Across Lake Ontario North to Ontario Canada

Oswego Marina was a convenient stopover and the perfect place to launch our passage across Lake Ontario to our marina of choice in Kingston, Ontario.  We stepped the mast and got Viridian looking proper again.  Later, we walked downtown and got a sandwich at the closest restaurant and walked back ready to hit the sack.  We needed to get up at 0400 and be ready to cast off at sunup, around 0530.

Another thing we needed to do before sailing into Canada was to raise the Canadian courtesy flag and the yellow quarantine flag.  Why the yellow flag?  This lets everyone know that this vessel and crew have not cleared customs.  To clear customs, we must stop at a marina and tie up to the dock (this allows them to board us if they want to).  Only the captain is allowed to step off the boat.  In the not-too-distant past, the captain had to walk over to a designated phone at the marina and contact customs, answer some questions about how much alcohol, tobacco, firearms, weapons, plants, etc. we had onboard, why were we coming to Canada and were we financially able to support ourselves while in Canada.  They needed our passport numbers and boat registration number.  However, we can now use our cell phones and stay on the boat to check in with customs.  Once they were satisfied with our answers, they gave us a number to display in the windshield of our boat at all times.  This same procedure is used for private aircraft too.  Now we can take down the yellow flag and keep the Canadian flag flying while we are here.

At 0530 the selector lever was pushed forward and the transmission engaged with that satisfying "thunk!"  Viridian squatted and twisted slightly to starboard as the counter rotating prop bit into the cold, clear water of Lake Ontario. We soon cleared the marina breakwater barriers and were heading 15 degrees north on a smooth, jade, freshwater ocean.  I say ocean because as far as we could see there was water in every direction except aft.  It was cool enough to wear long pants, shoes, socks and jackets.  It was a real treat also that the wind was not blowing.  We had smooth sailing all the way to the Fort MacDonald Confederation Basin Marina in Kingston, Ontario.  We backed into slip F10 with the help of 3 dockhands, tied to the square Sampson post secured to the dock, and proceeded to clear customs by phone.

That's the news and here's the views:

We are here

Today's route from Oswego, NY to Kingston, Ontario

 Mast is up and ready to go

Leaving Oswego

Entering Lake Ontario

Nuclear Power, one fision the other fusion

View from the bridge

Another Looper crossing the lake today--Crawdad

This is Canada

Wind Farms Everywhere

Our customs number

Confederation Basin

Downtown Kingston, Ontario

City Hall

Engine 1095

I am the i 

Can you hear me NOW?

There's an ice cream shop on every street

And a bakery that sell butter tarts

Another view of downtown

Supper tonight 

We come from a long line of Kirkpatrick's

George

Meg, H2O

Fish and Chips

Walked by a pharmacy that had old medicines displayed in the window.  We got a kick out of this one

Our first butter tart.  It's like a mini pecan pie.