We moved aboard No Yards on May 8th this year, about 10 days later than we moved aboard in 2019. There were fewer boats in the water than when we moved aboard last year, but the Bay Port staff worked quickly to get our neighbours in as summer was approaching. We moved out of Bay Port this summer, not planning to have a home port. The plan for 2020 was to be on the move and to spend the majority of our time at anchor with a smaller number of nights at various marinas as transient guests. So from May 8 to May 21, we got No Yards ready for the season ahead.
I had the pleasure of shoveling snow off the dock on our first morning aboard this year. Our water connection was also frozen, so it certainly wasn’t the way we expected to kick off the 2020 season.
May 21 to 24 – Systems Check Cruise: We kicked off the season with a 4 day/3 night cruise to make sure all was working properly on No Yards before we left Bay Port for the season. After three great nights at anchor and reasonable late Spring weather, we were comfortable that we were good to go for extended periods of time. As we headed back to Bay Port from Three Finger Bay, we hit a rock! Seems like a 2020 thing to do doesn’t it? Well this kind of set the tone for the season I guess. With both propellers damaged we were towed from the area of what I now affectionately call ‘WTF Was That? Island’ and our season was derailed before we even got going. We were towed to Killbear Marina in Nobel ON, and spent a few weeks ‘on the hard’ as we had our propellers repaired and some other maintenance work done. There’s always a silver lining in these things I suppose, and in this case we made new friends and found the winter storage location for No Yards. Killbear essentially became our home port for the season.
The rest of the Season: For the remainder of the 2020 boating season we explored Georgian Bay and The North Channel. We had occasional visits from immediate family, and spent a lot of time in the Parry Sound area. We spent 31 days touring The North Channel, Manitoulin Island, and the area from Tobermory to Owen Sound. The scenery in this area is spectacular, with white quartz cliffs in the North Channel, and clear turquoise blue waters near the Niagara Escarpment on the western side of Georgian Bay. We closed out the season at one of our favourite places, Massassauga Provincial Park. There are too many great areas to describe in this post, so I recommend that you explore these areas yourself either by land or by water. We will definitely return!
Check out the ‘Travels of No Yards’ link at this link to see where we cruised, along with photos. https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1Xm60HsRYZ1NZDI6nR1SuyLceXo7hUKc9&ll=45.42746304904021%2C-81.28808142875134&z=8
Our season officially came to an end on September 13 when we left Killbear and headed South for the winter. This is significantly earlier than last season when we left No Yards on October 26. It gets colder north of Parry Sound earlier in the Fall than it does in Midland and it was just time for us to go. We can’t wait to get our fleet back in the water for the 2021 season!
2020 Season Stats:
- Main Engine Hours: 111.7
- Generator Hours: 109.2
- Distance Traveled (No Yards): 1274km
- Diesel Fuel Consumed: 2675 litres
- Distance Traveled (Little Fella): 550km
- Nights at Anchor: 43
- Nights in Marinas: 85
As you can see above, our plan to spend most of our nights at anchor didn’t quite pan out in 2020. We knew we’d be at Bay Port for most of the month of May as we prepared No Yards for the season ahead, but we weren’t planning on extended stays at Killbear Marina and at Big Sound Marina as we dealt with damaged propellers, leaky hoses, a dead refrigerator, a broken cooktop, a leaky dinghy, and numerous other issues. All of the above combined to put us significantly over budget for 2020, but as much as we hated to spend the unplanned money we also knew going in that there would be unforeseen expenses with a 20 year old motor yacht. As with many things this year, 2021 can only get better right? Right?