Britt, Byng Inlet, Georgian Bay

Washing the boat

Have spent a little bit of time looking up the history of this area. This is a protected inlet off of Georgian Bay, fed by the Magnetawan River. There is a town on the north side of the inlet, Britt, and another on the south side, Byng Inlet. Both have been lumber towns; lumbering operations started here when the first mill was built on Mill Island in 1866. French Canadian families from the Three Rivers area in Quebec moved here with the decline of lumbering in their area.

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Main store at the gas dock

In 1875, the lower mill school was built in Byng Inlet North and it was their first. It was a small frame school and became known officially as S.S. #2 Wallbridge since #1 was already operating in Byng Inlet South. It ran until 1883 when the teacher, Miss Armstrong was drowned while skating home across the river. The school did not reopen, partly because of declining students due to a slackening in the lumber business, partly because of the difficulty in finding a teacher who was willing to come to the area. For the next three years Byng Inlet North children went to school across the river, walking on ice in the winter and across the log booms the rest of the year. It is during this time that Michel Boucher with his large family moved from Penetang and helped to increase the Byng Inlet population from then to this day (from http://www.cottagetorent.ca/history-byng-inlet.html.) The inlet has a channel deep enough to allow steam ships to enter, allowing millions of tons of lumber to be shipped to Chicago and Collingwood. In 1908 the CPR built the line from Parry Sound to Sudbury, which came within a mile of the town now known as Britt. The building of a railroad spur into the town allowed lake steamers to bring coal to the docks, which was then put on the train for use further north. Over the years, the town of Byng Inlet on the south side of the inlet was as large as 5000 people, it is now just a store and a post office. The north side of the inlet, the town of Britt, flourished until 1956 when the coal companies stopped using the docks and railway line for coal tranport. Oil companies took over, building oil tanks and dock facilities for tankers, but that employs few people. The town of Britt is now dependent on the tourist industry, with marinas, cottages, tourist parks and camps, guiding and fishing.  It has general stores, restaurants, a post office, LCBO, churches, a nursing station. Wrights marina, where we have been staying, is a busy place with boats coming in to dock, take on fuel and/or repairs. The owners and staff are friendly and helpful.

Taken on the way to Byng Inlet, can you tell which way the prevailing wind is from?

Wayne got the air all bled out of the lines this morning, engine running smoothly when tied to the dock. Next test will be how it behaves under load. Will test it later, plan to to move on to Killarney tomorrow weather permitting. At this point there are still strong wind warnings, so we may be here a little longer. We really don't want to slosh the fuel around in the tanks any more than we have to for a while. Took a dinghy ride up to the store. There is another boat named High Spirits anchored just off the island past the marina. They are loopers from Boca Raton, Florida. We have e-mailed back and forth with them, but never met them. They did not seem to be around the boat as we went by.