August 9: Cedar Island - 1 down. 999 More to Go!

We left Kerr Bay early - leaving behind the 15 sailboats and 2 powerboats. It was again a windless, sunny day. How many of these can we have left???

It wasn't quite the easy getaway we would have liked - the seaweed on the anchor chain was just crazy.

A surprise to see the Kawartha Voyager this far south! I thought it only traveled the Trent - guess that shows what I know :-)

The plan for today worked well: stop at the day docks in Kingston (the marina was full) to do some shopping - and of course lunch out at a great Chinese place Steve found on the way to the grocery store.

This place was CRAZY. First it was a Saturday. Second, it was the second day of the Poker Run.

Basically, 75 go-fast boats left Kingson, flew (literally!) up the St. Lawrence, stopped for lunch and altogether (in two days) five places then came back to Kingston. Get a poker card at each of the 5 stops: best hand wins. Crazy boats flying around ...

The best was My Way - a boat with two jet engines. Look closely and you can see the heat rising from the exhaust vents. Fastest but did they win???

This is what they look like from an aerial view (taken from the Poker Runs America web site) ad these boats speed from one destination to another.

Quite a bit of water security boats out and they worked to keep the onlookers safe!

Can only imagine how much fuel is burned up in just one of these boats!

We left about 3 pm and continued past Fort Henry and the Royal Military College located here at Kingston.

We were looking for a place to anchor - possibly Navy Bay (place where ships were built for the "maybe" war with the US) under the watchful eye of Fort Henry but too many small sailboats out for the day. So we went to the bay next door. As we were turning back to anchor along the shoreline, a dock at Cedar Island opened up!

This is a Parks Canada Island - designated "no generators" - ok by us!

Never expected to be able to tie up at a dock on a Saturday afternoon but we took it.

Met a couple from: Kingston :-) They boat in the area all of the time and very generously shared their knowledge of the Parks Canada islands and docks - where to go on what island and which islands to avoid.

All of these islands have hiking paths so we treked off to see the 1846 Cathcart Redoubt - part of the protection provided for the harbor of Kingston.

Not sure how anyone go into this thing!!

For more info on Fort Henry, click here.

There were even cannons fired and fireworks - every Wed and Sat following the reenactments of military maneuvers.

 I found it interesting that this fort was never attacked :-)



Tomorrow? Travel the Bateau Channel to the Admiralty Islands - about 2 hours.

August 8: Progressing on to the 1000 Islands: Kerr Bay

The yellow path is where we've traveled since leaving Belleville two days ago. The red path is where we are headed tomorrow: a stop at Kingston to shop and then anchor out in Navy Bay right next door. Blue line – the next day and the gateway to the Thousand Islands!

Left Belleville about 10 or so yesterday after a trip to the grocery store (Steve) and a change in spark plugs for the engine (me). Two minutes out of the marina, we looked at each other and yes, we were both thinking the same thing: engine not running right. Turn around and back to the marina.

Steve's turn this time. Check the distributor. Looks pretty gunked up – clean it up with sandpaper and put back on. Head out again. The engine was running ok but still not right. Toss out the anchor and let's just replace the distributor with the new spare.

Well, that didn't work. So now we're anchored about a mile out of the marina and the engine not only runs poorly but doesn't even start! Ok – put the old distributor back in. At least the engine was running!

It wasn't hard to figure out once Steve took a look at the rotor :-) Think we found the problem! Off we went with no further issues.

The Bay of Quinte is deeper than the deepest point in Lake Erie but is relatively narrow. What a pleasant day to travel! Light winds expected to get lighter.

The sailboats were out in full force – and actually sailing!! Not sure how they do that in the light winds in which we were traveling but I guess that's why we powerboat rather than sail :-)

The anchorage we chose was near the north shore in Adolphus Reach as north winds were expected. First thing up is always the solar panel. It has worked better than we hoped. As long as the sun is out bright it will totally run the new fridge + add a bit of power back to the batteries.

At this point we have all 3 batteries connected together for a house bank of about 300 amp. This after recognizing that a separate battery for the engine wasn't doing us much good given that we had NEVER changed to this battery! So we just now have the 3 batteries all connected in parallel for a house bank.

By morning the wind had died totally with the sunrise showing the totally windless waters for the day ahead.

This continued for most of the morning – the sailboats seemingly floating on air!

We're now anchored on the north shore of Amherst Island – about two hours from Kingston. We were the 4^th boat to come in this afternoon. There are now fifteen sailboats and two powerboats that have decided to spend the night is this very protected anchorage!

On to Kingston tomorrow ….

August 6: Belleville

Finally after 5 days in Trenton, it was time to go. The visit here was great - music festival and a quick trip back to Ohio.

Ready to move on after fueling up and pumping out the holding tank.

It was a gorgeous day - cool but light wind from the north. Sunny. Destination was only 10 miles away - 1 hour or so - to Belleville.

Traveling the Bay of Quinte was easy with nice weather but I think this bay can get quite nasty in E or W winds.

We arrived shortly after noon. Off came the bikes - it was time to find a place for lunch.

First though was an adjustment to Steve's bike seat. I don't know what we would do without these things as there is so much so see in each new town. Walking is ok but bikes are definitely the way to go.

Nice marina - quite large - we though Belleville was a small town but it's quite a bit larger than Trenton's 15,000.

Steve's choice for lunch was perfect: Chinese and Himalayan! So never having had Himalayan food before, Steve was into it :-) I stuck with Chinese .... but I guess Tibet is one more place we don't need to go to!

Fun place with yaks and posters from the "Top of the World".

The city hall was crazy! As I was taking pictures, I noticed strange look from the locals who walk past this building every day and maybe don't even notice how really fun it is.

It's basically the same since it was build in 1872.



Doesn't this totally look like a real store? It's along the main street through the old downtown section and seems to fit right in!

I told Steve he might want to pick up a new hat :-)

There is a really nice theater venue downtown with live shows. The show with Gordon Lightfoot in November is already sold out.

Wonder why they even bother with a poster???

We actually saw him a zillion years ago at Front Row Theater in Highland Hills (basically Cleveland). But sadly we missed seeing Anne Murray there because I thought the tickets were too much.

Regretted that decision ever since!

Anyway, a really nice downtown.

Another really fun building pretty close to downtown was St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church. The architecture was AMAZING.

Inside was as expected. Lots of stained glass windows, wood ceilings, floor to ceiling pillars - very cathedral like. But in this relatively small town. Absolutely beautiful.

This parish was started in 1829 and this is the fourth church to be built on this site with the current church constructed in 1905. What a history ....

Steve had parked his bike outside the church - lucky for him that I saw the tow truck coming to take his bike away!

He rescued it just in time ....

Then we found the bike path along the river so our ride was extended - which was fine. It was good to be out and riding and the exercise is always good.

The path ran along the river (which of course feeds into Lake Ontario). Quite nice.

Towards the end was the grist mill originally built after the American Revolutionary war by Captain John Meyers - a British Loyalist who settled in this area after the Revolutionary war. Really old stuff around here :-)

Finally after playing away the afternoon, it was time for some work! We had picked up a 110 volt mini-fridge since we had a car for a couple of days for the trip to Ohio.

The idea was to increase our fridge space and do that using less energy than our current 25 year old 12 volt/110 fridge.

First cut the storage area down to accommodate the height of the new 3.2 cu in unit.

Once that was done and the trimming was completed, the new fridge could be put in place.

Of course one switch needed to be moved and some electrical wiring changes needed to be made but physically the fridge was in place.

Just hope I don't have to drive from down below very often! But since it has only happened once in the last 8 weeks, I don't think it will be an issue :-)

The difference in the amount of storage is crazy! And less energy to boot!!

Minor adjustments need to be made yet but basically we are good to go. The solar panel should run this fridge with energy to spare.

Which is a good thing since quite a few of the islands on the Canadian side of the 1000 Islands are generator free.

Right is the old fridge (now can, dry good storage). Only 2.2 cu ft. Doesn't seem like 1 cu ft could make much of a difference but it sure does!!

Off tomorrow - planning on anchoring out for the first time since we've been up here this year and should then be in the Thousand Islands area of the St. Lawrence by the following day.

August 5: Back to Trenton

It was a quick trip back to Ohio. Left yesterday morning at 9:30 and back to the boat at 10 pm tonight.

The trip was a time to again gather relatives together - this time to celebrate my aunt's life. Seeing my cousins again in less than 6 weeks gave time to do some catching up - sort of a continuation of conversations with many that came to my mom's funeral.

We all agreed though that we needed to stop meeting like this :-)

Cute bug spotted on a rest area along the way to Ohio - all dressed up in Browns colors - including the white and brown stripe. Just like the helmets of our favorite team :-) How can we lose with Johnny Football?

And we just heard that Lebron James returned to the Cavs. Really need to stay more tuned into the sports scene in Cleveland, I guess .....

August 3: OD'd Again ....

Yep - we did it again. Friday was so much fun that we decided we to needed to stay another day yesterday and go back to the music festival!

Another day of 12 to 5, back to the boat for dinner, then return for the 6:30 - 10:30 show. This time we were prepared - lights for our bikes for the ride back!

The dockmaster here commented that he thought there was only so much of the "done me wrong", "run over by a train", "not woman enough to steal my man" that any one person could take in a day. He might have been right!


So today after two days of country music, we settled for a bike ride around Trenton and of course were drawn back to the music festival. Someone had opened the fence across the bike path so we took advantage to ride through the area where all of the RV's, tents and campers were parked.

We found the PERFECT little thing - it's like a Guppy on land! Maybe Matt and Wendy will go for something like this .....

Of course I had to stop and listen to the open mic for at least a few minutes! This is basically karaoke as anyone can just sign up to sing two songs - with a live band backup!

But no words on a screen .... very much made me think of Peter and Steve's performances at Joe's Crab Shack when we were with them in Hollywood, FL. What fun :-)

This guy reminded me of my brother-in-law Jim who plays the accordion - they called this a squeezebox - I called it a baby accordion!


Regardless, it was still very enjoyable and as it turned out is a good thing we stayed. My brother Warren called yesterday morning with the news that my aunt (my mom's sister) had passed away. I told him we were not answering any more calls from him.

So we'll pick up a car (2 blocks from here) tomorrow morning and head back to Ohio. Just 6 weeks from when my mom passed away. My aunt was 88 - 6 years younger than my mom - not really expected.

The amazing thing? The car rental place is not open tomorrow due to the Civic Holiday here in Ontario but the person running the rental agency will meet us anyway - and would have met us today if needed. There is no end to the generosity of people ......

So Guppy will sit here in Trenton in the shadow of the bridge which is, as stated, the gateway to the Trent. When we return we'll head east on Lake Ontario to the 1000 Islands. After that? Not sure but probably the Erie Canal in NY.

August 1: Overdosed (on Country Music) in Trenton!

Early leave time from Frankford. It was only a bit over 7 miles to Trenton but there were six locks to go through. The plan worked well! Locks are always left in the filled position overnight so any first lockage is always down and we hoped to be in that first lockage the whole way.

Worked well except for one lock had some work being done so we had to wait but less than 30 minutes :-)

By 12:30 we were in Trenton and tied up at Fraiser Marina having passed through the final lock (#1) on the Trent-Severn Canal.

We did a bit of exploring around Trenton and found a Royal Canadian Air Force Goldenhawk Sabre Jet on display nearby. There were a number of jets flying overhead throughout the day - no doubt from the Canadian Forces Base in Kingston - not too far east of here.

Entertainment for the night was "Despicable Me 2". Enjoyable enough and we love the minions :-)

Today was the overdose day :-)  It was the 23rd annual Classic Country Music Reunion Jamboree! The fiddler hour began at noon so we headed over shortly after noon - it was only a 10 minute bike ride - over another bridge of course and stayed 'til the end at 5! After a break for dinner, we were back at 6:30 for the main show. We lasted until 9:30 and decided we really needed to get back on our bikes before it was totally dark.

Safety Matt would not have approved of us traveling after dark with no lights so we were sure to stay on the sidewalks of well lit streets :-)

It was a day when cowboy hats ruled the day! No boating hats at THIS jamboree :-)

One lady was really into it with quite the flowing bola on her hat! It was just a great day of people watching and good old time country music.

We may have to stay another day ......

The venue is an outdoor amphitheater just across the river from where we are staying. It's on the Bay of Quinte - attached to Lake Ontario. There are probably 200 or so RV's, campers here in the park. One of the couples we met just travel around to the jamborees all summer.

Must be like the trawler rendezvous we attend - just folks with common interests :-)