6/19/18: Holy smokes the wind blew last night! The marina where we were docked is just off the river, and our bow was facing northwest. There was a long dock that was perpendicular to us, where three large boats (including Phanthom were docked). But the wind came from the north, right at the end of that dock, straight at us. It was blowing right at us all night, so we spent the night bobbing and rolling. It wasn’t violent, so it didn’t throw us out of bed, it was just constant annoying motion. Thankfully it was blowing us off of the dock instead of against it all night. Island Girl, Phanthom and Coconuts were all going to leave this morning, but sometimes you just have to wait for better conditions.
I had someone ask me why we are going northeast on the St Lawrence…. isn’t that the wrong direction for the loop? Very good question. It is. We are just on a mini side trip. Here is a map for a little help. This shows some of the alternatives for the boats that are going to do the Trent-Severn waterway (which is the yellow squiggly line on the left). All of the lines begin at Oswego on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, where we popped out of the Erie/Oswego canal system. Our line is the yellow line: we came into the St Lawrence River to see the Thousand Islands region for a mini side trip. Island Girl is going northeast for a few days to see a few places. Then we’ll cross the river into Canada and we’ll turn west and go to Kingston, Trenton, and into the Trent-Severn waterway. Some folks take the white line to Trenton Ontario, which is the most direct route to get to the actual start of the Trent-Severn. Some go north to Kingston, which is where the green line goes, then they go west to Trenton. Some do something in between the green and white, and go into a small town marina. They just have to be able to be somewhere that they can check into Canadian Customs. The red line is what SeaJamm and some others are doing: going all the way up to Montreal, over to Ottawa, and back down to Kingston through the Rideau canal, then west to Trenton. This shows just some of the options for the boats who choose or are able to do the Trent-Severn to get to Georgian Bay and the North Channel. Some boats go all the way down the Erie Canal, some do the southern shore of Lake Ontario… there are lots of options! The Trent-Severn has height, beam, and draft restrictions, which I’ll talk about when we get closer, so not all boats can go that way. But for those who do, there are a whole bunch of options on how to get there.
The wind really died down nicely by noon, so we cast off our lines and headed down the river, up to Alexandria Bay. It was only 10 miles away, so just a short little cruise. But my, oh my, what beautiful scenery! As we cruised down the river, we got about 2 mph of favorable current, and the channel got narrower as we went along. It’s no wonder this area is called the Thousand Islands.
What is amazing is that there are cottages on such tiny specks of land!
Thankfully there are buoy markers and even lighthouses along the way to keep us in the channel. There were places where the water as over 200 feet deep in the channel, but also places where there were islands just underwater that could bite really hard. Everything is stone here – and very unforgiving!
Many of the homes have boat houses. I don’t know if the boats stay on the lift all winter inside the boathouses. They do have brutal winters with a lot of snow here.
As we got further downriver, the homes got more elaborate. The main home on this island is actually hiding in the trees, and is all made of stone. I’m not sure what the structure that we can see on the water is – maybe a very fancy boathouse!
This one made me laugh out loud. The weather vane on top of the house is a life size bear! Like a circus bear with a ball of sunshine!
Some homes have really beautiful stone walls to match their really beautiful stone home. Stone is plentiful here!
As they say, this was the playground for the wealthy. I think that still holds true today! WOWZA.
After our short journey, we arrived at Alexandria Bay. It is a small touristy town, with a small little harbor. The marina that I selected isn’t really a marina at all, but more like a small boatyard. There is a big city dock, but it doesn’t have power, yet it charges the same to stay as where we are. And there are resort marinas that like to charge rates like they’re in southern Florida. 😳 So I went frugal and basic – supporting the local guy instead of the expensive resort. Here is the water on the approach. This is actually about 8 feet deep, but I don’t know how tall these weeds really are. We didn’t touch bottom! The water is just so clear that we can’t tell how deep it is!
Here is Island Girl. Ha! It’s kind of like we’re parked at our buddy’s boat yard or something, right? The owners, Jim & Pam, are as nice as can be. It really is a boat yard where they do lots of repair work. It is right in the heart of the town, with just a couple of slips that they have available for transients. And check out how close we are to the restaurant and bar that plays Jimmy Buffett music and has red umbrellas! (Red umbrellas are always Captain’s clue for a good bar.). What a hoot! We are experiencing all kinds of different places on this trip, that’s for sure! And loving all of it.
We went for a walkabout, and didn’t even make it a whole block when we spied this! Yes, it’s true. They have a distillery! So of course we went in. What a nice place! I bet we were there for an hour. They have a very unique way of aging their spirits. They pipe music into the barrel. The vibration of the music creates sound waves which forces the liquid into the barrel to dance with the wood and enhance flavors. It really is a scientific thing with a patent pending and everything! It was fun to read the various types of music that they used for different liquors. Of course, the rum was aged to reggae tunes. All of the spirits that we tried were really smooth and tasty. And their logo is awesome. Dark Island is a for-real place, too – where Singer Castle is. More about that later.
Next door was this church. Now that I look at the picture, the tower looks like a face!! This is the Reformed Church of the Thousand Isles. It was the first church in the area. Reverend Dr. George Bethune, a summer visitor to the area in the mid 1840’s, observed that there were no regular religious services or Sunday School classes offered in the village. So money was raised and in 1851 this building was dedicated as the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of the Thousand Islands.
Across the street was the Methodist Church, which looked like an old church you’d find in the south, with it’s white siding and steeple. It was built in 1900.
We walked over to the river for the view, and the Boldt Castle is right there! We will go see it in the next day or two. It has an amazing story.
The city of Alexandria Bay has a really nice park along the river. This is just a tiny part of it. We even saw a scuba diving flag just offshore at the park. Apparently there is a great shipwreck dive site at 45-60 feet deep. The water is very clear and cold. Brrrr!
And across the street from the park was a unique church building. This one is all wood, has been here since 1889 and is on the Register of Historical Places. It is the Church of St Lawrence, an Episcopal congregation.
After our walkabout, we had some BBQ at the red umbrella joint right next door to the boat. It was pretty good, but they used the vinegar based North Carolina kind of sauce, which isn’t our favorite. We both really like the sweet ketchupy Kansas City kind of sauce. But the ribs were smoked nicely and had good flavor. The corn bread had some green crunchy light-your-tongue-on-fire bits, so Kenny got to have mine. We both waddled back to the boat with full bellies. No TV here, and internet is spotty, so it was a very quiet evening on Island Girl. And the water is splat flat calm – no waves rockin us in this little protected cove tonight! We should sleep well. Tomorrow —- we have a castle to go see!