8/5 Long Point Cove to the Benjamin Islands

This was a long ‘drive’, and without wind (what else is new?) we motored all the way. This part of the North Channel is the most famous one, it has the most beautiful channels, islands and anchorages. We were lucky to have great weather, sunny and clear, and enjoyed the trip immensely. We passed through the whalesback channel, then through a very narrow pass called ‘Little Detroit’ and eventually turned south to enter the anchorage between the two Benjamin Islands from the south. This is the only real passage in there, even though there’s a shallow channel in the west between the two islands and we saw some small boats passing though there. One sailboat in particular came through with a nice clip and we clearly heard the bang of him smashing a rock at some point...

The anchorage is maybe the most popular and well known one of the whole North Channel, and there were maybe two dozen boats anchored there. Since it’s large they spread out well and we didn’t feel crowded here either. The neighboring powerboat played some opera and at sunset felt compelled to entertain the anchorage with a tune that must have burst their eardrums, but otherwise it was all peaceful and beautiful. We went foraging for blueberries and were quite successful, but retreated to the boat to put on insect repellent after encountering plenty critters. We ate all the blueberries of the first crop with some yoghurt, and then returned for more. Initially not very successful, we suddenly encountered the mother of all blueberry bushes on North Benjamin Island – a bush very much larger than all the others we ever found, and laden with fruit. We picked so many that we still have some today, two days later.