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Photo: Lord of the Wings© from Toronto, Canada, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The remains of a 36 m schooner that sunk while loaded with coal at Big Tub Harbour in 1885 are still intact and visible from above the water. It is one of 24 shipwrecks that can be viewed by glass bottom boat or by scuba diving.
Sweepstakes was a Canadian schooner built in Burlington, Ontario, in 1867. It was damaged off Cove Island, then towed to Big Tub Harbour in the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron, where it sank in September 1885. The remains of Sweepstakes lie in Big Tub Harbour, in the Fathom Five National Marine Park, in Tobermory, Ontario. The schooner is said to be one of the most popular of several wrecks in the park, and it is often visited by tour boat passengers, divers, and snorkelers.
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Offers dive trips usually twice per day, departing in the morning and the afternoon. They include two dives from their dive boats, which are well stocked and large enough to suit up even when full. Booking your spots is recommended on weekends during the summer, and the staff is very friendly.
A 3.5 km loop that begins about 1.3 km from the cairn, to the northeast edge of the peninsula, at Dunks Point. There are several scenic lookouts over Georgian Bay.
About 0.8 km from the park visitors centre, look out across the rocky edge of the peninsula.
Accessed only by boat and then on foot, the island is named after the Flowerpots - tall stacks of escarpment rock that rise out of the lake along the island's east coast. Park volunteers at the island's Lighthouse station demonstrate what life would have been like living here off the grid, guiding ships into Georgian Bay. Along the way, a small boardwalk along the trail shows the inside of the Sea Caves. A handful of backcountry campsites lets hikers or experienced paddlers spend the night on the island.