Day 9. 2nd year. May 29Town of Gananoque and anchorage at Beau Rivage. Trip 1 mile. Total 2894

Woke to another beautiful sunny day which will warm to 76 degrees!

We put the dinghy in the water and headed toward the town of Gananoque, ONT. Gananoque is First Nation word that means place of two rivers or place of healing in Plano Iroquois language.

Bill felt a hesitation in the dinghy as we planed off on our way to town. Once we got a shore he made some calls to see if a mechanic could come have a look. Luckily we found someone willing to come.

We walked around town and had lunch. After lunch, Bill headed to meet the mechanic and I continued exploring the town. I enjoyed the beautiful brick and stone homes, many with gardens,

The old main Street and old mill building

The churches, one began as early as 1837.

Of course the town had a lovely waterfront and the remains of the old fortification.

and even a gaggle of geese!

Also walked through the History Museum of the Ten Thousand Islands.

So here is the history I learned. The St Lawrence River was formed from the last of the ice ages, over one billion years ago. The indigenous peoples followed the receding ice into the Gananoque area some 10,000 years ago. In 1535, Jacques Cartier arrived in the area and was the first to explore and establish the fur trade network here. It wasn’t til 1784 that permanent settlers, mostly British Loyalist after the Revolutionary War, came to the area. The area thrived with lumber and grist mills along the rivers.

Of special note for all the historians, Gananoque was the site of the first battle of the War of 1812 along the St Lawrence.

During the 1800’s, Gananoque added industries of metal and wood working, with ferries plying their goods along the river. In 1870 with the arrival of the railroad and steamship lines, the town became a thriving tourist destination with large hotels, summer cottages and elaborate summer homes for the wealthy New Yorkers who summered in the area.

Today the mills are gone, but the metal working industry and wood working trades and the tourism are all still alive.

Back to Bill- After replacing the fuel filter and adding fuel stablilizer, we used the dinghy to return to the boat on Mac Donald Island. Worked a bit better but not totally fixed. We were sad.

We then prepared Crustacean to make the one mile trip to Beau Rivage Island where we will anchor for the night. This set of islands is the southern most on the Canadian side and are all smaller, with 1-3 houses on them, except Beau Rivage, which is PARC Canada site. Beau Rivage is a rocky island filled with docks for the many houseboats and campsites.

We also visited the Half Moon Church, which is an outdoor church in a cove that operates each Thursday during June-August. Boats enter the cove and tie up to its walls to worship. There is even a large granite rock shaped like a pulpit.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in the Ten Thousand Islands, great forests to walk through, rocks to climb and very friendly Canadians.

June 4-5. Day 63-64. On to Cape May New Jersey. 53.4nm. Total 1534 miles.

Left Delaware City at 5:35am to be able to take advantage of the strong currents going with us while traversing Delaware River and Delaware Bay. The Delaware River goes south about 15 miles and flows into the Delaware Bay. As we travel south, New Jersey is to the east and Delaware is to our west. We are traveling just outside the shipping channel and are really moving at 10.9 knots. That is three knots faster than we normally travel, as the outgoing tides are pushing us along. Nice to have Mother Nature helps us save on fuel. The Delaware River is about 8 miles wide so there is plenty of room for the freighters and the pleasure boats. So far, we have not encountered any commercial traffic, but there is a large freighter behind us that will eventually pass us as they travel at 14 knots. The Delaware Bay proper varies from 23-29 miles wide and 26 miles long. There are five lighthouses on the Delaware marking the shipping channel. We went by Ship J...

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...

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, Wi...

Crustacean Travels

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