#2: [25-Aug-24]

31-Jul-2002 -- After getting a very brief introduction to the confluence concept from a co-worker (Doug Eastick), we started our family vacation in the North Channel of Georgian Bay in Ontario, Canada. Doug had mentioned that one of the confluences (the one we eventually visited) was close to where we were going to be travelling. I filed this bit of information away and we set off on our vacation.

In the middle of the week, the day dawned sunny and calm - an ideal boating day. We decided to pack up our three kids (My wife Paula and I have a boy, Calum who is 9 and two girls - Anna 7 and Grace - 4) and a picnic lunch and set off to the Benjamin Islands. This is about a 45 minute boat ride and is one of the favourite destinations among North Channel boaters and visitors alike.

We by-passed the confluence on the way there and had a great morning of swimming and exploring. The Benjamin Islands are a series of pink granite out croppings. Many are large enough to support fairly large bush areas, some are just small and have little to no vegetation. The rock is quite striking and the swimming is great in July and August.

While listening to the marine weather on the VHF, it looked like the wind was going to start picking up so we ate a quick lunch and set off back towards Little Current. When we got to the confluence area, it was still only a light breeze so we dialed in the co-ordinates into our E-Trex Legend GPS and slowly proceeded off of the navigation channel and into shallow water. I would not recommend that large boats attempt to get right to this confluence point as the bottom is rocky and it is fairly close to a small island and the associated shallow water.

After reading some of the other logs on the confluence site, our trip seeems pretty boring! We had to criss-cross the area sveral times to get as close as we could to the actual point. The wind kept us drifting all of the time. I took a photo of our GPS as close to the point as we could get. I am pretty sure at some time or other in the 20 minutes we spent trying that we must have been exactly on the spot!

We took two other photos there - one looking North and one looking South. It is quite a pretty spot if you are going by. It would be interesting to re-visit in the winter as the water would freeze in this area.

After taking the pictures, we headed back to Little Current. No trips to emerg or anything like that! The roll of film got filed away and was only developed last week, hence the long delay in logging our visit.

In the North Channel of Lake Huron.