Saturday, June 30 – Day 57: 
We dropped our lines from the Kingston Marina, and headed up the Rideau Canal towards Ottawa, 128 miles away.  The Rideau Canal was constructed in the 1820’s primarily as an alternate military route between Lake Ontario and Montreal just in case Canada’s enemy to the south ever captured the St. Lawrence River.  It consists of a system of beautiful rivers and lakes connected by 49 locks.   Today, the Rideau is used primarily by pleasure boaters, cottagers & tourists.  All of the locks on the canal are operated by hand via various systems of gears, pulleys and ropes, mostly by young teenage & college-age students supervised by an adult at each lock.   At many of the locks, local townspeople come down to the picnic tables at the sides of the lock chambers, with picnic baskets, and watch the show of the boaters trying to maneuver the boats of various sizes and lengths through the locks.    Some of the locks are multi-level, (called flights), to break up the  elevation difference among several chambers, so that when you leave one lock,  you immediately enter the next lock.    The 7 locks that we did today, even though charming and nostalgic, tested Belinda’s patience to the max because the lock chambers were extremely small with lots of turbulence and required quick securing of Rickshaw fore & aft else we might end up sideways in the lock.  As you know, Belinda is very petite and has (according to her) very short arms to enable her to quickly grab the cables hanging down the chamber walls while Jim attempts to keep Rickshaw close and parallel to the lock walls.    The rivers and lakes between the locks were very picturesque and, at times, appeared to be in the middle of a wilderness with only a few summer cottages peeking through the dense forest.  We decided to call it a day after only 25 miles at Morton Bay, which was a very protected & scenic anchorage surrounded by steep granite walls within just a short distance to our anchoring spot.   Since tomorrow is Canada’s independence day, Canada Day, there were several ski-boats, pontoon boats and wave runners in the bay, but by 5pm, all other boats except for one other cruiser had pulled up their day anchors and headed back to their summer cottages, leaving the bay almost completely deserted.  It was great after so many nights in marinas and town dock walls to finally be able to sleep under the stars with the windows open, feeling the cool lake breezes blowing through the aft cabin.

Friday, June 29 – Day 56: Today was an off day for the Rickshaw crew in order to absorb as much as possible about Kingston, Ontario.  As we soon discovered, Kingston is a very popular weekend getaway destination for both Canadians & Americans with a lot to see & do.   According to one of our tour guides, it is the largest fresh water diving location in the world due to the large number of British ships that were scuttled in the neighboring waters during the 1800’s.   It was the venue for the Montreal sailing events during the Olympics several years ago, because of the great sailing in the area.  Being at the intersection of the Rideau Canal, the St. Lawrence Seaway, and Lake Ontario, it has a long history as a strategic military location as evidenced by a large number of forts and other battlements in the area.    It  was also the original capital of Canada and so has a lot of history and very old buildings, dating back to the early 1800’s.  

Our day started with a bike trip to the local donut shop, Tim Horton’s, to get an internet connection fix via their free Wi-Fi to get updated on emails.   Following the email update, we took a tour via a local hop-on / hop-off trolley of the town, which took us around the town and the surrounding area.  One of the highlights of the tour was a visit to the fort that looks out over the harbor, and was built shortly
after the War of 1812 by the British to protect Kingston and the naval shipyard  from attack by the enemy, the United States.    Since this year is the bicentennial of the war, there were a lot of re-enactors throughout the fort, dressed in period uniforms and costumes, marching in rigid formation and even a cannon volley off of the fort wall overlooking Lake Ontario.  Following the trolley tour, we jumped on a free (yea!) ferry over to the largest of the 1000 islands (which is an archipelago in the St. Lawrence), which was “Wolfe Island”, named after the famous British general, “James Wolfe”, that won the battle of Quebec during the French & Indian war.   Please check out the poster shown below that we had seen at the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News last year.       
 
We wrapped up the day by peddling over to the local hardware store & grocery store before returning to Rickshaw, where we met some great folks,  Eric, who is originally from Toronto and has a beautiful 1987 41 Defever, and a couple of  other loopers, Mike & Judy, from Virginia Beach, who were looping on their 50ft boat, One September.

Thursday,  June 28 - Day 55:  Two boats moved into the lock for the first passage at 7am but Rickshaw wasn’t one of them.  She was a bit slower, joining the second group of three that went thru about 7:30. Once out of the canal and out of the jetties we were in our first Great Lake – Lake Ontario.  The weather was absolutely
beautiful!  It was mid 60s when we left, the winds were light and the seas were 1 ft or less.  The high in the afternoon reached in the mid 70s.   We traveled 51 nautical miles today; all but 5 miles was in open water. It seemed we were the only
boat on the lake – we went hours without seeing another boat.


Once across the lake we turned east and followed the coast a short way, then turned north into Kingston Harbor.  We were both very excited about finally arriving in Canada.  But we had to learn patience first!  Shortly after entering Kingston Harbor, we were within 200 yards of our marina but we had to wait 30 minutes for a lift bridge to open to allow us to enter the inner harbor.  Then once  through the bridge opening we called the marina for docking instructions. They told us they would get right back with us – 40 minutes later we were still circling the river waiting for further instructions. Finally we got docked then we called Canada Customs to check in.    Before leaving the US, we had conferred with lots of other loopers who had already entered Canada and they all said it a breeze.  No
questions about liquor, no questions about house plants and no boat inspections.  And if they do ask about liquor, just be honest, they said, and tell them it’s for serving on board only, they really aren’t that strict.  They only asked for some documentation information, made sure that you don’t have any firearms and your length of stay.  So, boy were we surprised when they asked about how much liquor(40 oz per person is allowed duty free), any house plants, any fire arms, etc.  We were completely honest and when we told them three boxes of wine (totaling over 300 ounces), 7 beers and misc. half empty liquor bottles and two house plants.  To our amazement, they said  “Well, we’ll have to send some officers over there right away – you will have to donate those plants to the Crown, i.e. throw them away and absolutely - DO NOT GET OFF YOUR BOAT”.  Belinda was REALLY sweating it – one of  her house plants was a get well gift to her mom when she was in the hospital in 1956! This plant has gone from Missouri to California to Tennessee to Texas back to Tennessee to Arizona to Georgia to North Carolina to Virginia and has been on Rickshaw since.   Forty minutes later, here they come and they didn’t look happy. We thought they were going to get out our measuring cups and measure the ½ bottle of rum, the 2/3 bottle of vodka, etc. 
Then they turned to us and asked “Where do you keep your firearm?”  As if, “you’re from Tennessee, you must have guns!”  Of course, we didn’t have any firearms – we know better than bring firearms or mace into Canada!  They sent us outside, talked privately then came out and said they would have to tax us on the value of the wine on hand.  The charge was $36.  Then they said I was not to dump any of the dirt from my plants in Canada – NO PROBLEM. We were relieved to pay the $36. It was a convenience charge to be able to buy the wine we like while we had a car in the US and not trying to bike it back to Rickshaw.  We are now free
to move about the country!  Later we learned Kingston is the training center for all the new Customs agents - so they are ‘very conscientious’.  Lucky us!


Once that business was taken care of we went out in search of internet service.  Our plan was to buy a Rogers (the  Canadian Verizon) wireless stick and a no contract wireless plan. We had researched them on the internet.  No problem – IF you are a Canadian citizen with proof of residency. They will not sell post-paid wireless plans to non-residents and they don’t have pre-paid wireless plans. Rejected we left; resigning ourselves to finding hot spots - bummer.  A few blocks later we stumbled on an electronics store (think Radio Shack) that sold cell phones.  We thought we would ask them – the guy agreed with Rogers – he can’t sell post paid internet devices to us either and he also doesn’t offer pre-paid.  Then his light bulb went off – he sold us a cheap prepaid smartphone that has pre-paid wireless with tethering capabilities.  It ended up better than the wireless stick we expected to buy – we can make calls, use the GPS map app for getting around town, check the weather and connect up to 5 devices.   What a find! 



We had had a stressful afternoon so we found a nice sidewalk café just across from City Hall on the waterfront and enjoyed a nice dinner listening to the country
band playing a free concert in the waterfront park down the street.  

June 25, 26 & 27, Days 52-54:  We have been in Oswego, New York since Sunday afternoon.  Mostly we have just been killing time waiting for favorable weather to cross Lake Ontario.  We have made two trips to the hardware store, two trips to the grocery store, and the laundromat.  We have worked on our on going project of refinishing the toe rails and just doing everyday house keeping chores.  Jim got at haircut (check out the picture). This evening we hosted a pot-luck happy hour with four other boats.  The winds have been blowing 20 mph with 4 ft seas everyday but tomorrow's (Thursday's) forecast is 5 knot winds and 1 ft seas.  So, Thursday we are headed to Canada!!

Our internet service will be minimal while we are in Canada so our posting will not be as frequent.  We will post when we can.

Sunday, June 24, Day 51:    Today is our final day on the New York canal system, with our destination being Oswego, NY on the southern shore of Lake Ontario.    Our goal is to position ourselves on the shore of Lake Ontario, and be ready for a break in the weather predicted for the next several days, which is forecasted to be 15-25 knots of wind out of the northwest or west.    We need to cross the lake only if the wind is very light, because the lake has the reputation for being very nasty if the winds exceed 15 knots and from the west due to the long fetch across the river from the western shore.     We went through another 7 locks today, all down & very easy, which was fortunate because a steady drizzle started about 3, leaving Belinda out in the rain during the locking process to handle the lines.   
                                                                                                                                                              ;                                                                             
Once we cross the great lake, we will arrive in Kingston, Ontario, where we will clear Canadian customs, and begin our visit of Canada.    From Kingston, we have considered several alternate routes: we can either go down (northeast) the St. Lawrence Seaway, towards Montreal, or we can go up the Rideau Canal toward Ottawa, or start our trip through the Trent-Severn canal system.    After discussing the options with other experienced loopers, we have decided to go up the Rideau Canal toward Ottawa, which is renowned for its beauty and charm, reminiscent of canals in central Europe.

Saturday, June 23, Day 50:  Under partly cloudy skies, and with a fairly strong westerly wind, we departed Sylvan Beach and headed across the 20 mile wide Oneida Lake toward our next destination, Brewerton.   Brewerton is a popular town for loopers because it has a number of marine facilities for making last-minute boat repairs and reprovisioning before exiting the US and entering Canada at the north side of Lake Ontario.    At Brewerton, we parked Rickshaw at Winter Harbor marina, which is so named because it has a huge heated warehouse for storing boats over the winter.     Since we had not bought fuel since the Chesapeake, we topped off our 3 diesel tanks with 500 gallons of fuel, and filled up our water tanks.

Friday, June 22, Day 49:  After sleeping 10 hours we rolled out of bed at 8:30 to discover we were the only boat on the dock!  We desperately needed the rest.  Rickshaw pulled away from the dock a little before 10am.  We did four more locks today - the first two raised us up but the last two locks dropped us down.  This was the first time we locked down.  Locking down seems somewhat easier - the currents don't seem as strong with the water draining out of the lock and the process seems to go faster when the lock is draining.  We docked for the evening at a free city dock at Sylvan Beach which is at the eastern end of the local recreation lake, Oneida Lake.  We were greeted by two Loopers (from different boats) who caught our lines and then later we met two more Looper boats.  One was  Bill and Laura on Kindred Sprits  whom we had talked with on the VHF when we were headed to Atlantic City.  Sylvan Beach was a very cute little tourist town, with a retro 1950’s feel, complete with hamburger shacks, ice cream parlors, and a small amusement park on the waterfront.   This part of New York can have a very severe winter, worse than Buffalo, due to the lake effect of Lake Ontario, so the locals really try to get out on the water and enjoy the brief summer weather while they can.

Thursday, June 21, Day 48:  After five grueling days in Memphis packing up our condo and moving it all into storage, we are back on Rickshaw!  We arrived around midnight Wednesday night.  The seven days spent away are not counted as cruising days so we resumed cruising today, June 21, which is day 48.  The day was spent unpacking, doing laundry and using the rental car for re-provisioning.   The Ilion Marina dock wall was completely lined with boats Thursday night when dark came.

We will resume posting to our blog when we return from Memphis on 6/21.

June 7-8, Day 41 & 42 - After leaving Saugerties, the 4 boat group broke into 2 groups of 2 each, with Rickshaw & Moor $tuff heading for what seemed to be an unbelievable destination...a cute town (Athens) within a short distance up the river(20 miles), and a FREE! & (almost) new dock.   (Having a free dock allows easy access to the town without having to get in the dinghy).   Arriving in Athens, we were pleasantly surprised that what we had heard was 95% true.   The town was kind of cute, the dock was an almost new, 80 ft aluminum dock which was fronted by a manicured park, and there were no signs that said that we were not allowed to stay there.   So we followed the mantra of don't ask permission, seek forgiveness.   (We did find out that the actual rule was no overnight docking but since no one told us to leave, we stayed the night).    After taking a brief stroll around the town of Athens, during which we discovered a new flavor of ice cream (Crumbs along the Mohawk), the 4 of us decided to check out the larger town (Hudson) accessible via a quick dinghy ride from the west side to the east side of the Hudson River.    Hudson was a very pretty little town that featured a lot of wine bars, antique stores, and eclectic furnishings, and quite a few rainbow flags hanging off of the 200 year old homes & buildings (which helped to explain the artsy feel of the town).  Following a two hour stroll around the town, and a glass of wine at the wine bar to contribute to the local economy, we hopped back in the dinghy to return to Athens where we feasted on cheeseburgers and felt like we were almost in paradise, just like Jimmy Buffet says.

The next day, we dropped our dock lines and headed up to Troy, NY (just past Albany), where we went through our 1st lock (out of 140 in total) where we would meet up with Carried Away and Quest at the convergence of the Champlain & Erie canals with the Hudson River.