Day 6: Baie Fine and our Favorite Anchorage, The Pool

Great Loopers visiting the North Channel for the first time

Wednesday, July 16: We woke up this morning in Snug Harbor and were quickly on the move (along with everyone else). :-) Behind us in the Lansdowne Channel, we watched 4 Great Loop boats make their way into Snug Harbor for their first stop in the North Channel. (We know this because we heard them check in on Cruisers Net!) Our destination for today is "The Pool" anchorage at the end of Baie Fine. It was our favorite stop last year, and we're looking forward to trying to anchor again in our same spot.

Boat on the move in Baie Fine

Turning the corner from "The Narrows" into "The Pool" - and finding it completely EMPTY!!

We enjoyed a leisurely cruise through Baie Fine and The Narrows, just taking it all in and enjoying the journey. It was still pretty early, around 10am, so there were still lots of boats on the move! For this reason, we were stunned when we turned into The Pool anchorage and found it COMPLETELY EMPTY!! What?!?! The whole Pool to ourselves?!?! How lucky could we get? :-) (The Pool is one of the more popular anchorages in the North Channel - people seem to either love it or hate it. We love it.)  We were hesitant to really celebrate though until we got farther in and discovered that "out spot" from last year was open and waiting for us. Perfect!

"Our Spot" in the Pool

A deer hanging out on the rock behind us

Little baby blue gill

We found our spot, anchored, and got down to the business of relaxing, taking in the scenery, and fishing! We caught a bunch of little blue gill right around the boat, and Ben caught a nice bass...

Hey, that's our fish!

...that the resident ancient turtle decided would make a good dinner for himself! I'm sure you can guess who won this battle! 

Going out to catch some more fish for dinner

Success! Our first fresh-caught dinner in the North Channel

Throughout the afternoon, boats started filing in, so we weren't alone for very long. Ben set out in the kayak to find a good fishing spot and try to catch dinner. He ended up catching a few Northern, an ugly Alligator Gar, and a few more nice sized bass for dinner. We cooked up the bass in some butter, with spaghetti on the side, and it was AMAZING!

Beautiful evening in The Pool

End of a wonderful day :-)