June 2020

As of June 1st, we have moved aboard full time, and the house is safe and secure under the watchful occupancy of Veronica and Shawn. Departed Huck's Marina on the morning of June 1st and have been anchoring about the Thousand Islands between Rockport and Gananoque for the past 15 days, with a night stay June 16th in Gananoque Marina to pump out, water up and a little grocery shopping.
We continue to wait for the Kingston Mills and Jones Falls Locks to open as they are delayed due to construction delays because of the COVID-19 situation.
We are planning to head up the Rideau to Newboro Lake to help my brother with his cottage build  this summer.
Beyond that we are still  looking at our options for heading south. If the border is reopened for September we will likely head south, although the Oswego Canal is also delayed in opening of some of their  locks with an expected  date of August 10th. Should going south no be possible, I believe we will need to look for winter storage again for this winter. Options are locally, or possibly Georgian Bay for heated storage. That decision will have to be made by mid August since we would have to travel the Trent Severn Canal to get there. For now we will  enjoy the summer and see what happens.
No pictures right now as we have been busy organizing the boat and all the gear we have on board to make ourselves comfortable and everything somewhat accessible.

August 4th to 9th

After a busy Sunday we all decided to walk the island again and included a stop at the Rivera Cafe.

Monday, unfortunately brought the end of Veronica and Shawn's visit with us and they headed out on the first Ferry of the day back to Toronto and their car for the long ride back to Ottawa. We had a great time with them and the weather was outstanding.

Tuesday afternoon brought Mark and Cynthia to the Island for a visit. Again we took a walk about  and a dinghy ride though to show them the islands.

Early Wednesday morning we departed for Port Dalhousie, just a quick 3 hour run through the still calm waters of Lake Ontario. We even had a monarch butterfly land on us half way across for a little rest.  Once in Port Dalhousie we arranged  for a car for Thursday morning as it was going to be Wine Country tour and a visit to Niagara Falls day.

Thursday started early with the car pick up and heading out to the wineries, lunch and a tour of the Falls. Our favorite stop was Hernder Wineries, and of course to the Organic, Sustainable Winery of FrogPond,. FrogPond was fun with Roosters and Sheep, which Joy found to be shocking (inside joke).
We also stopped  off at Pelham Estates Winery for Lunch, and then continued onto some more wineries, including Wayne Gretzky's before heading to Niagara Falls. Truly a tourist mecca, we did all the usual walking of the Falls area and the busy entertainment district . We all decided to dinner in Niagara Falls and stay around for the light show. Back to the boat by 10:30 which made for a long day.

Friday morning we were up early to drop off the car, and get out of Port Dalhousie by 8:00am
The 4 1/2 hour run to Whitby was the first time we encountered the Lake a little on the rough side. We had 3 to 4 footers on the Port Quarter Stern all the way which made the ride a little lumpy. Glad to say the swim platform and the dinghy rode the following seas very well. Spending the night in Whitby Marina to head out again early Saturday for the Trenton area, although the winds are still high so unsure what the lake will be like tomorrow.

Saturday August 3rd

Today we went all in Tourist in the City. We signed on for the Hop on Hop off Bus and Boat tour. Kind of a hot day for sitting on top of an open bus, but gave us the opportunity to see the St. Lawrence Market, Distillery District, Theater District, The ROM, AGO, Casa Loma, Trendy Queen Street District and finished off with a tour of the Islands. All in all a busy but enjoyable day.

Friday August 2nd

Today was visit Toronto day. Visited the Ripley's Aquarium and the usual sites. Veronica and Shawn found a picnic table to match our appetites, and found the art installation to represent the over 1,000,000 refugees per floating person from around the world. The afternoon had the four of us take the dinghy through the Toronto Islands.

Thursday August 1st

Today we had the start of our visitors. First was my co-worker Nadim and his little girl Tahlia. It was also our first dinghy ride around some of the islands. We also were able to put on another 12km of walking around all the sites and for a short period of time got lost in the islands Cedar hedge maze. Around 8:30pm Veronica, Shawn and the little dog Olive arrived for their stay over the long weekend.

Toronto Island

Arrived around noon on Wednesday and checked into the Toronto Island Marina. We have a nice dock with a good view of the Toronto skyline. In the afternoon we walked the Island to visit some of the sights and after 11 km of walking we were beat, and just relaxed the rest of the day.Thursday we are expecting the arrival of Veronica and Shawn for the long weekend.

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.