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!