Cape Vincent, NY

We left Kingston, Ontario on Sat., July 21 on a fairly windy day. It was blowing at 20-25 knots.  But we battened down the hatches to prepare for a possibly rough passage across the eastern edge of Lake Ontario.  It wasn’t too bad at the beginning but before too long the wind picked up even more. We were rocking and rolling and poor Georgio didn’t know what to do or where to go to get comfortable.  So Lynn spent the entire cruise clutching him to her chest in an effort to calm him. 

She finally released him so she could go below for a minute (not a comfortable place to be in rough weather).  Georgio bolted and unbeknownst to Lynn, she stepped into an accident that George had and tracked it all over the new carpet in the saloon.  Ugh!  To avoid it drying and staining the carpet, Lynn got down on her hands and knees to clean all the tracks and there were many! That was not the best thing to do in rough weather either.  Fortunately, Lynn survived with her stomach intact and before too much longer we got closer to calmer waters.

We arrived at the free town dock in the very pretty village of Cape Vincent.  We were surprised to see people swimming in the waters of the little harbor where we docked but the water was crystal clear and apparently serves as a wonderful swimming hole for local residents.  Also facing us on the dock was an old historic stone building that is currently used for fishery research. 

Sharing the harbor was one of their research boats that would slip out at night and return the next morning in near silence.

Mary Ann and David Reed, friends from the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, live just a couple of blocks from the town dock and had invited us to visit them while we were in the Thousand Islands.  Within a few minutes of our arrival, Mary came over to the dock  to welcome us.  We walked back to their house, a very lovely 100 year old home just across the street from the lake.  Having lived on a big farm prior to this move, they have wonderful flower and vegetable gardens surrounding their home.

That night they invited us for dinner but before that Mary was eager to try our paddle board.  She goes swimming in the lake at least once a day and she and David canoe and jet ski taking maximum advantage of their idyllic location in this beautiful part of the world.  David made a delicious dinner that night and we had the opportunity to meet MaryAnn’s daughter, Pam, who was visiting from Syracuse.  Mary Ann also insisted we bring our laundry over so Lynn got two loads done, as well.

That evening, we slept fairly well aboard Zendo though the winds caused the boat to do quite a bit of rocking and rolling, partially because of the way we were situated on the dock.  The next morning the wind was still pretty strong but the folks in the trawler docked behind us planned to take off.  They would have to back out of their spot which was a fairly tricky proposition in the wind.  Fortunately, their captain was quite capable and with the help of Jonny, David and two men from neighboring boats, they were able to maneuver the one boat out and help us move our boat back into a spot that was a bit calmer.  There’s no way we could have moved the way we did without the extra help.   After that, David kindly offered to take us shopping for whatever we needed so the three of us took off to the shopping mecca of Watertown, about 30 minutes away, where we went grocery shopping, bought a case of wine, picked up a prescription at Walgreen’s and various other errands including having a great burger for lunch.

Returning to Zendo, Jonny insisted on taking Lynn for a bike ride  to the nearby lighthouse which he had gotten close to on his walk earlier that morning. It was a stunning bike ride along the coast, passing little pocket harbors and some picturesque homes.  

The lighthouse was equally interesting. The volunteer in the gift shop noted that there was one year the foghorn rang constantly for 13 days, over 300 hours!  That’s how dreary this part of the world can be in the fall and winter with incredible strong winds lashing the shore.  Almost half of the population in Cape Vincent lives elsewhere in the winter though it is quite clear why they would want to be here in the summer!  

As soon as we returned to the boat, we jumped in the water to cool off before Mary Ann and David joined us for wine and appetizers.

We then walked back to their home along Broadway (the Main Street in the village) for a delicious dinner of spaghetti with fresh clams.  David is a great cook and Mary Ann is the baker in the family, a good combination!

Cape Vincent is an absolutely charming introduction to the Thousand Islands for us and we know the remainder of our cruise through these 1,800 islands will not disappoint.