Crossing Lake Ontario

We made it through the Welland Canal on Thursday, but it was a long, slow, and boring day - about eleven hours to get through the locks, much of it spent waiting. Unfortunately, it was dark by the time we got through, which is never a good thing when you're trying to find an anchorage or a dock at which to spend the night. We tried several times to radio the nearest marina, St. Catharine's, but they didn't respond. Since we've found that most marinas close at 8 p.m., there didn't seem to be much point in trying another one, but we needed a place to stay. We motored into St. Catharine's and tried to see if there was a big enough slip nearby, but it was too dark to tell and too shallow to cruise around looking, so we made a u-turn and anchored in the bay to figure out our options. In my mind there was only one option: stay put and don't do anything until daylight. Who cares if the anchorage is only protected if winds aren't from the east but they are? Wayne was too tired to disagree, which is good, because I was too tired for a fight.

Note to selves: call ahead if we'll be getting in late. Better yet, never arrive after dark if you don’t have to.

Now we're in Lake Ontario, with a view of the New York shoreline to our right and the Toronto skyline on our left.

Later...We were planning to make it as far as Point Breeze, NY today, but had the forethought - we are learning - to call this morning to see if they would have a slip available for us, which they didn't. It was too far away for Walter (Hi Walter! I'll never forget the ride on your motorcycle. Hi to Kim and the boys.) to join us for dinner anyway, so there wasn't much point in going through U.S. customs for a one night stay. Instead, we're cruising all night and will arrive at the mouth of the St. Lawrence Seaway in the morning. I hope this overnighter is less exciting than the last one.

I spent a lot of time today reading up on the Thousand Islands, St. Lawrence Seaway, and Montreal.

Later... We made an uneventful night crossing of Lake Ontario, then anchored for four hours in Navy Bay in Kingston, Ontario to catch a few winks before moving on.

Question of the day: Michele, we know what you're doing to pass the time, but what about Wayne? What does he do at the end of the day?

A: Wayne does the major navigation stuff. Every night he records data for that day, plots our course for the next day, and checks weather. He also keeps a Captain's Log and records in it daily. We have a wi-fi booster antenna, but only one of us can be plugged in at a time. Since we've agreed to make the blog a top priority, he doesn't get online much, even to check email, although I'm willing to give him a turn now and then. Especially when it's time to pay the bills, which Wayne does online. I email most of our blog entries, which he could do as well; we don't actually have to be at the website to do that. That is nice because sometimes we get a wi-fi signal that's barely enough to get email through, but not enough to get online. So sometimes you'll see our recent post with text only; I edit the text, upload the photos and add hyperlinks when I can actually get online.