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Cove Island
General Comments
(Entering Georgian Bay)
The Cape Hurd channel is easy to follow but not often recommended for beginning boaters. The main commercial channel is further north - and is marked as Devil Island Channel. The best chart is the large scale "Entrance to Georgian Bay" document. Exploring Big Tub and Little Tub is great fun - take your choice of quiet retreat at anchor, or bustling activity at dockside. If you really want to get away, get the local knowledge that is imperative to enter Cove Island Harbour - where you'd swear you were lying at anchor on the far north shore.
There are lots of opportunities for daytrips here. Run over to Wingfield Basin or tour Flower Pot Island. Set a lunch hook on the east side of Cove Island at Tecumseh Cove or Eagle Cove and take a dinghy ride to the magnificent Cove Island lighthouse. On a calm day you can venture even closer, but the dock is not accessible for pleasure craft.
Unless you are crossing on the ferry Chi-Cheemaun, your road trip will end at Tobermory. There are two harbours, and a quaint, bustling business section to visit. Be sure to stop in and see the displays for Fathom Five National Park. Take a tour boat to one or more of the nearby islands. See some shipwrecks on a glassbottom tour as well!
Historic Information
The Cove Island lighthouse is a welcome beacon for vessels heading east on Lake Huron and for those following the eastern shore of Manitoulin Island, south towards Tobermory. This magnificent structure is another "imperial tower" - the first lighthouse to be lit on Georgian Bay in 1858. Ironically, it was the last light to lose its keeper, in 1991.
The site includes a series of smaller buildings, some concrete docks, and currently is the location for a sophisticated weather station, gathering meteorological data from the edges of Lake Huron and the Bay.
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