The Fleet Seperates - and the stats

Thursday was our last day of travel as a fleet.
From Jones Falls we made our way to Newboro. Here Jim needed to fuel up and the ladies needed to visit Kilborn's for a little shopping then it was on to the windy Narrows lock station. From here we headed to Colonel By Island for the weekend, Bob and Rachel headed back to Len's Cove Marina and Jim and Cathie headed for the Portland Town docks.

For our 2013 circumnavigation of Prince Edward County we:

consumed 450 litres of diesel (Jim significantly more in gas)
logged 41.3 hours on the engines
travelled 352 nautical miles
anchored 7 nights
ate way too much
had way too much fun

Looking forward to our next cruise - whatever the destination should be.

 

Wednesday Travel

The good news is we did not twist our anchor rodes last night, however the weeds and slime made for a messy anchor lift. Very light travel today, just to the top of Jones Falls where we were both able to get on the grey line. Bob is on the move again and was able to get to the top of Jones Falls by the end of day. It was however a long day of locking for them, so Jim and I became crew on the I Docked 'R for the ride up the locks. We once again decided that this would be a excellent night for our farewell dinner at the Hotel Kenney, and the meal was excellent.
Bob has been desperately trying to have a final championship game of cribbage, and we were able to fit this in after dinner. Unfortunately this was the only game that Bob has won, and by his decree he became the cribbage champion of the cruise.

 

 

Tuesday Travels

Sassy Jody left the Cedar Island dock bright and early to head into Kingston for groceries. Both Holidaze and ourselves departed at 10:30 so we could get the 11:00 am bridge lift. A quick stop at Rideau Marine for water and pump outs, then a quick word with Bob as his mechanic was arriving, we then headed to Kingston Mills.
We met up with Sassy Jody on the blue line and were soon on our way up the system again.

It seems all the vacationers from Lens are on the way back now. As we were locking up High Ball (Roger & Lynne), SunReyes (Gilles & Monique) and Pura Vida (Doug & Donna) all arrived to Kingston Mills. We also heard that Golf`d E Nuff (Dave & Julie) arrived at Confederation Basin and plan to head up on Wednesday.

The good news is Bob is running on two engines  again. However, it was late enough in the day that they were unable to lock up at Kingston Mills so had to overnight on the blue line at the bottom.

We were able to make good progress, despite the heavy rain and thundershowers and made Morton Bay for the night.
As the weather was still unsettled, we both dropped anchor and rafted for the night and finished the day with a great game of Sequence, of which Jim and Cathie thoroughly whooped us.

Gremlins

Sorry, its been a few days since we last updated and we encountered a few delays.

As we left Belleville, Bob was again affected with the gremlins and had the port engine shut down. After a few hours of us anchored in the Bay of Quinte with Jim and Bob doing the bilge rat thing, it was determined it would not restart with the tools and knowledge we had. So we slowly made our way to Grassy Point to anchor for the night. Bob refused any form of towing, and would have paddled before he would let any of us tie a line to him. This of course means we are skipping Napanee and our golf game for this cruise. Grassy Point was a nice anchorage and a very friendly cottager invited Bob and Rachel to use their dock for the dog landing.

The next morning it was off to Prinyers Cove, and the weather was sunny and very low winds for the journey.

The great thing about Prinyers Cove is Cathie's brother Len and Nancy have a cottage right there. Not only where they great hosts for an evening potluck, Len was gracious enough to drive to West Marine to pick up fuel filters for Bob. Unfortunately the filters were not  the problem.

After a good nights rest, we were all up early in the morning for an 8:00 am departure.

Bob decided that since he was on one engine we would leave early enough to get the 11:00 am bridge lift at Kingston and then he could get a wall dock at Rideau Marine and see the mechanic on Tuesday morning.

Holidaze and ourselves thought we would try Cedar Island for the night and luckily

enough there was dock space available. It would have been a tight fit for our boat, or we were going to raft to Holidaze, when the owners of One More Knight graciously offered  to move off the end of the dock to another spot to let us on. There certainly are good friendly boaters out there.

As we were tying up Rick and Darlene from September Dream motored by and waved hello as they continue on their year long journey to the Bahamas and back. If you wish to follow their blog it's  www.7kts.com

It also happens that Sassy Jody- Terry, Linda and Evelyn are starting their return trip back up the Rideau and arrived to the last dock here on Cedar Island. We had a great afternoon of chit chatting and our usual 4:00pm happy hour.

As the gremlins continue to jump from boat to boat this year, we discovered we had emptied a 1/3 of our fresh water into the bilge. The cold water line to the aft head had split, as was now in need of repair. Typical of boating the line is behind the smallest of areas up and behind the fuel tanks. There is no possible way to get to it, so I traced it back to where the line starts and with parts and pieces, stopped off the line. When we get back we will have  to run new lines through a different route to bypass the split.

On a positive note as we were all sitting around after dinner, a deer was spotted eating along the waters edge and could care less that we were watching, and remained there until dark.

Travel to Belleville for Ribs and all that

By habit we check the weather every day and evening to inform our decisions for the next day. We have also come to realise we cannot trust the weather services very much. Today was to be sunny with cloudy periods with light winds for the south. When we awoke this morning it was a steady rain and light winds from the north. Either way it made for calm lake conditions and we departed at 9:00 am from Wellington for our travel to Belleville by route of the Murray Canal. The rain had stopped after about an hour and the remaining half of the trip was quite pleasant.
This being our first time through the Murray Canal it was interesting to watch the bridge operator pass out the long pole to collect the $4.95 to transit the canal. As we approached we were told that Jim and Cathie had already paid for all 4 boats, which reminds me I still owe them $4.95, and we were not required to pay the pole man.
After the Murray Canal, Will'n Joy diverted to Trenton for some fuel, pump out and water while the others continued onto Meyers Pier Marina.
Once we arrived at Meyers we assigned a nice comfortable slip with all four of us together.
Part of the reason for stopping in Belleville was for the Rib Fest this weekend. Before we departed for the Ribs, we had the pleasure of seeing Anne and Dave since they drove down from Ottawa for a visit.
Since we were going to be indulging in Ribs, we decided to walk the 2 km to the site for our dinner. As we got closer and the signs started to appear, I think Bob started to pick up the walking pace at that point.
Even though it's the same vendors at most of these events, it was a lot of fun partaking in ribs, corn and deep fried Mars bars, which Bob talked me into, and that he tried to force Jim to try.
Likely just a short trip tomorrow to Napanee, so we can sleep in a little or go to the Farmers Market in the morning.
Listened to the weather again, but trust the Red Sky at Night more than their forecasts.

Wine, Wine and more Wine

Well today was the big wine tour.
We were picked up in a Limo Bus and were shuttled between wineries , cheese factories, cider houses and breweries by our knowledgeable driver Heather.
First up was Lighthall Winery, were we met the owner and bought a very nice Pinot Noir.
Following that was a quick stop at Black Creek Cheese Factory before heading to the Lake of the Mountain Inn for a nice lunch.
Next stop was Del Gatto winery for more sampling. Here we bought a nice Baco, and met the owner who truly loved his profession and had a smile to prove it. From here it was off to the County Cider Company for yet again more sampling. Although quite good I am not a big cider drinker, and Joy prefers the English Style of dry ciders of which they did not have any available at this time. So we left there ciderless, but not the others.
The next  winery was Devils Wishbone. Along with the sampling we were informed of many of the County techniques in tending the vineyards which differ from most other regions. Here we acquired a nice Riesling and for the first time for us a Pinot Gris Rose.
Our last stop of the day was a special request by Bob for the Barley Days Brewery. We sampled a few of their beers, but by this time the taste buds were getting pretty tired of all the alcohol and I was finding it hard to determine which beer was best, however Bob had no trouble and left with a nice sample case.
Bob and Chris win the award for unknowingly dressing in the same colour coordination, while Jim wins for most restrained sampler.
All told, it was a great day even though we visited only 4 of the 30+ wineries in the area and we were all quite tired by the end ;-)

 

After a good nights rest, we intend to head out into Lake Ontario tomorrow to travel up to the Murray Canal and head to Belleville.

Sand, sand and more sand

Today was a nice windy day in Wellington, as predicted. The lake has stirred up to some nice 3 and 4 foot waves, and since we are staying put it was a great day to dinghy through West Lake and enjoy the sand dunes. As we are down to 2 dinghies we loaded 4 per boat which made for a slow and slightly wet ride through West Lake. We pulled ashore on the dunes and had a great morning walking through the dunes and playing, skipping stones and swimming in the waves of Lake Ontario, just like we were kids again.

The balance of the day was spent exploring the town of Wellington, reading and maybe napping by some.

Tomorrow we are off on a tour of the wineries, cider houses and cheese factories.

Waupoos to Wellington.....on the high seas

Weather is looking rough for Wednesday, so we decided to head out one day early to Wellington, which is on the south shore of Prince Edward County at the entrance to West Lake of the Sandbanks Provincial Park.

Well if tomorrow  is rough what do you call the 4 footers off Long Point and the False Duck Islands we had today.
We had about 3 hours of some rough confused seas until we rounded Point Petre.
Sorry, there are not pictures as we were using two hands to hold on with.

Of course we never thought it was going to be that rough, and we all suffered a little for the lack of preparation, Rachel's table was overturned and she broke one of her favourite bowls, not to mention the tossed contents of the salon. Jim and Cathie had one very seasick Kitten on board while we encountered  some dinghy davit damage. Going to need to redesign our davits for the future.
The only ones without complaint were Bryan and Chris, in their seaworthy Sea Ray. I think the only thing Bryan was complaining about was the lack of lunch as Chris was not going to try getting below deck in the waves.

Bob  was anxious to get out to the weather and he put the diesel to the TollyCraft and was in Wellington by more than an hour ahead of us.

It was great to finally get  to see Sand Banks from the water view, something we have been wanting to do for many years.

I was a little concerned about the channel into Wellington from Lake Ontario as it apparently can silt up and become quite shallow. However there was no problem as we had 10 feet all the way to the docks.

Wellington is a great place to stop and visit. We plan to dinghy around West Lake and visit the sand dunes, dine out and take a vineyard tour over the next couple of days.

Beautiful Stella, and Waupoos too

Since leaving Kingston we spent two wonderful days in Stella Bay along the north shore of Amherst Island, where we swam, ate too much and visited the town of Stella. It is a picturesque and well protected bay and well worth a return visit in the future.

Veronica and Shawn arrived by Sea-doo in the afternoon from Waupoos, and stayed with us for the duration of the long weekend. It was also nice to have a visit from Cathie's brother Len and wife Nancy for the afternoon.

On Monday morning, which was calm with clear blue skies it was time to raise anchors and head for Waupoos. As we anticipated some turning over the two days, Jim proposed he stay on I Dock'd R while Cathie backed Holidaze out of the raft, then let Lionheart back out from between I Dock'd R and ourselves so we could raft together as we raised anchors. Luckily it was only a single twist and we were able to turn ourselves out of the twist. Once Jim was back aboard with Cathie it was off to Waupoos. Veronica and Shawn decided to Sea-doo back instead of towing since the water was calm and still, and I suspect they are bored at our 7 knot pace.

The Upper Gap was calmer than I have ever seen it, and it was hard to tell water from sky on the horizon.

Waupoos Marina is a nice location and is an old school working marina with lots of old boats on dry land being worked on. Located here is the Blue Moose Café.

After check-in and a quick lunch, we all got together for birthday cake and celebration for Shawn, then they were off with Kiwi again for the drive back to Manotick, but not before stopping at the local blueberry farm for some fresh berries.

It was a pleasant surprise to see Len and Nancy again, and even more so to see Evelyn, Cathie and Len's mother.

Since we have free Wi-Fi here, we are loading up a few pictures of the trip from Kingston and our travels over the past few days.