Moon River

Moon River, wider than a mile,

I’m crossin’ you in style, some day,

Old dream maker, you heart breaker,

Wherever your goin’, I’m goin’ your way.

Two drifters, off to see the world,

There’s such a lot of world to see,

We’re after the same rainbow’s end,

Waitin’round the bend,

My huckleberry friend,

Moon river, and me.

It struck us funny that cruising along slowly in uncharted waters in northern Canada we would both begin singing it almost simultaneously.  My first mate had just told me that we had turned on to “Moon River”, and out we broke in song. 

When I was a young boy, I must have heard Andy Williams sing that a thousand times on a 33-1/3 vinyl record album that my parents often played on their “hi-fi”, as the early stereos were called.  My mom loved the song, as did my dad.  Of course, their other favorite album at the time was Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass.  Explains where my weird taste in music got its’ roots…

My first mate said it was the very first song she ever learned, for the same reason.  Except, she thought her parents record might have been Tony Bennett or Ed Ames.  The music was actually written by Henry Mancini, so no matter.  Still, when we thought about the words, where we were, and what we were doing, the song took on new meaning.

Our new Canadian sail boater friends, Walt, Cath, and their dog, Kiwi, followed us in their dinghy as we made the approximately ten mile ride from our anchorage up through the North Channel, Woods Bay and Moon River Bay, as we worked our way towards Moon River and the promised waterfall there.  It was beautiful country.  Although Walt and Cath had anchored in Port Rawson several times, this was their first trip to Moon River Falls as well.  Most of the way was deep water and we followed local boaters (mostly fishermen) weaving our way around islands and across bays.  A few times we slowed to a crawl to pick our way through tight corners and over shallow submerged rocks.  I had my chart plotter on “tracking” so eventually we could find our path back without a problem.

We had to beach the boats and walk the last several hundred yards to the actual falls.  When we arrived we found a cool refreshing pool below the falls, and we all (including Kiwi) enjoyed a long swim.  None of us were brave enough to try and slide down the falls as we had been told was possible.  That turned out to be a good choice.  We met a high school age local boy who had done so the day prior and had the scrapes (and he believed broken ribs) to prove it.

Moon River Falls

 

Carrie, Cath, Walt and Kiwi

So, we relaxed on the rocks and enjoyed lunch, sharing a bottle of California merlot that we had brought with us.  We enjoyed talking to our new friends, who are both elementary school teachers.  We compared notes with some of the stories our daughter, Carla, had told us about her third graders this year, and determined there is not much difference between a Canadian classroom and an American one.



Cath and yours truly

We returned to our “big boats” late in the afternoon, pretty much wiped out from the hot sun.  Carrie and I began to prepare Once Around  to leave the anchorage in the morning and head for Killbear.  Reluctantly, we must leave this beautiful spot.  We went for another swim, relaxed, had a couple of coconut rum and cokes and eventually thought about preparing dinner.  We had been anchored out now for four nights, and anything even approaching “gourmet” had long ago been devoured.  Undaunted, my first mate whipped up some microwaved tacquitos, refries and fresh pears…mmm…nothing but the best on Once Around.

Today (Sunday) we were up early.  Before we left Walt, Cath and Kiwi pulled up in their dinghy and gave us a gift, a bottle of Canadian maple syrup to take with us.  Again, the Canadians we have met have all been awesome. 

Walt, Cath and Kiwi deliver our farewell gift to us

We then cruised to Killbear Marina, just south Parry Sound, in the Killbear Point Provincial Park.   



Nice to have one of these to commute to your cottage, eh?

Along the way we passed Godspeed, who was pulling in to Parry Sound.  It is good to see they have worked out their mechanical problems and are back underway.  We would have loved to stay in Parry Sound and visit with them, but it was full.  Although Killbear is somewhat off the beaten (car) path, we hope to meet up with our reconditioned propellers and hopefully get some provisioning done.  We have heard bad weather is coming, so we may be here a while.

Don’t worry, we won’t starve…there is reportedly a good restaurant right here at the Marina…and there’s still a few more tacquitos!

Two drifters, off to see the world,

There’s such a lot of world to see,

We’re after the same rainbow’s end…