Lake Ontario

Up early this morning to pull anchor in Presqu'ile Bay and headed west. The early start was to get ahead of any winds that may make the lake lumpy today and planned for Cobourg. As we progressed the wind never picked up and the lake stayed quite calm, and therefore we pushed on to Whitby. Our only challenge of the day was having to dodge all the fishing boats out early in the day.
Since we have family living in Whitby we had Sue and John over for a nice get together and dinner.
Looks like we may stay here an additional day as they are calling for rain and possible thundershowers and we don't need that for our last leg to Toronto.

Stella

Friday July 26th has us leaving Kingston for Stella Bay. Bryan Departed early for Kingston from Portsmouth Olympic Harbour for Fuel and got caught up in the Laser Worlds launching out of the harbour. We had to pick our way through the many little sailboats heading out into the lake. Arrived early to Stella and found the anchorage pretty much empty so we tucked in nice and close to shore.
First night out on the anchor and Jim treated us all to one of his great dusty old bottles of wine.
We decided to stay two nights here as the swimming was perfect and there was ice cream just a short dinghy ride away. Sunday saw us leaving the fleet for our main destination of Toronto this summer. The rest of the fleet will be spending time between Wapous, Picton and Napanee.
Sunday was a long day of travel from Stella to Presqu'ile Bay via the Murray Canal. Our anchorage gave us a bevy of swans to watch.
Off to Coburg or Whitby tomorrow, depending on the what Lake Ontario throws at us.

First Dinner Out

Our first dinner  out at Amadeus and with guests, Cathie's brother Len and sister-in-law Nancy.
Thankfully we left just enough room for ice cream after dinner

Vacation 2019

Well the fleet has gathered in Kingston at the Confederation Basin City Marina. We are 4 Boats strong this year with Holidaze (Jim & Cathie) I Docked'R (Bob &Rachel) Lionheart (Bryan & Chrissy).
We are here for a couple of nights with dinner out plans and the required run to Marine Outfitters.
This year is a little different as we will split out fro the group come Sunday as we head for Toronto, and eventually Port Dalhousie.

While here in Kingston, we had the twin to our boat pull into the slip beside us, also Loopers

More to come as things get going.

Aug 6-12

It's now Monday of the Long Weekend, and Veronica and Shawn have decide to leave quite early to beat any traffic woes trying to get out of Montreal as it is not a long weekend for Quebec so weekday traffic could be bad. We departed just after them to start our voyage up the Seaway, but not before a little drama with someone demanding to get on our boat, but that's a story for one on one, not here. St. Lambert was our first lock and unfortunately the docks were full of other boats waiting and we ended up watching two ships go through and waited for 4 1/2 hours for our turn. It seemed that this would be the day for things to go bad. Since we waited on anchor, when it was time to pull up and go our swivel was jammed on the shank and we could not pull the anchor all the way up. Tried to un-jam it but only succeeded in breaking the mooring pole. We travelled with about 20 other boats so it was a slow process. St. Catherine's was the next lock and since it was quite close and we were still following the two ships we had to wait again about 45 minutes. At least I was able to free the swivel and set anchor again, but somehow Joy was cleaning the boarding mat and dropped it overboard and was lost to the deep. With a crowded lock again, and with us against the wall I tried to push off with another mooring pole and broke it as well. Once out of the lock we had the long trip across Lake St. Louis to Beauharnois locks. Since it was getting late in the day we figured we would take an anchorage outside the locks for the night and head out the next day. However as we were approaching they were just opening the locks for two other small boats so we made the decision to go in, they assured us that we had time to get through both locks and the two lift bridges before Valleyfield. Should have gone with our first plan. As we were exiting the second lock, the weather had become quite threatening with warnings of severe thundershowers. We had no choice now but to head to Valleyfield. Just like when we were down bound  the bridges gave us nothing but grief. We arrived at the first bridge just as they were closing it, and had to wait  30 minutes for them to open it again. When we got to the second bridge they were not ready for us and there was a car on the bridge so they could not open. By the way these bridges are not manned, so everything is done through video cameras and loud speakers from their command station in Lachine. It took another 15 minutes to get the guy off the bridge and for them to open. By this time the weather is looking quite ominous and we bolted for Valleyfield where we anchored for the night. We were anchored for only 15 minutes before  the wind and heavy rain started, but only lasted for 1/2 hour before it blew through.

The next day was the log trip across Lake St. Francis, past Cornwall to the Snell and Eisenhower Locks. Not an overly long or hard day and no troubles with the locks as only 4 boats travelled through with us. We decided to quit a little early today and take an anchorage between Mille Roches and Moulinette Islands.

The next day we had only the one lock to travel through and it was the Iroquois Locks with only an 8 inch lift, hardly seemed worth closing the doors for. It was just after 1:00 pm when we were through so instead of stopping we decided to carry on and make the 1000 islands for the balance of the vacation.  The strong current makes it a slow ride, but we finally made Central Grenadier and parked ourselves for the rest of the vacation and returned to the Marina on Saturday night. Sunday we left the marina around noon to catch up on the mail, lawn and chores around home before back to work on Monday.

Aug 4-5

Another beautiful day on the St.Lawrence as we depart our anchorage for Montreal on the small craft route by Repentigny and behind Saint Therese Island. We arrived at the Old Port of Montreal just before noon and Veronica, Shawn and Olive were waiting for us. Once docked and settled in was time again to hit downtown Montreal, walking up St.Laurent Blvd all the way to Saint-Catherine St for a shopping spree, and lunch at Rueben's.

That evening was suppose  to be a nice quiet night out for dinner and a good night sleep for the next day's adventures. Unfortunately the boat beside turns out to be a AirBnB and didn't they party all night to 6:30 in the morning. Quite disappointing.

Next day we enjoyed the sights and sounds of Place Jacques-Cartier, and decided to take in the PoutineFest for lunch followed by an exciting jet boat ride through the Lachine Rapids. The weather was extremely hot and the soaking felt good. I never thought I would want be in a boat with water half way up my calf's going through 6 foot standing waves and having fun.

Sunday was Shawn's Birthday and we always take  him for Chinese food, and we found a great restaurant in China Town of St.Laurent Blvd.

Thank goodness Sunday night was quieter and we looked forward to a good nights sleep.

Aug 1 -3

Today we departed Plattsburgh for our return voyage down the Richelieu. The wind has been strong from the South West for the past two days and it was a bit of a lumpy ride getting back out on the lake, but improved once we turned north to the start of the Richelieu. First of course was the mandatory stop at Canadian Customs to check back into Canada. A fairly easy exercise other than the docking at their tiny floating dock in this strong wind. We continued on our trip past ile-aux-Noix and finally stopping for the night at Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu where we took the town docks for the night. Dinner was in a nice pizzeria for our first pizza dinner of the cruise. Certainly need to get all the food groups in. Arranged with Parks Canada to be the first through the bridge first thing in the morning for the upcoming Chambly Locks.

After a good nights sleep we were ready; for the long day of locking. Same as last time, I Docked'R and Holidaze went together first and we teamed up with two smaller boats in the next lock down behind them. Going down was certainly a lot easier than the up bound voyage with little strain of the ropes they use for staying on the wall. All in all it was about a 5 hour run through the 9 locks and we were back cruising along the Richelieu. Being a long day we made that nights stop in Beloeil at a nice marina and with a short walk to a very fine restaurant with a view of Mont-Saint-Hilaire as our backdrop.

We were now on the last stretch of the Richelieu with only the St.Ours lock to go before Sorel and the St. Lawrence.

Once through everybody started thinking what our next stop would be. As we had made arrangements to go to Montreal and have Veronica and Shawn aboard for the upcoming long weekend we decided since it was a long trip to Montreal against the current we would get a head start and continue on to an anchorage somewhere closer to Montreal. The rest of the fleet decided they would stop in Sorel for the night.

As we continued down the St. Lawrence we took the small craft route and found a nice anchorage just off ile Bouchard for the night and settled in for a good nights sleep.