“So you’re back,” says Canadian Yacht Charters co-proprietor Ken Blodgett as if it hasn’t been a year since we’d last seen him.

“I’m back.” I sit down on a Muskoka chair beside Blodgett just outside their office, snugged down on the shores of Gore Bay on Manitoulin Island’s north shore.

I stare at the waters – dark green and mysterious in the late afternoon.

Prince Edward Island may be Canada’s smallest province, but if you like golden beaches, fresh lobster and mussels, Down East music and all the breeze you need along green-topped red shores, this is the place for you. Most harbours in the Northumberland Strait and East Coasts are suitable for keelboats, although there are some interesting destinations on the North Shore. The West Coast offers little more than a nasty lee shore, although it is a pretty sail in good weather.

The many towns and villages that dot the Trent-Severn waterway each possess their own unique charm.   One of the most popular and scenic of these is the town of Bobcaygeon in Ontario’s Kawartha District.  Taken from the native Algonquin, Bobcaygeon means “shallow rapids”.  While incorporated in January of 2001 as part of the City of Kawartha Lakes, Bobcaygeon’s small town charm, clean waters and offering of both activity and tranquility continue to attract throngs of vacationers.

A rugged path strewn with rocks slices through a dense stand of cedar just beyond a red-roofed square wooden lighthouse squatting beside Georgian Bay on the furthest reaches of Ontario's Bruce Peninsula.

You trudge along this path that meanders through forests boasting five-hundred-year-old trees; you deeply inhale the cedar aroma. Then the forest thins and you emerge onto a plain of stone and sand and shale.

Antique and Classic Boat Shows Round-up

Whereever you travel in Canada this summer, if you plan the dates right, you could spend a glorious day admiring, photographing, perhaps listening to and maybe even riding in an antique or classic boat!

There are shows planned across Canada from Victoria, BC to Hubbard’s Cove in Nova Scotia with plenty of great events in between.

Surfing down a wave face at 7 knots on Alegría, our C&C 44, heading for the swing bridge at Little Current, we are returning to home dock after our seven-day odyssey in the fabled North Channel of Lake Huron. Seven days earlier, on Saturday, August 19, 2006, our adventure started at Spider Marina in Little Current, just south of the La Cloche Range.