Day 10-11 year. May 30-31 On to Kingston, ONT. Trip 15.8 miles. Total miles 2909

Weighing anchor, we left Beau Rivage and the Ten Thousand Islands to head west in the Bateau Channel. This channel is like our Intracoastal, but on Lake Ontario- barrier islands separate us from the lake.

On our way to Kingston, we had to watch for ferries that cross the channel, taking cottagers to their island homes on Howe and Wolfe Islands. Both of these islands are quite large and with many homes and even some farms.

We enjoyed another bright sunny day! Started out at 58 degrees but will warm to 78 today. All the Canadians are in shorts and tee shirts and those on boats are wearing swim suits, Bill and I are not quite acclimated. We still are wearing windbreakers and long pants, especially in the mornings.

We were greeted by Wolfe Islands wind turbines as we completed the loop around the Ten Thousand Islands. We now can see the first of the Martello Towers which were built to fortify Kingston’s harbor from us Americans. These towers vary in size, some big enough to house a garrison of 50-75 soldiers.

The tower is in front of the old Fort Henry which was built 1841 and used til 1880 during this time the US and Canada were again disputing their border.

This is the view as we approach Kingston, ONT

We entered Confederation Basin Marina to a slip in downtown Kingston. After we checked in and got the boat situated we had lunch and took a walk around town.

Bill could not resist more pictures of the locomotive engine in the downtown waterfront park and of course we had to get a shot in the Kingston sign.

We did boat chores for part of the afternoon. Yeah, we now have fresh groceries and clean sheets!!

Day 11 2nd year May 31 Lay day in Kingston

Decided we would relax today and cross of a few items on our To Do list. I got the boat cleaned inside and researched our next stops through the Bay of Quinte up to Trenton, ONT. Also caught up on reading and did a few crossword puzzles.

Bill checked engines, added water to our tanks, and made calls to get another mechanic to help us with our dinghy, recalibrated the inverter and helped me confirm our next stops. We were not very interesting today, sorry!

In the afternoon, we walked into town to do some more sight seeing. Kingston was the first capitol of Canada, but fear of the town being so close to America, made the young nation move the capitol to Ottawa. Here are some shots of the First Capitol Building in Kingston.

The town also boasts Queen’s University

and the Royal Military Academy, which trains cadets for all the military services.

We enjoyed the waterfront parks with its fountain, 1800's Railroad Station and all the ferries and sight seeing boats.

Our stay in Kingston was half sight seeing and half chores, but those chores have to be done. sometime. Thus ends another day for Margie and Bill!!

Reflections on the Great Loop -

Over the 5 and half months last year and the almost 7 months this year for a total of 351 days, we travelled 6348 miles, through two countries 19 states, traversed over 200 locks to find large cities, small towns, farmland, and vast natural waterways and bays. Our route took us through sites of the Revolutionary War, War of 1812 and Civil War, as well as the history of how America grew along her waterways. Beginning with canoes, rafts and barges people and goods moved through these waters. The sailing sloops and steamships changed these rivers, requiring locks and canals to be built to facilitate travel and commerce. Today it is amazing how much commerce moves through these waters. We developed a healthy respect for the freighter and tow captains and lock masters and harbor masters that keep the system working. We have lasting impressions of early morning sunrises, beautiful sunsets, and moonlit bays, the hospitality in all the towns we visited, the vast undeveloped shorelines

Day 194-195. 2nd year. December 3. On to Redington/Clearwater and then to Home. Miles 15 Total MIles 6021

Slept in again. Was nice to finally catch up on our sleep. Found our morning a bit foggy but promises to be a sunny day once it burns off. One of the boaters attracted a female manatee and her baby with his hose, so we walked over to the next dock to enjoy the show. Manatee are often found in shallow areas this time of year as they like the warm water. They also will take advantage of access to freshwater, especially if a hose is left hanging over the side of a boat. Bill also took some drone shots of Caladesi State Park. We did one last beach walk before we left today, turning north to explore that part of the island. Found a few turbans, an olive, 2 small horse conch and a whelk for our shell treasures today. Sea fog started to come in off the Gulf so we turned around and headed back to the boat. We left later in the day as we had to be close to a high tide to get out the channel at Caladesi. A local boater offered to lead the way to a cut that provides more water so we took

April 2 2022. We cast off our lines!

Day 1. April 2 We cast off our lines at 9:00am on out Great Loop adventure. Our friends, Phil and Aggie helped record our departure. The weather was overcast as we traveled out our canal and into Tampa Bay. As we approached the Skyway bridge a dolphin twice leaped completely out of the water, playing in our bow wake. An omen of good fortune for our adventure! As we ended our Tampa Bay crossing, the sun began to peek out and as we traversed past Longboat Key/Bradenton and entered Sarasota we had ourselves a sunny day. We traveled 34.4 nautical miles in four hours and anchored behind Otter Key, a mangrove Island near Lido Key in Sarasota. There we joined another boat from St Petersburg, FL. The owners were for many years sailors from the Caribbean down to Panama. What adventures they shared! The anchorage sports lots of manatees, dolphin and of course, the osprey who lords over Otter Key. Once settled properly, we took a nap, Will spend the rest of our day with a glass of wine

Crustacean Travels

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