Got up around 7:00am and debated what to do for the day. Head out or stay another day and anchor in the basin behind the drawbridge. I decided that I had been in the Kingston area long enough and that it was time to head to Brockville. The marina where I stayed last night was very interesting. In addition to docks it also has a very active boat building business associated with it–and their specialty is fire boats. Many of the boats they build are destined for the USA. There are also a number of “old favorites” stored in the marina–I wonder if I can convince Catherine to let me save a piece of history.
I basically backtracked the course that Brent and Rachel and I had followed over the past few days. The weather was great for motoring, little wind and not too hot. I got to Brockville around 5:00pm. It did not look like there were any decent places to anchor and I was not excited about paying for another night in a marina so I decided to keep moving east to see if I could find an anchorage that appealed to me. It did not look promising. This part of the river is pretty straight with very few bays on the Canadian side. I ducked in to a couple of small bays between Brockville and Prescott but they still had a fairly strong influence from the river’s current so I kept moving on. About 7:30pm I arrived at the Prescott International Bridge. There was a bay upstream of the bridge and near the grain terminals. I checked it out for anchoring but it was too shallow and I got stuck temporarily in the mud. Gotta keep moving. I still had a lot of energy so I decided to carry on to Iroquois. Once I reached there I would either anchor or go in to the marina just above the locks.
I missed the entrance to the marina so at 9:30pm I tied up temporarily on the freighter dock just above the lock to figure out what to do. While I was doing that the lockmaster came along to ask me what my intentions were. I explained that I was single-handing so was not going to attempt passing through the lock tonight. He said that it was a very quiet night and that the drop through the lock was only about 1 foot, so he would let me through on my own if I wanted to pass through. I said yes right away and agreed to meet him at the lock gates in 10 minutes. I called Catherine and told her where I was and what I was doing. I untied Ananda and headed for the gates. By the time I got there the lockmaster and his boss were ready to let me in. They tossed me a stern line and I held on to it while the lock went down about 1 foot. This took all of 5 minutes. Quite a difference from the locks in the Welland Canal! There was no other traffic in sight so we spent another 15-20 minutes chatting about the Seaway and about my trip from Goderich and through the Welland. It was a beautiful night with no wind and the moon was very nearly full. I had a new burst of energy so I decided to continue on to Chrysler Marina at Upper Canada Village. I called Catherine back and we chatted for a few minutes longer. While I was talking with her my son Steve called and left a voice mail.
Travelling on this part of the river at night was magical. About ½ hour past the locks I met the “Montreal” a large freighter headed upstream. It was lit up like a city. When we got close enough I flashed my deck lights a few times to catch their attention and notice me coming their way. I also moved over to the furthest edge of the channel so the freighter had all the room they wanted. When we got close to each other I turned the light on in the pilothouse, stuck my head out the door and waved to the freighter’s helm. To my surprise, they turned their inside lights on for an instant and waved back at me. Very, very cool.
The current in the river at this point is quite strong but also gentle because the river is so wide. I was motoring along at 6-6.5 knots and I only just had the propeller engaged. Tiki Navigation and the Navionics marine charts were awesome! I always knew where I was and established a bit of a routine where I set the boat on autohelm and I sat in the doorway glancing outside and then at the chart on my computer screen to make sure I was staying on course. Ananda was the only boat on the river and I felt like I could keep going all night long. I called my sister Grace and brother-in-law Don in Canmore and spoke with them for about ½ hour. Then I called Steve and talked with him too. The river was so quiet that I could do this without losing my focus on navigation. I was also talking hands free, using my earbuds—what a great invention those things are!
I arrived at the entrance to Chrysler Park Marina around 11:45pm. The channel in to the marina was dredged through a shallow spot in the river so I had to be careful navigating my way in to the marina basin. When I finally got in to the basin, I saw that it was very small and there were no dock spaces immediately in sight. I saw a catamaran anchored at the edge of the basin so I decided to anchor a little distance away. I dropped the hook as quietly as I could and then sat for 10 minutes to be sure that Ananda would not drag over to the catamaran or towards the docks. Once I was comfortable with the anchor I shut Ananda’s engine down and hit the bunk. It was just a few minutes after midnight. I set my alarm for 5:30am so I could get up early and be sure that Ananda was not in the way of any boats trying to get in or out of the marina. What a day this was. I never thought that I would ever be doing anything like this and I’ll never forget it (or the other parts of this adventure) for as long as I live.