Boats and More Boats

When we arrived in Waterford, NY, we found that there was to be a steamboat festival while we were there. Well, steamboats bring to mind big paddle wheelers on the Mississippi, but that’s not the kind of steamboats these are. These are two typical steamboats. I particularly liked the one to the right because they just used umbrellas instead of the more typical covering as the one above had.



This one was rather unique because it was an aluminum canoe(!) that had been converted to steam power.












The historic Erie Canal tug Urger was also there.



Here we are all headed out of the Oswego Canal into Lake Ontario

Our boats at Dave and Polly Brown’s dock, with Koko anchored out because it was too shallow at the dock for our keel.

One of the display rooms at the Clayton Antique Boat Museum. This is one of the most enjoyable museums we've ever been in and it is a real classy place. We really drooled over some of the boats displayed.

This is a rocking boat instead of a rocking horse that we saw for sale at the Antique Boat Museum. Hmmmm. Now that we have a grandchild……wonder if she’ll be needing a rocking boat.

Dave and Polly have an antique boat of their own and while we were visiting with them, there was an antique boat show in Henderson Harbor, so of course Dave entered his.

Polly and I got to ride with Dave back to their boathouse in Snowshoe Bay after the boat show over in Henderson.

Touring Motorcycle with Boat trailer

All of us in a lock on the Trent-Severn, Snappy rafted to Pogo, Rozie rafted to Koko.

Koko and Rozie on a foggy morn on the Trent-Severn

Our flotilla (left to right: Snappy, Pogopelli, Kokopelli, Rozinante) along the wall in Campbellford. Note the giant coin monument in amongst the trees. It is of a Toonie, the Canadian two dollar coin. The designer of the coin was from Campbellford.

Koko in Lock 43, gates opening. This was one of the bigger locks on the Trent.

Pogo and Rozie at anchor

This was a really nifty boat that shared our anchorage at Byng Inlet. Sure wouldn’t want to take care of all that gorgeous teak though!

Raft up in the Bad River of Rozie, Koko and Snappy. Pogo had stayed behind in Pointe au Baril Station and didn’t catch up to us until the next day.

This trawler passed us while we were in Killarney. A trawler using a sailboat as a dinghy???? That was a first. Name on the sailboat: Hot Tub

The Benjamin Islands in the North Channel are big granite boulders with water pathways surrounding the boulders. So you’d come around a corner in your dinghy while exploring and find what appeared to be a boat aground. Not. The water was deep and the boats would wiggle their way into a spot and tie off on pitons hammered into the rocks.

We are all previous or current Catalina 22 owners, so we were most impressed and interested when we came across this very well-canvassed Catalina 22. Gave us lots of ideas for our Catalina 22s.

Homes, Boathouses and Other Abodes

We saw all kinds of homes and boathouses--and other abodes--while on the waterways. Here are some of them.

Bolt Castle in the Thousand Islands, eastern Lake Ontario/St Lawrence Seaway


Roof trim on Bolt Castle

Bolt Castle Boathouse



Dave and Polly Brown’s home on Snowshoe Bay, Henderson Harbor, NY

Prince George Hotel, Kingston, Ontario (Kingston Ontario 23

Teepee along the Trent-Severn

Cottage built on a smidgen of rock. We actually saw lots of cottages built on such small bits of rock we were astounded. In the Thousand Islands if the rock has a tree on it and vegetation, it is considered an island, no matter how small.

Nifty little home and boathouse

Lighthouse at Point au Baril, Ontario, Canada

Homes on Mackinac Island

Developer Earl Young's great gift to Charlevoix, Michigan, was a group of fairy tale mushroom houses that he built around the Boulder Park neighborhood near the city's lakefront starting in 1918. Here are two of his--they made us think of hobbit houses. The third picture is of a modern-day "knockoff" and of much grander scale, and definitely not a hobbit house.

Miscellaneous Pictures

Sign for the turn to the Erie Canal












Most of the locks on the Trent-Severn Canal are manually operated. The lockmaster has to go around and around in circles to open and close the gates. Wonder how many miles a day during the summer they travel.


The lowest gas price we saw in Canada was 97.9…..per liter. That translates to $3.72/gallon. Mostly gas was over $4/gallon. And we squawked about high gas prices in the US!















Trish staring at the big lock doors as they close us in, with big, deep reverberating clangs.

















“Johnny Cash” at the Wanted Man concert, a tribute to Johnny Cash. As Ned said, “he was better than Johnny Cash was, even when he had a good day.” Wow.















The Peterborough Lift Lock. Each of those trays you see are full of water. When one is at water level, the other is at the top of the lock. The boats drive in, water is let in to make the tray heavier, it comes down and the boats drive out.


This is the view from Koko in the tray of water as we rode up the lift lock.











The other unique lock we went through was the Big Chute Marine Railway. It was like a great big travel lift with 2 slings in it. After you drove your boat into the sling, the railway came up out of the water and started up and over the hill. It was cantilevered so that the boats in the sling were always perpendicular to the carriage, even when going down the steep slope.

Inukchuks are rock cairns built to look like a man that simply show that someone has gone here before or passed this way. It is a distinctive landmark to native Inuit travelers on their journeys in the Canadian Artic environment. This is a hostile and an unforgiving environment and any sign of someone else being there is comforting.
We saw many of them along the water and it inspired Paul to dinghy ashore and build his own.




This is Devil’s Door Rapids on the Bad River. They are only about 1 foot tall, not very imposing at all. Lots of people with dinghies ride right up over them to get to the great fishing and exploring waters beyond. We decided to try it in Daisy. It turned out to be the site of our first (and only, so far) capsizing. Our little ole 3.3 Mercury engine just couldn’t get us up and over and we got turned sideways and over we went. Fortunately, I had put Ned’s camera in a plastic bag and the bag held! Whew! Stan did lose his good fishing pole, but we were able to retrieve my Croc and his tackle box, both of which floated. The current was enough to speed us down river and it wasn’t until we came to a big boulder about 4 feet under water that we were able to stand up. It took about 20 minutes to get Daisy turned back over and pumped out and then both of us back into Daisy. What an adventure. Thank goodness the water wasn’t freezing, just chilly.


There were a lot of seaplanes in Canada. This one at Killarney was kept on a pad above the river and he just rolled down the ramp into the water and away he went.

The main reason for stopping at Killarney is the “fish bus”. This converted school bus sells fried fish and chips from the window and does a gazillion dollars of business in the short 3-4 month season. People come from far and wide to partake. And Killarney is off the beaten path—you’ve gotta want to get there, it doesn’t just happen by chance.

The Benjamin Islands are made up of granite, yet lots of tall trees grow on them. When we were there we saw quite a few had been blown over in a swath by high winds. When we saw how amazingly thin the dirt cover was, and thus how the roots only went down less than 2 feet, we were incredulous that there were so many big trees. This is a picture of one of the recently toppled pine trees. Note how shallow the dirt layer is, even though the roots are wide spread.

Paul, Ned and Stan with our anchorage at the South Benjamin Islands in the background. The Benjamins are uninhabited islands.





















Spiders on the boat were common in Canada. I don’t know if it’s just the season or if it’s a Canada thing, but they were all over. Even the marinas in Canada sell spider spray, the problem is so pervasive. This was taken on a misty morn so the web is easily visible.





Mackinac Island prohibits any vehicles other than ambulances and police cars, so getting around is done by bicycle or horse carts and carriages. The horses are all draft horses—Belgians, Percherons, etc. This picture is of horses that had just backed into the driveway for a restaurant so the supplies could be delivered. Notice how they are leaning away from the load to keep it from going on down the hill. It was most interesting to see the driver make the horses go backward and to maneuver the cart around the corner into the driveway.


While on Mackinac Island we toured the old restored military fort on the hill above town. We were looking at the glass panes in this window to see if we could tell which were original and which were replaced. Then we noticed the reflections. The blurry ones of the fence were original glass, the clear, straight line reflection was new glass.










I had told Stan several times during our trip that I sure missed our kitty cats, which are in Minnesota being cared for by our son and his wife, Justin and Angie. Lo and behold, on my birthday at the end of August Stan got me but a new cat. It’s a yellow stripe cat, so he’s a male. He’s a great boat cat. Here he’s stretching out after a nap. His name is Kittipelli.

Obligatory Sunrise/Sunset Pictures

Sunrise at Dave and Polly Brown’s home













Sunrise the morning after we came back into the US at Drummond Island















Between Kingston and Trenton in Canada














Full Moon in July

Killarney Sunset