BELLEVILLE, ONTARIO

We spent a quiet night docked at the wall between Lock #7 and Lock #8 on the Oswego Canal. Up early to get ready for the Lake Ontario passage, we had coffee and said our goodbyes to our fellow travelers on the Erie & Oswego Canals. They are taking a different route leaving Oswego, with a different destination. The last lock in the canal was ready right at 8 AM, so we locked down to lake level and headed out Oswego Harbor, next stop, Canada.

Lighthouse, Oswego harbor

The passage was about as good as it gets. One foot waves to start, but things actually calmed down in the middle of the lake, and the rest of the way, it was less than foot high waves.

Empty horizon, Lake Ontario

We maintained about a 12 knot pace across the lake until we were in well protected waters, then slowed to our trawler speed of 7-8 knots for the rest of the day. We considered going on into Trenton, but were passing by Belleville at around 4 PM and decided we were tired enough to stop, rather than continue another 2 hours to Trenton.

Belleville has a nice municipal marina with very nice bath and laundry facilities and is within walking distance of town. We showered, did laundry then walked into town to a very nice restaurant for dinner.  The sun doesn’t set until 9 PM up here, so it was a nice walk back to the marina, watching the sun set.

Belleville marina

There’s a farmers market tomorrow morning a few blocks away, so we’ll hit that before taking off for Trenton. I suspect we’ll get another slip in a marina tomorrow night since the weather forecast is calling for heavy rain and 30 knot winds starting tomorrow evening and lasting through Sunday. We have a few things to do in Trenton, including picking up appropriate charts, a cruising guide to the canal system and getting our permit for the Trent-Severn Canal. We’ll start heading up the canal as weather permits…