We’re in the 1000 Islands area, and it is drop-dead
gorgeous!
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In the rush to leave the Erie Canal, 6 boats lock
through at a time. Makes for tight maneuvering. |
We finally departed Brewerton NY (it was beginning to
feel like we were back in Demopolis AL, where we spent a month one week back in
2009. John & Susan will know what I’m
talking about) on July 8 and went through 7 more locks. It is very tiring & a lot of work going
thru that many locks one right after another, not to mention how dirty the boat
gets from the lock walls and slimy dock lines.
We stopped just before the last lock along a free wall, because Lake
Ontario was rough with a north wind, which blew right up the Oswego River to
the final lock.
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| Follow the leader to the next lock |
We are traveling with “Irish Lady Too”, a 42’ Grand
Banks with Kurt & Susan aboard, so we got together to grill salmon for
dinner. And, of course, we had to start
drinking all our “adult beverages” because when we go into Canada, we’ll pay
extra duty if we bring too much.
 |
Approaching Ontario Canada. Where's Don Quixote
when you need him?!? |
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| From our anchorage, we are close to the ocean freighters |
The next day was absolutely beautiful, so we made the
first opening of the last lock, and were extremely relieved to be finished with
the Erie/Oswego Canals. The lake was
absolutely flat with no wind waves, (very unusual for the Great Lakes) and we
played follow the leader across to the mouth of the St Lawrence River. For the
most part, we let “Otto the Pilot” drive the boat. We knew we were getting closer to Canada when
the radio stations reported the air temperature as 27 degrees, and the USCG
gave their VHF radio broadcasts in both English and French. The lake & river water was a pretty blue-green,
very clear, and sparkled in the wake of the boats. The total opposite of what we saw along the
Erie Canal.
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| Our anchor pulled up half the weeds off the bottom! |
Then we entered the St Lawrence River and the 1000
Islands area. Without boring you with
all the details, here’s the “Executive Summary”:
The water
is crystal clear. We can see at least 10’
into the water. This is probably the
prettiest place we’ve cruised so far in 7 years.
We anchored
for 2 nights and the bottoms are full of weeds.
We anchored first; then the other boat tied up to us. Having 2 large boats rafted together must
have been quite a sight!
Hundreds
of other boats around. We’re close to
Clayton NY and the Wooden Boat Museum, so we see lots of antique wooden
boats. The ship channel goes right thru
the islands, so the ocean freighters are all around, and numerous. And, of course, the locals are absolutely
crazy on the weekends.
The islands
are beautiful, most have houses on them.
Some houses are castles (wait till I post all the photos), and some are
mostly shacks built on a tiny island.
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| Some of the homes on the islands |
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| I think this guy has more money than he needs. We need to redistribute some of it! |
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| Our buddy boat passing Boldt Castle on Heart Island, on our way to their dock. |
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| In front of Boldt Castle. You need to look it up. Amazing story. |
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| The power house & boiler room of Boldt Castle. Note tour boat in background. |
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| The boat house of Boldt Castle was on the next island. |
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| The next castle the next day. This time, Singer Castle built by the president of Singer Sewing Machine Co. |
We’re now at a marina for 2 nights to do laundry, refill
fresh water tanks, and finish drinking our liquor before we leave tomorrow to go
through customs to enter Canada. We’ll
spend about 7 days in Canada first visiting the Canadian side of 1000 Islands,
and then going west along the northern shore of Lake Ontario, and finishing by
locking through the Welland Canal. The
fun ain’t over yet!
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| This house takes the entire island, but it's one of the 1000! |
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Our boat at anchor behind another island. We left our boat at anchor while we took
our friend's boat to see one of the castles & tie up at their dock. |
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