The Bay of Quintie

 On Monday August 5th we headed out of Clayton and back into the Islands. We spent two days anchored at Mulcaster Island one of the park islands. Our next stop was Kingston. We stayed at The Kingston Marina which is just past the lift bridge on the causeway.

We got to the bridge a little early since it does not open at 12:00 noon, took much car traffic. It was very windy and rough waiting in the bay for it to open but both Irish Mist and Pipe Dream survived.
Once in we got to take a look at their fire boats. Kingston Marina happens to make the best fire boats in the world. They had one55 footer finished and on its way to Alexandria Virginia and a 70 footer almost finished on its way to Huston Texas. In one of the building was another 70 footer for Huston which they hoped to launch before the ice comes.

Amherst Island Ferry

In the morning we left for Stella Bay an anchorage which Trish and I had not been to. It turns out there is a public dock which allows dog walking. Once ashore we found a street with lights and a small museum pictured below.

Stella Bay Church

Irish Mist sitting in Stella Bay

While in Stella early Thursday morning Kelly started to have seizures, as she does about every three years. Trish felt that if we got to a dock on the mainland we may not be able to get her off the boat. So we called the Coast Guard who arrived in a large inflatable. We were a little concerned and distracted, so it was not until they were gone that I got a picture.

The Bay of Quintie takes you about half the way from Toronto to the Islands inland. The North shore is   the mainland while the South shore is Prince Edward County. At the West end is the Murray Canal which has two swing bridges which you pay $5.00 to pass. The canal is part of The Trent System which takes boats without masts to Georgian Bay. The East end is serviced by the Ferry to Amherst Island and The Glenora Ferry. Both these ferry's are considered part of the highway system and thus free.

In the middle of the bay are two bridges. The first at the East end is at The Narrows and about 90 feet high. The other is at Belleville and either 70 or 75 feet high. My new mast is 64.5 feet plus our radio antenna. I was sure I would get through the East bridge and almost sure I would get through the West one. We got through both, but the second was close. Shown below is the Narrows Bridge.

While at Sandy Cove we saw a passenger ship go by.

Pipe Dream Conquers Clayton

The main purpose of our cruise was to get Pipe Dream The Hodder Award, which they had been working on for 6 years. The secondary purpose was to show Pipe Dream in The Clayton Antique Boat Museum Boat Show.

As I have already mentioned The Museum has a hard time with none runabouts. These are beautiful boats and remind many of us of our youth at cottages. I have selected some of the boats which where at the show.  Remember if you click on any of the pictures they will enlarge.

  

While the top judges, those who judged the best of show never even saw Pipe Dream and no points where given for boats which where actually used Pipe Dream did win there category. The judges took 3.5 points off a 100 point score. Three of the three and a half points where for putting a new motor in the boat. The best part of the score sheet was the judges comments "Spectacular Boat".

The Ladies receive their award

On Sunday after the show had finished friends Gord and Margaret, my sisters and I went for a ride in one of the Museum's runabouts. Here is a little bouncy video.

As we were going for the ride while sitting in the back seat I took a picture of the mirror. I took several pictures due to the bouncing. Tis is the best.

Bill and Mary of New Hampshire at The Riverside

Our friends Bill and Mary Thurber seem to show up everywhere. They drove down from New Hampshire to see the Islands and our boats. They had seen Pipe Dream but not since she had been to the Spa. We have visited them in Cornish for The Fourth of July, in a few weeks after The New York Invitational we are having dinner with them in Barrington Rhode Island and Trish and I are celebrating The American Thanksgiving in South Bend with them and going to see ND play BYU.

A freighter in the background

Bill and Mary on Irish Mist with Kelly

A better picture of Bill

Bolt Castle

While in the islands we have to find a place to walk Brendan. Bella and Lexi have learnt how to use a pad of plastic which looks like grass. This picture is Mary and Joan on Endymion one of the park island. You use to be able to walk on the island, but someone found a plant which only grows here in Canada. The result was the parks department decided no one should see the remarkable plant and closed all but a tiny corner to humans.

In order to go back to The States we had to check in with US Customs. We decided to go to Bolt Castle and kill two birds with one stone. Because the castle has thousands of Canadian visitors it has Customs Officers on the Island. Their first job is to deal with the tour boats but if there is no boat they are equipped to handle real people.

Bolt Castle has a long history. the short story was Bolt was building The "cottage" for his wife and children. When the building was about 85% finished his wife died and he ordered work stopped. A maintance man stayed in the Boat House, which was large enough to handle cabin cruisiers and sail boats. It was not harmed while the 100 plus room home was largely destroyed by vandals.

It is now owned by the Ivy Lea Bridge. Half of the cost of going across the bridge is going towards restoring the island. I have some pictures but my battery died so not enough to do the restoration project justice.

Remember the Pictures above are of a cottage. Below is a picture of Alexandre Bay New York taken from the top floor of the Castle.

On to The Islands

We had gone to Clayton so as my sisters could check on their position in The Boat Show the next weekend. They had been told that their application had been received but no more. As it turns out The Antique Boat Museum have a very difficult time with antique boats which are not mahogany runabouts or out board motors.

Our first stop was Sugar Island which is owned by The American Canoe Society. As we arrived after checking in with Canadian Customs Quadrille and Rushale came into view. As usual we decided we needed a party, but not here. The wind was to come up from the North and Sugar Island gave us no protection. While we moved to Bouche Bay my sisters went to Mcisle. It is a very small island with an excellent dock. It is owned by the father of Gord McIlquham a very good friend from the club and one of our Olympians. Gord and his father have given us dog walking rights on the island. This is very important because while we are all members of the Canoe Society, no dogs are allowed on the Sugar.

Pipe Dream sitting at Mcisle

Just another St Lawrence sunset

Osprey on top of a Chanel mark

Pipe Dream anchored off of Sugar Island

 About the lasr\t week of July The American Canoe Society hold their encampment. About 150 camper mostly if not all from The States make the trek up to Canada and camp out on their island. One of the high lites is the canoe races. some of the campers bring high tech international canoes while others take an ordinary canoe and make a sail boat out of it.

Most of the time we were on Irish Mist due to her size, but every once in a while we took advantage of Pipe Dream's great cockpit.

The first week of our travels was extremely hot. Six days of 90 plus heat. Then it cooled down and was very nice. We went swimming but also had cool nights and sleped very well. One of the many issues we had with the new boat was half way through the cruise we had to defrost. One of the dogs, I think Bella, took advantage of an open door to cool off.

a very "cool" dog

Dinner at The Gananoque Inn

Finally The Islands, but first a night in Clayton

Our first sighting of commercial traffic in the river

On Monday we left Sackets for Clayton New York. The wind was about 8 knots so we sailed for about 4 hours. When we got within 2 miles of Cape Vincent the wind made a big turn and was coming right up the St Lawrence, we motored the rest of the way.

Waiting for a table at The Riverside

We went to the Riverside for dinner. They have a great deck which practically hangs over The St Lawrence Seaway. This night we were not lucky and ate inside. We made a reservation for the following Friday night so our visitors would enjoy the view and hopefully see a freighter.

Just East of Clayton is the Ivy Lea Bridge. It is of course 4 bridges. Two tall ones an American and a Canadian, one medium high one in Canada and a very small short one over the divide which marks the actual boarder.

Ivy Lea Bridge

Sackets maybe our favourite port

The Light House at Stony Point on the way to Sackets Harbor

After three days in Oswego we were promised a quite sea on Sunday the 21st. At 5:00 i awoke to 22 knots from the East. It continued to blow and as my sisters appeared their first words were "We're not going anywhere. I agreed but added lets wait to make the decision. The wind was not suppose to happen so I guessed it was not part of a system but rather something left over from the storm on Friday. Sure enough by 10:00 the wind was down to 12 knots. At 11:00 we we're off to Henderson Harbor since there was no room at Sackets due to the Port Credit Cruise.

It seems that anywhere you go these days you see a nuclear plant

As we got to the turn to Henderson which is about 7 miles from Sackets Trish suggested we call Sackets just in case. We did but it was 5:00 Sunday and there was no answer. So Trish says lets go and we will say at the fuel dock. If no one was there no one was getting fuel.

We went to Sackets found places for both yachts and went to Good Fellows for dinner.

Good Fellows one of Sackets many fine restaurants 

Pipe Dream moored after we got kicked out of our found places Irish Mist went to the town dock. It seems Navy Point was expect ion a 120 foot schooner first thing in the morning.

With storm coming we head for Oswego for 3 days

Oswego Light House

We check the weather all the time, you cannot be too careful. All weather reports said that a storm and a lot of wind and waves was on it's way. As we arrived in Oswego we decide to stay three days until Sunday.

If we take Irish Mist south or even too Long Island Sound or the Chesapeake we have to go through Oswego. about 500 yards from the Lake is the first lock of the Oswego Barge Canal which hooks up with the Erie Canal and then the Hudson River.

The first South Bound Lock

The Weather Man is getting pretty good. At about 7:00 Friday evening the squall hit with 50 knots. I have been in line squalls before, with one a lot more then 50 knots right in Toronto Harbour. This one differed in that it lasted about half an hour at about 38 knots.

The next day the lake was a little rough.

My apologies for the bad photo. It's the best I have.

The storm did break the heat wave, 6 days over 90 and brought rain. We went to church Saturday evening ate on Irish Mist and got ready to leave the next morning. Sunday I woke up at 5:30 to 22 knots from the East. When the ladies got up it was simple we're not going. I agreed, but said lets wait a while and see what happens. By 10:00 it was rolling but the wind had calmed to 10 knots. By 11:00 we we're on our way to Sackets.

On to Little Sodus

The trip to Little Sodus is only about 2 hours from Sodus Bay. We hurried ahead of Pipe Dream to get our Out Board fixed. When we arrived at the very nice and friendly  Fair Point Marina we discovered contrary to the ports guide they did not fix any engines.

Once the ladies arrived we walked 100 yards to Lake Ontario and went for a swim. Bella and Lexie really enjoyed themselves.

Unlike it's big cousin down the lake Little Sodus was only too happy to help me get the motor fixed. A gentleman who had a trailer at the Marina drove me to see a man he thought could fix it. The man we met said if I could get the motor to him he would fix it and return it before 12:00 tomorrow. I  did, he did and I had a motor that worked.

It turned out that both the carburetor and the water intake were clogged. It also turned out that the people in Sodus were correct. This would have been far too complicated a job for them.

July 16 Sodus Bay

On Tuesday we had an uneventful cruise to Sodus Bay a large enclosed bay on the American side of the lake. We went to The Sodus Bay Yacht Club which has competed against our Club for a 100 tears or so.

It was extremely hot so we all went in swimming. Generally everyone around the lake like everywhere else are very friendly and helpful. Not so in Sodus. The Yacht club could not have been more welcoming, but my sisters phoned the only laundry facilities in the small beach community to see if they could do some laundry. The reply was no!. First thing Wednesday morning I rowed the dingy over to the large marina next to the Yacht Club. I was wearing a life jacket when i asked if a mechanic could look at my our board motor which would not start. The answer once again was short and to the point. NO! I asked if there was anyone in town. Once again the answer was NO!

I was then asked what kind of motor it was. When i told them it was a Honda they said oh Ernie fixes Honda's and proceeded to give me road directions to Ernie's.

I felt saying something flip but just thanked them for their help and rowed back. It occurred to me i should take the life jacket off and come in the front door asking to buy a boat as we were about to close the deal I would ask if they repaired out boards.

The Ladies Save the Day

On the way into Rochester a fellow cruiser ran out of Diesel. I heard them on the radio explaining they were anchored and would take the tender in to Rochester about a mile away to get some fuel. I radioed them and offered assistance, but had no diesel in a jerry can. my sisters did so I radioed them and they agreed to help.
All worked out fine and we had new best friends.

Jerry Can on it's way