ssloop: Oswego-Alexandria Bay

Tuesday morning we woke up to rain. We spent the morning on boat projects....Cleaned our fender balls from the lock slime, applied a fresh coat of finish on our teak table, and laundry. By afternoon the sun came out so we took a walk around the town of Oswego.

Wednesday morning we met up with the boat Kat in the Hatt by 8am to buddy boat across Lake Ontario. The crossing was awesome as the sun was out and the lake was calm. After traveling 30 miles together we split off for the last 10 miles as they went to Kingston and we turned onto the St Lawrence Seaway. We are taking a short side trip to travel through some of the area of the Thousand Islands. (We're sure we won't cover them all!) By early afternoon we tied up to the free dock at Cape Vincent. The water is so clear here we actually took a quick dip in the river to cool off! Refreshing 60 degrees! It was a beautiful warm summer night overlooking the pancake flat river with Wolfe Island, Canada in the background with its wind generators sleeping in the still air. What a view.

Thursday morning after Sheli took her power walk around town and bought a muffin for the Captain, we headed east on the St Lawrence Seaway. What a beautiful 27 mile cruise. We cruised past rock out croppings, small islands, big islands, islands with small cottages and islands with castles. We took a slip at Bonnie Castle Yacht Basin in Alexander Bay. We had an incredible view from our slip of the Boldt Castle on neighboring Heart Island. We took the dinghy across the river to tour the Boldt Castle and its grounds. What a place, what a story. The short version is: In the early 1900's George Boldt was one of the wealthiest men in America. He spent many years reshaping the island, building many out buildings and then the great castle all for his beloved wife. Prior to completion of the castle, Mrs Boldt died unexpectedly. George Boldt sent a telegram to the island to stop all work on the castle. The hundreds of workers, put down their tools and left the island. It is said that George never stepped foot on the island again. From 1904 until 1977, the castle continued to deteriorate to a state of disrepair. In 1977, the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority assumed ownership and began the rehabilitation of the property. We explored around some other little islands on our dinghy ride back to the Pura Vida.

Friday we plan to cross into Canadian waters. Once there our cellular and Internet connections will be very limited. So for the next several weeks we are not sure how often we will be able to update our blog. Side note.....The captain is already tired of listening to the first mate sing "O Canada"!

There has been much discussion if paper charts are needed with today's electronics. We have carried many and finally found a need for them.