When we left Little Current last Friday, I teased that I wanted to spend a week in McGregor Bay, in our favorite McGregor anchorage, in the far southeast corner of the bay. We call it, “Usual Reason Cove.” As Thyme Hyssop & Wry motored into the anchorage, we were pleasantly surprised to find the anchorage empty. Our friends aboard Class Act joined us, and for two nights we enjoyed the anchorage all to ourselves.

Over the past week, we have watched a loon family: the two parents and a baby loon. They have no fear of us though they kept their eyes on a dog going to shore with his owner last evening. They have provided such entertainment and their baby is growing before our eyes. We have enjoyed watching the parents fishing for and feeding their little one who waits patiently, clucking next to his other parent. Yesterday the baby began diving! Crazy how much joy this is bringing us. The cruising life is a simple life!

For a couple of days we were joined in the anchorage by three boats from the Great Lakes Yacht Club: Serendipity, Constellation, and Horizon. Turns out that Cindy and Tim aboard Serendipity are very good friends of Mary and Tom aboard Wind Spirit, the boat next to us in Duncan Bay that had the propane explosion. We ended up all meeting up on one of the islands that rings this anchorage for a “rocktail party,” getting to know one another, making new friends. As tough as news of Tom’s death has been, it was good getting news of Mary’s recovery and hearing stories. And then, later that same evening, I received an email update from Mary. Serendipity, indeed.

It’s been a wonderful week with great paddling (me), good fishing (Ron), sunny days and calm nights, good friends. I think this is the longest we have ever stayed anchored in one spot in all our years cruising the North Channel. We looked forward to heading down to Manitowaning, one of our favorite provisioning spots, but they have a non-functioning pump-out right now and after a week out, we are going to need to empty our holding tank sooner than later. We will likely head back west, toward Little Current again.