From Hidden Bay Beaver Country to Blind River

We started seeing the resident beaver making his rounds yesterday evening after the sun set and there was still some soft light left to see by.  This morning while drinking our coffee on the stern, we saw the beaver family swimming back and forth across our narrow channel at Hidden Bay anchorage.  Not sure what they were doing, but they sure looked busy.  The loon family began calling out, and soon the whole bay was waking up to a perfectly still, pre-sunrise morning.  The only ripple on the water was coming from the beaver heads moving steadily but with a mission focus back and forth across the water around our boat.  We saw the lodge where these beavers must live not too far from where we dropped the hook.  Various seabirds screeched and cried as they flew over looking for food and a place to land.  The coffee tasted extra good this morning and we savored every drop, waiting for the sun to appear and officially start the day.

Today's route to Blind River Marina is on a due west heading for about 37 miles that passes between more granite islands and deep, clear water.  There is a hint of fall in the air, and it will soon be getting cooler at night in this part of the world.  Viridian and crew will bend our course south in a couple of days to cross back into the U. S. and make our way down to Chicago via Lake Michigan to get back into the river system that leads us back to our home.  We will miss the Canadian waters and unforgettable views.

The bikes were taken down, and we rode into town to get one more fistfull of Canadian dollars to get us through the next two days.  The weather looks questionable tomorrow for the cruise over to Thessalon, so we will have to make a call in the morning and see it we can get out on the open water.  There is a good bail-out anchorage halfway to Thessalon that we could pull into if necessary and wait for the wind to die down, or spend the night there.

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

We are here

Today's route from Hidden Bay Anchorage to Blind River Marina, Ontario

Anchoring company

The day officially begins now

Viridian docked at Blind River Marina, Ontario Canada

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.