We're en route!

After much preparation ( I will post details of the prep work and info about life at Waupoos  on other pages later) we have set out on our journey east.  It was a bittersweet departure from Waupoos Marina as we had spent many wonderful days there readying both Bridlewilde and ourselves for the voyage to the Atlantic but we were prepared and excited to set out.

Shortly before departure we had to say our goodbye's to some of the people we love dearly. Also bittersweet, for although we were not to see them again for some time, they, as true friends do, deeply  shared in our exhilaration and were as excited for us as we were ourselves. 

The night before we set out we spent a wonderful evening with Ellie and Wolf - an evening we'll treasure forever since Ellie has been integral in my life since we have been 5 years old and it is she from whom we bought Bridlewilde.  

So, July 8, 2011, the day our grandson, Dawson, became 8 years old we departed Waupoos Marina, Prince Edward County, Lake Ontario for Gananoque, Ontario through the St. Lawrence Seaway system.

|This first leg of the journey took us by Kingston into the  Seaway and through the spectacular 1000 Islands. The traffic on the Seaway was very heavy due to the beautiful weather, the locale, and the time of year.  We had been advised by many of this and that we would be motoring most of the way until we were well past Quebec City before we could comfortably sail with much breadth to the mighty St. Lawrence River. Following are some shots as we made our way through narrow channels (where some of the water currents seemed furious that we were invading their place in the world)  under international bridges and into open water as we motored along.

  
We arrived safely in Gananoque at 18:30 where we anchored across from the municipal marina in the shelter of a small island only to be awakened at 2 to the scream of the wind through our rigging. A flash thunder lightning storm (which was awesome to view from the confines of our cozy little cabin just a couple of feet off the raging water but very unnerving at the same time wondering how our little vessel would handle it) had struck.  The rain pounded for a few minutes which was eerie to hear on our steel deck but it subsided as quickly as it had come up and we did get back to sleep.  However, when we were up in the morning and assessed the condition of our boat it was evident that the storm had pulled our anchor further down the channel from where we had placed it.  We saw that as a good learning tool  and made notes in our log and mentally to ourselves to do an additional anchor check 10 minutes after setting anchor again as a good security practice.  It is wise to note that there is always a balance to everything.

Our next destination was Brockville. We travelled the heavily used St Lawrence River Middle Channel because of our deep hull draft  thereby winding in and out of Canadian and US waters as we criss-crossed the waterway.  We are using Koodo as our cell phone and internet provider and due to my lack of electronic expertise skills I was unaware of the fact that the phone recognized that it was in a different country before I did and we automatically lost cell and internet coverage. I did not understand what had happened until I was on land again to use a land line to call the company. They explained and all is fine.  Another note to self that when travelling like this we must activate US phone coverage on the phone before departure. The waterway continued to be busy and we arrived safely in Brockville that evening where we tied up at Stinson Marine fuel dock awaiting their arrival early the next morning.

During the evening we realized that Stinson did not provide diesel fuel so we had to move to the Brockville public wharf in the morning. We motored to the public dock and walked into town to have breakfast before refuelling.  After refuelling, as we departed the dock the boat`s fuel cable unexpectedly snapped and the Captain had no means of moving the vessel momentarily. We were able to re dock her on the opposite side of the marina`s quay where Keith was able to repair the problem so we could be on our way again. Another note to selves - replace extra fuel line cable. Again all was well and we cast off from Brockville heading eastwardly.

The weather was beautiful. The waterway was the same with the only large swell coming at us from passing or oncoming lakers. The very first ship that had passed us was named The Right Honourable Paul Martin of the Canadian Steamship Lines. We shared a few comments and giggles on seeing her at the time but unknown to us then, there was more to come in the future concerning the Right Honourable Paul Martin.

We motored on feeling quite able to put in a good day of motoring until we lost our electronic navigational data from our electronic chart plotter about two hours after depart. Immediately we needed to find a port to pull in to so that we could investigate the issue. We were not totally at a loss because we had our backup hard copy charts and it was early afternoon on calm waters with excellent visibility. We were fully able to function with the paper copy charts but had to rely on the chart`s water depth predictions for entrance into the next available harbour which was Prescott.

As in all situations, the balance must be considered.  We motored into the little Prescott Marina harbour where 4 other boaters stood on the dock watching us come in. They were excited to see us and gave directions for docking, handled our lines, introduced themselves and chatted with us for a couple of hours providing invaluable information and boosting our confidence even more so.  We figured out what the electronic problem was fairly reasonably and rebooted our system and everything was back to normal.  We both agreed that it was comforting to know that we were secure inside a welcoming port to rectify our issue. Out of this small mishap we had met wonderful people and this little port was to offer us far more than we expected or would ever have known had we not encountered the electronic problem in the first place.  Few shots of Prescott Harbour following.

Keith fed these little guys in the above pic crushed crackers as they passed our boat out for a swim with their mother. That evening we walked the quay to the open air bandstand only minutes from our berth in the marina. Much to our pleasure, a wonderful four piece jazz band consisting of a drummer, tenor and alto sax and flute member, a pianist and a guitarist was playing all of our favorites.  It was incredible to hear their music float over the water.  We are suckers for ice cream so we indulged in a cone before heading back to the boat.  We spend time in the evening getting ready for the following days next adventure.  There is always the route to plan, to make sure all our correct way points have been entered on the chart plotter, check that the all the electronics and VHF radio are working, checking on the engine fluids or just general maintenance aboard.