I knew I wanted to get married somewhere I’d feel the calmest, least nervous, and have the most fun. So it had to be up at the camp. Half of our guests came from the Bay, while the rest were very happy to stay at the Island Lodge. Dad made sure the boat looked presentable for the occasion, freshly painting “The Minnow”, which my sister and I had named after Gilligan’s Island. We had travelled on so many rough waters with it, so we always joked, “The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed…” When we arrived, my first thought was to avoid getting my heels stuck between the dock planks.
When I saw the entire congregation sprawled in Muskoka chairs, relaxed and reclined, I just started laughing. Luckily, it was the only place in Ontario that didn’t rain that day. But by nightfall, a dense fog rolled in — the kind that swallowed everything whole. It was the worst I had ever seen in the Bay, before or since. The Lodge had a few extra rooms, so my parents stayed over. My cousins, aunts and uncles only made it as far as our family’s place, Cedar Island, filling every bed in Dad’s camp, so there would not have been any room left for them in any event.
My sister Marta, and her fiancé, John Moskal, and friends tried to get back to Cedar Island, inching through the fog at dead slow speed. Normally, it is only a couple of minutes away and is in a straight line due west. They said the flashlight beam only stretched a foot before disappearing. “Stay to the right!” everyone said, as there are bad shoals around there. After an hour, they spotted lights. “Birch Island? Little Current?” It turned out that they had driven in a complete circle and ended up back at the Island Lodge! Bob Phillips opened up a staff cabin for them to sleep in, which they nicknamed, “Mothball.”
Meanwhile, Laurie Cook and crew hit a shoal right off the Lodge but kept going, only to become more lost and disoriented. They pulled up onto what they thought was an uninhabited island and slept outside on a rock — only to wake up in the morning and discover they were on Mowat’s Island the whole time. This is and of itself may not be unheard of in our Bay, but I thought it was funny as they were still dressed in wedding finery.
All in all, the best start to a marriage one could ask for.
Bay Of Islands Community Association