Anchor Out & Trenton!

It's Sunday evening as I write this. I’ll warn you up front that it will be a little “disjointed”. Read on - you’ll find out why.

Our friend Stephen on Jackets ll is a very good photographer! Every once in a while he sends us pictures he has taken. We thought this one was pretty special! Charlotte & Pat could not stop laughing when they literally “fell into” this chair when we were in in Merrickville!

Now back to where we are/were! We had planned to go out to dinner on Thursday evening with my Cruisers Yachts forum friends Randy & Dawn in Cape Vincent. Randy came over to our boat Thursday afternoon with kind of sheepish look, and said he apologized, but he had forgotten that they had promised to do an anchor out with some other people, but that we could come too. Well - that’s all it took - we love to anchor out, and love even more meeting new people! So off we went! We back tracked a few miles to Clayton so we could fuel, then headed across the St Lawrence River to an anchorage behind Picton Island! We followed in Randy and Dawns “shadow” as we headed to the anchorage. The pic below “sort of” explains what I mean by “following in their shadow!”

This is Randy & Dawns new 520 Cruisers Yacht! 52 feet of pure DECADENCE!!!! What a beautiful machine! Of course we got the “complete” tour. I begged to stow away in the engine room as his personal mechanic!

Well - I’ve got an even better picture of our 390 right next to their 520. When you look at the two side by side, it looks like “Papa Boat” next to “Baby Boat”!  With a few exceptions, the side profiles are almost identical! And why don’t I show you that pic.?? Well - it seems I left my camera on Randy & Dawns boat while we were enjoying a wonderful steak dinner they cooked up for us! And there were a bunch of other great shots of the raft up and other events also!

Pat came to the rescue with a few photos off her camera. Below is part of the raft up with Randy & Dawns friends, taken from our boat. 

We took the dinghies to a place called the “Boateak”! It is a boutique / gift shop in the 1,000 Islands, accessible only by boat! What a HOOT! We were able to meet some of Randy & Dawns friends, have dinner with them, and share stories of boating adventures. And what a beautiful night to be on anchor in the 1000 Islands! They truly have one of the BEST boating paradises we have ever seen! Clean /clear water, lots of area to explore, and pristine wilderness!

We will put up some more photos when we get the camera back. 

On Friday AM, we fired up at about 6:30 AM from the anchorage, and headed out. We had more miles to make. When we pulled the anchor, it had about a 100#’s of mud, seaweed, and a log pierced by one of the flukes! It took me 20 minutes to get it clean!
Off we went to Fraser Park marina, 92  miles away! We had good water, so let the 20BUCK$ stretch  her legs for a couple of hours. She ran well on clean water, and got us there seven hours later.

Fraser Park Marina is in Trenton, Ontario. It is the start of the Trent Severn Waterway, which is 240 miles long, has 44 locks, was founded in 1833, and will take us to Georgian Bay in Lake Huron. 

Little did we know, but this turned out to be a Looper Rendezvous for us! We arrived at 2:30 to an empty marina. By 6:00, Jan & Rusty on CBAY, Tara & Joe on Seabatical, Laura & Ross on THE ZONE, Lisa & Darryl on WhyKnot, Dave on Saltie (with lime), Craig & Barb on Blue Heron, and Stephen & Charlotte on Jackets ll had arrived! And of course, it didn’t take long to get Dock Tails started!!!

This is one of the highlights of this trip - meeting and reconnecting with other Loopers!

This AM we pulled out early with Jackets ll to head up the Trent Severn. Unfortunately, Pat dropped her camera on the cement at Dock Tails last night, and now it works sporadically!

So now we are down to 1/2 of a camera.

We’ve got that problem partially solved, and were able to get one photo of the Trent today. If you want to see where this bend in the waterway leads us, you'll just have to check back!!!!

Good Night - and God Bless all the Loopers out there!

Captn Ken