The Last of the Locks and Lift Bridges (Thank Goodness!!)

7/15/19 - Beauharnois, Cote St. Catherine and St. Lambert Locks
It took the whole day, but we made it through the last of the locks and lift bridges, down the Beauharnois and Rive Sud Canals.  Another tiring day and we anchored on the down river side of Montreal for the evening.

An Unexpected Opportunity to Try Out Our New Dinghy (We ran aground)

7/14/19 - Iroquois, Eisenhower & Snell Locks

We pulled up the anchor and were on our way by 8:15 on Sunday, 7/14/19 to get to the Iroquois Lock.  No problems with Iroquois - easy-peasy.  The next two locks following Iroquois are the only two American Locks on the St. Lawrence Seaway - the Eisenhower and Snell Locks near Massena, NY.  The two drops (downbound) are 45’ and 38’.  A cool thing about the American Locks - they have floating bollards that one line from your boat is looped around, so it makes if very easy as the water level changes, especially if you have only two people aboard.  At this point, we thought we had a pretty good handle on doing the locks.  Just before we approached the Eisenhower Lock, our son called so Bryan and then I, spent a few moments talking with him.  That’s my excuse - we were distracted and maybe getting a little too confident.  As we approached the wall on the north/east side of the lock, we ran aground.  Oh no!!! We didn’t see the sign “Warning - 6 Foot Depth” until it was too late and although Bryan was watching the water depth, it shoaled up very rapidly from 45’ to us being aground with our 9’ draft.  We had a mad scramble to get our dinghy in the water with the intent for me to take the dinghy to the wall with a halyard in hand, secure it to the wall and have  Bryan crank it in to use the halyard to heel the boat over.  In the meantime, several powerboats came out the the lock, upbound, and threw up enough of a wake for us to bounce off.  Whew!  Now it was a mad scramble for me to gather in the halyard and get back to the boat, get the dinghy out of the water and get into the lock while it was still open.  We were able to do all that, but when we got into the lock, they asked for our receipt for advance payment.  I had paid on-line the day before and had received e-mail confirmation but didn’t realize it needed to be printed.  The line-handler ashore said, “Well, try forwarding the email to us or we will have you back out of the lock and wait until we have confirmation”.  Really??!!  Fortunately, we did not have to back out of the lock and the rest of the day was uneventful.  As far as a time and place to run aground, this was not a bad  situation and it gave us some practice on getting the dinghy in and out of the water.  Thanks to our friend Bob, the lifting bridle and chocks work very well.  AND, it is not a matter of IF you run aground, but WHEN you run aground.  I’ve heard it said, “Any sailor who tells you he has never run aground is either lying or never leaves the dock”. 

We were anchored in Lac Saint Francois, formed by a widening of the St. Lawrence River, by 5:00 pm, just off of Saint Zotique ashore and the shipping channel.  We each took lake baths in the 69 degree water, followed by a warm water rinse.  It was quite refreshing and we slept well, confident in our giant anchor to hold us in place. 

The Iroquois Dam is parallel to the Iroquois Lock and it is used to control the level of Lake Ontario.  All the gates were open, presumably to try and lower the lake levels.

This freighter passed up the channel at a pretty fast clip as we were anchored of St. Zotique in Lake St. Francis. For some reason, we both got a kick out of "Wagenborg" and we have been saying "WAGENBORG!" ever since.  Maybe we were both tired & giddy from the day's events??

Lake St. Francis - wind turbine farm

This part of the St. Lawrence is very rural with lots of farms.

Tough Anchoring near Iroquois Lock, Ontario

7/12/19 - By the time we left the Inner Harbor at Kingston, it was 1:00, so we decided to go down the river about 10 - 15 miles and then anchor for the night.  It was cloudy when we left Kingston but turned into a beautiful day after a couple hours.  At about 3:00, Bryan spotted some sailboats anchored in a nice looking bay, Brakey Bay on Wolfe Island.  We ended up anchoring there with about a dozen other Canadian sailboats and spent a very peaceful, relaxing evening.

7/13/19 - The anchor was up and we were motoring down the St. Lawrence River by 10:00 am.  This part of the river is the Thousand Islands area, and it definitely is!  Once we made it into American waters, it seemed like every little island had a cottage, house or large mansion on it.  The water levels were still very high and we saw some homes that were closed up with water right up to the house.  We made it under the Thousand Islands Bridge and through the American Narrows quickly as the current was pushing us to 8 - 9 knots.  What a water playground this area is!  Houses line the shore on both sides, some with docks and every water toy imaginable.  We also passed a couple freighters in the narrow area - really close!  

Our goal was to get near the Iroquois Lock and anchor for the evening.  Bryan had identified a good anchoring spot between Presque and Toussaint Islands.  The cruising guide said there was good holding and it was close to the lock.  There had not been much wind during the day, but as we approached our anchorage, the wind built to 25 knots.  Sheesh.  It was a pretty narrow area between the two islands and the high water had made the south west slot pretty wide.  I couldn’t loosen the windlass so I steered while Bryan set the anchor, not our usual anchoring method.  The anchor was skidding across rock, probably because the high water and current had scoured the dirt off the ground.  We got it set and learned some lessons about anchoring with this new, great big anchor.  It was not a very restful night as there were storms in the area and we were a little worried about the anchor dragging.  There was not a lot of time to recover if it did drag.  Finally, at about 1:00 am, the storms had all passed and we did get some sleep.

It was very close passing a freighter in the American Narrows.

Brakey Bay, Wolfe Island, Ontario

Brakey Bay

One of the thousands of islands

The Thousand Islands Bridge was very busy with lots of car and truck traffic.

The Thousand Islands Bridge

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.

A storm rolled in but missed us for the most part.

Shoal Tower is easily visible from the water to help guide you to Confederation Basin Marina.

St. George Cathedral

All the Canadian buildings are neat and orderly looking with lots of pretty landscaping.

Kingston City Hall

Glassy sunset on Lake Ontario

Toronto skyline visible across Lake Ontario from St. Catherine

Bascule Bridge on the Lasalle Causeway, Kingston

We enjoyed a couple hours of sailing before the wind died (again).

Glassy sunrise on Lake Ontario

We were impressed with the pattern of the roof tiles.

Kingston City Hall at night, right before the mosquitoes swarmed and we hurried back to the boat.