Lake Huron has three distinct cruising options. There’s Georgian Bay with its shallow, rocky, twisted pine eastern shore. There’s the Lake Huron part of the lake with a Canadian eastern shore and an American western shore. And then there’s the North Channel – the stretch of water between Lake Huron’s northern shore and Manitoulin Island. Manitoulin is the world’s largest freshwater island and that makes it a great natural breakwater for boats in the North Channel.

The geology changes abruptly as you head into the North Channel from Georgian Bay. The low lying pink granite is replaced by the white quartzites of the La Cloche Mountains to the north and to the south, the limestone of the sedimentary rocks on Manitoulin Island. The terrain is rugged with more relief.

The North Channel is a Mecca for boaters. Wider stretches of deeper water and endless well-protected bays surrounded by crown land, nature reserves and provincial parks make for great gunkholing. Enthusiasts call the North Channel the best freshwater cruising in the world and they are likely right. Unlike the Trent Severn Waterway, Lake Simcoe, the Kawartha’s or many other lakes in Ontario, the North Channel attracts a lot of sailboats. In most anchorages, sailing vessels outnumber cruisers. Because the North Channel has plenty of elbow room, boats are bigger than Georgian Bay. Dauntless, as a 30 foot pocket trawler, is usually the smallest boat in most anchorages.

Come late June, boats from across the continent head for Ontario’s North Channel. And that’s no exaggeration. Many have been coming back year after year to indulge in the clear, fresh water and beautiful bays. They could be from Florida or other eastern US ports, coming north through the myriad of American canals, crossing Lake Ontario, through the TSW to Port Severn and then travel north along the eastern shore of Georgian Bay. Or they could be travelling north up Lake Michigan to anchorages in the Upper Peninsula of that state and its neighbour, Wisconsin. Boats come from Lake Superior or from ports on Lake Huron. The interconnected Great Lakes and a knowledgeable sailor means almost any route is possible. Many boats are from Midland, Tobermory and southern Georgian Bay. If you are from out west, no problem – buy a boat in your Great Lakes’ port of choice and head north. Or ship your boat as we did.

Summer is incredibly short in the North Channel. Starts July 1st and by Labour Day, marinas are starting to shut off the lights and shutter the windows. Boats from far away know that the that the gales of November can come early and high fall winds can make travel home slow and bumpy even in mid September. The beautiful fresh water that was warmed up so quickly by the rocky shores in the summer now cools off fast.

Boating anywhere always has a nice vibe to it. In any anchorage, you can visit every boat, hear their backstory and trade secrets about fishing holes, problems with batteries or the best unmarked anchorages. The North Channel is no different and Roy Eaton of the LCYC Cruisers Net is one of the reasons why.

During the summer everyday precisely at 9am – Roy Eaton of the LCYC Cruisers Net broadcasts on VHF 71 out of the Anchor Inn in Little Current. His audience is the boating community in the North Channel. He starts his 30 minute program with a call out to any boaters with an immediate issue. Someone trying to locate a friend? An immediate engine problem? No one? Now its time for the current marine forecast for the immediate area. Then on to the news – Canadian, International and the local Manitoulin Island news. That all done it’s now what most boaters looking forward to. Roy asks all boaters in the North Channel to call in, say the name of their boat and where they are located. He records every boat name; every location. Shout outs to boaters who have returned area year after year. Boaters from Little Current, boaters from Benjamins, Haywood Island, Frazer Bay, boaters from Baie Finn, The Pool, MacGregor Bay, Thomas Bay, Killarney, Keyhole, Covered Portage and more. Maximum number of boats he has had call in on a single day? 170 boats. Boaters out of the area listen on Zoom, promising Roy to be in the North Channel soon.

Roy helped us. We had a 5lb propane tank that needed to be refilled and not exchanged. No joy in either Little Current or Killarney. Roy drove us and a fellow boater off island to Whitefish Bay. Learning other boaters had the same issue, he broadcast for drivers to take boaters to the propane depot. If you need to order something from Amazon while spending the summer on the boat – send it to the LCYC Cruisers Net. Roy will hold it until your next reprovisioning trip to Little Current. Roy’ll help to find the expert to figure out your battery issue. This is the nature of the LCYC net – and how a VHF broadcaster helps to knit together a community of boaters. It’s no wonder, people will log into Zoom just to watch the broadcast from Michigan, Minnesota or the eastern seaboard.

It’s a beautiful area and there are many ways to see it. There are three main area’s for re-provisioning or a night at a restaurant – Killarney, Little Current and Gore Bay. Killarney has two main resorts (Sportsman Inn and the Killarney Mountain Lodge and ten places to eat and drink. Little Current has all of the essentials – grocery store, LCBO, post office, and a few restaurants.