This is one of our favourite spots to anchor, mostly because of the lovely people that were there the first time we tried to anchor. This time the island was empty due to COVID but it was great to be back.
Date: July 26, 2020 Distance: 6.3 Nautical Miles Total Time: 1 Hour 22 Minutes Weather: Partly cloudy strong easterly wind
The day started off with us pulling anchor from south of Collier Island. We were luckier than most with just a small snarl of weeds to shake off the line. Our friends pulled up a 50 pound monster ball of weeds that we helped remove by pulling it off from our dingy. Our departure wasn’t smooth either, we got our anchor line caught up with our furling line and it took a bit to get untangled.
On our way out we waved to the people on the dock and yelled, “thanks for the music!”.
We motored out into 15-20 knot winds through the passage where several other boats were anchored. Looked like another decent spot to stay. The exit was narrow; make sure to stay close to the small island on the left.
Our original plan was to anchor on the east side of Camelot island; however, we saw one large sailboat spider webbed into a small bay. There was a large raft of power boats crammed into the small opening between Camelot and Niagara Island. We saw one free mooring ball close to shore. Charts said depth was 8-12 feet so we thought we would try it out. We approached slowly, nervous with rocks on two sides and wind blowing us a bit, the depth finder started dropping and hit 4.8 feet. Our draft is about 5 feet. I panicked and got us out of there quickly. In retrospect, it may have been the weeds causing a shallower reading. We decided to go North and try out Sugar Island and it turned out to be a better location for the night.
As we approached the North side of Sugar Island we saw three other sailboats already anchored. We picked a nice spot a safe distance, but within the group.
Riley dropped the anchor and we let the wind push us back, we caught first attempt. Of course I dove on the anchor. It was nicely set. Definitely enjoying our Mantis anchor.
With strong winds and waves and not much room to swing, we kept a close eye on our anchor watch app.
Dinner was leftovers with the marinated lamb. It was huge! For dessert, apple turnovers in the oven.
Not bad for bugs, a 10 knot wind keeping them away I guess. Spent a lot of time sitting on foredeck watching the sun go down and stargazing.
Later Riley and I watch a movie in the cockpit. The boat batteries not doing great, but should make it through the night. It will be so much nicer with solar.
Three of our boat guests are getting ready to go home, Bri and Riley heading home. Confirmed our son, Gavin, coming out tomorrow night, with our dog, Barley. He’s coming to visit and will take Owen home the next morning. Planning to stay the night in Gananoque Marina again and meet up with some friends for dinner. Not sure where we are heading after that. Will see what way the wind blows us.
September 21, 2020 at 7:34 pm
What is the name of your app for the batteries and what set up is needed ?
September 22, 2020 at 9:07 am
Hi Michel,
It’s a Victron BMV-712 battery monitoring system. It requires a shunt to be installed on the negative side of your house batteries and a network cable to be routed to the head unit that can be installed anywhere. We installed on our 12v breaker panel.
We are very happy with it, nice to know approx percentage of batteries left based on Amp hours and instant current status (draining or charging). The app is decent but only draw back I found is that it provides a graph over time but this only collects history while the app is running. I used to be staring at the app all the time to learn what every component drew from our batteries, now I just glance at the head unit every now and then to make sure things are good.
I described our installation here:
https://www.foghornlullaby.com/2020/07/solar-update-victron-bmv-712
September 22, 2020 at 9:10 am
Oh and quick comment about the anchor app screenshot. We were using Sailgrib Anchor Alarm. It has a nice interface but I was getting too many false alarms and it would keep the screen on my Pixel 3 phone on all the time. I switched to AnchorWatch by Michael Konz. It’s been working flawlessly. Also has an iPhone version that I recently tried out. It’s much fancier looking on the iPhone and I prefer the simpler Android interface. One day I’ll write up a comparison/review.