Day 299 –300 Byng Inlet & Bustard Islands

You can see how narrow the channel gets in places!






These rocks are close to our anchorage.






Here you can see 2 piles of inuksuit rocks.

We left our beautiful anchorage at Byng Inlet earlier than we wanted because storms were predicted and we wanted to be tucked into a harbor when that happened. Wrights Marina at Byng Inlet is a looper sponsor so we decided to stay here at $1.50 foot and diesel $1.09 liter. St Amant’s Marina a mile further is $1.25’ and has a well stocked store with a restaurant on the 2nd floor above the marina office. We unloaded the bikes and headed to St Amant’s for lunch. Having been a boater for 30 years, I packed my rain jacket on the bike but Tom decided he wouldn’t need his. Sure enough, the sky broke loose during lunch and while it had let up a little by the time we left, I was behind him chuckling to myself as he peddled as fast as he could back to the boat. He was thoroughly soaked! After a couple of hours, it cleared off so we hit the road again on bikes to find Little Britt Inn for dinner. This is a very popular place with a casual downstairs or more upscale dinning above in addition to a few rooms for rent at the Inn in back.

Jim Hampton sent us the explanation of the stones we’ve been seeing:
As one travels across Canada, you will see piles of rock slabs and stones built to resemble the shape of a person with arms stretching out. These stone structures put up by Inuit are known as inukshuk (pronounced 'in-ook-shook'). In the Inuit language, inukshuk means "likeness of a person" or "in the image of man". The inukshuk is a well known symbol in the Canadian north.

Traditionally, multiple inukshuk structures are used to guide or channel caribou into areas where Inuit hunters could easily harvest them. The hunters would often hide behind the larger inuksuit. The inukshuk can also be found along Arctic coastlines as markers to open channels for navigation. Inland where the tundra is treeless, the inukshuk could indicate direction of a valley for travel through mountains. The longer arm of an inukshuk points in the direction that one should travel to. Sometimes an inukshuk could have a peep hole in the middle and if someone looked through it, another inukshuk in the distance could be seen. An inukshuk could serve as a marker for fish. This inukshuk would be placed at an equal distance from the shoreline to where the fish could be found in a lake. In this case, the figure would be more like a neat pile of stones without arms or legs.

We are anchored at Bustards Islands at MM23, Georgian Bay. A Canadian couple anchored nearby came by in their dinghy and had a nice conversation for an hour. As soon as dinner is ready and we turn the generator off we will have another quiet beautiful evening. This is a well protected anchorage and also is very popular. There are (2) sailboats and (3) powerboats here tonight. There is ample room for about (5) additional vessels. Tomorrow weather permitting we will pull anchor and head for another anchorage.