Georgian Bay Boot Camp

I spent 2 and half days up on Georgian Bay with Jean-loup for a bit of a sailing Boot Camp. Working under his tutelage to go a bit further and do a bit more on bigger water.

GPS Track for Georgian Bay Boot Camp 2014

Jean-loup has set up shop on Georgian Bay to teach, coach and generally provide support to any or all of your sailing needs. He can be found at www.georgianbaysailingcoach.com.

After arriving late afternoon and a quick checkout of boat and stuff we headed out northeast towards Christian Island under motor as there was no wind. Became acquainted with 'Otto' our Auto Helm. Came to realize very quickly how handy that would be when sailing with two crew - like another person on the boat.

It started to get dark and it became evident that we would be relying entirely on GPS to navigate as there no lights visible anywhere. We circled around the top end of Christian Island eastwards towards the south side of Hope Island to Sandy Bay. We anchored in about 5 metres of water thinking that we were the only ones there with a number of visible lights of the house on shore. After waking the next morning it was a surprise to see that the lights of the previous night were actually all boats anchored much closer to shore than we were. No matter.

Leaving Hope Island for The Watchers

After a hearty breakfast we headed Northeast towards The Watchers, a number of low lying islands and islets that gave us entry to the small craft channel at the GB5 buoy. We motored along the small craft channel until Turtle Rock before heading South along the East side of Giants Tomb Island. The wind came up so it was time to sail which we did for the rest of the day, all the way back across Nottawasaga Bay to Thornbury.

We moored at the gas dock at the Thornbury Marina, and after dinner walked around admiring all the moored vessels of the Thornbury Yacht Club.

Next morning in light winds we practiced sailing under spinnaker sailing from Thornbury to Meaford. A great few days and a great weekend with Jean-loup on his boat Malaika on new water for me.

Trimming the Spinnaker Towards Meaford