SVJoli: 7/6/19 - 7/10/19, Port Dalhousie and Across Lake Ontario to Kingston

7/6/19 - We decided to stay a few days at the Port Dalhousie Pier Marina to finish a few projects and “get situated”, so we rented a car. Denny & Frank had driven to Port Dalhousie on Monday, 7/1/19 and left a car at the marina. We had breakfast, got organized and the guys took Bryan to rent the car. The Sandusky crew was headed back home to the States before noon. Bryan & I chilled out the rest of the afternoon, doing a couple small boat chores and relaxing. We went in to St. Catherines for dinner and were back at the boat fairly early for bed.

The Port Dalhousie Pier Marina is kind of quirky with a pink gingerbread-style marina office and a large, old ferry boat at the foot of the docks that was meant to be a restaurant but is not open. They are the only marina in the area with floating docks, so they are very busy. The docks at the nearby Port Dalhousie Yacht Club are under water. An interesting thing about the Port Dalhousie Pier Marina - There is a large Furuno radar atop a tall pole. When Bryan commented to Nena, the Harbor Master, about the radar, she said, “Your tax dollars at work.” Bryan said, “No, we’re American.” “I know”, she replied. “That radar belongs to U.S. Homeland Security.”

On Sunday, we did laundry and grocery shopping and went to a business store to fax some information to the insurance company. We also bought a new camera, lenses and accessories since somehow, in all our moves between AirBnB, hotels and storage units and selling our condo, I lost my camera bag full of camera equipment. Ughhh… I can’t be without a camera on this trip! So we are supporting the Canadian economy. ;-)

Monday, 7/8/19

As the marina wi-fi was not very reliable, we went in to Port Dalhousie to find a coffee shop on Monday morning. Port Dalhousie is a small, quaint town within St. Catherine with a couple restaurant/bars, a waterfront park and a great coffee shop, Balzac’s. It is within walking distance of the marina but we drove since we had the car. After getting some business taken care of on the internet and enjoying our coffee and sweet rolls, we went back to the boat to finish some work. Bryan finished installing the fill lines for the 2 new fuel tanks and I wired the 12 V outlet in A.J.’s cabin so that we could put our Engel freezer inside out of the weather, instead of in the cockpit where we had been using it. We went back in to Port Dalhousie for dinner and enjoyed Steak Poutine (Bryan) and Corned Beef Poutine (Polly). Yummy, a Canadian treat. :-p

Tuesday, 7/9/19

After re-visiting Balzac’s for coffee, we made three trips back and forth to the gas station with the jerry jugs to fill up our fuel tanks and then turned in the rental car. All the gas docks in the area are out of service due to the high water. Then we stopped at the pump-out dock before heading out to cross Lake Ontario. It’s always great to have empty holding tanks and full water and fuel tanks!

We left Port Dalhousie at about 1:00 pm and headed east to Kingston. It was a little hazy, but we could see the Toronto skyline directly north across the lake. It would be fun to stop there, but as we are a little behind our planned schedule, we wanted to get to Kingston.

The wind died (again) as the afternoon went on so we motor sailed with the main all night at 6.5 to 7.5 knots. Bryan took the 9 pm to midnight watch and I had the midnight to 3 am watch. It was humid and glassy and the yellow-orange half moon set at about 2 am, leaving the sky dark and the lake inky. When Bryan came back on watch at 3, it was still glassy, dewy and dark. Not great sailing, but a very comfortable and easy passage for the two of us. We arrived at the Confederation Basin Municipal Marina in Kingston at about 1:00 pm on Weds. 7/10/19.

7/10/19 - 7/12/19

On Thursday morning, we walked to the NAPA store, almost 2 miles from the marina (uphill both ways, according to Bryan) with the Ruxsax cart to get 4 gallons of oil and filters for the engine and the generator. Whew, it was hot and humid! When we got to the store, they offered to deliver the oil & filters to the marina the next morning. How nice!! We headed back, stopping at a Thai restaurant for lunch and the Bosun’s Locker to buy some flares. Now we’re legal since all the flares we had on board were past their expiration date. We enjoyed the walk through the downtown area, parks and neighborhoods. We saw a lot of beautiful limestone buildings and old, well-kept homes.

On Friday, I got up early to take my shower and get on the internet. Bryan changed the oil and we left our dock by 10:45 so that we could make the 11:00 am opening of the bascule bridge on the Lasalle Causeway to get to the Inner Harbor. We had to go to Kingston Marina in the Inner Harbor to get fuel since the Confederation Basin Marina did not have a fuel dock. It was very nerve-wracking going through the bascule bridge because it did not look like our mast would fit under it. Bryan stayed way to the one side to make sure. After getting fuel (we had to wait for a Fire Boat which the marina/boat yard was commissioning), we anchored in the bay to wait for the 1:00 pm opening of the bridge. There is no noon opening because of rush hour traffic. This was the first time we anchored with our new anchor and bow roller. It was good to get the practice as this anchor is HUGE!!!

We really liked Kingston and were sorry we couldn’t spend more time there. Maybe we will be back some day.