The Benjamin Islands

[Kyle]Our trip out of Little Current started with light headwinds. It wasn't too far and we had some large patches of water in between. That gave us plenty of room for tacking, so we shut down the engines and had a day of sailing all over the place and enjoying the scenery. It took us two hours longer than motoring would have, but it was vastly more pleasant to work the wind instead of just pointing the boat and waiting for the destination to appear.

The rocks and islands of the Benjamin Group are beautiful, glacier-sculpted rock. Because of that and its proximity to Little Current, it is quite popular. When we arrived, we came around the corner and one by one, boats came into view until we could see at least fifteen. All of the places we had hoped to tuck in and anchor were full, so we ended up way out in the middle of the bay, where we could swing without worrying about the others.

The next morning, we set off in the kayak on what was intended to be a comprehensive circumnavigation of North Benjamin, South Benjamin, and its associated small rocky islets. We had barely popped into the nearest cove, less than a tenth of a mile from Begonia, when we noticed that the smallish trawler within had a Torqeedo as its dinghy motor.

It was a privilege to meet with Jessie and Melinda, the long time friends holidaying together aboard the boat: The Relation Ship

We paddled over to congratulate them on their obvious intelligence and to thank them for not stinking up the anchorage like all the other dinghies that were racing around at full speed. Jessie and Melinda emerged. They were two friends from way back. I think it may have even been since High school. We liked them both immediately.

Jessie was the one that owned the boat, named The Relation Ship. (She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, among other things). She told us it was trailerable and she and Melinda had towed it up from Kentucky. It was Melinda's first time on the boat, but she is a sporty outdoor type who has done lots of long canoe trips and mountain hikes, sometimes both – as in big canoe trips with lots of overland portages, so she took to it well. Jessie also owns a horse farm, where she spends most of her time, but during vacations, she has managed to take The Relation Ship an impressively diverse number of places.)

We stayed with them for ages, talking about all sorts of things, until we had to pull ourselves away to resume our kayak the last couple hundred feet to shore, where we scurried up the rocks for an elevated view of the anchorage.

We Kayaked around Norht and South Benjamin, and stepped ashore a few times to explore and enjoy the view (and the blueberries)

We continued around to the channel between the south side of South Benjamin and an adjacent, slightly smaller islet. The views were amazing and we couldn't resist leaving the kayak for another shore scramble to take them in. There, we found lots of beautiful, isolated anchorages free of the party boat crowd. Back in the kayak at water level, we noticed that several kind souls had secured lots of mooring rings to the boulders. Some of the anchors were pitons wedged into the cracks, but most were screws drilled into the rock and then filled with concrete. Had we known there were so many places to secure lines, we might have had a go at squeezing into our own private cove. If we had, though, we might not have met Jessie and Melinda.

We were both pretty tired once we had finished paddling the whole way around, but we still took the time to stop by The Relation Ship to report what we had seen. Melinda was busy, but Jessie came out to chat for a while.

When she found out Maryanne was a techy person, she asked for help with a minor issue. It turned out all she needed was a replacement fuse, of which we have loads. We were both happy to have an excuse to invite them over later to pick them up.

They were great company. They are the kind of people that, even though we knew we had things to do and we needed to let them get on with their lives, saying goodbye took forever because we were really having more fun with them there.

The following morning started as a blustery one, with the winds forecast to build even farther in the afternoon. Maryanne and I decided to confine our day to the protection of the anchorage, only going ashore briefly to gather wild blueberries. We also swung by for some time with Jessie and Melinda, of course. Each boat is heading in opposite directions tomorrow, so it is goodbye for now, but we hope we get lucky enough to cross wakes with them again soon.

The Benjamin Islands... a place of beauty...