August 24 – Kingston to Upper Brewers Lock
44°24′48″ N 76°18′46″ W

I was up early, had a light breakfast & left Kingston Confederation Basin Marina at 7:45am so I could catch the 8:00am opening of the bascule bridge.

Photo below: sunrise over the Martello Tower adjacent to the marina

Unfortunately, I had forgotten that it was Friday & the bridge does not open between from 7:00am to 9:00am to accommodate the weekday morning rush hour traffic. There was next to no wind so I just drifted for a while & then went for a slow cruise past Forth Henry to pass the time.

I was back in front of the bridge just before 9:00 & went through as soon as it opened. Next stop – the marina next to the bridge to get my waste holding tank pumped out – then on to Kingston Mills to “climb” the first set of locks.

Once inside the first lock the Lockmaster noticed that I was single handing so he offered to lend me one of his staff to go through the next 3 locks. A wise sailor never turns down an offer of help so I quickly accepted & one of his summer-student staff members hopped aboard as soon as Santosha was at safe boarding height.

It turned out that my temporary assistant was a student at St. Lawrence College in Kingston & that she was living in the same apartment building that our daughter Emily lived in when she was at St. Lawrence College 3 years ago. Small world, eh!

After exiting the locks at Kingston Mills I “surrendered” my assistant & continued heading north.

The next 2 locks (Lower & Upper Brewers) were about 2 hours away. I was getting hungry so I decided that I would stop for a late lunch after passing through the double locks at Upper Brewers. By the time I was on the dock it was almost 2:00pm.

Photo below: Upper Brewers Locks

For lunch I was eating pepperetts & chips & salsa that Brent had made a couple of days before. The salsa was delicious but spicy hot, so I decided to have a cold beer to cool my throat down. The first beer tasted so good the I decided to have another! Well, now that I’ve had a couple of drinks I can’t “drive” the boat any further so I quickly decided that I was moored at this location for the night. Now it’s afternoon nap time!

After a refreshing nap I went over to the Lockmaster’s office to pay for my electricity hookup & I discovered that this location has showers! Well, that sealed the deal. A beautiful, quiet location with electricity & showers – I’m here for 2 days for sure.

I finished the day & evening off by updating the Spanda Yoga website for Catherine & Valerie (http://spandaretreats.com/).

They don’t pay me anything for my IT services but they are very flexible with other forms of compensation such as free yoga classes & private yoga sessions but I haven’t taken advantage of that perk yet :). Maybe someday. Neither Catherine or Valerie are too worried about me abusing that perk.

Tomorrow (Saturday) I plan to sleep in late, maybe do some light housekeeping & defrost the refrigerator. But first I will work on emptying the beer cooler & napping. After all, summer’s almost over!

Cheers!