Thursday, July 23, 2009

The entrance to our anchorage in the Benjamin Islands
(note the pink granite)

Our anchorage in the Benjamin Islands
(Note all the trees leaning the same way. The wind blows so hard here in the winter the trees all bend from northwest to southeast.)

We had an early breakfast at the Anchor Inn, an old hotel one block from the docks. Upstairs there is a room which is the "broadcast studio" of Roy Eaton, the host of "The Little Current Cruisers Network", which broadcasts everyday in July and August at 9 a.m. on VHF channel 71.

Roy is a retired high school principal who began this service in 2004, and it has grown beyond his wildest dreams. He gives the latest marine weather, world news, sports scores, business reports, what happened today in history, and North Channel events. Following this, call-ins are made from individual boats traveling in the area. Some have messages to transmit to other boats, and most just announce where they are presently and what their next destination will be. Roy's service is now registered with the Coast Guard and Air Search and Rescue and has helped in locating many boaters. We were privileged to sit in at his broadcast with some other boaters to see what goes on behind the scenes. Today we assisted him by writing down the names and info on 124 boats in the area! In 2008 he had 4,708 call-ins! He is a wonderful man who volunteers his time and talent to helping many people and it was a pleasure to meet him.

We finally left the dock after the morning's events for the lovely Benjamin Islands, a favorite anchoring area in the North Channel. We rode around for a while among the islands, evaluating what would be the best location for "Reflection", and eventually settled on a beautiful open area where we anchored in 41 feet of water! Twenty- two other smaller boats were also anchored in more shallow waters nearby. We kept our eyes open for bears, which had been spotted on the shores in previous years eating blueberries, but we didn't spot any today.

George woke up at 2:00 a. m. to see if he could spot the northern lights we were told were visible at these latitudes - and there they were. A beautiful blue green glow in the northern sky, the aurora borealis, at this latitude it appears as a false sunrise.

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