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…