Canadian Yachting October 2017 - 52

Boats that I have known

The Cottage and my special entrance

THE PORT HOLE

R. John Garside, AP, Editor-in-Chief
Prince Edward Power and Sail Squadron

We were now all seated in the little red boat and heading
off into the wonderful waters of Georgian Bay. The drive
up to Honey Harbour had taken several hours and now we
were heading off on the last leg of the trip. A trip that was
supposed to include a picnic! I was sitting at the front of
the boat and carefully taking note of all the new scenery
and other boats as well.
We departed the small marina of Honey Harbour and
headed out into the main channel. All around us were
small houses that seemed to be built up on stilts. I asked
my aunt what they were and she replied, "Oh, those are
called cottages, and there are lots of them". So I looked at
them again and recalled the last set of cottages I had seen
were the three cottages on the Trent, but they sat directly
on the ground. These sat up in the air, strange, but at least
the upper portion looked like a Trent cottage.
The boat moved out of the main channel and began
heading south and, there to the right of us, was a huge
cottage, several stories high and painted white with blue
trim. "That's the Royal Hotel", commented my aunt and
I looked carefully at my very first big hotel. It was a large
wooden building of two floors and surrounded by a veranda. In addition to this there were lots of people there. I
asked if this was where the picnic was taking place but my
aunt smiled and said, "No, but soon we will be there."
So I continued to look over the Royal Hotel and the little
red boat soon passed it by. There on the left side of the
boat was another big cottage, "Is that a hotel too?" I asked.
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Canadian Yachting

Smiling once again my aunt informed me that it was sort
of a hotel but it was called The Delawana Inn. It looked
quite different from the Royal and had lots of small docks
to one side of it side of it with all kinds of small boats! It
was quite exciting.
As we began moving past the Delawana Inn my uncle
turned the boat to the right and we began crossing a large
stretch of water. I remember looking towards the land ahead
and seeing two very distinct things. One was a large pile of
rocks with a water channel between them and off to the left
up on a very rocky perch was one of these Trent cottages on
stilts. My aunt informed me that the rock that surrounded
the water channel was referred to as Big Dog Channel and
the cottage on stilts was actually our destination!
We had only been in the boat for about twenty minutes
or so but I remember feeling so excited about all the things
I had seen for the first time and all the things that just
might be possible to do out here. Our journey was soon
coming to an end though as my uncle pointed the boat into
a small bay and proceeded towards a very old dock. The
dock was like something I had never seen before. Just like
the cottages in the area, it too was way up in the air and
seemed to be built on large wooden boxes. My uncle carefully pulled the boat up to this dock and secured it. The
adults all scrambled out onto the dock which left me and
my aunt behind in the boat.
Looking at my aunt I asked how I would ever get up there,
and she replied that once we had unloaded all the picnic baskets onto the dock, I too would be lifted up to join the others. So we both passed up the baskets and other bags and
soon I found myself on the dock. It was quite high out of the

October 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Canadian Yachting October 2017