August 10 and 11, Kingston to Belleville, ON

Since we hadn’t heard any news about a transmission from Don’s Marine after 3 more days and checking daily, Dirk started calling around in the morning and got a referral to an experienced guy who says he has rebuilt hundreds transmissions. He came to the boat within the hour and is ready to work on it. Since he works out of the Belleville Crate Marina we happily heading there, with one working engine and a broken seacock (which doesn’t seem to matter.)

An interesting drama is occurring in the marina –  the Island Queen which I photographed on our first day is now in dry dock after hitting something big in the water that tore up a propeller and rudder. We aren’t the only boat with challenges!

As we prepared to leave this morning I took a few photos of the yard  including some of the great guys that work there.

We were ready when the bridge opened at 7am and were on our way. I waved goodbye to the Wolfe Island ferry, already bringing people back to mainland, as we set off.

However, once we left the protection of Wolfe Island we got a little surprise. With the wind blowing about 10+ knots, Lake Ontario was a bit wild with 3 and 4 foot waves. When they hit us from the side the boat wobbled unhappily and cups and books on the bridge went flying around. Dirk did his best to manage the boat but we were very happy when the protection of the next island began. When I went below to survey the “damage” (nothing permanent) this is what I saw…  Fortunately that was the worst of it and we made it to Belleville by 4pm. More on that tomorrow.

 

August 9, Wednesday Kingston to Toronto; Brampton to Kingston

Monica and Shaun had an evening flight out of Toronto so we rented a car and left around 9:30 am so we’d have some time in the big city.  And it is huge! Three hours later we exited the highway north of downtown Toronto and had lunch at an Indonesian fast food cafe (!) on Younge street and then took Younge all the way to Front Street in the heart of downtown Toronto.

Dirk and Shaun wanted to go up the CN tower, but when they discovered there was a two hour wait they called and joined us at the old RR roundhouse.

It was only a few more blocks to Lake Ontario and we had to see what the shore front had in store.  There were a number of tour boats along the dock filling up with tourists, and many people just strolling around and even some lounging in transplanted sand. Just in case a fire rescue boat was waiting at the end of the wharf.

We sadly left Monica and Shaun at the airport and headed to Saskia and Randy’s in Brampton to pick up the rain jackets we left there last week. Double bonus: Besides seeing Saskia and Randy again, Saskia’s brother Herb and wife Linda were also there. And again we were treated to a delicious dinner thanks to Saskia. We hated to leave and had to tear ourselves away to start the 3 hour drive back to the boat. We arrived around 12:30am and slept a bit later the next day.

 

August 7 & 8, Monday & Tuesday, Kingston, ON

Monday was a day to catch up and tolerate bad weather while we waited for the engine repair person. We did laundry, walked around town, did jobs on the boat and ate in. Today, Tuesday,  was something else (impatience) since there was still no sign of the mobile marina repair person who said he’d be by last week.

Today, after yummy pancakes with ginger chips for breakfast, we walked a few blocks to the ferry terminal for Wolfe Island, which is at the eastern Lake Ontario entrance to the St. Lawrence Seaway. On the way Dirk pointed to a sign for a street named after a popular Canadian band – Tragically Hip.

Wolfe Island is also the largest of the 1000 islands, but since we only saw a small part of it, we had no idea. Unfortunately the island is now home to many large modern, windmills, which caused Dirk’s cousin Hillary much distress as she owned land of the island and sold it due to the impact of the windmills.

 

Anyway, we had a ferry nice ride over to the island, walked to the east part of town, and immediately found a wonderful bakery. We explored a bit more and came upon a man painting a mural with General Wolfe on an Inn wall, and wandered on some side roads as well.

We came back to the bakery, really the best I’ve seen so far in our travels. They even had a famous Canadian favorites of Dirk’s – Nanaimo Bars. After enjoying some treats and coffee, we headed back to the ferry as we wanted to see additional areas of Kingston today now that the weather was warm and sunny. On the way we had a great view of the fort we visited with tons of sailboats in the harbor.

We headed to the Kingston Welcome Center and found a sign we helped to complete (see photos), then walked along the waterfront for a while finding historic markers and buildings and a few small museums along the way. We rested at a Yacht Club where even young (5-7 yrs) children were learning to sail in small sailboats, and pre-teens were flying out of the harbor. Imagine trying to herd all those kids!

As we walked we enjoyed all the limestone buildings found around the town and later at Queens University where Monica and I enjoyed the art exhibits at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre. The current exhibit showcased the works of Alan Collier called Across Canada which were landscapes from PEI and Newfoundland to British Columbia. Paintings donated by the patron saint of the museum, Alfred Bader, were astonishing, including at least three Rembrandt’s and a number of other Dutch masters we enjoyed, especially Jan Lievensz.

Some scenes along the walk and the jazz trio…

We all met up again in the Kingston Market Square and had an early dinner at Olivera’s, a restaurant recommended by a boat neighbor. Although they were fully booked, since we were eating early we able to get in without a reservation. Besides a great meal we enjoyed 45 minutes of live jazz!

Tomorrow we head back to Toronto because Shaun and Monica are leaving us. Although it wasn’t the vacation we had hoped to share with them, they’ve been great sports and we’ve all had a good week together. We’ll miss them, that’s for sure.

 

August 6, Sunday Kingston, ON

Although the forecast was for partial rain, we decided to head to Fort Henry, the fort built on the corner of the Rideau Canal, the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario to protect Kingston and the Rideau Canal from American attack after the War of 1812. We enjoyed a tour, ate lunch at the “commissary” and looked at various exhibits on our own.

Most acting  “officers” and  “privates” are college students that do an excellent job with the tours, answering questions and enacting drills that would have been performed during the soldier duties in the 1800’s. It also became clear that being a soldier here in 1850 was a very difficult life for the enlisted men.

Fortunately Monica and I were in the shops when it started to pour and there were many places for everyone to duck out of the storm. Shaun caught an interesting photo of an entire family on their devices including the toddler!

Dinner was a Vietnamese and Thai meal thanks to Monica and Shaun and then we played a game of Cribbage before we retired. Shaun is kind enough to play with us!

August 5, Kingston, ON

After a quiet evening at the Kingston Marina we awoke to a fine Saturday. I called Don’s Marine and Don promised to come by at 4 pm, so we had the day to explore downtown Kingston and lucky us – a street festival was in process on Princess Street. Fun! People everywhere, vendors, and many kid-oriented activities as well. Monica and I found health food and clothing stores and Dirk and Shaun headed to some electronics areas. I enjoyed the festival  ambiance with all that positive energy. We later happened upon Market Square where we found fresh veggies and healthy breads. We looked at the other marina in town which is  more $$ but much nicer.  (Ours is very rough, but we are tough.) The guys headed back to the boat while Monica and I did some additional shopping – we went back to get some reasonably priced wind breakers. (I had left mine at Dirk’s cousin’s house).

August 4, Friday: Kingston Mills to Kingston, Ontario

The boat mechanics finally arrived at our boat after lunch and started diagnosing the multiple issues and fixing them! We actually found the needed impeller (for the starboard engine) on board in the parts left by the previous owner, and the generator was fixed as well.  The port engine unfortunately requires a replacement transmission part so that will have to wait until we get to a boat yard.  Fortunately we are able to travel to Kingston on one engine. Dirk and Shaun are very pleased we can finally leave and head toward some services.

In the morning before repairs Monica and I walked a mile to Tim Horton’s for treats and to get an additional propane bottle in case we needed to stay another day without electricity. We saw some lovely flowers along the way.

I also took photos of the powerful waters coming down the rapids. Nice negative ions near there!

 

August 3, Wednesday, Kingston Mills (still)

In spite of being stuck here, we are having a good time at the Kingston Mills dock and locks as more Great Loopers and other travelers that we’ve met in our travels come through and we catch up. Monica helps as needed and Shaun enjoys helping boats tie up and chatting with the boaters. The weather was pretty hot today so both Shaun and I got some swimming in too.

Monica and Shaun are great at sharing and accepting and staying positive as even more issues surfaced today. Now, in addition to the engine problems, the generator is acting up. It’s all of a sudden too loud and generating a lot of water vapor, so we can’t really use it to cook tomorrow and there is no electricity here.  Then I started washing a few dishes and realized we are very low on water! No water, no cooking – well that’s a little challenge (!) but we can make do with the small propane grill at the back of the sundeck. But no coffee in the morning? Gotta solve that one! And we will. Dirk and Shaun went to the washroom and came back with hot water for dishes, and did them, so there are solutions to be had. Still smiling!

We are expecting a boat maintenance crew to drive up from Kingston and help us in the morning.

July 31 Melody Lodge & Marina in Seeley’s Bay ON

Last night we moved the boat to a small marina far outside of Seeley’s Bay, ON named Melody Lodge. There was only one dock with power for our type of boat – already occupied. But there is 110 current on our dock that, with a converter we have on board, will at least power the refrigerator. We hoped that the last locks would be opened and we’d get to Kingston today, but that didn’t happen.

Since the next few locks to get to Kingston on Lake Ontario were still closed, and we promised to pick up our friends that were landing in Toronto, we needed to get a ride to Kingston where our car rental was waiting. Fortunately for us, the marina owner, James, volunteered to drive us the 40 minutes or so there.  We of course gave him gas money plus, as well as our huge appreciation. There are no Uber drivers in the town were we are staying!

We had called ahead to see if we could visit Dirk’s cousin Saskia and her husband, and of course she said “Come”. Our plan was to stay the night and then pick up Monica and Shaun in the morning.

August 1 & 2, Melody Marina to Kingston Mills Ontario

We traveled to Brampton, north of Toronto, and had a great time visiting Dirk’s cousin Saskia and her husband Randy. Great meals, great walks and talks, and successful shopping for supplies as well.

As we went to pick up Shaun and Monica at the airport the next morning we realized they had texted us that their flight had been cancelled and they’d arrive at 5:30pm, not 8:30am. We called Saskia and headed back to their house and spent another nice and productive day in the Brampton and Toronto area including shopping for boating items. Saskia invited us all to stay another the night with her and Randy, and once again fed us and Shaun and Monica with her excellent cooking and joyful spirit.

After a 3+ hour ride in our rental car to Kingston Ontario this morning we shopped for groceries, returned the rental car and got an Uber ride to the marina.

We are finally on the water we headed to the next lock, 15 minutes away. And here we sit.  The lock is temporarily closed and we don’t think we’ll make it to Kingston tonight either! Will we ever leave the Rideau? Of course there are a lot of nice people here and we’ll have a nice evening. Shaun and Monica are great to have on board – happy to pitch and enjoying their vacation whatever it brings.

Update: We made it to Kingston Mills after all, but not to Kingston. We only have 4 more locks to go through here, and then the Rideau canal journey is complete… tomorrow!??

Unlikely, because there’s another complication… We were traveling using only the port engine since the starboard one has been overheating. We were were within 10 minutes of the lock when the port transmission stopped working – nothing! Dirk started up the starboard engine and we made it to the Kingston Mills walls, tied up, and called the Kingston marina to send up help!

 

 

 

July 30, Chaffey Lock in Elgin, ON to Melody Lodge & Marina in Seeley’s Bay ON

After enjoying the company and help of Dodie and John for a number of days, we said “so long” and headed to Jones Falls on the Rideau Canal – a little closer to our immediate goal of Kingston.

The port engine that John helped with is working great now. The starboard engine is still a concern so we traveled most of the day without using it.

We FINALLY went through the lock near Joe Holme’s island, and he wasn’t there! I can’t imagine why after expecting us for about 5 days! But I have pictures to prove we finally made it.

When we arrived at the Jones Falls series of 4 locks there was a 45 minute wait before we could even line up, so we enjoyed the company of some folks we met in a previous lock and I had a refreshing swim in the clear lake water. Dirk and I also had a chance to actually help open the manual locks.

While in the locks we received a text from Ian who we met at the Newboro lock and was just checking in. I mentioned we were having engine problems and in one of his lives he was a diesel engineer and he said he would see what he could do to help. Unfortunately the marina we were heading to, Hotel Kenney Marina, lost our reservation and had no place for us, but we found another at a good location closer to the next locks and Ian and Pauline followed us here. After a hour or so, and the use of a coat hanger that Pauline fortunately was able to donate, the most likely cause of the engine problem was found (stuck seacock) which is a relief to at least know.

Tomorrow we’ll try to get through all 7 locks and to our marina in Kingston, and also find a boat mechanic, and rent a car and drive to Toronto. Just another day… sure:)

 

July 29, Saturday Newboro Lock to Chaffey’s Lock, Elgin, Ontario

Since we had no information as of 9am if we’d be able to travel today, we walked around visiting and I took some photos of waiting boats and some lock wall neighbors we met and talked with a while, Ian and Pauline.

Surprise! As we were de-cluttering and cleaning we were told we had a 3 hour window to get through the lock that is 45 minutes away (and already has a line up) and we needed to leave right away! Never moved so fast to get breakables put away, untie the boat and move into the Newboro lock. And then we were on our way, hoping to get through 6 locks today in 3 areas. It was another beautiful day on another lovely lake with many islands, but as we approached Chaffeys Lock lock we noticed a number of houses with their docks under water.

And then the overheating of the engines started again! Two days ago it was just one and now both were running hotter than normal. Dirk managed to keep one or the other going until we could get through the busy lock, which took a while due to the crowds of boats waiting to get through.

We stopped after the lock and discussed next steps regarding the hot engines and it seemed likely that seaweed and grasses had clogged a water intakes. John had suggested that he might be able to help us with that when we talked yesterday, because he is an experienced diver and has scuba gear on board. They were in the next run through the locks and stopped at our request, and John ended up helping us, first by diving under the boat (after the locks were closed) and finding no blockage, and then helping Dirk with tools and encouragement as he worked on the engines and hopefully found the problem – one broken belt.

Jodie and I took a few minutes to walk to an historic Grist Mill which is now an Art Studio, but still has a stream running through the basement! The high waters coming down through the causeway were amazing as we walked back to the boat.

Later we ate a the Opinicon Resort, a historic Inn in Elgin, ON that has recently been refurbished at great expense by the CEO of Canada’s successful  business for online stores – Shopify. The Resort is a 5 minute walk from the lock and they allow overnight lock guests to use their showers and laundry near their own marina (and I did a load). Very nice.