Cruising by the numbers

The small cove on the south side of Stovin Island in the St. Lawrence River near Brockville was our favorite image of the last two weeks. As for the numbers . . .

Total distance -- 540.2 miles
Longest day -- 99.0 miles
Shortest day -- 2.0 miles

Port engine -- 45 hours
Starboard engine -- 47 hours (on account of charging batteries)

Average speed -- 12 miles per hour
Maximum speed -- 27 miles per hour

Fuel burned (gasoline) -- 1,038.6 liters/274.4 U.S. gallons
Gallons per hour -- 6.1
Miles per gallon -- 1.97
Cheapest fuel -- $1.02 per litre at Port Whitby Marina, Whitby
Dearest fuel -- $1.18 per litre at Brennan's Marine, Gananoque
Propane burned -- 4 one-pound cannisters

Eight-hour candles burned -- 2.5
Paper towels -- 2.5 rolls
Toilet paper -- less than a roll*

Drinking water -- 37 litres
Red wine -- 6.75 litres
Beer -- 2.7 litres

Steaks (beef) -- four servings
Steaks (pork) -- one chop each
Lamb -- 3 small chops each
Pork roast -- one (but what a story it was!)
Sausages -- 9
Burgers -- 4
Chicken breast -- one, cut into two servings
Salmon -- one fillet
Trout -- one fillet
Eggs -- 30
Butter -- 1.5 pounds

Number of words in the Admiral's journal -- 4,858

Dollars expended -- to be tallied
Cost -- priceless


*No, we do wipe. We used so little aboard the TomCat as we had a chance to use shoreside facilities on Parks Canada islands and in marinas.

The Who Knows Where Cruise

Excerpts from the Admiral’s journal:

Sat Sept 12 - Cobourg
Depart Frenchman’s Bay at 0820 for Whitby to refuel and pump-out
The sun is shining, the winds are from the NE
Breakfast on the go - Admiral’s famous bacon/egg/mushroom western sandwich
It’s a bumpy ride - Admiral doesn’t have her sea legs and spends time on the cockpit floor snoozing and avoiding the big bumps
It’s a bit too bumpy to continue so we decide to stop at Cobourg.

Sun Sept 13 - Kingston, Confederation Marina
Calm day on the waters
For the first time, we see an unusually high number of American boaters
At the Adolphous Reach - we are radioed by a Rosborough 24 - “Pecan”
owned by Rich & Tamara Tate of Melbourne Florida, who are travelling with their son James. Rich is part of the CDory forum.

Mon Sep 14 - Wood Isle
Another sunny day. We enjoy a leisurely breakfast of eggs over-easy and see-it-again potatoes as we decide our route for the day.
We refuel at Kingston Marina. Captain discovers that the outboards have a gasoline smell. Concerned, we head to Collins Bay Marina to have it checked out. Great news! Nothing wrong, there may have been too much oil. Cost $37.00 for the appraisal and to take out a little of the oil.
We are given the go-ahead and head towards Camelot Island. Much to our surprise and disappointment the anchorage is full. We circle the Island and every anchorage and Parks Canada dock is filled. We now know, after Labour Day it is still very busy in the Thousand Islands and you have to arrive early to claim your anchorage.
We anchor at Wood Isle which is next to Camelot. We are not alone. We spot a 34 Defever, 42 Grand Banks and two sailboats.
We spot our first wildlife - two muskrats.

Tues Sept 15 - Adelaide Island
We wake up to the sound of our first loon.
Winds are out of the NE 10-15
After a quick breakfast of Kashi crunch cereal with blueberries, we head towards Adelaide Island, our first Parks Canada stop. Cost is .90 cents per foot for dockage. There is a reminder to pay immediately upon arrival.

Wed Sept 16 - Ivy Lea
Winds are out of the NE 15-17
Not sure if heading towards Brockville today.
As we poke our nose out, Captain decides to head upstream to Peck’s Marina at Ivy Lea. Cost $2.00 per foot. The most expensive dockage so far, plus $3.00 per garbage bag. But we do have wi-fi, laundry and a much needed shower.
Time to finally unpack our clothes.

Thurs Sep 17 - Stovin Island
Winds are very light
We head towards Brockville to do some provisioning:
the Farmer’s Market: local tomatoes, garlic, oriental cucumbers, yellow beans, potatoes, zucchini bread loaf, maple chipotle bbq sauce, amaretto honey and a grainy mustard. We buy out the Market as usual.
Tait’s Bakery and Deli for a multi-grain loaf and pumpkin tarts. Metro: St Albert’s cheddar cheese, salad, salmon, lamb chops (cut to order from the store butcher) and beef burgers, milk & juice
The Brockville Municipal Harbour allows free dockage for three hours. It took us that long to provision and have lunch. See-it-again pork roast sandwiches with the fresh multi-grain bread and tomatoes.

Fri Sep 18 - Crysler Park Marina, Morrisburg
We wake up to our first morning rain shower of the trip.
It is a leisurely morning as we plan our day.
Iroquois Lock our first seaway lock on the St Lawrence.
Dinner is Captain’s grilled smoked salmon on a cedar plank. Delicious. Very moist. Served with yellow beans and penne with pesto. Dessert is see-it-again pumpkin tarts.

Sun Sept 20 - Grenadier Island Centre
Winds from SW 5
Depart Crysler at 12:35pm
It’s a sunny day. We pass a very busy Brockville and Stovin Island. Cruisers, big ships, kayakers and runabouts. Very smooth ride to Grenadier Island Centre.

Mon Sep 21 - Grenadier Island
It’s a hot sunny day. No breeze at all.
We have been invited for dinner and to dock on a nearby island for the night.
Dinner of steak, potato and caesar salad. Dessert is a warm apple pie.
What a treat to stay on an island and to meet such hospitable hosts!

Tues Sep 22 - On to Gananoque
Light showers in the morning.
We check into Gan Municipal Marina. Cost is $35.28. Transient slips are quite a walk away from the facilities on the outer docks. You can recognize them by their blue cleats.
The Admiral checks in with the Marina Office and introduces herself to Katherine Kelly, daughter of the people we had dinner with last night. She is running the marina herself today.
After dinner, we do a load of laundry. $2.00 per load/wash (loonies only). 25 minutes for the wash cycle, 45 for dry.
We are bummed out that there is no internet. At check-in Katherine had mentioned that there wasn’t any internet coverage on the docks but in the laundry room. No such luck. We also discover that we left the 10 litres of water back at the Metro, ugh!

Wed Sep 23 - Kingston
Two more loads of laundry before we head out. We discover that the server for the Internet has been down. The Captain heads out to the Metro again to get our water and one more bottle of propane.
Breakfast is quick zucchini loaf and banana as we are doing the laundry.
We depart Gan after a quick lunch. We decide to overnight at Kingston as the winds are from the SW at 10-15 on the nose for the last half hour. Not fun for the Admiral. We have the dock to ourselves except for the summer liveaboards at the end of the dock.

Thurs Sep 24 - Cobourg
Quick morning shower and the Admiral heads out to the local Farmer’s Market.
Admiral buys: Whole Wheat Loaf (Red River Bran) from Wolfe Island, blueberry bran muffins, pecan tarts, zucchini squares, pumpkin marmalade and peaches and cream corn. All local.
Captain is finishing some e-mails and getting the boat ready.
It’s a calm morning and we are undecided how far to go. The weather will determine our distance. As soon as we depart the Murray Canal, we notice that the winds are changing and it is a bit choppy. The Admiral says let’s go for it. So 6 1/2 hours later, we arrive in Cobourg. This is the longest travel day aboard At Last! and for the Admiral.
Fairport Yacht Club has reciprocals with Cobourg Yacht Club but only on the wall. The water levels are too low, so we end up on a slip and a $31.50 charge.
Dinner is a grilled pork shoulder blade steak with BBQ sauce and yam and zucchini.
We have learned to use any marina microwaves (available in Kingston and Crysler Park Marina) for our potatoes and yams.

Fri Sep 25 - Frenchman’s Bay
Early departure at 0800 for Frenchman’s Bay
The winds were 15 NE -waves 3 to 5 feet - surfing conditions with At Last! running at about 20 mph, surfing up to 27 mph
1040 Arrive safely into Frenchman’s Bay
We stay aboard At Last! Don’t want to go home. Let the holiday continue, just a bit longer.

Signs in the sky

When we arrive in Kingston, we spot a rainbow beyond a neighbouring boat in Confederation Basin Marina, one of our favourite places to stop for provisioning and super-fast Internet access.








The next dawn, the color of the sky foretells of a change in the weather—likely for the worse. We did have 15 knots of breeze behind us and a following sea of 3+ feet on the run home from Cobourg yesterday. Today, three days of rain starts.










Soon after tying up at our dock (and after taking a nap), the Captain takes the kayak for a spin on Frenchman's Bay. That's our condo tower in the background.

Eating our way home

One night we feast on trout grilled on a cedar plank.








The next night the Captain serves up pork shoulder steaks slathered with a gourmet sauce.

We taste decadence in the pecan tarts from Wolfe Island Bakery, an excellent source of baked goods in the Kingston area.

The cannons of Fort Henry are trained on At Last! as we approach Kingston.

Here's Rosebud, a pretty tug conversion we encountered in the Bay of Quinte. She is based in Picton but her owner is a member of Frenchman's Bay Yacht Club back in Pickering.

The Brighton Road Bridge on the Murray Canal swings shut behind At Last!

Skinny-dipping in the St. Lawrence

We spotted this young lady getting ready to dive into the St. Lawrence River near Rockport. Anyone know who she is and what's the story behind her being there?

Trawler crawlers bare all!

Some people have shirts made up displaying the names of their boats with a graphic representing their pride and joy. Not Mike and Carolyn, owners of Navigator, a Marine Trader 44. They sport tattoos of a compass rose just like the one that adorns the transom of Navigator.

We’re delighted to have met them, and enjoyed swapping boating experiences over dinner.

Mike, when they began thinking about getting into trawlering, started lurking on the Trawlers & Trawlering List, a popular Internet forum the Captain has hosted since 1997.

In the winters, Mike and Carolyn head for the Bahamas with Navigator. In the summers, they replenish the cruising kitty by working in the 1000 Islands region where they have spent most of their lives. Carolyn manages a family health group while Mike is the dockmaster at Peck’s Marina in Ivy Lea where we overnighted one night last week.

It seems Mike, after we departed, recognized the Captain’s name from a copy of Circumnavigator magazine we gave him and emailed us an invite to dinner at the private island they look after near Rockport.

After they left for work the following morning, we stayed tied up to the dock, and later strolled around.

Talk about a great view of the 1000 Islands! With the water tower at Alexandria Bay, New York, just visible in the far distance.

Hmmm . . . what would it be like to own an island? For $600,000, the price of a new Nordhavn 43, we could own an island such as this one. Better yet would be to babysit one as Mike and Carolyn do . . .

Exploring Grenadier Island

It’s only her second time on a bicycle in umpteen years but the Admiral offloads her new Port Runner folding bike, in three steps unfolds and assembles it, and off across Grenadier Island she goes, following a trail through the woods and past a beaver dam.


As the sign explains, nature is taking over the island again, more than a century after it was cleared for use as agricultural land. Click on any image for a larger view.

A bustling farming community once thrived on Grenadier Island, but today it’s mostly the summer people who remain. The bustle of activity on the island is now made by boaters, hikers and paddlers who fancy the warm sandy beaches, old fishing holes, vivid past and abundant opportunities for observing wildlife.

The Admiral finds the water too cold and too wet for swimming.

All day we watch ducks, geese and a solitary great blue heron foraging for sustenance.

And the occasional perch aiming not become sustenance for anyone.

With bedding airing in the bright sunshine, our TomCat begins to resemble a gypsy boat.




Keeping the windows clean aboard At Last! is a daily chore for the Admiral.











Keeping in shape was supposed to be a daily task for the Captain but . . .

It’s the last day of summer, a glorious day that we enjoy immensely before a 15-minute cruise to a private island nearby where we have been invited for dinner.