Grenadier Island, Ontario

We began our day on Wed. July 25 with our little exercise routine, always a good start!  Our plan was to cruise over to Alexandria Bay where Horizon Marina had the best fuel prices.  We fueled up but needed less than expected.  Our diesel usage was much lower than normal because of the slow speed we had to follow on the Rideau Canal.

It was an on again - off again rainy day but we decided to just move across the harbor to tie up at the town dock to explore Alexandria Bay.

We were told that this is a touristy, honky-tonk type of town and our sources were correct!  We stopped for lunch at a local bar and afterwards went to the post office so Jonny could mail a package.  But the signs in town did have an old 1950’s vibe!

 

We then took off on Zendo to travel to Singer Castle.  Lynn was particularly interested in seeing this because it was built by the president of Singer Sewing Machine Company.  Her parents met each other at the Singer store in New Haven where her dad was working as a manager during World War II.  My mother walked in with her sister to buy something and the rest is history!

We tied up at the dock at Singer Castle with the help of one of their staff.

There we participated in a group tour led by a very competent local high school girl.  The castle was not as large or ornate as Boldt Castle.  It was darker and less well maintained but still interesting with lots of secret hidden passages throughout.

 To Lynn’s delight, there were old Singer sewing machines in every room!

The weather finally started to clear as we left the castle bound for our nightly anchorage.  We found a nice one off of Grenadier Island. 

Using the avocados we bought in Cape Vincent, Jonny made guacamole and we had vegetarian chile for dinner.  A big bank of dark clouds was coming and thinking it was going to rain again, we had dinner in the saloon.  However, the rain passed us by and we missed a lovely evening on the aft deck.  

The sunset later that evening, which is usually around 8:30, was particularly spectacular.

Wellesley Island, NY

Our plan for Tuesday, July 24 was to cruise to Boldt Castle and maybe more depending on the weather.  But first, we were scheduled to attend our friend David’s 10 a.m. tour of La Duchesse, a houseboat docked at the Antique Boat Museum.  La Duchesse is a historic two story houseboat from the Gilded Age.  It was built by the hotelier George C. Boldt who also built Boldt Castle.  It is 104 feet long and was used to entertain family and guests by being towed to beautiful anchorages around the 1000 Islands (the boat has no engines).  The boat was magnificently restored, an amazing accomplishment because it had sunk in the boat house for some period of time.

After that fascinating tour we headed over to Boldt Castle on Heart Island where we tied up at the castle’s dock. 

There we took the comprehensive self-guided tour of this incredible castle.  It was commissioned by George Boldt, a self-made immigrant from Germany as a love offering to his wife.  He renamed the island from Hart to Heart and incorporated hearts into the design elements throughout the castle and its grounds which included the entire island.  The castle, an incredibly large and ornate edifice was intended to be a Valentine’s Day gift to his wife.  But, tragically, she died in December and he abandoned the project completely and never returned to the castle after her death.  As a result the castle went into a state of disrepair until it was eventually purchased by the founder of Life Savers candies and ultimately sold to the local bridge authority that has restored it and has opened it for tourism.

We also took a launch over to the castle’s boathouse, a beautiful structure itself, that houses a number of fully restored boats such as those we saw at the Antique Boat Museum. Included in these collections was a racing boat used by Boldt’s daughter who remained in the area but never returned to the castle. Her racing prowess was quite unusual for women at that time. 

As we left the castle’s beautifully manicured grounds and climbed aboard Zendo, it continued to rain on and off.  

We eventually found an anchorage next to the 1000 Island Yacht Club on Wellesley Island.  Prominent families in the area including the Boldts have been members of this club for many years.  We tied up for the night at our cozy and peaceful anchorage, had dinner and continued to watch The Pillars of the Earth to which Jonny is now hooked.

Clayton, NY

We had a short cruise in the 1000 Islands on Mon., July 23 leaving Cape Vincent by 9:20.  David joined us aboard Zendo for the trip to Clayton.  It was a partly cloudy day and the waters were calm as we departed from our snug dockage. We were looking forward to our visit to the Antique Boat Musesum which had been reccommended by so many of our friends. 

We took the established route around some of these tiny islands though we could have taken a short cut based on local knowledge.  Since it was such a short trip anyway, we chose the longer route.  Jonny generously encouraged David to pilot the boat for the majority of the journey.  

Shortly after tying up at the Clayton Municipal Marina, Mary Ann met us. She had driven over from Cape Vincent to ferry David home.  After saying our goodbyes and thanking them for their generous hospitality, we set out to explore the town.  Clayton is a charming small town, very well kept and full of shops and restaurants. 

We ate lunch at a restaurant on the water called Bella’s but there was a wait for a table so we sat at the bar.  This was a good decision because we had a very charming British bartender and Jonny and he swapped stories about London and Cornwall.  Lynn had a surprisingly delicious lobster roll for lunch, overflowing with lobster and not expensive - the best combination.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon at the Antique Boat Museum.  David had given us free passes because he is a docent there.  We loved the museum which is in a group of very attractive buildings along the waterfront.  It houses a collection of the most amazing wooden boats.  Most of them were from 1900 - 1950 and were used for cruising, fishing, and racing in the 1000 Islands.  The majority of those islands are only accessible by boat, even today.  There were fascinating examples of old wooden boats including  canoes, sailboats, and powerboats.  Most of them were meticulously maintained and we were even able to go aboard some of them.  The displays were engaging and informative.  The museum has additional warehouses full of even more boats.  It was interesting to see how many of them still had their registration numbers on them meaning they had been in recent use. 

We spent a good three hours at the museum and on the way back to Zendo stopped at a local pub for a flight of beer and some wings.  We spent the evening relaxing aboard Zendo and skipped dinner altogether.

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.