We finished the Erie and Oswego Canals on July, but stayed a day on Oswego to wait for better weather for our 5o-mile crossing of Lake Ontario to Kingston, Ontario. So how did that work out?

We stuck our nose into Lake Ontario on July 3, but the wind was up from storms the night before and the waves were just too much. Discretion being the better part of valor, we stayed an extra day in Oswego and went out to a restaurant recommended to us by an Uber driver that turned out to be a championship recommendation. Fabulous food and fabulous drinks! (The drinks menu was a work of art! https://www.bistro197.com/menus/#/inspired-spirits ) We had a great conversation with three local folks at the bar while we waited for our table: one was the widow of an astrophysicist who also served as a university president, the others were a couple who had retired from careers in the airline industry — he as a pilot and she as a flight attendant. And she had gone to school in Minetto with our mechanic, Kevin Rooky!

After dinner, we walked back to the boat and were treated to a concert from across the river as the sun was setting: they were playing “Brick House!” and we thought of our friends in Baltimore.

We were up early the next morning, July 4, for our long stretch across Lake Ontario! Seas were forecasted to be 1 to 2 feet, although it seemed a little more than that to start…

The weather gods were not kind. The waves were three- to four-feet high in swells and coming at us on the port quarter and a little confused. Occasionally, there would be a five- or even six-foot wave that would hit us and roll under the boat. Without the stabilizers in the water (taken down to pass under bridges), we could do little but hold on, staying on autopilot, and keep moving. Then, one particularly big wave hit us just wrong and Hervey’s chair (which sits on a pedestal on the bridge) pulled out of the bridge deck and down he went. Nothing hurt but his pride. We continued on!

We arrived in the lovely port of Kingston, Ontario CANADA, just before 2 pm, none the worse for wear. The seas calmed down considerably once we got in the lee of the peninsula to the northwest and we docked easily, checked in with customs, and went out for a late lunch. We HAD to come here, since we had spent so much time in Kingston, NY, and found this northern version to be as charming as its southern neighbor. Hervey’s “people” are from a region of North Carolina settled by Scots, many of whom had pledged themselves in 1745 to never bear arms against the King. When the American Revolution came, some held to that promise and emigrated to Canada. He kept commenting on seeing familiar-ish faces on the street as we walked by. “That young woman bears a strong likeness to my grandmother!”

We stayed in Kingston on July 5 and Hervey went in search of materials to fix the captain’s chair. We got our Ontario fishing licenses and generally spent time recovering. We had a fabulous dinner at Chez Piggy (https://chezpiggy.ca/home/) following the recommendations of some fellow boaters who were eating there two nights in a row! With our pockets full of Canadian dollars and our “elbows out” (the Canadian symbol of resistance to the current overtures from the US government) we prepared for our trip to Trent, Ontario and the beginning of the Trent-Severn Waterway to take us to Georgian Bay.

It was a little more ‘sporty’ than we had wished… The morning started easily enough with calm conditions as Hervey walked the dog. We left at 7:00 as we usually do and were in the lee of an island for several miles, passing the Kingston Prison historical site (impressive walls and towers, but immediately next to a tempting cluster of sailboats), and working down our “Z” shaped course to Trent. But that soon changed as we turned more westward and began to drive straight into the wind. Our only respite came when we turned north for a time in the middle of our course. We have since switched over to using Canadian-based forecast models! (Elbows Out!)

Nonetheless, it was a beautiful run to Trent. It felt to us like a tipping point in our journey as we approach the middle of our trip and a new environment that is both familiar (Canadian shield landscapes are familiar from our Minnesota canoe trips) yet entirely new! On to Peterborough and Georgian Bay as we begin the 200+ mile trip on the Trent-Severn Waterway!