Kicking back in Jordan Harbour

The dominant visual at Jordan Harbour—whether you’re approaching by water or zooming along the Queen Elizabeth Way—is the rusting hulk of a 16th century ship sailed by Jacques Cartier. It’s a replica built to serve as a restaurant that was looking for a new home when vandals set the vessel on fire.

Beacon Harbourside Marina is a lovely quiet harbour to spend two days in. It’s small—only 88 slips in all—but it has a fuel dock and all the other facilities, and a friendly harbourmaster in Marsha.

What it does not have is Harbour Estates Winery only a 15-to-20-minute walk away as stated in the popular Ports Cruising Guide for Lake Ontario and as cited on the Jordan Harbour website. In truth, it’s about 40 minutes away on foot.

Our plan is to taxi to Jordan, the village about five miles inland, where we’ll tour the highly regarded Cave Spring Cellars after lunch at the highly praised Inn on the Twenty. Then we’re picking up a famed Rueben at Zooma Zooma Cafe for eating back on board at supper before Canada Day fireworks this evening.

The marina is part of the Best Western Beacon Harbourside Inn so we have excellent WiFi here. The hotel restaurant is well known in Niagara for its $14.95 prime rib dinner. Needless to say, that was our fare last night.

After a glass or three of surprisingly excellent shiraz from the Konzelmann Estate Winery in nearby Niagara-on-the-Lake.

One sidelight: Montreal Canadiens great Yvan Cournoyer was dining two tables over. He and the three companions talked return on equity their entire meal.


Why is it that all cruising sailors seem to take sunset photos night after night?