Story of Our Summer Cruise 2013

 

July 24 - Ashburnham to Hastings (Lock 18)

Today's Route

Carrie Rose, STB, and D' Ole Boat (Henry, Trixie and grandchildren, Ben and Megan) all left together for Hastings, 38 miles away. Only one lock today at Scotts (Mill No. 19) which is the last remaining limestone lock in the system, now almost 150 years old and still in good condition with the original masons' tool marks. From here, we spent about three hours on the Ontonabe River, a wide gentle river flowing through a mix of cottage country, farmland and forested banks. Cruising at around 6 kts was very peaceful and we only saw a handful of boats in this stretch.

 

Alexis - Scruffy finally decided to get some fresh air and joined us in the pilothouse for the day watching the geese and ducks flutter out of our way - he says, "Hi!" We told him he spends too much time below so maybe he will be around a bit more to watch what's happening out there.

The Ontonabee River empties eventually into Rice Lake, the premier fishing lake in Ontario so we are told. It extends north and south for fifteen miles and we entered about 2/3 of the way up so we got to enjoy about ten miles of open water for a change and blew the engine out for a short time at 16 kts (and 20 gph!). The lake finally narrowed into the Trent River which now runs all the way down to Trenton and Lake Ontario. We only had about 6 miles to cover to reach our destination at Hastings (Lock 18) where Henry was already tied up above the lock at the edge of the small town.

D' Ole Boat, Carrie Rose and STB

A Colorful Lock Garden

We had a busy couple of hours doing laundry, shopping, LCBO'ing, and catching up on e-mail before having a cream tea on the upper deck of STB - tea, scones with clotted cream and fresh blackcurrent jam. I think it spoilt our appetite and it's almost 8:00 pm and we are not particularly hungry - may be a turkey wrap and crisps tonight.

July 25 - Hastings to Campbellford (Lock 13)

Today's Route

For us, a combination of a long run in tight channels (with a lot of buoys) and many locks made it seem like a very long day and we were ready for a cuppa tea when we pulled up to the wall just past Campbellford lock next to the town. The attraction here was the hydro and the location but, in hindsight, we would have stayed at the lock or at Ranney Falls, just a short bike ride away. As it was late, we soon took off with Dean and Charlotte on a mission, well two really - a visit to Dooher's Bakery for meat pies and butter tarts, and a visit to the Chocolate Factory to pick up some chocolate. Our third mission, to the Butter Tart Factory, the home of Canada's best butter tarts (per Randy) was cancelled as they no longer sell retail. Read and weep Randy!

Butter tarts are a Canadian specialty and consist of a pastry shell filled with a mixture of butter, sugar and nuts, fruit, or chocolate. They probably have 500 calories in each small pastry but are quite tasty (in moderation). In case you are thinking we will be coming back as fat as pigs, we have been balancing the sweeter side of our diet with a lot of salads and light meals. By the end of the trip, we may be down to one meal a day.

Healey Falls Lock Master's House

 

Waiting at Healey Falls

 

The Buoys and the Girls

 

Cleaning While We Wait

 

Carrie Rose Exiting the Middle Healey Falls Lock

 

Crowe Bay Lock 14

 

No Water to Spare at Crowe Bay!!

Megan and Ben On D' Ole Bote

 

On the Wall at Campbellford

 

The Designer of the "Toonie" (the Canadian $2 Coin) was born in Campbellford

Carrie Rose and Campbellford at Night

July 26 - Campbellford to Frankford Lock (Lock 6)

Today's Route

The cool mornings seem to be over with another ridge of high pressure moving into the area yesterday and we awoke to 76 deg. F, a 20 degree jump in a couple of days. With lines cast off early, we caught up with the D' Ole Bote before 9:00 am at Ranney Falls Lock where they had overnighted.

From then on, our little flotilla hit each lock as a group and went straight through, with the exception of one lock, to the top of Frankford Lock where we availed ourselves of the hydro and shade under the willow trees.

 

Canadian Geese Do Actually Find Their Way Back To Canada From Our Backyard

With the staffing cutbacks this year, lock staff have to sometimes shuttle between three locks when they are closely spaced which can cause some delays, particularly when there are boats waiting to lock through from the other direction. Fortunately for us, this year seems very slow for boating and we passed less than ten boats today heading upbound. At Frankford tonight, we have our little group of three going south and four boats going north. We are just starting to run into Loopers who have transited the Champlain Canal, the Ottawa River and the Rideau Canal to reach the Trent-Severn Canal so the Erie Canal issues have had a big impact on traffic but have also lessened the impact of staffing cutbacks. In a normal season, the cutbacks would have definitely have caused delays and we hope that the powers that be do not consider the cutbacks a success at this point.

Figuring Out Where We Go After the Last Lock

One of the good things about being on the Waterway is that travel in only possible in one direction (if you ignore going up and down). Daily planning becomes just a matter of how many Locks to do the next day and where is the best place to stop for the night. When we reach open water, the possibilities expand significantly and thus our options. From Trenton, the end of the Waterway, we will be in the Bay of Quinte, an 80 mile stretch of relatively open water with Kingston at the other end. With some good guidance from Randy, we decided that Picton should be our halfway destination, although we know little about it.

We have been very fortunate to be traveling with Dean and Charlotte for the past month as they, like us, are very easygoing as far as schedules go and we have many similar interests.

July 27 - Frankford Lock to Trenton (Lock 1)

Today's Route

An early start with us entering Frankford Lock just before 9:00 am after saying farewell to Henry, Trixie, Ben and Megan who were staying on for another day. The locks dropped like flies this morning with the gates open awaiting our arrival at all but one.

STB Passing a Couple of Loopers Waiting to Go West

 

One of Our Deeper Locks Today

As usual, the lock staff were very efficient and we passed through all the locks in near record time for us, arriving at Trenton's Fraser Park Marina by just after noon. After calling earlier, it was doubtful that they would have space for us but Craig and his staff shuffled a few boats and, when we passed under the "Gateway" bridge, they were waving to us at the end of a couple of open docks. Craig greeted us like old friends especially when we mentioned Randy on "Heart Tug."

The View From the Stern of STB

The rest of the day was spent doing the usual marina tasks - shopping and boat cleaning. Since the boat was last washed top to bottom in Elk Rapids it was a major job, even though we have been quite diligent in wiping it down. As usual, just when we finished Windexing the windows it started to rain! Oh well............

July 28 - Trenton to Picton

Today's Route

Most of the Loopers were up bright and early after a rainy night to fuel up, pump out, head north and wait for two hours for the locks to open up at 9:00 am. A few of the Loopers took the smarter route and headed for a $4 breakfast at the Skyline Cafe - an institution in Trenton. The Skyline has been under one owner for the last 58 years and he still comes to work every day. Much of the interior is original with each booth having its own jukeboxes - most still work.

 

The pristine boat was attacked by the bugs overnight as there are so many lights at Fraser Park so a quick wipe-down was in order before we could leave. The dock line fairy visited Carrie Rose overnight and left a gift of some new dock lines.

 

After being carefully guided out by Craig and his dock staff, we took off with a rain-threatening sky. We must say that Craig runs one of the most professional operations we have stayed at so far.

Open water was a pleasant contrast to the confines of much of the Waterway and we accomplished a trip of about 35 miles with most of it on autopilot which gave me chance to catch on on a few days of the blog. Another quiet day, with just a handful of Loopers rushing to get to Fraser Park - why we're not sure, because they will just sit there until tomorrow morning and will have used an inordinate quantity of fuel on the way.

Just past Point Anne to the south, a large one-design sailboat race was in progress with over 50 Shark 24s racing and we got a good view of their turn at the end of their downwind leg.

Shark 24 Eastern Ontario Regatta

Cloudshine appeared after passing under the Bay of Quinte's version of the Big Mac but, at only 100 feet, it's got a long way to go and does not look anywhere near as dramatic.

Telegraph Narrows Bridge

Along the way we noted some very large homes but also some at the other end of the spectrum.

Not All of the Cottages Have Fancy Boathouses

With increasing winds, we headed south towards Picton passing the massive cement plant further down the Bay, a sign we were no longer in wilderness and rural Canada.

We had been assured anchoring or docking would be no problem. Someone forgot to tell Picton and we ended up at the Town Dock temporarily trying to find a spot for the night. The Town Dock was full; there was no room at the Inn; and the Tip of the Bay was also fully booked. Our last resort but one was the Prince Edward Yacht Club which managed to find us a slot under the mast crane, and a mooring buoy for Carrie Rose. Our spot was a little on the tight side with only a foot clearance to get our stern around some finger docks, but we got the primo dock right next to the Clubhouse where we finished our afternoon cup of tea and the last of our butter tarts from Campbellford.

Getting out tomorrow may be more of a challenge depending on the wind direction. Our last resort was not too attractive - no hydro!

Dock of Last Resort

Picton turned out to be a surprise to us all based on reading the PORTS Guide and the Great Lakes Cruising Club Harbor Reports - a welcome surprise as the town is nestled at the foot of a delightful bay with steep forested slopes on both sides funneling down to an old inn at the end. The town, which is located beyond the Inn, has many old but well-maintained pre-Victorian and Victorian homes and seemed to have a vibrant small town center that actually had stores open late on Sunday. It does have the amenities offered by some of the bigger stores like Canadian Tire but unlike many other small towns we have seen, the downtown area has not suffered the inevitable decline. Even the Dollar Store downtown, was in a building in keeping with the local architecture.

July 29 - Picton to Kingston

Today's Route

We negotiated our exit from the Yacht Club early in the morning with no close calls and were soon on our way up Picton Bay with Carrie Rose in our wake. Not a bad day to travel, but lots of threatening clouds and patches of rain that all seemed to pass us by.

We soon learnt why this area, and Kingston in particular, is a major sailing center as the closer we got to Kingston, the windier it became and, when we reached the end of the protection of Prince Edward Island, the waves had built to good 3 footers on the beam. Not our favorite wave direction! Carrie Rose was getting hammered even worse. After an hour of this, we were grateful to make the turn to Kingston, even though we were not sure of our fate when we arrived.

A Nicely Restored Old Tug - "Rosebud"

We arrived at Confederation Basin Marina, right in the center of Kingston, to find out that they had no vacancies but we could go to the day dock and get on their waiting list for a slip. Turning into the marina around the rock wall using the first entrance (not the second which only has depth for very small boats), we soon found the day dock which is bigger than most marinas. The only catch is that the floating docks are only about 20' long and only have beam capacity of 18', ideal for a runabout but not STB. Our next choice was a long rusty steel piling wall and as we were heading there, some guys waved to us and pointed to an end dock that was unclaimed. It was an ideal spot but we took up the entire length.

Just Part of the Day Docks

The day dock was like a foreign country - France - as most of the boats there were from Quebec. English was not the lingua franca here! Quebec's unionized construction industry has a statutory 2-week vacation in the summer that begins on the second Sunday from the end of July and it seems many of them have boats and head southwest. Not only do the construction guys have a vacation then, but many other Quebecers also choose this time to vacation. According to Wikipedia, 40% of Quebec is on vacation then and we saw many of them in Kingston.

Believe It or Not it's Steel and Fits the Day Dock Perfectly

The waiting list for a slip was on its second page when we registered but they were hopeful and, at 6:30 pm, we got the call to say Carrie Rose and STB both had slips. Lucky us got a wall spot with plenty of room while CR had to shoehorn in between some three story boats. Confederation Basin is expensive but it comes down to "location, location, location" with the Town Hall, restaurants, bars, shops, etc. all within 300 yards. Other alternatives require public transport so it is a good trade off.

By the time we were settled and ship-shape, we just "vegged out" for the rest of the evening.

July 30 - Kingston

Up early today to explore Kingston and the weather is great, not too hot and not too cold. We all signed up for the open air trolley bus tour of Kingston as they are usually the best way to get a quick overview of a city and the places we would want to go back to. The tour lasted almost two hours with about ten or so stops where you could get on and off. As it was a 90 minute wait for the next (normally 45 minutes), we stayed on board for the next go-around. The driver provided an excellent narration interspersed with recorded narration so by the time our two hours was up we had a good flavor of Kingston and were excited to get out and see some more with Fort Henry being at the top of our list.

One of the Early Limestone Buildings - the Prince Hotel (survivor of three fires)

Spirit of St. John A. - an early 1900s Locomotive at the Old Train Station on the Waterfront

Royal Canadian Military Academy - (the West Point or Sandhurst of Canada)

Fort Henry was built in the 1830s following the War of 1812, to provide protection of Kingston against an American invasion. Set on a hill overlooking the the Bay, it was completed in 5 years, and was never attacked but served as a strong deterrent as it was virtually impregnable.

 

The Fort Henry Garrison (primarily students now) provided an excellent guided tour of the facility and are clearly picked for their knowledge and personality. Following the tour, we were able to watch some drill practice on the parade ground and a demonstration of rifle and cannon fire - looked pretty devastating if you were the enemy!

We did a bit more wandering around town taking in some of the sights and getting some local ice cream before heading back to the marina where a really fine old boat had just docked opposite Carrie Rose.