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
and even a gaggle of geese!
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.
