2004 THOUSAND ISLAND CRUISE

Come August we decided to fit in a little 10 day solo cruise on the St. Lawrence in the Thousand Island area. We trailered Cloud Nine to Keewaydin State Park which is just west of Alexandria Bay, New York. 

Our route is the red dotted line

This is the center of action on the US side of the Thousand Islands. Keewaydin State Park is a bit off the beaten path and has a great ramp with good side docks for launching & retrieving a boat. If you pay to stay at the docks for one night, you may leave your truck/trailer parked for the length of your cruise at no additional cost. The park is centrally located with great cruising to the west, north and east. 

Sarahjoy and Tammi

Our plan was to have niece Sarahjoy join us for most of the cruise and also meet up with my cousin Beth, who lives in Syracuse.

Sarahjoy navigates

There are so many choices of islands and attractions in this area that it is difficult to settle on a plan of action. Alexandria Bay, however, has too much boat traffic for our taste so we headed right out to the islands.
Picnic Island is probably my favorite. 

 

 Our experience and expertise with anchoring was limited in 2004. We kept intending to anchor for the night by one of the islands, but got cold feet and found dockage instead. One afternoon we were cruising from island to island trying to find a dock with space for us. There was a nice looking little dock off the island to our starboard, but it looked pretty full…..and then a dinghy came whizzing out to us with a wave. The skipper called that they too had a Rosborough RF246 and wanted us to come join them at the dock. What a welcome invitation that was! 

Sarahjoy was once again impressed by the small world of Rosborough owners. Previously she had asked us, “How come people keep coming up and wanting to talk about your boat?” We replied, “Yeah, we used to be surprised by that too, but now we’re getting used to it.”

Raft-up with Crossover

We had a great night getting acquainted with our new friends, swimming and kayaking around the island.

Tammi & Ballew enjoy the sofa version of the dinette

 

Cockpit supper with Kingston Farmer's Market goodies

We were eager to introduce Sarahjoy to Kingston, Ontario since we like that city so much. She had researched Kingston online and discovered that they had an interesting climbing gym that is located in an old industrial building with a tall chimney that you can climb from the inside.  The Boiler Room Climbing Gym. Fun to discover something completely new in Kingston!

Gananoque dinghy ride

Another destination was The Thousand Island Playhouse in Gananoque, Ontario. The idea of docking overnight at the playhouse and taking in a performance had caught our imagination. The dock, however, is open to wakes from the St. Lawrence and with our recent lesson learned on the Hudson River, we wanted to avoid this. So we pulled into Berman Marine instead which was just a short walk from the Playhouse.

 Just a word about the dinghy in these photos: We went through a lot of different small inflatibles in the early days with Cloud Nine. We needed something small enough to fit on the salon roof and light enough for us to put up there by hand. But it also needed to have back support for Craig and be able to safely transport us all ashore for Ballew's needs. This was our 2nd dinghy try - and cute as it was, it didn't seem safe unless water was flat calm.  What we needed was a roof extension for over the cockpit (instead of our existing biminy) and a davit. At the end of this cruise Craig phoned Rosborough and ordered up the roof extension.

Boldt Castle on Hart Island

Back to our cruise:

Boldt Castle on Hart Island is another must see. Back in the early ‘90s Craig and I had toured the ruined mansion while on a camping trip. Work had just begun to restore and complete the building. It was fun in 2004 to see the progress ten years had brought. Hart Island is also a convenient place to clear US Customs.

While we were in the Hart Island area we boated for a day with my cousin Beth and her friend, Jen and had dinner at the Thousand Island Club on Wellesley Island. I guess the boat traffic in this area must have gotten to me because I didn’t take any photos of the visit!

Soon thereafter Sarahjoy departed and Craig, Ballew and I were suddenly on our own and unsure of what to do with our remaining time. While in Kingston we had learned of a weekend Poker Run with zillions of cigarette boats. We had to give up our dockage in Kingston because the Run would begin and end there, so returning to Kingston was out. On impulse we decided to boat to the eastern end of the Thousand Islands and visit Brockport, Ontario. The cruise through the islands was delightful and the harbor at Brockville inviting - but - they would only let us stay overnight if we promised to be gone in the morning. The Poker Run would be filling the Brockville harbor for the lunch stop. We duly promised to be gone early, having no desire to be part of that chaos, and then strolled through town, shopping at an shoe store with an incredible inventory and then back to Cloud Nine for a quiet night. 

Cloud Nine at Brockport, Ontario

 Come morning, however, Craig had changed his mind about leaving. His thought was that getting to see the Poker Run might be fun. We had carpenter’s style ear protectors onboard, so we would be able to stand the din from all the engines. After persuading me, he set off to see if the Harbormaster would let us crowd Cloud Nine into some corner of the harbor and stay for the spectacle. The Harbormaster was in a co-operative mood and said we could tie up at the boat ramp. This put us in a front row seat! 

Our 'speed boat'

Naturally, Craig launched the dinghy so he could putt right up and SEE the boats. 

And what a circus it was! One after another these flamboyant boats came zooming into the harbor, with lots of attitude, throwing up huge wakes. But THEN they had to pull it together and dock (in the churned up water). Lots and lots of boats all doing this at once. Big boats, Bigger boats, Loud boats, Jet engine boats, boats with sudden engine problems, boats with iffy steering… being a spectator was priceless!  

Everything settled down for awhile while they had lunch and we strolled around and got to see what their cooling engines looked like with the hoods up. 

After lunch came the real excitement. The boats exited the harbor and then bunched up in groups out in the St. Lawrence. We spectators stood on the high wall that separates the harbor from the big water. There were no announcements or explanation of what was going to go on out there, but it seemed that the smaller boats were going to take off first, followed by bigger ones and eventually those bombs with the double jet engines. The first heat generated quite a bit of wake action on the wall. I got to thinking about what might happen as the bigger boats got going. Decided to take my camera and retreat a bit. Good thing I did because when the jet engined boats took off a tsunami occurred! The Saint Lawrence rose up, moved toward us, rolled up and over that harbor wall and completely soaked the multitude standing there. What a sight!

 What an adventurous ending to our Thousand Island Cruise!