Canada!

After three days in the village of Phoenix, we set off up the Oswego Canal on Sunday, August 9. Ultimate destination – Canada!! 

The New York Locks operate from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. so we were ready to go very early.  We entered Lock 1 with two other boats – a Canadian Looper and an American boat heading to Lake Ontario. Things didn’t go quite as smoothly as anticipated. First, the Bridge Operator was late. The Lock Master was very personable and young and kept apologizing for the Bridge Operator. Finally, the lock started its operation – to take us down 10 feet.  About half way down, we started going back up.  We were confused and worried – is the lock not going to work after all this time?  The Lock Master admitted it was his first time doing a lockage solo – he forgot to close the intake valve.  Once he rectified that, we started going down again.  But then…the bridge didn’t open! We saw the Bridge Operator in panic mode! The Lock Master and the Bridge Operator started yelling at each other. We start to go into panic mode! Finally, after what seemed like several minutes, the bridge started to open. Whew!

No issues going through the rest of the locks and we arrived at Lock 6 about 11:30. Two other boats joined us later in the day – both Loopers:  one Canadian, one American. In total we were five boats docked at Lock 6 waiting for the next day’s opening.

The next day (Monday, August 10 – the day we have been waiting what seems like forever for!) we were raring to go.   Everyone was up early. Everything went like clockwork.  We were in Lock 6 at 7:25 and out of Lock 8 at 8:15.

From Lock 8 we could see Lake Ontario – and it looked nice and calm – we were on our way!  We headed to Kingston; the other Canadian boats headed to Trenton.

We maintained radio communications with the other Canadian boats for a couple of hours but then we were too far away and we were alone.  At 11:54 we crossed the border into Canada!

And here is what crossing the border really looked like.

Shortly after crossing into Canadian waters, we picked up a stowaway. 

Although Lake Ontario is very vast, we never lost sight of land; this is Main Duck Island.

You know you are in Kingston when you see a Martello Tower.

After some initial confusion, we had a plan for clearing customs.  As we were leaving Oswego, we called the customs number for small craft reporting and were informed the Kingston customs office was closed.  We found this hard to believe so we called again and talked to a different agent:  she was very helpful, confirming that Kingston was indeed open and she alerted Confederation Basin Marina that we would be arriving in a few hours.  Although there were two customs agents waiting for us on arrival, we first had to call the small craft reporting number where we were again informed that we could not clear in at Kingston as that office was closed.  Of course, that was news to the on-site agents.  Once that was all sorted out, the clearing in process was pretty straightforward.  The agents explained that for our quarantine period we would not be allowed off the boat, except as necessary to secure the lines.  As our plan is to anchor during quarantine this will not present a problem.  They also indicated we could continue travelling while in quarantine, including the Rideau Canal, as locking does not require you to leave the boat.

Our first night in Canada, we anchored not far from Kingston where we enjoyed a peaceful evening.

Although we planned to stay two nights at this anchorage, as sometimes happens, the wind changed the next day and the anchorage became uncomfortable.  Late in the day, we decided to head to the first lock on the Rideau Canal, Kingston Mills, to dock for the night. There were no other boats there; Kingston Mills has a reputation of being one of the noisiest locks on the system as the busiest railway crossing in Canada runs right over the lock. In fact, when you are going through the flight locks, the bridge is right on top of you and we can attest that when a train passes overhead when you are in the lock, it is impossible to hear anything else.

The next morning we got underway at 9:00 a.m. It was a beautiful day and everything went smoothly.  There are 15 locks to get to our home waters; we completed 11 on Wednesday, August 12. We knew we were getting close to home when we saw and heard our first loon.

We headed to one of our favourite anchorages: West Bay on Sand Lake.

Listen here for the Arrogant Worms!

We enjoyed seeing the scenery on the Rideau Canal.

It is quite a different feeling to go to places you have been before.  It feels too easy.  We know the waters and we know what to expect.  After over a year of every day being a new experience, this feels kind of strange.

We went through The Narrows Lock (our last lock of the trip!) on Friday, August 14 and cruised to Nobles Bay, an area very familiar to us as it is located only a half hour cruise from our home marina in Rideau Ferry. 

We have just completed week one of quarantine – one week to go!