In a Foreign Country

Well, not really, but we can get the radio stations and weather reports in either French or English.

Our anchorage one night amid the 1000 Islands

On Monday we departed the marina in Morristown NY (which was nothing to write home about) without our boating friends aboard Irish Lady, since they had inverter problems & we waiting for a replacement unit.  We made our way up the Brockville Narrows, this time AGAINST the 2 mph current, and took the Canadian Small Craft Channel near the Canadian mainland.  It wound around and through the islands, sometimes passing so close to them that you could hit the shore with a stone (heck, even I could hit it with a stone).  Many of the islands are so tiny that a one-bedroom cottage takes up the whole island.  I just hope the owner doesn’t sleep walk!

We stopped at Rockport Ontario to officially go through Customs.  After reading and hearing about how picky and onerous the agents can be, I had a surprisingly easy go of it (see how I’m beginning to learn the sayings around here!).  When we enter a foreign port, only the “Master” of the ship is allowed ashore to contact customs. After clearing customs, we can proceed normally.  In foreign ports other than Canada, while we await clearance, the ship is to fly the yellow “Q” flag (quarantine), which is a lingering procedure from the old sailing days.  After clearance, the visiting ship then flies the country’s flag as a courtesy flag.  All these rules & procedures sounds too much like a J-O-B.

We took 3 days going west to Kingston ON, anchoring in two different gorgeous anchorages.  The second night, we stopped among the “Admiralty Islands” inside a ring of about a dozen small islands, offering 360 degree wind protection, in an absolutely beautiful setting.  Apparently we were not the only ones who found this place, because we were joined by 11 sailboats & one other trawler.

We're not the only ones who found this anchorage!

Pulling the weeds from the anchor rode.
Note the sailing ship in the channel behind the trawler.

The cold front came through in the middle of the night (don’t they always?) and the winds went north at 25 mph.  Our anchor held well in the weedy bottom, but we were up half the night watching 2 sailboats drag anchor.  Which brings me to another point; the rocky bottoms in this fresh water are covered in long weeds, which foul the anchor horribly.  It takes 30-45 minutes to weigh anchor, and the anchor weighs about 100 pounds more with the weight of all the weeds.  We needed to pull them all off, one small bit at a time, with our boathook.  Ahhhhhh….the boating life!

We spent 2 nites in Kingston, which is a nice vibrant town.  We ran into some old boating  buddies, one being Irish Lady who came in the night before we left, and the other being a boater we traveled with thru New York City Harbor.  Photos & details of our visit to Kingston will have to wait, since our “international plan” with AT & T limits our email.

A street sign in Kingston.  Apparently the rock group
"Tragically Hip" is from Kingston, but who knew?

So tomorrow we head farther west, watching the weather closely to pick the day to cross back south over Lake Ontario.  We’re also planning our adventure up the Welland Canal.  Since we’re locking upbound in the canal, we need to hire a third person to traverse the locks with us.  I’ve arranged for a Looper who lives in the area, and used to work for the canal corporation, to be our third hand.  And then right after that trip, we watch the weather on Lake Erie to make the trip across to Erie PA.  Gotta keep moving to stay ahead of our mistakes!

Sue got some flowers in Kingston from a secret admirer