August 12: Gananoque Marina

Travel along the Bateau Channel on Sunday after we left Cedar Island was very pleasant - sunny, warm and little wind. The farther east we continue on the St. Lawrence, the more populated the shoreline.

Including huge homes like this one. There are still areas of small, older cottages along the waterway but many areas are large newer homes or developments of condos.

Cutest thing on the way? The line of animal floats in front of one of the homes!

Swan, not sure (turtle maybe?), dragon, Nemo, dragon, walrus, dolphin and duck!

We continued on for two hour until we reached the true beginning of the Thousand Island and the Parks Canada Islands.

Most have several docks so we were looking to pickup a dock at Aubrey or Mermaid Islands. No dice though - not unexpected as it was a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Plan B was to anchor behind Blackduck Island - which is what we ended up doing.

It was once again perfect weather for us. Calm all day, calm all night .... but the end is in sight! One more day of this.

Definitely needed to get the kayaks out! We went back around Mermaid Island then over to check out first hand the docking at Aubrey. We thought we might want to go there tomorrow night.

This area is very similar to Georgian Bay - but more islands that are easily accessible and seemingly lots of anchorages that will protect you from just about any wind.

The moon was full - no stars tonight.

Up early and a move of 10 minutes to the docks at Aubrey Island - the island to which we had kayaked the day before.

Tied up. Steve walked all of the trails. It's now only 10 am! Maybe we need to check out some of the other docks available in the area.

Seemed like a good idea since it's now Monday morning and all of the weekend boaters would be gone, right?

So we back tracked (green line), checked out Mermaid (lots of docks empty but potential for lots of people :-) ), circled Beau Rivage Island and settled for a relatively small dock. Only one boat already there.

It was perfect :-) The couple next to us were from Ottawa (Canada's capitol) and had been out a month. He is a crime scene photographer - said it was a nice break from the work he does ... I would think so.

The third boat just stopped for a few hours so it was just the two of us for the night.

There are paths around all of these Parks Canada islands so we walked over to the other side. The anchorage in this area is very popular - especially for the sailboaters.

Few of the docks have deep enough water for the average sailboat so oftentimes they have to anchor out.

Many Thousand Island cruise boats through this area - out of Kingston and this one out of Gananoque. We discovered they run rain or shine!

Wildlife is mostly turtles or blue herons. No eagles yet although we were expecting to see them up here. Perhaps we are too near too much civilization ....

Sunset was gorgeous. Waters were flat. Winds were calm.

It was the calm before the storm .......

We knew it was predicted to come. But it still came with a voice! Winds came and went overnight.

By 8 am they came for real. By the time Steve had the kayaks off of the front of the boat and tied to the picnic table, he was soaked! (We had received some faulty intel that the winds/rain were not due until noon!)

After waiting for the winds to die a bit we left in the light rain - headed for the Gananoque Mariana - a short 3 miles away. I'm lovin' that inside drive station :-)

In and tied up - for the next two days. Forecast? 24 mph winds gusting to 36 mph. Think we'll be happy to be tied and powered up now :-