with lots of cottages.

Without GPS, it would be super tricky… it also wasn’t even officially charted until about the time of GPS, too. As a member of the Great Lakes Cruising Club, I’ve got access to hand drawn charts of some of the tricky spots that cruisers used decades before GPS. Even with our fancy electronics (and Priorities really isn’t all that fancy), we didn’t venture in here until I had access to their proprietary information. I also bought a paper chart as a backup just in case, and to help with overall situational awareness.

It’s super pretty, but that also makes it tricky to navigate.
Here we’re in split screen mode. The screen on the right is zoomed in much more than the one on the left. Lots of islands, rocks, and shoals, and not always accurately charted!

Yesterday there was little wind in the afternoon, so we motored to get in here. I was kinda okay with that, though, since that makes it easier for Kristin to see rocks and shallow spots as I slowly drove Priorities through some of trickier spots.

On the way in, I hoped to follow another boat. If they run aground first, then I won’t go that way! Unfortunately, just after I took this photo they stopped so they could to follow us.
A simplified view of yesterday’s route from Maryanne Cove.
Lots of islands for miles

All the sun, light wind, and warm air these last few days have brought water temperatures up. McGregor has very protected waters, so it would be warmer anyway… right now it’s 74 degrees.

Tomorrow we’re probably headed farther east again, maybe Killarney or Covered Portage Cove.

Nice place to hang in a hammock and read a book.

(to read about Leg 16, click here)

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