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WMercredi matin nous avons quitté Kingston, sous un ciel qui présageait des averses… nous avons été servis rapidement, mais heureusement ça n’a pas duré! De la belle voile avec un vent léger, mais un 4 noeuds respectable! En fin de journée nous avons décidé de poser l’ancre à Pitch Pine point à Grenadier pour la nuit. Une belle baignade bien méritée, un bon souper, on continue la lecture de Harry Potter. Cette année, on ne souffre pas de la chaleur dans le bateau comme l’an dernier, et à notre grand bonheur, il y a très peu de mouches et de moustiques. On peut donc souvent manger dehors, et on n’a pas besoin de faire la chasse avant le dodo. En contrepartie l’eau est un peu plus froide ppour la baignade, mais bon, on en profite quand même!

Encore cette nuit, le ciel et la lune nous offent un spectacle magnifique. En particulier, le lever de la lune ce soir à travers les arbres au dessus du fleuve; la lune était en fait une immense boule orangée. La nature est généreuse et donne un bien bon spectacle si on se donne la peine de l’observer et de l’apprécier.

Jeudi matin, il fait chaud! On prend le temps de se rafraichir après déjeuner avant de prendre le large. Nous avons quitté Grenadier vers 10h30. Pas vraiment de vent, ce sera donc un retour au moteur, aidés du courant.

À Brockville, un petit ami faisait la fête au parc du bord de l’eau….

Petite pause à Prescott en après midi, pour mettre de l’essence et bien sûr, on ne peut pas manquer la crème glacée dans le lighthouse!

À l’approche de l’écluse, on voit bien qu’un laker nous suit; il sera donc éclusé avant nous. Pas de problème, on fait une petite pause au quai des plaisanciers, et nous sommes accueillis par un renard et un faucon pellerin. 

Ils sont en fait deux faucons qui se chantent la pomme et nous offrent un bon divertissement! Deux lakers seront éclusés avant que le maitre d’écluse viennent nous dire que si on se dépêche, ils ont le temps de nous faire passer avant le 3e laker qui arrive. Ni une ni deux, on y va! On aura attendu environ 2 heures mais ça y est. Le courant à l’approche de l’écluse est très fort, et les lakers sont accompagnés d’un tugboat pour assurer leur approche. On estime qu’il y a environ 3 noeuds de courant. On pouvait bien avoir de la difficulté à monter!
On rentrera à Stormont jeudi soir vers 22:30. Demain, grand ménage et retour à la maison.

Chaque voyage a son sauvetage

Vous vous souvenez peut être du sauvetage nocturne à Main Duck, ou du houseboat à la dérive à Sugar Island….cette année rien d’aussi dramatique, mais Seb aura tout de même fait son sauvetage annuel!  Pendant que l’on préparait le souper mardi soir, des gens s’amusaient avec leur bateau téléguidé dans le bassin. Ce qui devait arriver arriva et leur moteur a étouffé! L’eau de ce bassin est très peu ragoûtante et le proprio n’avait pas vraiment envie de sauter chercher son bateau…il tournait en rond sur le quai… Sébastien est parti à la rescousse avec Scream! Liam était bien fier de son papa, et bien content de pouvor voir le bateau de plus près. Le proprio était bien content d’avoir récupéré son jouet dispendieux, sans avoir à se mouiller!

The big big lake

Sunday

Everyone was tired so we decided it was time for a night with someone else dong the cooking; feast at Curry Original! Ever so yummy 

The harbour saw its usual share of loud music, people coming back from a good time, but everything ended early enough and we had a quiet night, under a beautiful full moon.

Monday

Situation critical, today there has to be laundry! Sebastien left with Thomas to the laundromat, while Liam and I had a nice quiet morning together. We decided to head behind city hall to see if there was a farmer’s market. No luck. We decided to keep walking around and we stopped at Pan Chancho, a wonderful bakery, and got ourselves a little treat. This place is bread lover’s heaven! The line up for coffee was too long so we went elsewhere to get a coffee for mommy and a hot chocolate for Liam. We found a nice spot in the park. After our treat we kept exploring; Liam was curious to understand the position of the watch towers and the fortifications with respect to Fort Henry.

We all met up at the boat for a quick lunch and then we went shopping at VanderVoort’s!  The boys each got a surprise, and we got a few things for the boat. 

I left the boys there and went to shop for some groceries. I met up with them again later; they had just left VanderVoorts! Full of food and ice, time to head to Kingston Yacht Club to get sone gas, water and a pumpout. The water levels were so high, they had to build makeshift dock extensions for the gas dock, build new docks so people could use their boats, and many areas are still underwater. A bonus, they were kind enough to let us stick around for an hour and let use the showers!

Another spot of rain and guess what, we are now on the lake! We had initially decided that we would not be going much further than Brockville-Grenadier this year. Well, I guess the call of the big water is stronger than the will because we are heading to Collins bay for the night, with the intention of rounding Amherst island tomorrow.

The anchorage area on the map at the end of Collins bay is a joke ; 3 feet of water, weeds, not so good. But before the marina, there is a good area to anchor on the east side (the west side has a sea-plane landing area so not a good idea. What a strange place; the road is right at the end of the bay, with a boat-repair shop on the shore side, the marina on the other side, and then the kicker: the train comes by every 30 minutes or so. And it’s loud. Throughout the night. Check out how close the train is at the back of the picture.

Tuesday

A gorgeous morning, and lucky me, I got to sleep in a bit. We are well fed and motoring up between shore and Amherst island to charge the batteries and we will sail lakeside down.

As we neared the end of Amherst, we were gaining on a beautiful vessel, Playfair, which seemed to be crewed by young sailors. They were climbing up the mast, trimming sails and working together to sail this huge vessel.

We were gaining on them when Thomas thought it would be a good idea to throw a croc in the water….so we went 180 and caught the croc. Then another 180 to catchup to Playfair again!
We had a great sail in the lake, flying between 3 and 5 knots. Perfect conditions, no crazy waves, beautiful sun….oops spoke too soon….the lake the lake thelake, the big big lake proved once again that it can change on a dime. Sky got busy, wind picked up, must have been blowing a good 15-20 knots from the west and the waves were probably a good 3-4 feet. In the cut to Wolfe, of course, the corkscrew again, and Thomas reunited with the bucket…. We were happy to anchor near Simcoe island ad relax, go for a swim a rest. But this was not a good anchorage for us for the night, so we corkscrewed our way across the bay into Kingston. The bonus was getting ice cream after supper!

Sun, rain and howling wind

Friday August 4th

Another gorgeous sunny day, and the boys took out the fishing gear after a morning swim. I’m hoping they last a while so I can get rid of the box of worms in my ice box….
Thomas caught many perch and sunfish, and told us all about how they studied fish with Mme Luce this year at school. Liam caught a large perch, probably something between 1.5-2 pounds. They were pulling the fish out faster than I could make my way out to see them!

Paul and Laurie joined us around lunchtime. 

We had initially planned to stay another night and sail the next day but the forecast has changed and the weather service is sending all sorts of watches and warnings. Sugar Island is narrow so not a good spot to weather a blow for larger boats. We decided to head to Brakey bay (we’ve never been but it’s a well known spot for Paul and Laurie). On our way and the sky was quickly turning angry. We saw lightning and the clouds were rolling towards us. As we were anchoring in Brakey bay, the wind shifted and the rain (correction, downpour) began. In a matter of seconds we were drenched! But anchored!

We took Scream over to join the crew on 2Outrageous for a very nice supper, in great company. It was nice catching up with them and hearing about their time in the Bahamas. We came back to Whisper in the rain and wind, put our stuff to dry and hunkered down for the night. It was quite a blow but we had an easier night than Paul did; they had to reset their anchor during the night. All in all, it was a totally outrageous night for sure. At least the rain finally stopped early this morning, but the wind is not letting up and the sky is still looking very grey and angry. We decided it’s going to be a day at anchor; a few little projects on the boat (oil change, repair a screen, cleaning, etc), some reading and some games (thanks to Marc and Camille for L’ile interdite!).

The wind continued howling throughout most of the night, but sometime around 2 am, it died down. The sky cleared, and we had a beautiful full moon, the stars were out in all their glory, competing with all the mast lights in the bay.

Sunday August 6th

A decent breeze and no sign of rain, so we decided to head to Simcoe bay off Wolffe island with Paul and Laurie. We took a head start but it was not long before 2Outrageous caught up to us. 

We had a glorious sail for nearly 5 hours, flying between 3 and 5 knots (while dragging Scream which slows us down at least a knot), but as we were nearing Kingston, the sky started getting nasty and the wind was picking up, as well as the waves…Sebastien took a reef, and just in time too because you guessed it, another storm came in. Scream was taking a beating in the waves, so we decided that Simcoe would have to wait for another day and we headed into Confederation basin in Kingston. We got soaked yet again but we are now tied to a dock and it seems we are between 2 storms. And now, time for a hot shower!

Sun, rain and howling wind

Friday August 4th

Another gorgeous sunny day, and the boys took out the fishing gear after a morning swim. I’m hoping they last a while so I can get rid of the box of worms in my ice box….
Thomas caught many perch and sunfish, and told us all about how they studied fish with Mme Luce this year at school. Liam caught a large perch, probably something between 1.5-2 pounds. They were pulling the fish out faster than I could make my way out to see them!

Paul and Laurie joined us around lunchtime. We had initially planned to stay another night and sail the next day but the forecast has changed and the weather service is sending all sorts of watches and warnings. Sugar Island is narrow so not a good spot to weather a blow for larger boats. We decided to head to Brakey bay (we’ve never been but it’s a well known spot for Paul and Laurie). On our way and the sky was quickly turning angry. We saw lightning and the clouds were rolling towards us. As we were anchoring in Brakey bay, the wind shifted and the rain (correction, downpour) began. In a matter of seconds we were drenched! But anchored!

We took Scream over to join the crew on 2Outrageous for a very nice supper, in great company. It was nice catching up with them and hearing about their time in the Bahamas. We came back to Whisper in the rain and wind, put our stuff to dry and hunkered down for the night. It was quite a blow but we had an easier night than Paul did; they had to reset their anchor during the night. All in all, it was a totally outrageous night for sure. At least the rain finally stopped early this morning, but the wind is not letting up and the sky is still looking very grey and angry. We decided it’s going to be a day at anchor; a few little projects on the boat (oil change, repair a screen, cleaning, etc), some reading and some games (thanks to Marc and Camille for L’ile interdite!).

The wind continued howling throughout most of the night, but sometime around 2 am, it died down. The sky cleared, and we had a beautiful full moon, the stars were out in all their glory, competing with all the mast lights in the bay.

Sunday August 6th

A decent breeze and no sign of rain, so we decided to head to Simcoe bay off Wolffe island with Paul and Laurie. We took a head start but it was not long before 2Outrageous caught up to us. We had a glorious sail for nearly 5 hours, flying between 3 and 5 knots (while dragging Scream which slows us down at least a knot), but as we were nearing Kingston, the sky started getting nasty and the wind was picking up, as well as the waves…Sebastien took a reef, and just in time too because you guessed it, another storm came in. Scream was taking a beating in the waves, so we decided that Simcoe would have to wait for another day and we headed into Confederation basin in Kingston. We got soaked yet again but we are now tied to a dock and it seems we are between 2 storms. And now, time for a hot shower!

Sun, rain and howling wind

Friday August 4th

Another gorgeous sunny day, and the boys took out the fishing gear after a morning swim. I’m hoping they last a while so I can get rid of the box of worms in my ice box….
Thomas caught many perch and sunfish, and told us all about how they studied fish with Mme Luce this year at school. Liam caught a large perch, probably something between 1.5-2 pounds. They were pulling the fish out faster than I could make my way out to see them!

Paul and Laurie joined us around lunchtime. We had initially planned to stay another night and sail the next day but the forecast has changed and the weather service is sending all sorts of watches and warnings. Sugar Island is narrow so not a good spot to weather a blow for larger boats. We decided to head to Brakey bay (we’ve never been but it’s a well known spot for Paul and Laurie). On our way and the sky was quickly turning angry. We saw lightning and the clouds were rolling towards us. As we were anchoring in Brakey bay, the wind shifted and the rain (correction, downpour) began. In a matter of seconds we were drenched! But anchored!

We took Scream over to join the crew on 2Outrageous for a very nice supper, in great company. It was nice catching up with them and hearing about their time in the Bahamas. We came back to Whisper in the rain and wind, put our stuff to dry and hunkered down for the night. It was quite a blow but we had an easier night than Paul did; they had to reset their anchor during the night. All in all, it was a totally outrageous night for sure. At least the rain finally stopped early this morning, but the wind is not letting up and the sky is still looking very grey and angry. We decided it’s going to be a day at anchor; a few little projects on the boat (oil change, repair a screen, cleaning, etc), some reading and some games (thanks to Marc and Camille for L’ile interdite!).

The wind continued howling throughout most of the night, but sometime around 2 am, it died down. The sky cleared, and we had a beautiful full moon, the stars were out in all their glory, competing with all the mast lights in the bay.

Sunday August 6th

A decent breeze and no sign of rain, so we decided to head to Simcoe bay off Wolffe island with Paul and Laurie. We took a head start but it was not long before 2Outrageous caught up to us. We had a glorious sail for nearly 5 hours, flying between 3 and 5 knots (while dragging Scream which slows us down at least a knot), but as we were nearing Kingston, the sky started getting nasty and the wind was picking up, as well as the waves…Sebastien took a reef, and just in time too because you guessed it, another storm came in. Scream was taking a beating in the waves, so we decided that Simcoe would have to wait for another day and we headed into Confederation basin in Kingston. We got soaked yet again but we are now tied to a dock and it seems we are between 2 storms. And now, time for a hot shower!

Change of plans

Mercredi 2 aout

Petit matin lent et paresseux suivi d’un bon brunch. Maintenant c’est le temps d’aller a la plage! On prepare nos choses, on part avec Scream et en arrivant a la plage….. le gentil lifeguard nous informe que la plage est fermee parce qu’il y a trop de bacteries. Je lui demande si la baie où nous sommes ancrés est sécuritaire et il me dit que tant que l’eau n’est pas stagnante tout va bien.

Donc plan B.
Baignade au large de Refugee island avec masque et tuba 

L’eau est encore très haute ici; plusieurs quais sont fermés et on voit la difference sur les iles.

Retour à Whisper puis, avant le souper, petit cinema relaxe (une petite surprise que les boys ne savaient pas)….Lego Batman! Je dois dire qu’il est aussi bon pour les enfants que les parents.

On a maintenant étiré l’élastique au max, demain, on doit trouver de la glace sans faute.

Jeudi 3 août

On se lève tôt, on lève l’ancre et on se dirige pour Gilbert marine à Brockville. Les sacs de sables partout et le plancher du magasin tout tordu sont des preuves des dommages causés par les inondations ici aussi. Pendant que Seb remplit l’essence, les boys et moi partont à pied pour Brockville Yacht Club juste à côté, qui est un club avec réciprocité pour le nôtre. Je voulais acheter un jeton pour pouvoir faire un pump out. Malheureusement, leur port est fermé aux visiteurs puisque leur quai a été endommagé. On fera donc le tout chez Gilbert (plein d’essence, d’eau, de glace, et vider le reservoir sale).

 On se dirige ensuite au quai municipal et on part faire des courses. Le village semble avoir repris de la vie; de nouveaux magasins, le farmer’s market a plus de kiosques, il y a des rénos à certains endroits etc. Après de petites emplettes, en route pour le quai, mais une belle coincidence: nous avons croisé ma tante Ruth!

Diner rapide, une bonne crème glacée, puis, c’est le temps de faire un plan pour la suite. Let’s face it, notre plan était de rester autour de Brockville, mais on aime ça bouger…..alors, devinez-quoi, on continue vers l’ouest (et oui pour ceux qui suivent et sont fort en geographie, je me suis trompee dans le blog precedent, on ne pointe pas vers l’est mais bien vers l’ouest….)!

Le ciel etait menacant mais on a evite les orages!

Notre plan est donc Long Schooner bay à Grenadier island.  Mais la météo nous dit que cet ancrage ne sera pas bon pendant la nuit, donc, Pitch Pine point. En route, d’autres preuves du niveau d’eau élevé, comme les arres dont les troncs sont sous l’eau et la cime dépasse comme un buisson….puis à la radio, une voix connue….c’est Paul de 2Outrageous! Lui et Laurie reviennent de Main Duck et sont ancrés à Brakey bay sur Wolfe island. On décide de se rejoindre quelque part demain, donc on choisit de se rendre un peu plus loin ce soir. Le moteur va bien, on fait 5 noeuds, il fait beau…why not! Les boys continuent leur jeu de bricoler des trucs de camping pour leurs personnages Minecraft. On a jeté l’ancre à Sugar island. Incroyable mais l’eau est plus haute, le haut fond est sous l’eau, j’avais à peine reconnu l’endroit!

Baignade rafaichissante avant le dodo, bien méritée avec cette journée chaude! On a bien hâte de retrouver Paul et Laurie demain.