After spending the night between Locks 7 & 8 on the Oswego Canal, we set out at our standard time of 7:00 am. Just a 1/4 mile from the inlet into Lake Ontario, we were gifted fair winds and following seas. It started a little “dicey” with the seas on our beam, but after about an hour, the “great” lake settled down and we had a relatively calm 44 mile, due North, crossing into the bay that serves Kingston, Ontario.
I knew the Great Lakes were deep, but didn’t realize this deep. Ontario is charted at over 600 feet, but my depth finder got confused on anything over 500.
As we approached Kingston, we were overwhelmed by all the wind generators. I don’t think I exaggerate to say there were several hundred in our view. The winds coming off this lake, I’m sure can be pretty significant. We experienced winds around 10 knots. With temperatures in the mid-70’s, it was still a little cool to be on the flybridge. I will be glad to be back in the South when the temps these folks call cool arrive. It is hard to imagine how these people can handle the cold, so extreme and for such a long period of time. Meanwhile, these folks make a lot of electricity using the wind as the source.
About 4:15 we arrived in Kingston. Our marina for the night was Confederation Basin in downtown. The wind was pretty stiff as we came into the marina. With very poor communications from the dock hands about where I was supposed to dock the boat, I came as close as I have come yet to hitting another boat. I was very fortunate and frustrated at the same time, as I have been so careful. It would have been totally my fault, if something had happened. Thankfully, it didn’t. Lesson learned.
Kingston Skyline 
In the harbor at Kingston 
…the park downtown 
Kayakers took this photo and sent it to me. This is what you get if you don’t throw a 4′ wake at other boaters. Riding with fenders out is considered tacky, unless you are going through locks all day. Notice the mast is down so we can clear 20′ bridges, as well. With mast up, we are 22′. Antennas are 32′ in the up position.
Tuesday morning, we continued Westward toward Trenton, Ontario. Our planned destination was Belleville and we made it by a little after 2 pm. Made good time for a slow boat, as there were no locks or anything to keep us from maintaining a constant 7.5 knots. We pulled off the side of the bay into an anchorage marked on our waterway guides.
The stress of managing a boat can be very taxing.
After a little downtime, we threw the dinghy into the water and cruised into Belleville for a walk and dinner at Paulo’s Italian Restaurant. I got a couple gallons of gasoline in a can because the dinghy tank was getting low. We got about a mile from the marina, on the way back, and….well, I decided this would be a good time to put gasoline in the tank.
A day filled mostly with clouds and occasional showers, while we were underway, turned out to be a gorgeous evening.
Belleville City Hall 
Today we saw swans in the wild, for the first time. 
This seagull kept hanging around our transom. But no, I did not share my Doritos. 
The dinghy ride home… 
…brings to the end…. 
…another wonderful day on The Great Loop
Tomorrow, we enter the Trent River and will go through our first Canadian locks.
What a great day and blog…your journal is so well written and anything but boring! I especially enjoyed the picture of your boat and I know Daddy will especially enjoy the close up and details! Enjoy the adventure of a lifetime for two!
Thanks, Karen. I am a stickler for good grammar most of the time. As my mama, Mrs. Garrett, and a professor at NLU were ruthless about making sure I got it right. And now, I have a very good school teacher friend in NY, who I know is “grading my paper” every night, so I have to maintain a high standard. Creativity is definitely not my thing, but I do hope my spelling and punctuation marks are correct. I’m grateful for that standard, as I see 2 generations now behind me who seem lost when it comes to the written word.
I will continue to write and post pictures for the handful of folks who are following us. This blog also makes for the perfect ship’s log, as well as, an archive for our memories made, when this adventure is behind us.
Thanks for commenting!