CATCHING UP

It’s been a few days since I updated things - a combination of not having internet access and being busy getting the boat ready for the winter.

Boldt Castle

As we left Canada, our Canadian data plan was no longer available, so I thought it would be a simple procedure to re-start my US data plan through Verizon. Ha! Verizon may have the best coverage, but they have to have the worst customer service. Hours on the phone listening to their insipid ranting about how easy it is to deal with them, hearing apology after apology that they can’t seem to take my payment because someone “pushed the wrong button” and suspended my account for 24 hours, and absolutely nothing could be done about it, etc. etc.

After cooling down for a couple of days, I called back, and with only a half hour on the phone, they finally got my account squared away so I now have my data plan back.

In the mean time, we cruised through the 1000 Island area of the St. Lawrence River to Alexandria Harbor, anchored out a few nights, stopped by Clayton to visit the Antique Boat Museum (a fantastic place for boat lovers), spent a night at Sacket’s Harbor (a great little town) then down to Oswego to start the canal system down to Brewerton.

A real classic

As I have mentioned previously, we participate in the Small Vessel Reporting System, a “coordinated” system between the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), Homeland Security and neighboring countries. To get our SVRS status, we had to make an appointment with the US Coast Guard station in Oakland, CA, submit our passports and be “interviewed.” Getting our “BR” number is essentially the same process as the NEXUS system which lets allows facilitated re-entry to the US after foreign country visits, and is supposed to allow telephone reporting to the CBP when we re-enter on our boat. When we called the designated number, no one seemed to know anything about it, and since we were within a few miles of a check-in station, they directed us there. We stopped in at Heart Island, which we were going to do anyway to visit the Boldt Castle, and cleared customs with them. Ironically, they said they didn’t trust the people who used SVRS and file Float Plans with the USCG. Go figure - follow all the rules, contact all the right people, get all the pre-authorizations, and we’re the people they don’t trust. I got the feeling it was more of an inter-agency thing, CBP doesn’t want to acknowledge a Homeland Security or USCG program. Anyway, we got back into the country with minimal hassle.

We had a quick visit to Alexandria Harbor to pick up a water pump. Our pressure pump (which feeds fresh water to all the faucets on board) died and with an incredible stroke of luck, a marine supply store close by had an exact replacement pump. A quick visit to the municipal dock (a block away from the marine supply store) and a half hour to replace and rewire the pump, and we were on our way. Well, not without a quick visit to the ice cream shop at the end of the dock.

Sacket’s (sometimes spelled Sackett’s) Harbor was a needed stop after several hours fighting 2-4 foot waves after leaving our anchorage near Clayton. The area had significant battles in the War of 1812 and present a good historic view in their municipal museums and buildings. We had a fine dinner at the Tin Pan Galley, dining al fresco on a warm evening. 

The next day was forecast to be light winds with waves less than 1 foot, but they lied. We bashed into 4-5 foot waves for an hour or so until we could get into the lee of the shore, and then had a tolerable cruise into Oswego where we went through the first lock on the Oswego River and tied up to the wall for the night. We walked around Oswego, hearing that it was a vibrant little town, but maybe the 90 degree heat and the holiday weekend explained a completely dead town. It was similar the next day (Sunday) when we stopped by Fulton. About the only people we saw was a congregation having a church service outdoors next to the river. Otherwise, that town, also, was dead, so we kept going down to the Erie Canal. 

Early fall colors

It has been unseasonably hot the past several days, and we passed by where we are going to store the boat for the winter and continued on to Lake Oneida so we could anchor out and cool off in the lake. I got most of the "lock crud" off of the fenders, fender boards and deck with the lake water,  but there were constant wakes from speed boats going by, so we decided to backtrack to the marina and tie up for the night. It was nice to be able to plug in to shore power and run the air conditioners.

Today, we started packing everything up getting ready to abandon ship. It is amazing how much stuff one can store onboard! We’ll probably end up filling around ten medium size moving boxes, and a couple of large ones, with all the belongings we are taking off of the boat. We’ll rent a car tomorrow so we’ll be able to get around, get the boxes either stored or make arrangements for shipping, and then start serious cleaning of the boat. We’ll probably have to get a motel for a while while we get the boat prepared for haul-out, then see how much time we have and maybe visit some nearby areas before heading home on the 19th.

We figure we travelled 3500-4000 miles on this trip and went through 127 locks. It’s been a great experience - glad we did it, but it’s time to go home…

This will likely be the last entry - thanks for keeping up with us on this blog.

CLUB ISLAND

As expected, it was a relaxed day today. It started out with thick fog which lasted until almost noon. We busied ourselves with boat-chores, Elaine inside and me outside, trying to keep the boat livable and presentable.

Our morning view

Luckily for Elaine, the spiders have stayed outside, but do they ever make a mess. Not only with their web-making, but they leave dark spots all over the boat. It’s only been a couple of days since I thoroughly washed down the boat, but I had to go at it again today to clean it up. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a hose, and with the fog, our solar panel wasn’t putting out the usual amperage to allow me to use the wash-down pump, and we were docked at a noise-free National Park dock which does not allow generators to be run, so I had to use a bucket to get the water I needed to clean the boat. That was okay, though, since we weren’t going anywhere until the fog lifted anyway.

Speaking of solar panels, we are learning about electrical power management at higher latitudes. I installed the solar panel in Florida when we were getting the boat ready for the Bahamas, and for the two years she was in Florida and the Bahamas, we had abundant power to keep our house bank of batteries fully charged all of the time. We could leave the boat for days at a time, even at anchor, and still had power to keep everything frozen in the freezer and all the beer cold. We could use the fans/lights/stereo as much as we wanted at night and the batteries would charge right up in the morning. We have learned, however, that being at a higher latitude, especially in the late summer/early fall, the angle of the sun hitting the panels means they are not as efficient as they were in the Bahamas. If we have a couple of cloudy and/or rainy days in a row, we can’t keep up with our normal demand and have to supplement with either the generator or shore power at a marina. This has been a learning experience for us, but I think we now have it figured out.

Incredible "cottages" along the river

So, once the fog lifted today we continued down the St. Lawrence River (born & raised in the West, it still seems odd to me to be heading East when going downriver) looking for an anchorage near the Boldt Castle, which we plan on visiting tomorrow.

Who else, but St. Lawrence?

The first anchorage we tried was very protected from the wind, although a bit shallow at 4-5 feet. This means that the weeds grow abundantly in the clear water, and we were not able to get the anchor to set with all of the weeds. We had a back-up plan, and went around another island to find a deeper spot. It ended up being a good anchoring bottom, but very exposed to the wind. That was okay, though, since it was a pretty warm day and the wind felt good. It just meant I had to mount the barbecue in a more protected area in order to cook the chicken for dinner.

We went through all of our documents and protocols for border crossing this evening, since we will be in the US tomorrow. When we entered Canada, I checked in by phone, and they gave me a “report number” which I am supposed to reference as I check out (by phone). For entry into the US, we have registered with the Small Vessel Reporting System (SVRS). This was done before cruising to the Bahamas last year, and it allowed us to check in with US Customs by phone upon entry. Before we left the US, I confirmed that it was still valid, so we should be good to check in with Customs and Border Patrol by phone when we cross the border tomorrow. We’ll see… Somehow I think it is a bit optimistic that we can get through all that bureaucratic red tape simply with a couple of phone calls. As usual, we have a back-up plan - our first stop in the morning is at Heart Island which is the setting for Boldt Castle, a major tourist draw for both the US and Canada. Hence, there is a Customs and Border Patrol office to handle the Canadian tourists. If the SVRS doesn’t work, we’ll check in with CBP on the island…

Our last Canadian sunset

CAMELOT ISLAND

We had a comfortable, quiet night in Gananoque and left our friend’s dock under foggy skies. Backtracking a bit to Beaurivage Island, we found a crowded anchorage and completely full docks at the National Park. We “wandered” through Wanderers Channel, admiring the scenery as the sun broke through, up toward Camelot, another Nation Park island, and checked out some moorings and anchorages but ended up at one of the docks. In general, we prefer anchoring, or picking up a mooring, over docking, but staying at this dock has been okay, primarily because of the other people at the dock. You never know - sometimes it can be a houseboat full of screaming kids and dogs running all over the place, other times, like today, we met some pleasant cruising couples and have had a nice stay.

Park dock on Camelot Island

One of the advantages of being at a National Park dock is that there is complete access to the island. Most of the islands are private and do not allow you to land, but on the Park islands you can go ashore, and most have trails around the islands.

Our circumnavigation hike

The International Boarder is just a few hundred feet south of where we are docked, snaking between the islands. In theory, one is supposed to go through the complete protocol for entering and exiting foreign countries each time the border is crossed, but I find it hard to believe that everyone actually does that all the time. I may be aware of where the border is, but, to me, it’s more important to find a safe, comfortable anchorage, and if it is a couple hundred feet over the border, I am not going to stop and clear in with the US Customs and Border Patrol before I put down my anchor, especially if I will be going the few hundred feet back over to Canada in the morning. So if I end up in prison, will people come visit me?

On a Canadian island looking at a US island

After a short hike to circumnavigate the island (it’s a pretty small island) we settled down to our books, and I did a few maintenance chores for the afternoon.

All in all, it was a very relaxing day,and I would guess the next day or so will have a similar pattern. It is not far between these islands, so we don’t really do a lot of traveling each day, only 1 or 2 hours between stops. We only have a couple of specific places we want to see up here, but may find that we run out of places before we run out of time so our schedule may change…

GANANOQUE

Beautiful day on the St. Lawrence River today. We left Kingston by 9:30 and took the small northern channel (the bateau channel) to Gananoque, about 40 miles downriver. The day started out with a heavy haze and some clouds, but by mid day it was mostly sunny and in the 70s. Saw some very nice "cottages" lining the river and cruised through a pretty part of the river with many islands. 

Some unique warning buoys

Our friends Kent and Linda had invited us to stay on their dock in Gananoque, so we were headed there, not completely confident as to where “there” was. They said it was the red house, right next to the Playhouse Theatre (a well-known theatre in these parts) and we couldn’t miss it. So we went by the Playhouse, saw a red house with what looked like their runabout in the boathouse, and pulled up to the dock.

The red house next to the theatre

We figured that if it wasn’t their house, someone would come out and chase us off.

Kent and I relaxing on the dock

We guessed right, however, as Kent came out and welcomed us. Linda was off to Ottawa, but we had a nice visit with Kent before spending a few hours exploring the small town on foot.

Part of the afternoon was spent sitting on the dock reading our cruising guide to get some idea of where we might go over the next week or so, then Kent came down and shared a bottle of wine with us before we all took of for a local German restaurant for great schnitzel and spaetzle. Felt like we were back in Germany for the evening.

We will start exploring the 1000 Islands tomorrow, staying on the Canadian side of the river as long as possible to minimize the hassle of clearing customs more than once…

ANOTHER DAY IN KINGSTON

Kingston is quite the happening town! The Blues Festival may have lasted a bit late, but the party lasted even later, with very loud music reverberating throughout the marina until around 2 AM. This morning I made it a point to get out my noise-canceling headphones, as well as some earplugs, in case it is as loud, as late tonight.

One of the blues venues in front of the City Hall

We started the day by going out to breakfast, then visited the Farmer’s Market for some fresh bread and produce before walking around the rest of downtown. It was a bit surprising to see all of the commerce and popular shops here, but it is a university town - that may help explain all of the drinking, eating and entertainment establishments. There’s a Great Lakes Marine Museum in town, so walked over there and got some background on military, commercial and recreational boat building in Ontario, as well as toured a retired Canadian Coast Guard vessel. 

At the Marine Museum

Our challenge for the day was to find a cruising guide to the 1000 Islands area of the St. Lawrence River. We are going to go to that area tomorrow and, although we have nautical and electronic charts, it’s very handy to have a detailed guide which includes marinas, services, anchorages, places to visit, etc. It took us a while, but we finally found one to supplement our chart information.

This evening, we met friends for cocktails on their boat, then went out to dinner where we were joined by yet another friend we had met in the Bahamas last year. She was in town from Alberta - another nice coincidence.

The music venue is outdoors, a couple of blocks away, and the music is highly amplified. As much as we like listening to jazz and blues music, unfortunately, what we hear on the boat is a distorted, pounding bass line which drowns out most any other part of the bands. We’ll listen to it for a while, then tuck in and try to protect ourselves from the pounding as the night wears on. Assuming we get adequate rest, we’ll leave Kingston mid to late morning, downbound on the St. Lawrence River...

KINGSTON

We left Belleville around 8:30 this morning and headed out onto a smooth Bay of Quinte and turned east toward Kingston. It was a relaxed cruise and beautiful scenery with sunny skies, but a definite chill in the air. It does feel like Fall is coming on, but even though it was barely 70, the forecast is for hot weather, close to 90 degrees, for several days starting Sunday. If it does get that hot, I hope we’re in a spot I can jump off the back of the boat to cool off.

Marina, right in downtown Kingston

We got into Kingston a little after 2 PM, and by this time the wind was up, making it challenging to get into the very tight slip they assigned me to. The dock attendants started pulling my dock lines as soon as they got hold of them, so I had to tell them (politely) not to pull, to let me bring my boat into the slip by myself. Last time someone pulled me into a slip it cost me big bucks for repairs to my boat, and, of course, they took no accountability for any damage. I’m guessing that the “pull them into their slip” mentality comes from seeing too many people who don’t know how to handle their boat well coming in to dock. I will politely decline their assistance when I leave.

Just as we were about to enter the marina, a small runabout zoomed up yelling “Hi.” Elaine immediately recognized them as Kent and Linda, friends we had met last year cruising the Bahamas.  They just happened to be out for a ride and recognized our boat. We met up, after we docked, on TIGER (Bill & Carole), another boat like ours which was also in the Bahamas last year and was with us for a while in April coming up from Florida. We celebrated the reunion by going out to lunch and getting caught up on all the news.

One of the Martello Towers, built in the 1800s to
 protect the Rideau Canal

After the late lunch, we took a short walk around town to get our bearings and see where we want to explore more tomorrow. All afternoon we were entertained by blues bands which were playing in the park, right at the marina, as part of the weekend Blues Festival…

QUICK UPDATE

Went through the last six locks of the Trent-Severn Waterway today and scooted over to Belleville for the night. Between Trenton and Belleville Elaine took the helm and I untied and stowed the fenders and fenderboards we’ve been using to get through the locks. Under normal cruising conditions, the fenders are deployed only while at a dock and as soon as you leave the dock, they get pulled up and stowed. But when you’re going through 45 locks in 5 days, everyone just leaves them out the whole time. Otherwise you’d spend half of your time just putting them out and back again.

The last time I had a chance to thoroughly wash the boat was on our way up in Orillia. almost two months ago. I’ve hosed the mud off, splashed off the bugs and kept the cobwebs to a minimum, but haven’t had the chance to do a complete washdown with soap, brushes and a hose until today. It took several hours, but she looks much better. I was bummed, however, when sitting in the salon after dinner and saw a couple of big spiders crawling outside on the windows. The really make a mess of the boat with their webs and little black “spider dots” they leave all over the place. I thought I had washed them all off, but these two got special attention from me, and they no longer exist…

Off to Kingston tomorrow - in a clean boat!

TRENT LOCK (#5)

Had a lovely, quiet night at Healey Falls Lock. When we went over to the lock station in the morning before the lock attendants arrived, we noticed that there was no electricity in the washrooms. This lock, unlike many others, requires electricity to operate. Some of the older ones are completely manual, giving the lock attendants a good workout as they open and close the gates, but this one would not be at all operational without electricity. Around 9 AM, when the locks are scheduled to open, no one was around, so we walked up to the nearby lock to see what was up. That lock, only about a half mile away, had full power, but ours had none. We finally got word that a fuse on the power pole had blown (most likely due to curiosity which killed not the cat, but a raccoon or squirrel), and they had to wait for a workman to come and reset the fuse.

With the delayed start, we got through lock #15 a little after 10 AM, and had another day of multiple locks spaced, for the most part, a mile or so apart. This is just far apart to make preparing and eating lunch somewhat difficult. Elaine made sandwiches between one set of locks and we wolfed them down between another set.

Later in the afternoon, the locks were spaced out more, about 7 miles or so, so things were a bit less hectic. We thought we would overnight at lock #6, Frankford, but got there a bit earlier than planned so went on to the next lock, #5, Trent.

Old Lockmaster house

It has one of the older Lockmaster houses as its station, with the public washrooms inside the house. There are only a few of these original houses left, as they were built in the early 1900s and provided a place to live for the person who had to be available to run the lock. We, of course, got a key to the house as the lock attendants left for the night, and not only did they tell us they’s leave the porch light on for us, they said they had a couple of tomato plants and for us to help ourselves.

Fresh tomato, compliments of the lock attendants

We have contacted friends who live nearby in Belleville, to see if we could visit as we passed through, but they are taking their boat over to Kingston for a jazz festival this weekend. A quick email to the marina in Kingston got us a reservation for a slip Friday and Saturday nights, so that is our short-term goal; get to Kingston by Friday. It’s only about 50 miles away, so it might work out for a short day tomorrow to Bellville, do a little laundry and a few maintenance chores, then off to Kingston on Friday…

HEALEY FALLS LOCK

We left Peterborough after 9 AM and cleared the first lock by about 9:45. There weren’t any other locks for quite a space as we transited the Otonabee River for the next three hours before we hit Rice Lake. It was a cool morning in the low 60’s, but felt much cooler when we were going against the wind, which was blowing around 15 knots.

Otonabee River

The river is very circuitous, so when we were with the wind, we would take off a layer or two, but put them back on when we changed direction. This stretch of river is pretty, but without much personality or high points. I was amazed that the deciduous trees seem to be turning fall colors already. It’s still August, but there is a definite tinge of red and yellow as one scans the forest. It is a short summer season up here, surprising, since we are about at the 45th parallel. On the West Coast, the 45th parallel is between Salem and Portland, Oregon, which doesn’t feel to be as far north as it does here.

Starting to get Fall colors

Going across Rice Lake, we had the wind on our stern, so it was very comfortable, even though there were half to one foot waves. After the lake, a few more miles on the Trent River, and a few more locks, we were at Healey Falls, where we are spending the night. Healey Falls and Healey Dam have three locks, numbers 15, 16 and 17. Sixteen and seventeen are a double lock, so the lower gates of 17 are the upper gates of 16. In this situation, they can lock boats through going both directions, with the boats passing each other in the middle as the water level coincides. Between 15 and 16, which are only a few hundred yards apart, is a small lake and waterside park, and that is where we are tied up.

Lake at Healey Dam, powerplant in background

Each lock has a small “station,” or office, which includes space for the staff as well as public restrooms (“washrooms” here in Canada). Each lock also has park-like grounds with well-mown lawns, gardens, picnic tables and, often, fire pits. These are maintained by Parks Canada (as are the locks) and used quite a bit by the local population both for day use and for camping. There is an informal competition among the lock attendants to impress boaters with how nice their own lock is compared to all the others. The attendants are very sociable and helpful, chatting with you as you transit the locks and very willing to answer questions. When you stay overnight at a lock, the attendants leave when the locks close, but always make sure you have either the code or the key for the washroom to use overnight. These washrooms are impeccably maintained, and we have found several to be newly renovated, including one with a very nice shower.

Healey Falls Lock park area

There is a charge to tie your boat up overnight “on the wall” at the locks, but we purchased a season pass for all of National Parks Canada. This allows us free moorage at all of the locks and at any dock in any National Park in Canada. There was a National Park in Georgian Bay with several docking sites and there are sites along the St. Lawrence River, where we are headed next.

The site here at Healey Falls is one of the prettiest ones we have seen, and we are the only boat here. We barbecued some great steaks for dinner and are now relaxing as the sun goes down, listening to the Canada Geese honk as they fly by, starting their migration south for the winter…

NOTES FROM ELAINE:

So we have been on our journey for 18 weeks now and it has become apparent that Dave and I have different tastes. Not Venus/Mars different - probably more tangential. My eyes light up when we get to a city - stores, museums, historic sites. Dave hunts for the pastoral setting - lakes, fishing, trees and seclusion. Dave says dips in the lake are "refreshing". I call that an euphemism for "cold". I must admit however that I am stunned by the beauty of the landscapes that we have seen. And he tolerates my side trips to more "touristy" places, even though I know that in the scheme of things he would rather forgo these side trips. I prefer to think that I am broadening our horizons - or perhaps he is trying to keep his first mate happy. Despite the circumstances we have experienced and seen some astounding scenery and wildlife on this trip and met some of the most interesting people ever. And I guess that is what this trek is all about. 

RETURNING TO PETERBOROUGH

There was only one other boat moored at Lakefield lock last night, and that Toronto-based sailboat started down river about the same time we did, so we ended up locking down together, along with another powerboat (a Krogen 42) which showed up when the lock opened. Since this stretch of the Otonabee River has several locks, each spaced a mile or two apart, the three boats ended up locking through all of them together. It was a fairly leisurely pace for the morning, since the sailboat travels pretty slowly, we ended up going at his pace as far as the Peterborough Lift Lock where they stopped off to tour the Visitor Center.

Elaine, at the controls of the lock

At the top of the lock, ready to be lowered

We went through one more lock with the Krogen, then decided to tie up to the lower lock wall in Peterborough since the wind was strengthening and the skies looked quite threatening.

Dark skies over Peterborough

If we had continued, it would have put us in Rice Lake about the time winds of 25 knots were forecast. Rice Lake is a very shallow, long lake running Southwest to Northeast, and the wind was from the Southwest, so this amount of wind would have built up an uncomfortable about of chop. Since we're not in any hurry we will just wait it out overnight where we are, and where we are tied up has a nice park and a view of the fountain in Little Lake.

Our site for the night

Once securely tied up to the lock wall, we grabbed our rain jackets and went for a walk to a recommended butcher shop a little over a mile away. As dark as the skies were, it didn’t rain, and we picked up meat for several meals.

Back at the boat, we tried sitting up on the flybridge for cocktails, but it was just too cold and windy, so went below, waiting for this weather to pass…

LAKEFIELD

At anchor in Cameron Lake, woke up completely enveloped in dense fog. I could tell the sun was up, but not where it was, and the shoreline cottages near where we anchored were non-existent. Although we could have weighed anchor, there was hardly any point, since the lock did not open for another hour and a half at 9 AM. After coffee, I took advantage of the wet boat and wiped it down, getting at least some of the accumulated dirt off of her. Every morning I try to get rid of all the cob webs on the boat. I even bought a special brush to use, which demolishes the webs without harming the finish on the boat. I am convinced that if I just let the spider webs go, I would never have to secure anything to the boat - everything would be totally encased in webs.

Combining spider webs and fog...

 Right at nine AM the fog lifted, so we pulled up the anchor and headed over to the lock. We were through the lock by 9:30 and on our way. As we go through the locks, we are surprised by the number of comments we receive about our boat, especially from those who remember the boat heading north the first part of July. Not only the lock attendants (who remember which boats we went through with, as well as our position in the lock) but also from locals who spend a lot of time at the locks watching the boats go through. It's not unusual to here someone say "How was your trip? Did you enjoy it up north? Where are you off to now?" Of course,what many people notice is the hailing port under the name of our boat. They usually ask "Did you bring that all the way from San Francisco?" Thus starts the conversation of how we bought it on the East Coast, have been cruising on & off for three years, have been from New England to the Bahamas and back again, and now are enjoying Canada. All this in a space of the few minutes it takes to go through a lock. Elaine is up at the bow handling the bow line while I handle the stern line, so we don't always hear each other's conversations. It would be interesting to know how much alike, or different, our comments are.

Since it is Sunday, and the weather was nice, there were many, many boaters out on the water today. This includes the ones who just rented a houseboat on Friday and are still learning how to handle it (don't go through the locks with them!). Then there are the unique operators who totally ignore almost all of the rules and are very entertaining to watch, as long as they stay their distance, although, at times, I had to take evasive action. I am really amazed that there are not more boating accidents around here.

We targeted a lock to stay at for the night, but when we got there, we found a busy highway running right next to it, so decided to head on down river to Lakefield, a very nice little town which we had stopped at, just to look around a while, on our way north.  After being on the water an extra hour or two, we tied to the lock wall, then walked the short distance into town for dinner at Cassis Bistro. It was a very nice meal, and a restaurant we would recommend if you are in the area…

CAMERON LAKE

I thought we’d make an early start today, leaving Orillia and getting, maybe, to Bobcaygeon. However, little did I realize that Elaine had her sites on the Orillia Farmer’s Market which takes place each Saturday morning, so by the time she returned from the market, it was almost 10 AM. We left under sunny, clear skies and had a nice crossing of Lake Simcoe which, for about half the time, had a surface like glass.

The rest of the day is a sort of blur consisting of lock after lock and narrow canal after narrow canal. Luckily, we did not have to wait much - once you’re moving on through the system the lock attendants let the other locks, and the bridge tenders, know that you are coming through, so most of the time the lock and/or bridge is just opening as you arrive.

A countryside that reminded me of the canals in France

Much of the narrow canal we went through today is also very shallow and, now that summer is fully here, very weedy. The water is actually fairly clear, so one can readily see weeds in the water, but there’s nothing you can do but go right over them. There are a couple of issues with this maneuver, however. One is that there are fresh water pick-ups on the bottom of the boat to bring water into the engine to cool it. Once the water is sucked in, it goes through a strainer which is checked daily and emptied out when needed, but the potential big problem is if the pick-up itself gets clogged with weed or grass so no water gets to the engine and it overheats. The other problem is getting the weeds and grass caught up in the propellor as you go through all this muck. The occasional weed just gets chopped up either by the propellor itself or a blade that I have installed on the propellor shaft. But when you have to go slowly most of the day through all these weeds (there is a 10 km/hr speed limit in these canals), some can accumulate on the prop and decrease its efficiency.

Through these canals, I had to go to a higher and higher RPM to maintain the same speed, so this meant a detour off of the channel when we got to a lake, and a quick dive with a knife to clean off all of the weeds. Luckily it was a warm sunny day, and the water wasn’t too cold.

At anchor on Cameron Lake

It looked like Fenelon Falls was going to be our overnight, but we got there a bit late in the afternoon and the Saturday crowd had already taken all of the spots on the lock wall. We headed back out on to nearby Cameron Lake and anchored. Nice time for a beer, a swim and a tasty pasta dinner with fresh salad from the Farmer’s Market this morning before watching another gorgeous sunset…

STARTING THE RETURN TRIP

One day at a time. Keep that going for 365 days and you’ll get another birthday. After thinking I would never see another birthday a couple of years ago, each one is just that much sweeter. On this one, we got the boat ready for another stage in our voyage. The day started with a strong rain/windstorm, necessitating a second cup of coffee while the storm blew through. Later, it was time for checking the engines, fuel, water, etc. and replenishing our food stores before a quiet dinner (and another beautiful sunset).

This morning, we were ready to head out early to retrace our route through the Trent-Severn Waterway, even though the wind stayed up all night and the sky still looked a bit threatening. Around 7:30, we left Midland, putting on an extra layer of fleece to be comfortable on the flybridge, and headed out to the lock at Severn which opened at 9 AM. We had to wait a few minutes, but locked through just as the rain started. It only lasted about half an hour, but it did portend a few more showers throughout the day. The forecast was for diminishing winds and clearing skies as the day wore on, but that didn’t happen.

We passed back though the Big Chute - the rail car type lock which lifted us up out of the water and rode a rail over to the next lake - and kept on going, amazed at how different things looked compared to traveling the opposite direction a couple of months ago. We were also surprised at the lack of traffic on the waterway. One would think all the summer vacations would still be in full swing, but maybe the weather dampened (literally) the plans.

A slow train on an even slower bridge

The only hiccup in the day was having to wait for a railway swing bridge for almost 45 minutes. There was no way to communicate with this bridge other than a horn signal, but that seemed a bit superfluous since the railway workers were standing on the bridge looking at us. It appeared that the bridge tenders just had no interest in opening for the boats waiting to go by as we waited half an hour until a train finally showed up and rolled across the bridge, which they then started to open about ten minutes later. By this time it was well into the afternoon, and we were about an hour away from Orillia, so we decided to make that our stop for the night.

Dark skies over Lake Couchiching

The wind finally died down about two hours after we pulled into the slip, but the forecast is for sunny skies tomorrow with light winds. Hopefully we will get adequate rest tonight, but it is the beginning of the weekend, and the partying, both in the marina and the park nearby, has already started…

BACK AT IT!

Got back to the boat yesterday. It was fun to be back home in California for a short while, and we took advantage of being there by seeing family and friends, catching up with doctors, dentists, etc. and, of course, Elaine getting to her High School reunion in Modesto.

We left for the San Francisco airport around 3:30 AM on Monday, boarded our plane around 5:15 then waited at the gate for over an hour while some minor maintenance on one engine was completed. While that was going on, there was a small earthquake (4.0), but it was big enough to trigger protocols which shut down the runways until they were inspected. We finally lifted off around 7:30, which made for a tight connection in Chicago, but we made it. However, as we taxied out for take-off, we were #14 in line. Due to bad weather, there was a minimum 2 minute separation, so it took well over half an hour to get airborne. Once we landed in Toronto, we were informed that the “alley” was too congested for us to move off of the taxiway, so we sat between runways for another 45 minutes. All in all, we spent 4.5 hours in the air, but over 8 hours on the planes for our flights. 

[While I’m in a whining mood, I must comment on Toronto Pearson Airport. Leaving Toronto, we arrived more than 2 hours prior to our flight time, and just barely made our flight after standing in incredible lines for check-in, US Customs clearance and security checks. Upon returning, we were in just as incredible lines for Canadian Customs & Border Patrol clearance. Although staff was tolerant and, for the most part, polite, it was very obvious that there are significant systems issues with their international passenger processes. Toronto is a very large, cosmopolitan city (largest in Canada) and should be prepared to handle the significant passenger through-put. They are not.]

We spent a couple of days with friends in Toronto (thanks, John & Kathe!) then caught a ride back to Midland to get “home” to the boat. All the travel caught up with us yesterday, both of us feeling pretty wiped out, so we sat by the lake, swam and pretty much did nothing for the day. This morning a forecasted storm system rolled through and when I got up and looked outside, it looked like an epic Cecile B. DeMille biblical storm scene with grey waves, whitecaps, torrential rain coming down sideways, lightening and thunder. I kind of expected Moses to come walking by, leading a horde of people ready to walk across the lakebed.

We’ll spend today as a “prep” day, getting everything ready on the boat and taking a run to the store for some provisioning so we can depart tomorrow. We are about an hour from the north/west terminus of the Trent-Severn Waterway and we’ll retrace our route back through the 45 locks to get to Lake Ontario. Depending on time and weather, we would like to take a short detour into the Thousand Islands area of the St. Lawrence River before getting to the south shore of the lake and down the Oswego Canal to Brewerton, NY.

We have made arrangements to have the boat stored on the hard for the winter inside a heated shed where she will be available for showing, since we have decided to list her for sale. In preparation for that, we will take off and store all of our personal items, have some routine mechanical work done and get her polished and waxed. I suspect that we will be ready to head back to the West Coast in late September.

In the meantime, our cruising adventure restarts tomorrow…

MIDLAND - TAKING A BREAK

After our night at anchor in Chimney Bay, we took advantage of a lull in the wind and headed south to Midland. We have several days before our scheduled trip home, but decided we should not risk being caught in a bad weather situation to make a deadline, and, being early, we might want to spend an extra day or two in Toronto before we fly out. In Midland, we are being hosted by James & Jackie Powers who have kindly offered their dock as a temporary port for IMPROV.

Since we are in a cruising hiatus, the blog will take a break as well, to be started up on our return from California, currently scheduled for August 18. At that time, we’ll head back down the Trent-Severn Waterway and, if time allows, take a quick excursion down the St. Lawrence River to see the Thousand Islands area before crossing Lake Ontario and transiting the Oswego Canal to Brewerton where the boat will be for the winter.

See you then…

BEAUSOLEIL NATIONAL PARK

Wednesday July 29

Beckwith Island, with all of its boats, was actually a nice island. The water was cool enough to be “refreshing,” but warm enough that Elaine actually went in swimming. It was also very clear. When we weighed anchor in the morning, I could clearly see it dug into the sand at over ten feet deep.

There were a couple of places east of Beausoleil Island which we had passed by on our way north a few weeks ago, so we thought we would explore a little bit. We cruised up the Musquash Channel, looking for a nice protected anchorage to wait out the 20+ knot winds forecast overnight. We went into Brown Bay, even tucked way past the big rock at the end into a cove only big enough for our boat. It was an idyllic spot, totally protected from any wind, but the water was brown - clear, but brown the color of tea. It was still early afternoon, so we got the dinghy down and went exploring around the top of Bone Island. Since we were out and around, we dinghied over to the Beausoleil National Park dock on the southern side of Bone Island and were surprised that it was almost empty. Elaine had read that there were things to do there, so we went back to the boat, weighed anchor and moved over to the park cove. It ended up that what she had read was for a different part of the park, on a different island. Oh well, we were there, so stayed anchored for the night. It was very warm, the wind that was supposed to come, didn’t, and we spent a fair amount of time in the water trying to cool off. As still as it was, we weren’t overly bothered by bugs…

IMPROV at anchor, Bone Island

Thursday July 30

The wind picked up a bit this morning, but there are so many islands, so close together, that it really isn’t bad getting around - you just have to be very aware of the forecasted wind direction when you go looking for a place to anchor for the night. With the winds at 10-15 knots, we went over to the Cedar Grove dock on Beausoleil Island. There was an empty spot on the dock, so we pulled in. This is the place Elaine had read about. There were trails, beaches, camping areas and a visitor center complete with nature talks.

Colorful frog on Beausoleil Island

We spent the day there, even getting the bikes down and biking a path which went down to the southern tip of the island. We were almost to the end when we were attacked by swarms of mosquitoes and decided to turn around. The dock was very exposed to the wind and the wakes of passing boats, so we left and went up to Chimney Bay, close to where we had anchored our first night a few weeks ago. The entertainment for the evening was watching boats coming in to the bay anchoring and those already there re-anchoring after dragging their anchors in the 20+ knot wind.

Elaine is convinced we are wind magnets. The forecast is for 20 knot winds tonight, dropping to 15 by midnight then back to 20 tomorrow night and through the weekend. May do a little more local exploring, then head back to Midland within the next few days…

CAPE CROKER/BECKWITH ISLAND

Monday, June 27

A pox on all credit card services! It was an extremely frustrating morning after filling our grocery cart, going through the check-out and having our credit card transaction not be authorized. Now, we are not exactly naive travelers or inexperienced when it comes to managing credit cards during international travel, so it was very upsetting to learn that our cards had been de-authorized. This was after letting the bank know when, where and for how long we would be traveling. In fact, I had phoned them within the past few weeks to update our travel location, but apparently, nobody pays any attention to that.

Elaine, getting us back to the boat on the dinghy

Allow me to back up just a couple of steps. Several weeks ago, we discovered that one of our credit cards (we carry two accounts) wouldn’t work. When I called the bank, they informed me that they had sent updated cards to our home address, and that all we had to do was use the new cards now that the previous cards had been cancelled. As idiotic a move as this was, since they knew we were on an extended travel schedule 3000 miles from home, we just decided we would not use that card anyway, and use the other account. Then the second bank did the exact same thing. When asked why they sent out new cards, even though the old ones had a year before expiration, they said it was a “service” to their customers to automatically extend the expiration date.

Bruce Peninsula

The bottom line was that the bank said they were bound by California State law to de-authorize the card and we were just SOL. So here we were, trying to pay for food and fuel in a small village in remote Ontario, Canada with a bad card. The bank’s solution was simple - “Just give us the address where you are staying, and we’ll mail you new cards within 5 business days.” Half of the islands where we anchor are uninhabited! No streets, no cottages, no postal service… And they’re going to catch up to us on the boat and hand us our new cards. Yeah, right. After over a half hour on the phone (being charged international roaming charges, even though it is supposed to be a toll-free number) I finally got through to a supervisor in the credit card fraud department. She managed to tweak something with our account and said it might work now, so try to buy something while she waited on the phone. I went to a restaurant at the end of the dock and tried to buy a cup of coffee with a credit card - their card machine was broken. I then went up to the street and started walking, trying to find some vendor who would take my card (all while the bank person was waiting on the line, and I was paying roaming charges). I found an LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario - a wine shop), went in, grabbed the first bottle of wine I saw off the shelf and went to the register to use my card. It worked. The bank promised that it would continue working. Just in case, we walked to the local bank (on the highway, outside of town) and got some cash.

By this time, we figured it would have to be a short cruising day, so we took off toward Cape Croker and anchored in a nice, secluded harbor about 15 miles away.

Lighthouse on Cape Croker

River otter pups feasting on a fish carcass

Tuesday, July 28

We have two more days before the next front is forecast to pass through with 20+ knot winds. Our plane reservations for the quick visit home are 10 days away. We don’t want to be stuck too far away if the wind blows for too long, so we decided to start heading in the direction of Midland, where we will  moor the boat while we are gone.

Taking advantage of the autopilot to knit

Our initial thought was to hop down the Bruce Peninsula and spend the night in McGregor Bay, but we got there by about 11 AM, the weather was great with a light southwest wind and 1 foot waves, so we decided to make the 30 mile crossing to Beckwith Island, putting us on the east side of Georgian Bay. We are definitely back in the popular areas - there were about 35 boats anchored in the bay when we came around the point. There was plenty of room, though, so we anchored and appreciated the warm weather and the (little bit) warmer water in the southern bay…

TOBERMORY

The wind died down a little overnight, but it was still there when we left Club Island about 7 AM. We continued on, picking up our bearing for Tobermory and passing between Flowerpot Island and Bear’s Rump Island.

One of the "flowerpot" formations on Flowerpot Island

Glad we waited until this morning - even with the slackened wind, it was not completely smooth cruising. We stuck our nose into the harbor at Flowerpot, knowing that there is a dock in there and it is a National Park where our docking permit is good for free mooring. The water is incredibly clear, and, although the depth sounder read 7 feet, it looked like we would hit rocks at any time. Elaine wasn’t comfortable going in, so we backed out and continued on to Big Tub Harbor, which is the only designated anchorage in Tobermory. Unfortunately, Big Tub Harbor is 40-50 feet deep and has a constant stream of tour and excursion boats going through it to look at the wrecks at the end of the harbor. We gave up and went over to the Municipal Docks and got a slip.

Tobermory is a cute little town with a resort feel to it. Lots of gift shops, clothing stores, restaurants, etc. We had a bit of a hassle getting electrical power at the docks, but while we were out exploring the shipwrecks in the harbor with the dinghy, they got everything squared away and we had power once we were back on board.

Shipwrecks in the harbor

It’s a very busy harbor, partly due to the season and partly due to the weekend, but there are private yachts (in the 60-70 foot range), tour boats, glass-bottom boats, ferries and even kayaks constantly streaming by our boat, which is docked at the outside end of the harbor. One of the draws here is the abundance of shipwrecks which can be seen in the clear water. Visibility is at least 50-60 feet underwater, although snorkeling is a bit of a challenge with the water being only about 60 degrees or so.

We took a walk around town, even checking out the 385 foot Chi-Cheemaun Ferry which goes over to Manitoulin Island. I talked with the tour boat operators who go out to Flowerpot Island, and they said the harbor entrance was 5 feet deep - plenty of room for my 2’4” draft. We may go out there tomorrow and check it out some more.

You can tell you’re in a decent little town when you run across a brew pub, especially one that brews a nice porter. It was pretty warm by the time we finished our walk around town so that porter tasted mighty fine.

We’ll need to do some provisioning tomorrow morning before we leave, but there’s a grocery store right at the harbor. Having minimal food on board is as good of excuse as any for dinner at a nice restaurant tonight…

SNUG HARBOR/CLUB ISLAND

We left Spanish, heading for Gore Bay on Manitoulin Island under incredibly calm conditions, and were halfway there when the updated weather forecast was broadcast and changed our minds for us.

Calm morning, for a change

We’ve spend several days, now in the North Channel and, as pretty as it is, we decided to head back to Georgian Bay for a couple of reasons. One is that the forecasts have consistently predicted better weather in Georgian Bay and two, North Channel is quite remote and, in general, primitive. Elaine likes to see interesting towns, museums, shops, etc, and there’s more of that in Georgian Bay. So, instead of Gore Bay, we headed east through Little Current and anchored in Snug Harbor, positioning ourselves for the next weather window to head south, out of North Channel, across Georgian Bay to Tobermory.

Sung Harbor

Snug Harbor was a great place (although no cell/internet connection), being very protected and large enough for many boats. We anchored in about 30 feet of clear water. I scrubbed down the boat to get warmed up enough to dive in and clean the waterline and bottom. It took about a half hour to do the bottom, and I was pretty chilled by the time I was done.

Another great dining view in Snug Harbor

The forecast was for high winds overnight (naturally) and rain/thunderstorms in the morning, clearing by early afternoon. The winds never came, but the rain/thunderstorms appeared briefly and were gone by 10 AM. Updated weather called for 15 knot winds, decreasing by afternoon with wave height 2-3 feet, also decreasing by afternoon. We took off for Tobermory, about 45 miles away, and for the first ten miles it was tolerable, if not pleasant. Then we hit more open water and, by early afternoon, the winds picked up rather than died down. We were going into 3-4 foot waves and had to reduce our speed, which would have made it a very long slog into Tobermory.

Club Island anchorage

We had a couple of possible bail-out points, and about half way through the crossing ducked into an anchorage on Club Island - a deserted, low island with a large harbor which offered protection from the waves, although not much protection from the wind. At least the water surface is smooth, and we can wait out this front, which is supposed to pass through by midnight tonight, leaving calm conditions in the morning…

SPANISH RIVER

Thursday, July 23

The wind died down a bit overnight, so we weighed anchor to get out into the channel before the whitecaps started up again. The water at our anchorage had cleared up considerably overnight and I could see the anchor in about 20 feet of water as I was pulling it up. Too bad the water had not warmed up as well.

Our first idea was to go to Eagle Island which, on the chart, had a nice big bay on the northeast side, but scout out Gibson Bay on Fox Island on the way over. Gibson Bay actually looked pretty nice and protected, although it is deep water right up to shore, a couple of boats were already there, and it was only a few miles from our last anchorage. We kept on going to Eagle Island, where we were a bit disappointed in the exposure. The wind was already coming up and, clearly, hitting the bay fairly strong. We kept going. We had thought we might stop in at the town of Spanish in another day, so going in that direction we scouted out Shoepack Bay. It was very protected, although deep, small, and there were already boats anchored, swinging on one anchor. Because they were swinging, there was no room for anyone else to come in. We kept going. By this time, around noon, the wind had come up and there were 2-3 foot waves and whitecaps in the exposed channels. Spanish wasn’t that far away, so we headed there to spend the night in a marina.

Spanish Municipal Marina

It’s a nice marina, although not much of a town. There’s a sporting goods shop, a couple of minimal grocery stores, a liquor store and some restaurants about 1.5 miles away. The best thing about the marina is the community building right next door. It’s a modern, 2-story structure which houses classrooms, event spaces, a workout gym, laundromat and full washrooms with showers (which marina tenants can use).

Community center

After a walk into town, mainly just to stretch our legs, we were entertained by other boats trying to get in and out of their slips in the strong wind.

Ontario countryside around Spanish

It’s now Friday AM, and, looking at the weather forecast, we have a day before another strong front comes through with 20-30 knot winds. The extended forecast really doesn’t show much relief for another 3-4 days. We would like to head over to Tobermory on the Bruce Peninsula, but that entails some open water, so we may gradually position ourselves over the next couple of days, hopping from bay to bay, and take off for the crossing on the first good-weather day.

IMPROV docked at Spanish

Yesterday, we made plane reservations to head home for a week in August, so we will want to be back to Midland before we go,  to put the boat on a mooring while we are gone…