Midland to Killarney (and back)

[flyingwelshman]

I just got back from a 12-day cruise from Midland; up the East-side of Georgian Bay; across the top (from the Bustard Islands to Killarney); down the west-side (from Killarney to Tobermory); and across from Cabot Head to Hope Island and back to Midland.

I have up-loaded a couple of videos of the trip.

I hope you like them.

Part 1:


Part 2:

[jdair101]

next year for me. same route but starting out of collingwood to hope island then around the bay.
Great vidio and stills.

[canadianseamonkey]

Excellent compilation! I made the trip from Collinwood to Little Current, my homeport, 5 years ago. Very familiar scenery. Seems like you had a great time.

[scottbr]

Welsh, great videos. It was a great way to see your trip.

I was surprised to see empty docks at Henry's. Anytime we've been there its been overfull.

Looks like you had a mix of good weather and some windy, wet weather..... I liked the "marooned" comment.

I recognized a lot of the areas you anchored and went through from our trip.

[patrickrea]

I was going to say the same thing as ScottB. I don't think I have ever seen the dock at Henry's that empty. There is almost always a few boats anchored out when I get there.

[CS271409]

Great Video Welsh. We are departing for Killarney, Beaverstone Bay and the North Channel next week. It has been a poor early summer for weather but it looks like you had a great time (although weathered in at Club Island is rarely gangs of fun.)
We just got back from a long weekend sailing out of our new home port of Lions Head. Fantastic sailing. 6 - 7 knots (in a 5.5 knot boat!) with NW15 and flat water. We anchored for a couple of nights in bays around Lions Head.
We did the Wingfield Basin to Hope Island crossing 2 years ago... into a rare SE wind that was supposed to veer to SW but that never happened. We were close hauled and heeled for 10 hours but couldn't hold our rhumb line and fell off to the north. When we sighted the Western Islands, then we bit the bullet and motored the rest of the way to our anchorage at Beckwith.
I've heard the Bustards are fantastic but it seems a bit out of our way. I assume you would recommend a visit?

[scottbr]

Dave, the Bustards are nice, but like the rest of Georgian Bay, rocks, trees, water... just arranged different They are definately worth seeing at some point, but I would make a trip over to that area and spend more time there. Lots of very quiet places to get into and you could spend a week just exploring. If you haven't been to Baie Fine, it would be worth spending more time in that area while you're in Killarney than spending the extra time to get over to the Bustards.


Bustard Islands




Beaverstone Bay







Baie Fine

[scottbr]

Welsh, sorry for hijacking your thread....


We got home late Sunday night and even thought we were dog tired stayed up to watch your videos. Really enjoyed the mix of vidoes and pictures. We haven't been over to Tobermory yet, but have it on the someday list.

What did you use to reproduce the map and trace your route.

What camera were you using. Looks like it was an underwater model with the shots of the wreck or pilings at tthe beginning of vid 2.

You must have done some video editing before, or are a quick learner.

[flyingwelshman]

Here are some answers to your questions/observations:

We arrived at Henry's at 10:30 in the morning because we were meeting friends
there for lunch. We got there early because a) I over-estimated the time it would take to get from Echo Bay to the restaurant, and b) this was to be the first time I had docked anywhere other than my home dock and didn't want to embarrass myself. As it turned out, the folks at Henry's were right there to help me land. By the time the restaurant opened there were a few more boats and a couple of planes at the dock.

The Bustards: I really wanted to include them in our trip as I had seen pictures and heard that they are beautiful. They are certainly picturesque. I would like to have spent more time poking around them in my dinghy. What little I did of that was pretty cool. But be warned: the water gets pretty shallow very quickly. I think a kayak or canoe would be the best vehicle from which to explore. One thing that surprised (and disappointed) me was the number of cottages on the islands. We moved from our first anchorage (between Green and Tie Islands) because a dog at the cottage that overlooks the anchorage began barking incessantly. We were really lucky going at the time of year that we did. It sounds (according to 'Ports') as though some of the anchorages get pretty packed. As you saw from the video, we had Bustard Harbour to ourselves. I don't think you'd see that mid-summer. The sail from the Bustards to Killarney was a highlight of the trip. The wind was just right and the view of the La Cloche mountains is spectacular.

Scott, no worries about 'hi-jacking', I know you have an affinity for the area. As to your technical questions: I used Adobe Photoshop to create the animated map. I 'borrowed' the map of Georgian Bay from the internet (I cleaned it up and modified it a bit). The track is made up of 336 separate red dots. Each time I added a dot I save the image as a new image file. Once I had all of the route I animated the map in Adobe Premiere Pro and saved it as an AVI file. I then thought that it looked a little flat so I went back and added a dropped shadow to each frame of the track. It was a real PITA. By converting the image to AVI I lost some quality, but I kind of like the 'old-school' look it has. I'm sure that there is a much easier way to do this, I just don't know what it is.

The cameras I used were a Sony Handycam (HDR-HC9). I really like this camera! It's a mini-DV cameras (so you don't lose as much quality due to compression) and has a great stabilizer, very smooth zoom control, and 6.1 megapixel stills on a memory stick. It is HD (1080) capable, but I don't have an HD burner on my computer. The downside to the camera is that I don't think it responds well to water.

For all the 'wet' shots I used the Sanyo Xacti VPC-WH1. We picked this up for the trip. It is waterproof to 3 meters (10 feet). It has a very durable housing. It is also HD. It only has 2.0 megapixel still resolution. It records video and stills onto a memory stick. The video format is MPEG-4, so I had to convert them for editing. The trouble is that, for some reason, when I converted the files the video came across but the audio didn't. I put the video together Sergio Leone style (without sound) and just saved the audio clips I wanted as wav's and dubbed them back onto the corresponding video clips. The up-side to this camera is that it has a really long battery life (about 3-hours) and, as I forgot to bring the charger for my other camera, this became the main camera that we used.

The shot of the wreck at Club Island was a happy accident. Sharon & I were exploring in the dinghy when we ran over the wreck (it's only a few feet under the surface). I told Sharon to just point the camera down in the water and I would try to drive the dinghy along the wreck. We got quite a bit of footage of sandy bottom, but also some pretty good footage of the wreck. If that hadn't worked I was going to snorkel over the wreck to get the footage. I did jump into the water to get the shot going up our anchor line. Man! I am lucky I put on my wetsuit! That water was freaking cold! Unfortunately it was only a 3 mm suit. The other option was my dry suit, but it was too much of a PITA to put that on for a 2 second shot.

Anyhow, sorry for going into so much detail - video editing is another hobby of mine.

Hopefully we can meet in Pentetang or out on the water. This weekend doesn't look that great weather-wise, but If we're going out I'll drop you a PM.

Dave

[scottbr]

I hear you about the docking.... you should have seen me trying to parallel park at the main dock in downtown Killarney to have fish & chips almost backed into another Sailnetr's boat M275Sailor, who keeps / kept his boat in Killarney.


Neat underwtaer shots, I have a Handycam but just predates digital to computer. I'm fairly new to all this new digital stuff, I'm still on my Nikon Fe2 35mm.

We're probably headed up to the boat this weekend, even if it rains, I have some work to do that's been on the "list" all spring.... let me know if you're headed up. Weekend after, Jul. 18-19 starts our holidays and we'll be at Beauoliel with a few friends for my 5oh. We'll be at Tonche Point North, just opposite Bid Dog Channel, some are camping on shore, others in boat .... drop by for a beer etc. if you're out. It may be one or two other couples, not a big deal.

Weekend after that will be hit or miss, but we will be back at the marina, depending how long my 15 yr. old daughter can tolerate being on the boat ...



edit on plans 18th - 19th weekend, maybe at Beckwith maybe at Beausoliel... will let you know if you're interested...


edit .... corected the dates