Dunks Bay (Bruce Peninsula)

[Kyle]Dunks Bay is big and sandy (rare for this area), with plenty of room for anchoring anywhere we liked. We headed to shore until the depth sounder read four meters and dropped anchor.

We had intended to spend our day doing a jolly respectful section of the Bruce Trail to the south of Dunks. Just before I deployed the dinghy, Maryanne told me she wasn't up for it. She had twisted her ankle earlier and now it was still feeling sore, added to that the bottom of the same foot was bruised from the rocky trails we'd been walking. She was worried she couldn't do it. Okay, our backup plan was a long kayak to the loop trail's scenic viewpoints at Dunks Point. That worked out okay. We got plenty of exercise and get to see some nice stuff.

As we pulled into Dunks Bay on our return, we noticed that another boat had arrived and anchored right next to Begonia, despite there being loads of space on all sides. It turned out to be Near Boat (not the real name) from two anchorages ago. He seems to be one of those people that gets nervous if others are too far away. Perhaps he feels that if he falls overboard and can't get on his own boat, there's another one only a boat length away. It's a simple matter for us to get a boathook, flip his swim ladder down and then push him home.

Of course, now we have to worry about him because we know he can't anchor, plus he's so close that he's practically on our boat anyway, which means that we have to talk to each other in hushed tones while feeling like we're living in a fishbowl. We would assume he is just looking for some new friends, but anytime we have tried conversing with him, he's cut things pretty short.

We had another half day. Maryanne's ankle was still playing up, so we had a short swim that became long after we decided to start wiping some of the slime off the bottom paint. There was hardly any growth, but we wanted to make sure the biocide in the paint was still at the surface where it's needed.

More kayaking around the pretty shorelines of the Bruce Peninsula

Birds:Merganser (duck) and Double-creseted Cormorants

That was it for Dunks. The forecasts all say we'll have a much easier time on our next leg if we leave in the middle of the night. Since it's a big bay with no hazards, I'll make myself get up early if it will save me three hours of motoring on the other end.