Discovery Harbor

After Owen Sound we spent one night at a marina in Meaford. The weather was still windy and unseasonably cool. How do you know when it’s summer in Canada? No one’s wearing a parka! Meaford has a very well cared for marina. I was so impressed with the lovely flowers and landscaping. Lydia, the harbormaster on duty, was pruning shrubs when we came in, we've never seen that before. Here’s their new office, lounge and showers.

This was another point of interest here, the retired Coast Guard Search and Rescue vessel the Westford. You can see that everything is printed in English and French.

We’re now using Skype to call back to the States as it would be $1.25/min. to use our cell phones. Another new experience was ordering potato salad and sliced turkey from a deli in grams.

On Sunday, July 19th, we motor-sailed on rolling seas all the way to Penetang Harbor in southern Georgian Bay. We spent two nights at a great anchorage. We were directly off Discovery Harbor, a reconstructed British naval/army establishment.

On Monday, summer was back, shorts weather again finally. We took a guided tour of the living museum; costumed interpreters help tell the story of life here in the early 1820s when it was home to more than 20 vessels.

Replicas of the H.M.S. Bee, a transport vessel and H.M.S. Tecumseth, built as a warship, are here today. Years ago they took passengers out on the Bay but because of government regulations on safety, etc. they are no longer used in this way. Too bad!

Here’s the lonely Restless Wind at anchor; Magazine Island is to the right. Explosives were stored there to safeguard the settlement. (my first thought was of periodicals – not correct)

We also learned about British Naval Officer Henry Wolsey Bayfield (1795 – 1885). He devoted his life to naval hydrography (charting) and is responsible for charts of the coastal waters of all the Great Lakes including Georgian Bay. He did not chart Lake Michigan as it belonged to the U.S. He did his work here in the winter and was out on the water with his survey crew from the ice melt in spring to autumn. His charts were amazingly accurate considering the tools available at that time: sextant, theodolite, telescope, timekeeper and compass. Nautical surveyors still refer to them today.

There is also a professional summer theatre which performs four shows per season at the King's Wharf Theatre. The large red barn-like building in the upper picture is the venue, it's a replica of the former Naval Storehouse. Here is a link if anyone would like to learn more about this look into the past: http://www.discoveryharbour.on.ca