Be vary wary heading south from Stanton. Plan to island hop. If there's a breeze and you can see white on the horizon, take the long way hugging whatever side of Emerald works best that day. I'd avoid Lookout as a hop unless it was dead calm and drizzling. That area of Pickerel gets a long reach from most any wind direction. It's not unusual to have rather large swells coming from a totally different direction than the waves and it can get hairy really quickly. You're hauling precious cargo and it's a lot bigger than it looks on a map. BH, no name, Cirrus, Quetico - lot better places to hide. No portages for miles down Pickerel isn't worth the exposure IMO.

I haven't been down the S Bay road for years but BH is probably in better shape and puts you at a far more controllable entry.