June in the Thousand Islands
Dear family and friends,
Happy summer to all! Here's the latest Heartbeat news.
From June 6-24 we cruised from Heartbeat's new home in Prescott, up the St Lawrence River through the Thousand Islands to Lake Ontario, past Kingston to Picton in Prince Edward County, and then back again. The trip was a sort of pre-celebration of my upcoming retirement on June 30. I'm now back to work for 4 days and then will hand in my laptop and say goodbye to corporate life. I'll miss my colleagues and the work; summer will take care of itself but I'm sure September will feel strange.
But, enough about me and my major life transition - let me tell a few stories about our trip.
Off Season
The first very pleasant surprise was that the Thousand Islands is extremely uncrowded this time of year. Last summer when we came through in late July there were boats in all the anchorages we'd set our sights on, and too many power boats and jet skis zipping around. It turns out there is a two-week Quebec construction holiday at the end of July which accounts for a lot of this traffic. This year it runs from July 24 to August 7 2022 and is to be avoided at all costs!
However, this early in the season the water is still quite cold so we did a lot less swimming. We measured the water temperature on a few different days and it was consistently just above 17 degrees Celsius, brr. The weather was variable too - a couple of days of rain, and some cooler days where we wore all the clothes we brought, and then near the end of the trip a pure summer day of 30 degrees with no wind when we anchored early and spent the afternoon swimming and hiding in the shade of the bimini until evening. On that day, annoyingly the wind picked up just after dinner and blew hard all night making for a very rocky and roll-y sleep.
History Lessons
Many towns on the Canadian side of the St Lawrence river were founded by United Empire Loyalists, leaving the US in the 1780s and 1790s to settle on land grants in what was then Upper Canada. Gananoque was founded by Joel Stone who built a mill and successful businesses. During the war of 1812 his wife was protecting valuables in their house when she was shot in the hip by an American. Apparently the attackers then asked her if she wanted medical attention and she said "No thank you, we have own own medics here in Canada".
The war of 1812 had plenty of battles on land and at sea. In Picton I visited the Naval Marine Archive which is a charming dusty place (probably not actually dusty, but with that feel) full of naval drawings on the walls, many used books on a maritime theme, scale models of boats, and display cases with memorabilia from the battle at Trafalgar of all places. While there I bought a 1960s book "The Defended Border; Upper Canada and the War of 1812" with contemporary writings looking back at the war of 1812. It's fun to imagine the 19th century brigs under sail on the great lakes. Not fun to think of lives lost to cannon balls and bayonets of course.
In Kingston we had the most picturesque anchorage in Navy Bay, between Fort Henry on one side and Point Frederick and the Royal Military College of Canada on the other. You'll see in the photos that we had a Martello tower watching over us. Getting to shore was a bit of an adventure as we couldn't dock at RMC so we had to bushwhack past the tower to reach a service road but from there it was a short walk into Kingston. We also walked around the RMC grounds, green and spacious with leafy trees, and looked at the historic buildings. These sites date back to the war of 1812 and earlier, as Kingston was in a strategic location where Lake Ontario turns into the St Lawrence River.
Sugar Island
Sugar Island is a private island, which normally means cottages, but this (Canadian) island has been owned by the American Canoe Association since 1901 and is mostly undeveloped with a few rustic docks and cabins. It was very quiet when we were anchored there. We couldn't go ashore, but while out for a row along the island's shores, I entered a small steep-sided cove that I later learned is called Buffalo Wallow. As I rowed in, I heard sounds that I thought were birds and ignored them - birdsong was a common soundtrack on this trip - until I was on my way back and they were still present. I thought maybe it was a group of grouse chicks but then I spotted the source - it was 5 raccoon kits. Mom or dad were not in sight. The kits were making tiny mewling noises and had gotten themselves on some steep rocks near the water, with cliffs above, and they were clearly upset and lost. I watched them trying to find a way up - they'd go a few steps in one direction then slip and get stuck and try another path. If they could talk I imagine they'd be saying to each other "I told you we shouldn't have come here" "What are we going to do now?" "Where's mom?" "This is all your fault!"
Pictures
Itinerary
Here's a complete list of the places where we stayed - unless otherwise mentioned, we were at anchor.
Mile Island near Brockville
Grenadier Island, northwest shore
Mulcaster Island
Camelot Island (park dock)
Gananoque (marina) - dinner at The Old English Pub patio
Brakey Bay, Wolfe Island
Stella Bay, Amherst Island
Prinyer's Cove
Adolphustown
Picton (marina) - dinner at The Acoustic Grill patio
Prinyer's Cove
Kerr Bay, Amherst Island
Navy Bay, Kingston
Thwartway Island (mooring ball)
Sugar Island
Batterman's Point, Hill Island
Shanty Island, near western tip of Grenadier Island
And back home to the Prescott marina. Dinner at El Rebost which Andy found on Google - it's a Spanish food import business in an industrial park that also has a small restaurant. We were unsure what we'd find and delighted when we got there.
If you got this far, thanks for reading!
Love to all, from Danielle & Andy