Saturday Morning Pics Edition #3 - RRR - end

C

Canada

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We ended up last week in Killarney. That was the official end of the RRR. Some went further north and some went back south.

A couple of us headed to Baie Fine which is like a fjord with nice white quatz crystal hills on both sides.

Pic by Water Dawgs of Dawntreader.

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Where we normally anchor in the Pool was just darn weedy so we stayed out in the channel.

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Anchors were set on land against the rock wall.

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You have to get back to the boat somehow.

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As you can imagine, the group had been going pretty hard for the last few days.

Time for some reflection.

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I prefer my dinghy

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And a nap might be appropriate.

Paul

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Jason

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Laura, Dave (Daisy Jane) and Scott (Misty) decided to trek up the hill.

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Laura near the top. This was on maximum zoom.

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The next day we trekked up thru the bush onto the high ground to Topaz Lake which turned out to be beautiful.

Paul heading up the trail.

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Acid rain from years ago, has killed all growth in the lake. It is crystal clear - maybe see down 50 ft plus the rocks as an example below the water line are as easy to climb as above ie: no slime.

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Some took advantage and went for a swim. If we were to do it again, we would pack a picnic lunch.

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Heading back down.

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This is where my camera started to act up and I got very few pics from here on.

Paul who has better equipment and is a better photographer will post later when he gets a chance however, I borrowed some pics from him just to wet the appetite.

Short story is a few of us headed to the Benjimens which is my all time favourite anchorage.

Paul and Jason stopped for provisions in Little Current.

I got there first and here come Paul and Jason in the distance.

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This is a pic taken by Waterdawgs of Dawntreader coming into raft for the afternoon.

Paul, Jason and I stayed for about 3 days.

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Most of the rest of the pics are Pauls.

The Benji's are are great place to dinghy around in as there are many places to gunkhole and explore plus the scenery is fantastic.

Here we are setting out to explore.

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And of course you need adequate provisions.

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Paul and family and Kathy wanted to go for a walk across the main south island so I just dropped them off on a rock shelf. As I said the scenery is great.

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I will leave the rest to Paul including real turtles.

But, in the meantime, we headed over to Gore Bay.

It turned out to get nasty and nastier. I have mentioned before you just can't get the effect on camera of wave action.

The waves ended up building to 12 footers - to the point, when Paul's 4260 went inbetween the wave crests, all we could see was his radar sticking out from on top of his hard top.

We were stuffing our bows to the point, the water was coming up the bow, over the windshields and over the top of the canvas and into the back of the boats (we were running with back canvas off).

The next series of pics was taken by Jackie J as we were behind Innes Island on the leeward side before we entered the big stuff for the run across the North Channel to Gore Bay.

I tried to get the effect of our 3560 going thru one wave. Note: we were only running at between 5 and 10 MPH to keep forward control.

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I look at the total movement of the boat from stuffing to showing lots of freeboard to get the feeling.

When we hit the big stuff it was just too rough to take any more pics and our camera was in the cabin but I wouldn't let Kathy move.

We finally made it to Gore Bay and were happy for it. It was an adventure to say the least.

We stayed for a couple of days in Gore Bay and reprovisioned for our pending trip back south.

Our little 'dog' tent came in handy when just sitting on the dock.

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Enjoy.
 
Awesome pictures Greg.. the water is so beautiful and clear. It's not quite like that in our area unless we're out around the islands. It would have been interesting to see the real rough stuff you mention.. but we understand that you were hanging on.. been there, done that.. just don't want to move until your in safe harbor. :) Thanks for posting...
 
Thanks for the pictures. They sure do remind me of the good times I have had in that area. The blueberry picking on the high ground above Topaz Lake is some of the best in the North Country.
 
I"d have loved to see a pic of the bow stuffed into a wave. Anybody ever get a shot like that?

FANTASTIC Pics by the way....
 
Great pics, its unfortunate that part of the beauty demonstrates that at least part of the area is unhealthy. ie the acid rain that has killed all of the growth in the water allowing it to be so clear. I will remember that when I swim in the hudson and be thankful for the algae that grows all over my boat! at least its healthy!
 
Unhealthy? Rather swim in the Hudson?

hmm...

What do you think you do every day when you are using chemicals to balance your PH levels in your swimming pool?

Trust me, I would rather swim in your unbalanced pool than in the Hudson.

In addition, if you live anywhere in the US and lower part of Canada, especially the north east / central, industrial belt, you are exposed to acidic rain all the time. It even emits naturally from the oceans itself.

I just wanted to make sure this doesn't go too far so to be clear, here is a brief overview for the record.

The term "acid rain" is commonly used to mean the deposition of acidic components in rain, snow, fog, dew, or dry particles. The more accurate term is "acid precipitation." Distilled water, which contains no carbon dioxide, has a neutral pH of 7. Liquids with a pH less than 7 are acidic, and those with a pH greater than 7 are basic. "Clean" or unpolluted rain has a slightly acidic pH of about 5.0, because carbon dioxide and water in the air react together to form carbonic acid, a weak acid. The extra acidity in rain comes from the reaction of air pollutants, primarily sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides, with water in the air to form strong acids (like sulfuric and nitric acid). The main sources of these pollutants are vehicles and industrial and power-generating plants.

The principal natural phenomena that contribute acid-producing gases to the atmosphere are emissions from volcanoes and those from biological processes that occur on the land, in wetlands, and in the oceans. The major biological source of sulfur containing compounds is dimethyl sulfide.

The effects of acidic deposits have been detected in glacial ice thousands of years old in remote parts of the globe.

Both the lower pH and higher aluminum concentrations in surface water that occur as a result of acid rain can cause damage to fish and other aquatic animals. At pHs lower than 5 most fish eggs will not hatch and lower pHs can kill adult fish. As lakes become more acidic biodiversity is reduced. Acid rain has eliminated insect life and some fish species, including the brook trout in some Appalachian streams and creeks.
 
The Hudson happens to be very clean, in fact, several communities along the river actually get their drinking water from it, and there are plans to build more plants that will take drinking water from it.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Canada

Acid rain has eliminated insect life and some fish species, including the brook trout in some Appalachian streams and creeks.
Click to expand...


Anyway we can get this to work on mosquitoes and Green heads?
 
Not to hijack my own thread, I was just trying to point out that 'acid rain' is just that... an imbalance of the PH and not to say Lake Topaz is unswimable and full of 'acid' eating away your skin.

As far as the Hudson, to me, it is like Lake Ontario, if treated, sure I would drink the water but I wouldn't swim in Lake Ontario either.

Specifically:

The Hudson River is the thirty-third most polluted river in the United States. Contaminants such as PCB's (Polychlorinated biphenyl's) and DDT are present in the Hudson River. Two GE facilities alone contaminated over 200 miles of the river from Hudson Falls to the New York Harbor. It has been declared as a superfund site. GE was guilty of dumping more than one million pounds of PCB's for 30 years. Some of the fish were said to be deformed and abnormal.
 
I gotta admit, the water in your pix sure looks gorgeous. Any room for non-Regal owning Americans on your next trip?
 
All are welcome. In fact Killarney and the rest of the North Channel is quite a destination point for boaters out of Michigan. We met a number of fine Americans on our trip.

Topaz Lake was beautiful and I thought for sure its "purity" was a natural formation. I was quite surprised when I learned that the cause was acid rain. Back in the 60's and 70's, pollution control wasn't the issue that it is today. Much of the area around and north of Killarney was adversely affected by the sever pollution that was emitted from the nickel refineries around Sudbury, ON. In fact, Sudbury was such a moon scape at the time that testing was done in the area in support of the manned missions to the moon.

Since that time, emission standards have improved significantly and most of the area has fully or mostly recovered. Only a few small spring fed lakes, like Topaz, are still sterile. I'd still swim in it any time though. Like Greg said, it's kinda like a balanced pool.

Beautiful scene...nasty cause...good story of improved care for the environment.

Paul
 
Greg, not to interrupt but where do I find the ranking for the rivers that you quoted. We are on the Connecticut River which gets much discussion on the improvement in its water quality but I`d like to find something in print to back up the hearsay.
Thanks, Alan & Brenda.
 
Fantastic pictures.Thanks. Looks like you had quite the summer with the boat. Thanks Again.
 
Topaz lake is NOT an acid rain lake. This lake is clear and blue because it has few nutrients or organic mater in it. The white bedrock rocks also add to more light reflection in the water. For the most part Topaz Lake always has been a clear lake.

The surrounding bedrock is quartzite (the same material that glass is made from) and is very hard. There is very little soil on top of the ridge and also the lake has very steep sides and a very small drainage basin. Rainfall that falls in the area as such enters the lake without passing through much soil or any soil - and as such does not pick up many nutrients or organic materials. With few nutrients microscopic plant and animal growth is also restricted. Light travels into a clear lake more deeply than and dark lake and this further bleaches the water.
Nellie Lake, another ridge top lake, is actually 30% more clear than distilled water because of this effect.

Some zoo plankton have transparent bodies and are killed by UV light -they live at depth in the water below the UV light penetration level by day and then rise in the water after dark. In ultra clear lakes where the UV light penetrates to the lake bottom - these creatures can not survive. UV light reaching the earth's surface has increased with changes in atmospheric ozone levels.

Acid rain from the nickel smelters emissions did add additional acid to these lakes and this does further restrict some organisms. From the 1960's to the 1990's however smelter emissions of sulphur dioxide have been reduced by 80% and the lakes are chemically recovering but have not
had full biological recovery.

Some of the ridge top lakes have had core samples taken of the bottom sediments to determine what lived in the lakes 400 years ago - before there was mining for nickel in Sudbury. There lakes were always clear and blue but not as clear as they are today.
 
Give me the Rartian River in NJ anyday of the week , nothing lives in it either. Kenny 05 3860
 
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