Our time with Audrey and Randy in the Thousand Islands was really fantastic! It was so great to have “tour guides” who are extremely well-acquainted with the area, and we went to all the best anchorages and islands with them.
Our first stop was a little anchorage in the Lake Fleet Islands. Heart Tug went in first and set two anchors (there wasn’t enough swing room to have only one down), and Roy and I followed them in. Now, we know the two-anchor drill from last year on the rivers, so even though Randy offered to place our second anchor with his dinghy, we decided to do it “our way”. We dropped our bow anchor, got it set, then let out rode from that while backing up, and Roy then slung out the stern anchor. He let it settle, and then I began pulling us in with the bow anchor windlass while Roy let out rode from the stern. The idea was to get to a pre-arranged amount of rode in both the bow and stern, and be done. In fact, because of our old friends, WEEDS, also from last year, as I pulled in the rode on the bow, it came up LOADED WITH VEGETATION. I mean loaded. We’re talkin’ bushel baskets here. We did manage to pull in enough rode to accomplish our task, but it wasn’t easy.
It was, however, a beautiful day! We got settled in and cleaned up, and dropped the dink. After arranging to have drinks together later with Audrey and Randy, Roy and I went exploring in the dinghy. What a beautiful area! We had a great time circumnavigating the island we were anchored behind.
We were in the middle of having drinks on the upper deck with Audrey and Randy when I noticed that we seemed to be swinging a bit. We weren’t supposed to be doing that! The wind was picking up, and we determined that our stern anchor was dragging. We have now learned that that particular kind of anchor (a Danforth) isn’t good in weeds. NOW you tell us!! We tried several times to re-set it, but it was having none of it. The alternative was to pull up the anchor, disconnect the anchor from the rope, and tie the rope to something on the island.
Randy volunteered to be the tie-er, and after Roy undid the anchor, Randy took the line over to shore and tied it to a tree. You’re not supposed to tie to anything living, according to Parks Canada, but he did it anyway. And we were glad. Enough excitement for one day!!! Here’s Mer Sea after we finally did get situated.
That night, Audrey and Randy had invited us over to Heart Tug for dinner. What a feast it was, too, with roast beef and all the fixin’s (including great gravy!). It was tons of fun, and delicious as well!
The next morning was drizzly, so, after Audrey took me for a bit of a row around the area (in between raindrops), we stayed on our respective boats and did some housekeeping until things cleared up in the afternoon.
In the afternoon, Randy and Audrey led us on a magical dinghy ride to Half Moon Bay, where there is a church which people attend by bringing their boats and tying up in the bay and that is the “pew.” Here are some photos:
This is what you see from a distance – the entrance to the “church” is to the right of the large boulder with the half moon on it.
This is what the sign looks like from up close.
You can just now see the opening to the little cove where the “church” is.
This is what you see as you come around the corner!
In this photo, we have our back to the “pulpit.”
Quite a spot!! Unfortunately, we weren’t there on a Sunday, so couldn’t attend church, but enjoyed having the opportunity to see the spot, anyway. Pure magic!
The next day it was again drizzly off and on, and we decided to pull up anchors and move on to the next spot. Roy and I waited for Audrey and Randy to clear the cove before we detached. We’d already taken the motor off the dinghy before untying the stern line from land – one less thing to do once we were “cut loose.” Roy got in the dink and pulled himself on the rope over to where we were tied on land, he untied us, and I pulled him in using the same rope we’d been tied with. It worked like a charm! Then we got the dinghy back on the davit and began to tackle the bow anchor.
Well, you remember our old friends, the WEEDS??? And the bushels of weeds accumulating on the chain and anchor? What happens is that the weeds get hung on the anchor rode, and as I pull it in, they just slip down the chain, in an ever-increasing bundle, until, about at the anchor, we have a HUGE, totally unmanageable ball of weeds! And they’re all tangled with each other and around the chain, so you can’t get them off! They ought to find a use for these things, because they’re really strong!!
Well, I’ll make a long and angst-filled story mercifully short, and just say that we were finally able to get most, maybe all of them off, and finish bringing in the anchor and join the patient Audrey and Randy who were ready to lead us to our next destination. I’ll just give you the clue that the solution involved a boat hook and letting the chain back into the water so that the weeds could float and be removed a bit at a time as the chain was pulled in. YIKES!!
We took a short ride and found ourselves at a little island that has a dock as part of the Parks Canada facility. Unbelievably, both spots on the dock were available! Audrey and Randy couldn’t believe it, and we were so happy not to have to anchor again and deal with weeds that we didn’t know what to say. It was amazing! The dock is in a small cove in which people also anchor, and there are picnic tables on the dock and walking paths on the island, and composting outhouses with absolutely, I promise you, NO ODOR! The entire island is part of Parks Canada, and it’s pristine and gorgeous. The swimming is great, the water clear and clean, and we felt like we had our own little cottage right there on the island!
Roy and Randy went fishing a couple of times while we were there, and Audrey and I had some great walks on the island. Audrey swam, and even I got in the (cold) water and “ran the rapids” in a spot with swift current. The weather was absolutely perfect, and we used the picnic table as our communal table for some fun meals and fun times.
During the three days that we were there the cove filled up with boats at anchor, and we again felt so lucky to have snagged the spots at the dock! Talk about the primo spots! And we had the fun of greeting the other boaters who brought over their dinghies to go ashore. And the best seats for the spectator sport of anchoring (that is, other people anchoring!) Quite a few came, tried, and left because of trouble getting their anchors to set.
We took some great dinghy rides while on Georgina Island, exploring the many small channels and nooks and crannies around and between the islands. Randy and Audrey were fantastic guides, and it was great fun. And so beautiful! That is a truly gorgeous part of the world!
On Monday it was time to move on. Our plan was to cross into the U.S. and go to Heart Island, where Henry Boldt built an amazing house (called Boldt Castle – you get the picture?) and boat house for his wife – they are now available for tours, since his wife died, and he never finished the house, nor lived in it. Kinda sad, I must say.
Well, talk about conspicuous consumption! Here’s a photo of the house, and then the boat house:
I particularly liked the boathouse, which has lots of stuff and boats on loan from the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton. Just gorgeous! The castle was big, and fairly impressive, but the restoration and completion (still not finished, by a long shot!) hasn’t been done all that well, and I actually could have skipped it and just seen the boat house. That was really spectacular!
Audrey and Randy had some business to transact that required a Canadian bank, so they headed back to Gananoque after we’d finished our tours, and Roy and I headed to Alexandria Bay for fuel (MUCH cheaper in the U.S. than in Canada!). We’d planned to meet up at an anchorage for the night, but Roy and I found the town docks in A-bay, as everyone calls it, to be just fine, and inexpensive, and there was a town to explore! So we called Audrey and Randy and told them we’d meet up in the morning to cross Lake Ontario and head to Sackets Harbor.
I had fun snooping in Alexandria Bay, where there are lots of little shops - it’s quite kitschy, and very much a resort town. Roy and I did independent surveys to determine where to eat that night, as I didn’t feel like cooking, and we came up with the same answer! Now that’s pretty conclusive! We had a good meal out at the recommended restaurant, and it was nice to be waited on!
The next morning we set out EARLY, which we like to do anyway, but particularly if we have something like a lake to cross, and the winds are apt to build as the day wears on. All indications were that it would be a good day on the lake, but especially if we were there early!
Well, it was, indeed, gorgeous. We met up with Audrey and Randy as they came out of their anchorage, and preceded them into the lake. In fact, they were traveling a bit more slowly than we, so we lost sight of them before we actually entered the lake.
The lake had definite potential. The further out we got, the more the wind seemed to be blowing, and the seas were definitely building. This was really a pretty short hop in the open water, not a true “crossing,” so we adjusted our course a bit to get the best ride (nice to be able to do that – on a lake, where you’re surrounded by nothing but wide, deep water, it’s possible, but not so in many of the places we travel!), and turned up the speed a bit, and were in Sackets Harbor in no time.
We proceeded directly to the pump out, and then were directed to our slip. We were in that particular marina not only to see Sackets Harbor, but also to have a bit of cosmetic work done on the hull where we’d been kissed by something sinister on a lock wall in Canada. So our “slip” was a spot close to the maintenance depot, where we’d wait our turn.
Audrey and Randy arrived a bit later, and they’d had a rough ride. I was glad we’d left early and moved fast to take advantage of the conditions before they worsened. We do not like rough rides!
Roy talked to the maintenance staff, and learned that, in spite of calling ahead a month or so ago, and in spite of being a day earlier than we’d originally told them (we arrived on a Tuesday), they weren’t going to be able to get to Mer Sea until the following Monday! Are you kidding??? We couldn’t believe it! But they told us that they wouldn’t charge us for dockage while we were waiting, so that was something. But to have to wait a week, after calling plenty ahead to make the appointment – we were not amused!
On the bright side, if you have to be stuck somewhere, Sackets Harbor is a very nice spot! There are lots of places to take great walks, it’s rich in history, and has many restored, beautiful houses. There are quite a few really good restaurants, and, if you have access to a car, which we did for the weekend (we rented one), you can get to farm stands, all kinds of shopping, and movies and the like. The marina itself is like a big park, with picnic tables, little cozy nooks with benches and chairs, and all planted beautifully with lovely flowers. Here are a couple of photos of the marina grounds:
And here are a couple of photos of Sackets Harbor itself:
This is the view across the harbor from the marina.
This is the entrance to the battlefield where I would sometimes walk: it is a beautiful piece of land bordering the water at the far end.
The house of Mr. Sacket himself, now the town visitor center.
This is a wonderful restaurant with all outdoor seating in beautifully planted terraces.
As you can see, it’s a beautiful little village, with plenty to offer, but we’d had enough of it by about Tuesday of the second week! Audrey and Randy had left for their next adventures, and we’d had the fun of meeting up with Tardis, who had come into port while we were out visiting a winery on Sunday. (which, by the way, was great fun!) But they left Monday, and there we still were, with the work just getting started, and going VERY SLOWLY, and us trying to be patient and not piss people off! Roy polished, and I took the computer to the library and worked there, and took LONG walks, and we got through it.
By Friday afternoon, Mer Sea looked fabulous! We were ready to move on at oh-dark-hundred the next morning to continue our travels and fun on the New York State Canal System. We were excited to be headed for the western Erie Canal, which we’d heard is wonderful and very boater-friendly, and to see Roy’s family in Buffalo, and share Mer Sea with them! Stay tuned!