Friday - Walked into town (Clayton, NY) this morning. Have tickets to tour the Thousand Islands and Boldt Castle.
The Thousand Islands straddles the Canada/US border in the Saint Lawrence River. There are actually over 1,800 islands and range in size from over 40 square miles to smaller islands occupied by a single residence or an uninhabited pile of rocks that are only home to waterfowl. To constitute an island, it must have an area greater than 1 square foot and be above water level year round and support at least one living tree. I don't know who makes these rules.
The more we thought about it the more we realized what a smart move it was to take a tour rather than motor our own boat through the islands. There are so many rocks and shoals less than 2 feet below the water line that we would have spent all our time watching the charts and depth sounder that we would have missed so much.
Some houses/cottages built on big and not so big islands.
Boldt Castle is a big draw in the Thousand Islands. It is located on Heart Island on the US side of the Saint Lawrence River. In the late 1800s, George Boldt, general manager of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City and manger of the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia. He and his family vacationed several summers in the Thousand Islands. To honor the love he had for his wife, Louise, he began construction of a 6-story castle. More than three years into the construction, his wife died unexpectedly. George Boldt telegrammed construction crews halting all work. Boldt never returned to the island leaving it an unfinished monument.
After being left to the wind, rain and vandals, the castle and its other structures were acquired by the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority in 1977. The stipulation is that the castle will never be completed. The Bridge Authority has renovated many of the 120 rooms, however, it is still unfinished. What an incredible site to see.
Here is a website with better pictures than we could take.
www.boldtcastle.com/visitorinfo/
Saturday - Departed Clayton, NY. Crossed the imaginary border into Canada about 10 am. Reached Kingston, Ontario this afternoon. Had to check in with Customs. Made a phone call from a pay phone just outside the marina gate. We have more liquor than the duty-free allowance. I decided to fess up what we had on board, others lied about what they had. The customs agent chastised me saying we can bring in 24 cans of beer OR 1.5 liters of wine OR 750ml of liquor per person. We had lots more than that. The Customs Officer said we would have to pay duty but didn't say how. We may get a bill in the mail. Whatever. I would much rather be up front about it than be boarded and caught with more than what we claimed.
Coming into Kingston, Ontario
Checked in at the marina. Needed lunch. Taste of Kingston was being held right by the marina so we gave them $8 US since we hadn't converted any dollars into Loonies yet and feasted on 1/2 a chicken pita, a smoked beef slider with homemade chips and an ice cream sundae. Pretty good deal, we thought.
Our Garmin Chartplotter didn't have the details regarding the Canadian waters. We needed the right chip. Found a West Marine about 2 miles from the marina with what we needed. Walked through downtown. Things were busy.
These are just some of the street musicians we encountered.
Stopped at Canadian Tire, reminded us of a small WalMart with better quality stuff. A guy from Garmin customer support suggested we try there first for the chip, but no joy. Jerry asked about a fishing license. The young girls selling them decided he didn't need one because he is over 65. We argued that non-residence always need one but they insisted. We did take the rules and unfortunately didn't read it until we were back at the boat. Of course, in bold print, it says, non-residents over 65 are not exempt. Will try someplace else in the morning.
Found a bicycle shop. My bike tires are shot so we picked up what we needed there.
When we got back to the boat it was after 5pm. We chatted with the folks on Attitude Adjustment next to us. Several other boaters were out visiting on the dock. We talked with Ivy on Karma, loopers from Miami and Quest invited us over for drinks. We passed. I had already started dinner.
Read until dark. Bugs were a bother, nothing biting, just flying around. What a pain.
Sunday - Most of the loopers bailed early today. We needed to do laundry so took our time. Goldleaf and Forget me Knot stayed back too. Jerry and Glenda walked to the hardware store in hopes of obtaining fishing licenses. No luck, it didn't open until 11.
Filled our water tank then we three boats took off. We all anchored close to Forester Island.
Monday - Took off about 7:30 this morning. Trenton, Ontario is our destination, the beginning of the Trent-Severn Waterway
Hard to see from this picture, a family of Swans, mom, dad and 5 cygnets. We saw them in the morning before we pulled up anchor.
Looking forward from the boat. A small island off to the left. Green buoys take us around the shoal that extends from the small patch of land.
We noticed that the water isn't as clear as it was on Ontario. Locals said the zebra mussels cleaned the water. Challenged the fish population for a few years but it has come back strong, so we were told.
Cruising along I noticed that a piece of my tooth, way in the back is gone. It didn't hurt, but was concerned it might start and here we are heading into the Waterway. Didn't know when we might find a dentist.
Our plan was to stop at the Fraser Park Marina for just a couple of hours, do some shopping, get Jerry a fishing license then anchor out. I asked the manager about a dentist. He deferred to his wife who was at lunch. We went to lunch and when we got back, Sandy, his wife, had two appointments for me to choose from. Couldn't believe how that worked out for me. Sandy said we could stay the night and she would drive me or we could go through 6 locks to get to the dentist. We opted to stay the night. She and I left the marina about 5:00. The dentist staff was great, friends of Sandy's. First reaction by the dentist was a crown and it would be 10 days. I said, no, we're leaving tomorrow. So she replaced the old filling, I was back at the boat by 6:45. I often underestimate the graciousness of some people. Sandy was so generous of her time to take me to the dentist and wait while I was treated.
A group of loopers were having drinks on the patio when I got back. My mouth was still really numb so I didn't want to embarrass myself by drooling. We stayed for a little bit then went back to the boat.
Tuesday - rode bikes to The Grind for coffee, tea and treats. Had a coupon for a free coffee. On the way back, stopped to talk to Forget me Knot and Goldleaf. David needed help getting his dinghy on deck. The canal charges extra for towing the dinghy. David, Jerry and Carl got that taken care of with ease.
Departing Trenton, we go under the bridge and now we are on the Trent Severn Waterway. A total of 44 locks to go.
Water is shallow on either side of these markers, the red triangle on the right (red right returning) and the square green on the left. 
We're heading into Lock 1. The lock is small, only room for about 2 large boats. We follow Jan's Tern (a 40' trawler) into the lock. I drive, Jerry handles the lines. 
When we get to the top of the lock, this guy comes by and asks if we would take a message in a bottle to Lock 33. He takes a picture handing us the bottle with the lockmaster behind the sign, Wind Song in the background. Some kind of rivalry between Trenton and Lindsey. Cool deal to be asked to do this.
Next lock. Jerry on the bow. No bollards, usually lines or cables on the wall. Jerry hooks a line around cleats it then stands by making sure it doesn't get hung up as we go up.
A couple of the houses along the waterway.
We followed Jan's Tern (Bob and Jan) through 7 locks today. He and his wife had tense times in the locks. Glad we weren't on their boat.
Out of lock 7, some kids were jumping off an old railroad bridge into the water. Looked like fun!
Stopped about 3:00 today at a nice anchorage. Cleaned some bugs off the boat then worked on notes for the blog. After dinner, sat on the sundeck until bugs started bothering us. Mosquitoes were in the stateroom. Must have killed over a dozen. They would buzz around our ears. Tried putting my head under the covers. Sort of worked. If I got buzzed, I would turn on the flashlight in search of the critter. Kill what I saw then go back to bed. This went on for what seemed like a couple of hours. Jerry finaly retreated to the salon to sleep on the couch. Not a peaceful night
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