Friday July 27th

Another windless day, so we motored all day and passed through 2 locks on the US side.  We were lucky again and only had to wait ¾ hour.  The weather has turned hot again.  We landed in Cornwall, 45° 00.81N 74° 43.10W, and Teresa went for a bike ride and explored, while Ron took advantage of the internet and phoned the navigation company for a solution to the CF card issue.  Looks like it’s a damaged card, so we’re hoping they’ll send a replacement!    We found an English Fish and Chips shop (run by a Yorkshire woman so authentic) so we ordered some to be delivered to the boat and dined on a picnic table near our dock.  Of course Ron also had to order mushy peas (YUCK!)

Ship’s log: 1944.9 Today's log: 17.0nm, Season total: 309.4 nm

Thursday July 26th

It rained all night and was still raining when we set off for Morrison Island, 44° 58.51N 75° 00.10W.  There was no wind so we motored all dayL.  We got an early start (for us), since we would now be passing through the various locks between Lake Ontario and Montreal.  There are many commercial ships passing this way and they are given priority at the locks, so we have no idea how long we may have to wait.  As it turned out we were able to enter our first and only lock of the day lock about 10 minutes after arriving, so we arrived at our anchorage off Morrison Island early.  It was grey and drizzly all day but the drizzle cleared up after we had anchored and we did a few jobs on the boat.  Ron saw some fish jumping and tried his luck with his fishing rod, but they weren’t playing!  Teresa spotted a Blue Heron and watched it with the binoculars for a while. 

We had some fun with our chartplotter today.  It wouldn’t start so we were back to the old fashioned way of navigating with paper charts and compass backed up by a navigation app on Teresa’s phone.  After a season of having the luxury of a chartplotter, it’s amazing how vulnerable you feel without it, even with the phone as a backup.  The navigation, (actually pilotage, since we were hopping from buoy to buoy), was simple however.  After an hour or so Teresa discovered that the problem was with the flash card, not the chart plotter and were able to get the plotter working again.  However we continued plotting our progress on paper charts, ‘cause we’re not fully trusting the plotter right now. 

Ship’s log: 1927.9 Today's log: 20.2nm, Season total: 292.4 nm

Wednesday July 25th

We started out the day by fixing the water pump.  It had been pumping although no water was being demanded, so it sounded like a leak somewhere.  Couldn’t find any leaks and traced the problem to a piece of dirt in the pump.  We like nice easy problem to fix! 

No wind today, so we motored to Prescott, 44° 42.59N 75° 30.63W.  On the way we noticed an island with dead trees full of birds looking like sculptures.  We went for a bike ride and discovered a windmill that had been converted to a lighthouse on the the site of an 1812 battle between the British and Canadian rebels.   About 100 yards from our berth there was an open air performance of Bill Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, so we got take away pizza, a couple of beers and watched the show.  It was great – modernized a little with a couple of up to date songs and all in all an excellent performance.  The timing was great – it started to rain just after the performance ended. 

Ship’s log: 1907.7 Today's log: 9.1nm, Season total: 272.2 nm

Tuesday 24th July

The winds continued to blow from the north and we had a nice beat to Brockville, 44° 35.21N 75° 40.93W.  The winds were pretty variable, especially in the narrows and of course died in one of the 

narrows just as a large tanker approached us from behind.  A good job that sailboats have engines!  We arrived at Brockville, did some laundry and finalized our plans for getting to Montreal.  Our dock overlooks the river where a fleet of sailboats were racing so we cooked dinner and dined on the dockside tables.  Unfortunately by the time we were eating, the racing had finished, but we had a fine view of the river anyway. 

Ship’s log: 1898.6 Today's log: 12.1nm, Season total: 263.1 nm

Monday 23rd July

We putzed around in the morning, Teresa went for a bike ride and Ron did some more planning for the trip to Montreal.  We set sail for Jorstadt Island, 44° 27.12N 75° 48.68W, where Singer Castle is located.  The wind howled all day and we had a brisk downwind sail to the island past Boldt Castle and Millionaires Row where we saw many beautiful and expensive looking homes.  We anchored off nearby Cedar Island, 44° 27.02N 75° 47.33W, and got the weather forecast on the phone.  It mentioned gusts of 50 knots in squalls!  Gulp.  So far, we’ve only had a short but heavy rain shower, the winds are blowing 15-20 knots and the anchor’s holding.  If you’re reading this blog, we survived the night! 

Addendum.  The winds behaved themselves and blew most of the night from the SW, W and North which were the predicted directions, so we had no problems with the anchor.  No thunderstorms at the boat, but we could see lightening all around us, so although we were safe, it was not entirely a relaxing nights sleep!. 

Ship’s log: 1886.5 Today's log: 17.2nm, Season total: 251.0 nm

Sunday 22nd July

Another beautiful day and downwind sail to Clayton, 44° 14.21N 76° 05.48W with  Dee on the helm most of that day. We docked at the municipal dock which is starting to feel like home!   Cleared customs and Marc and Dee left for their 5 hour drive home.  Ron & Teresa re-provisioned, did some planning for the next few days voyaging, went for a bike ride and before we knew it, it was time for G & T, dinner and bed. 

Ship’s log: 1869.3 Today's log: 8.1nm, Season total: 238.8 nm

Saturday 21st July

We had a leisurely breakfast, then went for a hike on Beaurivage Island and did a ittle bushwhacking.  We returned to the boat and had a swim to get cleaned up.  We had lunch at anchor, the set sail for Wolfe Island to anchor for the night.  We sailed across a large area of open water called the 40 acres.  The wind was perfect for sailing – about 12 knots and we had a pleasant beat to Wolfe with Marc and Dee doing most of the helming to windward.  – Nice work guys!  We arrived at Wolfe and found there were a lot of boats anchored in Brakey Bay so we continued to the next bay - Irvine bay – which had only one boat anchored, 44° 13.66N 76° 16.42W.  This bay is larger than Brakey, so it was almost like having it to ourselves – perfect.  We tried a new strategy for keeping bugs out of the boat.  Lately, we’ve been getting small white bugs attracted by the light inside the boat.  So we erected our mosquito netting and hung a light outside of the netting.  The next morning we discovered gazillions of these bugs on the outside of the boat.  What a mess, but better out than in!  We claim success. 

Ship’s log: 1861.2 Today's log: 16.0nm, Season total: 225.7nm

Friday 20th July

We had planned to go to Singer Castle on Jorstadt Island, but the winds were not in our favour, so we opted for Gananoque, (to clear customs), and Beaurivage instead. 44° 18.12N 76° 10.84W. It was good decision – we had a great sail to Gan, cleared Canadian customs, and went for a walk along the Gananoque trail.  We then motored to Beaurivage (about 1.5nm away), to anchor for the night. The anchor was set, we all went for a swim and the gins and tonics came out.  Marc spotted a fish jumping, so Ron got out his fishing rod.  After a few casts, Ron pulled in a nice Pike, (we think), but the consensus, was to throw the beautiful fish back.  Since no-one was going to eat it, Ron complied.  We dined well on home grown zucchini, corn on the cob, salad, pork chops, beer and wine. 

Ship’s log: 1845.2 Today's log: 16.7nm, Season total: 209.7nm

Thursday 19th July

Ron finished up a few jobs, then Teresa, Marc and Dee arrived.  We settled our guests into the boat, explored the town a little, went grocery shopping and went out for dinner at Cobblestones.  We had a very nice dinner, (thanks Marc), on the deck and watched another beautiful sunset.

Ship’s log: 1828.5 Today's log: 0.0nm, Season total: 193.0nm

Tuesday July 17th, Wednesday 18th

Teresa is visiting her mom and Ron’s working through the Honey Dew list on the boat.  On Tuesday the wind howled all day which was a shame, ‘cause on of my jobs was re-routing the lines that control our mainsail stack pack.  Re-routing the lines meant throwing a weighted messenger line over the spreaders on the mast.  Tricky in 25+ knots of wind, but at least I amused several of the other boaters on the dock.  The sun was shining all day as well and on one occasion I checked the charge we were getting from our solar panels and the wind gen.  I saw 12amps from the wind gen and 8 amps from the solar – 20amps of free, sustainable charge!  Nice.  The bad news is that our fridge, when it’s running, sucks it up at 5 amps when the weather is really hot, (which it is now).  Typical, the first boat I’ve owned with a fridge and I’m belly-aching about it already.  Wouldn’t go back to being fridge-less though!

Later in the day on Tuesday, I went to the hardware store and when I returned to the boat everyone was pretty excited.  The wind was a little calmer now, from a completely different direction and much cooler.  Apparently a front had passed through and it brought winds of 45 knots with it.  I missed all this so it couodn’t have lasted too long.  I would have loved to have seen what the wind gen pumped out during the 45knot gusts!. 

Wednesday was much quieter wind wise, but still hot.  Ron made good progress on his jobs and finished up with a gin and tonic, pizza, beer and beautiful sunset.

Ship’s log: 1828.5 Today's log: 0.0nm, Season total: 193.0nm

Monday July 16th

We woke up to another beautiful, but hot day.  We each took a refreshing dip in the lovely St Lawrence water, and set off for Clayton, 44° 14.22N 76° 05.47W with no wind so we motored.  Our car has been waiting here for us, so we did a little shopping, and then Teresa jumped ship to visit her mom in CT.  I started work on the boat jobs list.  The first job was to varnish the door jambs. I just got the first coat on, abd then looked up at the dark clouds on their way to me.  Belatedly checking the forecast I discovered that thunderstorms and rain are predicted for the next few days.  Oh well, the first coat is dry enough now and it hasn’t rained yet.  Perhaps I’ll get lucky tomorrow!

Ship’s log: 1828.5 Today's log: 7.6nm, Season total: 193.0nm

Sunday July 15th

Ron had an early morning dip, (well about 8:30 actually, so not too early), and then we both went for a bike ride.  We had breakfast, and started laundry by which time the antique car parade had started.  So we watched the parade, and then finished laundry.  We then set sail for Carleton Island, 44° 11.21N 76° 16.18W, to anchor for the night.  We decided to try our Fortress anchor without the anchor ball, since Ron had a theory that the anchor ball was making the anchor buoyant and preventing it from penetrating weeds.  After several unsuccessful attempts we reverted back to our trusty Rocna which dug in first time.  Ron tried a little fishing without any luck. 

Ship’s log: 1820.9 Today's log: 5.7nm, Season total: 185.4nm

Saturday July 14th

Happy Bastille day!  We dressed ship for the occasion and then went ashore for “French” pastries for breakfast, (but they didn’t turn out to be very “French”).  Ron ate them all anyway, and we then went for a bike ride to Tibbets point lighthouse which was very nice.  On the way back we discovered a swimming beach near town that the local dive club told us had a wreck.  We wandered around the town had lunch, browsed some of the, (huge – over 200 vendors), craft fair and then watched the 1 hour parade.  It was hot again, very hot, so we took the dinghy to the beach where the wreck was.  On entering the cove we discover the reason for the wreck – a reef with about 6” depth and we tested the shear-pin on the dinghy engine.  It worked – the prop hit the reef and the shear-pin sheared.  We dived on the wreck with snorkels, read a little in the shade of a tree, replaced the shear-pin and returned to the boat.  Yesterday, on our beat from Kingston we crossed tacks with “La Buena Vida”, took some photos of their boat and they took some photos of us. We invited Marleyne and Heiner aboard Quinita for drinks and to swap photos and had a very pleasant couple of hours with them – http://sv-lbvida.blogspot.com.  The town then put on a very nice firework display right in front of our boat. 

Ship’s log: 1815.2 Today's log: 0.0nm, Season total: 179.7nm

Friday July 13th

Friday 13^th, Uh Oh!  Well we seemed to have survived it, at least until 10:55pm when I’m writing this blog.  Another day of light winds and slow sailing to Cape Vincent, 44° 07.81N 76° 20.04W.  One advantage of a slow sail is that we got to take a swim off the boat while underway.  That was refreshing and fun!   We had to turn the motors on for the last hour when we were sailing dead downwind in 2 knots of wind which translates to about ½ knot of boat speed.  We anchored in Cape Vincent Harbour, only to be told that we were in the pilot boats path and would have to move.  So we moved, dropped our hook again and were told by the sailboat behind us that he had 100’ of chain out and we were on top of his anchor.  (Ridiculous and very unsociable in a crowded anchorage with depths of around 15’).  So we moved again and some locals invited us on to the end of the town dock which was about 20’ long and 12‘ shorter than our boat.  But we got on to the dock and, so far, seem to be well tied up.  Cape Vincent has a French Festival this weekend which we’re looking forward to.  We went for a walk in the town this evening and things are already starting to party-up, with a street band and dancing in the streets, which of course we had to take part in.  . 

Ship’s log: 1815.2 Today's log: 22.6nm, Season total: 179.7nm

Thursday July 12th

We had a later start today, hoping for sea breezes later in the day and we were rewarded with a wonderful beat to Kingston, 44° 13.64N 76° 28.72W. We went for a morning swim off the boat.    Ron did a little fishing, and Teresa cleaned the boat.  Well, fishing is a tough job, but someone has to do it.  Teresa noticed a cow that seemed to be about to go for a swim.  Ron was hoping that it wouldn’t swim over and take his bait. Before setting sail, we jumped into the water for another refreshing swim. Kingston is a fun town and has street buskers today and for the next 3 days.  Oh, I almost forgot, it also has the Kingston Brewing Company.  Regular readers of our blog will have noticed that we’ve visited this fine establishment previously.  Each time we’ve visited Kingston as a matter of fact.  As it turned out we didn’t get to the brew pub until after 9pm and by the time we had finished dinner all the buskers had packed up and left despite the fact that the schedule had them performing until 11pm.  The good news is that Ron had 2 pints of delicious beer, Beef curry and Beer Pie – Sugar pie made with beer and topped with ice-cream.  Yum yum.

Ship’s log: 1792.6 Today's log: 15.2nm, Season total: 157.1nm

Wednesday, July 11th

We started our day with a bike ride and a visit to Ganagoques Sculpure Garden.  The garden was beautiful and has some very nice sculptures, as well as some whacky ones.

  Returned to Wolfe Island, and this time we anchored in Brakey Bay, 44° 13.79N 76° 13.73 , where we had planned to anchor on Monday.  Once again we started under screecher, but then the wind headed us and we switched to genoa in very light winds.  Occasionally we got up to 1knot of boat speed!  Who cares, we weren’t in any hurry.  After a few hours a decent breeze appeared and we had a great sail to Brakey Bay.  Ron experimented with a system to enable steering the boat to windward while watched the Genoa’s tell tales.  I think, with refinements he’ll be applying for a patent on this one!  We anchored and Ron went fishing, (unsuccessfully), while Teresa caught up on some reading.  On his way back, Ron got talking to Rick, a sailor who was anchored just upwind from us. We invited Rick for dinner and he contributed some yellow perch that he had just caught. They were delicious.  We had a very pleasant evening swapping stories and Rick explained that when the winds were forecast to be light in this area, they very often filled in in the late afternoon, which was exactly what we had encountered today.  So in the future, on light wind days, we might be delaying our departure times. 

Ship’s log: 1777.4 Today's log: 8.5nm, Season total: 141.9nm

Tuesday, July 10th

Had another gentle sail under screecher to Gananoque, 44° 19.34N 76° 09.94W.  Teresa did laundry, Ron did some internet updating and we both went grocery shopping by bike.  Returned to the boat, had dinner and went to the theatre in Gananoque.  The theatre – the 1000 Islands Playhouse Springer theatre was very nice, overlooked the river and had its own docks.  Had we known, we could have stayed there for a ‘small charge’ as ticket holders, instead of paying a (probably) larger charge at Gananoque Municipal Marina.  Oh well.  The play, a premier – Somewhere Beyond the Sea – was OK, but not as hilarious as the billing suggested.  The actors did a great job though despite what we thought was not the greatest of plays. 

Ship’s log: 1768.9 Today's log: 6.7nm, Season total: 133.4nm

Monday, July 9th

We had a very pleasant, but slow, sail to Brakey Bay on Wolfe Island.  Once again the screecher proved its worth.  We had planned to take our bikes ashore and explore the island, but we couldn’t find any public landing places.  So we moved on to the next bay – Irvine Bay, 44° 13.66N 76° 16.42W.  We couldn’t see any public docks here either, but we saw some friendly looking people on a private dock, so we anchored and took the dinghy plus bikes to their dock and asked them if we could land our bikes.  They were very gracious, let us land, and were amused to see our folding bikes.  We went for a ride to Marysville, the only town on the island. And we then did a small detour that was recommended on a cycling map of the island, which turned our ride into a 36 mile round trip.  Most of the island seems to be farmland and we also cycled around a big wind farm.  There was a decent breeze blowing when we were cycling, but none of the wind turbines was moving, so we are wondering if they are turned on and off as needed?  We returned to the boat, tired but happy at about 7:00pm and were pleased to find we were still the only boat anchored in this fine bay.  We had a quick, very refreshing, swim, in wonderfully clean water.  Teresa cooked up a new pasta, shrimp and vegetable concoction which was delicious and just what we needed after our ride. 

Ship’s log: 1762.2 Today's log: 8.9nm, Season total: 126.7nm

Sunday, July 8th

Set sail for Gananoque, 44° 19.37N 76° 09.84W, to clear Canadian customs.  The winds were fickle all day, and we started out with our screecher, doing 7+ knots, anticipating a fun sailing day, particularly when the wind got to 12 knots and backed to put us on a fine reach.  So the screecher was furled in favour of the genoa, and we still had good boat speed.  It was not to last however, the wind died and the motors came on.  We cleared customs then headed for an anchorage off Bearivage Island, 44° 18.18N 76° 11.10W.  There were several boats anchored here, which encouraged us.  On the other hand, it would have been nice to have the anchorage to ourselves.  Oh well, the anchor set first time and we had a beautiful location, not too close to other boats.  We rowed ashore to Beaurivage, another Canadian National Park island, and explored the island.  On the way back we noticed that Quinita was pretty dirty just above the waterline, so we donned swimsuits, jumped overboard with cleaning rags and cleaned her up.  She looks much better now.

Ship’s log: 1753.3 Today's log: 10.4nm, Season total: 117.8nm

Saturday, July 7th

We had planned to sail to Gananoque, clear customs, then anchor out in the islands, but it was raining all morning which slowed us down, and we weren’t ready to cast off until 1pm.  Given our lack of success anchoring in these waters, we decided to stay put for one more night in Clayton so that tomorrow, we’d have plenty of time to find somewhere where our anchor would set.  Ron putzed around on the boat and cleaned 6 days worth of assorted bugs off the boat.  Teresa went for a bike ride and we both got the boat provisioned and ready for moving on tomorrow.

Ship’s log: 1742.9 Today's log: 0.0nm, Season total: 107.4nm

Wednesday, July 4th – Friday, July 6th

Left Quinita buttoned up at the Clayton Municipal docks and drove east to join Rome, Harv, Jeff, David and Anna Leigh at the cottage they were renting on Lake Champlain.

It was a lovely spot and we had a great time visiting with them for a few days.  We swam, the guys fished, we went to Heinsburg, VT for fireworks on the 4^th.  We figured it would be small town New England style but it was really impressive.  Not only did they have a long and beautiful display of fireworks all choreographed to a variety of music but as we were waiting for it to begin we saw a fantastic rising moon and the full moon was part of the fireworks display.  Went bowling on our last  evening there and had a blast.

Ship’s log: 1742.9 Today's log: 0.0nm, Season total: 107.4nm

Tuesday July 3rd.

We had a leisure day today.  Hung around the town, Teresa went shopping, I lusted after some beautiful antique (vintage to us Brits) MG sports cars.  They’re on a rally and have done 1500 miles so far.  They were parked right outside the antique boat museum, so it really felt like stepping back in time.  One of the owners comes from Hampstead (North London), and his parents were born in my home town (Hillingdon) – small world.  I’m guessing that these enthusiasts know how to drive, unlike many Americans.  Here’s a sign to illustrate my point!  (Sorry, fellow Americans!)  Watched the fireworks from the boat after dusk.

Ship’s log: 1742.9 Today's log: 0.0nm, Season total: 107.4nm

Monday July 2nd.

Spent the day catching up on chores such as laundry (12 miles away – lucky we still have the car with us), grocery shopping, etc.  Ron did a few jobs on the boat and caught up on internet business.  Clayton is a very nice town.  One of our concerns had been where to leave the car for a few weeks while we went for our next cruise.  So we popped into the local police station and met the chief of police.  He couldn’t have been more helpful and suggested a spot right outside the police station.  The town dock is cheap ($1 per foot), and the harbor masters are very friendly.  Free WIFI at the local library and some nice restaurants and free concerts etc.  All in all a very nice place. 

In the afternoon we cycled to the 1000 Islands Winery, sampled a few wines and, of course, had to buy a few bottles.  We went out to dinner, had a very nice meal and watched another gorgeous sunset over the river. 

Ship’s log: 1742.9 Today's log: 0.0nm, Season total: 107.4nm

Sunday July 1st.

We woke up to a flat calm sea with no wind and so set ‘motors’ for Clayton, 44° 14.21N 76° 05.45W.  We docked at the town dock, and were glad to find there were plenty of spaces there since we had planned to stay in Clayton for 6 days and the town dock is the cheapest.  Cycled 12 miles to Alexandria Bay where we picked up our car and brought it back to Clayton.  In the evening we ‘accidentally’ went to church! -  The town park had a soul band billed for the evening, so we each had a long awaited shower, bought some beer and pizza and went along for the music.  It turned out that the dates had got mixed up and a band from a local church was playing.  The music was good, albeit a little samey, but there was a little too much preaching for Ron’s taste.  Returned to the boat where we witnessed a beautiful sunset but our camera did not do it justice!

Ship’s log: 1742.9 Today's log: 7.4nm, Season total: 107.4nm

Saturday June 30th.

We had another beautiful beat to Thwate Island, at least that was what it was called on the Canadian Parks literature.  On our charts it was called Link Island.  Perhaps this is a US/Canadian thing.  In any case there was no room to anchor there and all the mooring buoys were taken.  So we found a nice spot on Huckleberry Island, 44° 18.13N 76° 08.64W.  Anchoring is interesting here in the 1000 Islands.  So far we’ve had a lot of difficulty getting our anchor to set.  We always set the anchor and run the motors hard astern to make sure it’s set well.  After all if it doesn’t hold against the engines what chance would it have against a strong wind?  Today, we set the anchor, motored astern slowly and it seemed to hold.  We put some more power on and it dragged.  We tried again and this time it held against full engines so we were happy(ish).  I dived on the anchor to make sure and discovered that the bottom was hard as rock!  However our anchor had pulled up against a shoulder and had dug in, so I was happy.  The interesting thing is that all the locals rave about the multitude of anchorages in this area.  So in observing the locals today, they seem to throw an anchor overboard, maybe back up a little, then get out the gins and tonic or boat toys or whatever.  But by 7pm they had all left.  So maybe that’s the difference – you can take a lot less care over your anchoring technique if you’re only there for a few hours in daylight.  We did a few jobs on the boat, had an interesting meal made up of leftovers, and are about to get the backgammon set out for the first time in many years. 

Ship’s log: 1735.5 Today's log: 11.3nm, Season total: 100.0nm

Friday June 29th.

Set sail for Endymion, 44° 18.08N 76° 05.95W, one of the Canadian National Park Islands.  The winds were forecast to be 15 knots, but if felt like much more.  We couldn’t actually tell because a spider had built a cobweb on our anemometer at the masthead.  (It must have been a very good cobweb to hold in those wind conditions.)  We tucked in a reef and enjoyed a very nice beat to the island.  The cobweb finally blew away and we recorded winds speeds of up to 25 knots.  On the way we spotted Tango again, steaming east with her mast stepped.  Tried to radio her but then realized with her mast down she wouldn’t have had a radio antenna.  Arrived at Endymion, hoping to anchor, but there didn’t seem much room due the National Park Docks, so we picked up a mooring buoy, which at $20 per night seemed pretty good value, especially since the wind continued to howl.  Explored the island, returned to the boat and did some planning for our next few week.  Went for a swim in lieu of a shower, and declared Friday night Happy Hour.

Ship’s log: 1724.2 Today's log: 12.2nm, Season total: 88.7nm

Thursday June 28th.

Spent another day at this beautiful anchorage.  We put our bikes in the dinghy and went over to Hill Island.  Cycled the 2 backroads on Hill Island, (very pretty), and then crossed the bridge, (that we’ve now sailed under about 6 times), to Rockport for lunch.  Lunch was scrumptious and we then visited a couple of artist’s galleries.  Returned to the boat, Teresa spotted ‘her’ deer, and we swam to the island and did the tour on foot. 

Ship’s log: 1712.0 Today's log: 0.0nm, Season total: 76.5nm

Wednesday June 27th.

Multi part blog today – first “Our Blog”.  The water’s very clear in this bay and we noticed that our anchor and trip line were in a real mess.  We had apparently rotated around the anchor a few times in the night.  On top of that there were logs on the bottom around which everything had become wrapped.  So out came the trusty wet suit and snorkel and we spent an hour untangling.  We then put a line ashore to stop us rotating any more.  After all that fun, we went ashore in the dinghy to Hill Island and landed close to the 1000 Islands observation tower.  We had hoped to climb it but ‘unfortunately’ no-one is allowed to climb these days (except for the upper 2 flights) so we had to take the elevator.  The views from the top were fantastic.  On the way back we bought a fishing license just in case Ron decided to fish.

Ron’s Blog:  Several months ago I mentioned to my brother-in-law, Harvey, that I might try my hand at fishing from the boat.  Next thing I knew Harvey, Rome and Jeff bought me a fishing rod, line and lures for my birthday.  So today, with my new fishing license in hand I decided to try fishing from the boats trampoline.  The license comes with a guide to the various fish, and for largemouth bass it recommended a soft plastic worm.  So I put one of those on and threw it over the side.  I then pulled it in, and there was not one single fish on it.  So much for this fishing lark!  Well I thought I’d try again, threw the worm back in the water and pulled in a 6” smallmouth bass.  YES, that’s right, my 2^nd cast with my new rod and gear and I had a fish.  There didn’t seem to be much meat on this guy so I threw him back.  About 10 minutes later I landed a 2^nd fish which looked OK for supper.  I took him off the hook and since I didn’t have a pail on the trampoline I started walking to the back of the boat (along very narrow side decks).  The stupid fish didn’t realize that I had already won the contest, wriggled and jumped overboard.  You should have seen him.  He was at least 2’ long!  Anyway I carried on and caught another tiddler, (about 6” – not much meat).  So he went back into the drink.  My next fish was better – about 10” with some meat, so he was saved for dinner.  And my last fish of the day was a champ at 13” – another keeper.  So we’re gonna dine well tonight!  Not bad eh, 5 fish on my first attempt.  Thanks Harvey, Rome & Jeff!

Teresa’s Blog: While Ron was playing fisherman I decided to go for a swim off the boat.  The water was refreshing and swimming against the current was a bit of a workout.  I swam to shore and thought I’d see a bit of Georgina Island.  I hadn’t walked 10 feet when I saw a deer, looking straight at me.  We stood and stared at each other for what seemed like minutes then it took off and following it was a young deer.  Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me.  The island has walking trails around its circumference as well as a few crossing the middle.  I walked for about 1.5 hours, encountering another young deer (or maybe the same one again) on the other side of the island.   It’s a beautiful island with lots of birds and some squirrels.  I then swam back to the boat to find that Ron had a fish waiting for dinner.  He forgot to mention that I suggested he throw his line in the area where he caught his alleged 5th, (I can only attest to 2), and largest fish J

Ship’s log: 1712.0 Today's log: 0.0nm, Season total: 76.5nm

Tuesday June 26th.

Rode our bikes into Rockport, 44° 22.83N 75° 55.65W, a very pretty, very small town with many beautiful murals (see photo).  Took advantage of the WIFI at the dock to do some email and blog updates, had a leisurely lunch then set sail for Georgina Island, 44° 21.61N 75° 58.99W, an anchorage that had been recommended by our neighbour last night.  As we approached our intended anchorage we spotted a guy on a dock waving at us and we thought he was trying to wave us off.  As it turned out he was our neighbor from last night and was directing us to where we should drop our anchor.  Long story short, after several attempts, we couldn’t get our anchor to hold there, so we set it a hundred yards away and so far it’s holding…  It’s a beautiful bay, but close to the 1000 Islands bridge, so the traffic noise is a bit annoying.  It was sunny, warm and dry so we completed our mosquito netting project.  So far that’s working out well, although we’ll probably put in a few extra snaps when we can buy them.  

Sailing was interesting today, (and yesterday as well, but I forgot to mention it).  Yesterday, we sailed through Fiddlers Elbow, 44° 21.46N 75° 59.78W, a narrow gorge, with the tide against us.  The wind was very fluky all day between the islands, and when we got to this gorge we were creeping along at 2 knots against a current of 1 knot so we were making 1 knot over the ground.  We then hit a big wind eddy, the genoa backed which brought the bow of the boat around so that we were broadside on to the current.  Suddenly it wasn’t fun anymore, we were drifting sideways with the current towards the rocks and no steerage way.  So it was, “let’s drop an engine quickly and start pointing in the right direction”!  No problem but it’s definitely something to watch out for when sailing in these waters.  Today, we had a similar issue but were more prepared for it. 

Ship’s log: 1712.0 Today's log: 2.5nm, Season total: 76.5nm