We left our anchorage in Rockport about 9:00am. The previous night was so still that the boat barely moved from where we ended up when we dropped the anchor. This is the kind of anchoring experience that every boater hopes for. Sadly, today is the day that Brent & Rachel had to leave and head back to Montreal—prior to flying home to Denver. We had planned to motor through to Gananoque and then try to do some sailing in the waters between Gananoque and Kingston, where they would catch their train in the late afternoon.The waters between Rockport and Gananaoque were a series of narrow but very deep channels between many little islands. All of the 1000 Islands are truly interesting as many of the main channels between the small islands vary from 35’ to 200’ deep and tiny islands barely big enough to hold a cottage rise straight up from the bottom. The current in many of these places is very strong and we always had to pay very close attention to our steering. You have to wonder what the islands would look like if all of the water was drained away. Probably like tall chimneys.
By the time we got to Gananoque I noticed that the starboard diesel fuel tank was nearing the reserve mark. We stopped the boat in a safe area for a few minutes while I switched over to the port-side fuel tank. After starting up again, we only ran on that tank for about 20 minutes and the engine died—with symptoms of fuel starvation. We were in the middle of a channel so we very quickly set out the jib sail, turned the boat around and started sailing towards a wide area near Gananoque. Ironically, this was the only sailing experience that Brent & Rachel had during their entire time with me—and it only lasted about 10 minuets.
We switched back to the starboard-side fuel tank, bled a lot of air out of the lines and then the engine started up right away. Now that we had engine power again we headed to a marine service center in the town to get some more fuel. This whole exercise cost us a couple of hours and it was beginning to become obvious that we were probably not going to make it back to Kingston in time for Brent & Rachel to catch their train. We weighed our options & they decided that they would miss their 5:30pm train & catch the next one at 9:00pm.
When we left Gananoque the wind was beginning to build up to a steady 10-12 knots, so we were hopeful that we might be able to do some sailing when we got in to more open water. However, the wind was also beginning to kick up quite a few waves and the inflatable dingy we were towing was beginning to get tossed around quite a bit. So, we stopped again and raised the dingy out of the water using the dingy davits. By the time we had this task completed the wind had risen to steadily over 15 knots, & gusting to almost 20 knots.
Marine weather radio started broadcasting severe thunderstorm warnings for the entire 1000 Islands area so we abandoned any thoughts of sailing and set out to try to arrive in Kingston before the storms hit. This was not to be. We were about 1 hour away from Kingston and the storm hit. Pounding rain, hail and winds gusting 25-30 knots! Wow, what a ride! We could see the storm coming at us like a curtain being drawn across a stage. When it hit the boat we were layed over pretty hard but the boat kept moving forward without hesitation. This time the galley cupboard doors stayed shut! I told Brent & Rachel that this would blow past us in about 5-10 minutes and we would be just fine. Fortunately the storm was coming straight at us (instead of from the side) and we were in an area where the channel was 3-5 miles wide, no shallow spots, hazards or traffic. This is when having a pilot house pays of big time!
The storm ended about 30 minutes before we arrived in Kingston but the sky still looked pretty angry all around us and sever thunderstorm warnings were still being issued so we headed to the Kingston Marina, which is a privately operated marina on the upstream side of the Cataraqui River Drawbridge.
En route to Kingston Brent had called the Via train and changed their tickets to Montreal to a later departure. This allowed us enough time to head out to a restaurant for dinner. With the earlier engine troubles and the storm, we had not eaten anything substantial since breakfast so we were all pretty hungry. We had a great supper at Chez Piggy, a local “dining institution” in the city for over 30 years. It was founded by Zal Yanovsky, singer and guitarist in the rock band “the Lovin’ Spoonful” he formed with John Sebastion. After dinner Brent & Rachel caught a taxi to the train station and headed off on their next adventure—in Montreal—and I would continue on with my own adventure and fond memories of everyone who has been on this journey with me so far.