Perhaps the most spectacular part of our journey so far was our travel through the Thousand Island National Park. More than fifteen hundred small islands dot the St. Lawrence River sailing East from Kingston.

After recovering from our overnight passage and taking on provisions in Kingston, we found annchorage just off Beau Rivage Island, part of the National Park.

A storm was coming just as we arrived to drop anchor, which gave us an excellent opportunity to test its hold. As the winds whipped up to 35 KTs, we held firm and could settle in for the night.

After the storm passed, we lowered the dinghy, loaded the dogs, and headed over to the island to explore. The only way to get to the island is by boat and there were a couple of boat docks. Hiking paths crossed over and around the island with plenty of opportunity for little dogs to run and chase, have a little swim and check out local wildlife. One of the benefits of the National Park was the self-composting toilets which were clean and pleasant.

The next morning we headed down river to our next anchorage at Gordon Island. We arrived early enough to dinghy over to explore the island and make plans to come back later that evening to take advantage of the charcoal grills for an island picnic.

When we got back to the boat, I began a much needed cleaning of the decks where we had accumulated a wide variety of bugs, bird droppings and who knows what else. I had been planning for days to take a swim, but location or weather had been preventing me. As soon as I was done cleaning the boat, I was going to do it!

My swimming opportunity came earlier than expected when the bucket I was using to bring up water, came undone from its tether (a failed early attempt at knot tying) and it being our only cleaning bucket, I had to go in after it. The bucket was resting on a nice bed of weeds so I only had to dive down about 12 feet to get it. Invigorated and refreshed, the rest of my boat cleaning project was easy to complete.

We took a short dinghy ride to the dock with all of our provisions for an island bbq. Italian beef burgers with all the trimmings and twice baked potatoes came off the grill just in time for us to enjoy a gorgeous sunset.

We sailed past many more islands heading toward the locks that would take us down to Montreal. Some of them were uninhabited while many more had a single cottage that took up most of the island. We saw people who could fish off of their back porch. Just after the turn of the century, wealthy US entrepreneurs bought islands and built castles on them in an effort to outdo their peers. Singer Castle on Dark Island is now open to the public.


The next day we threaded our way through lakes strewn with shoals and the spoils of canal dredging. We arrived at Chrisler Park which despite being out in the middle of nowhere had had pizza delivery and our first chance to try Poutine, a Canadian dish that will require its own post.

The following day we would take on the Iroquois, Eisenhower and Snell locks and the day after that, the last of the four locks that would take us down into Montreal where we had reservations at the Old Port. Long days to be sure and best to get to bed early for an early start.