Cedar Island (2014-05-12)

N44° 13.651', W76° 27.148'

Tonight finds us peacefully tied to the western dock on Cedar Island.  We are very happy to finally be back home in Canada.



Late on Saturday afternoon we were happy to see a familiar boat exiting Lock 7 and approach the wall just ahead of us.  M/V Ramha belongs to Judi and Alain, a Canadian couple that we had met in Beaufort SC.

M/V Ramha

Ramha began life as a Nova Scotian fishing boat.  Judi and Alain picked it up stripped it down to the hull and rebuilt it as a full time liveaboard trawler.  They've called Kingston Ontario home for the last few years, and live full time there during the summer aboard their boat.

We spent some time catching up with them, and then let them get their boat sorted to receive a couple friends for a visit that evening.  Judi and Alain graciously invited us to join them and their guests for supper that evening aboard Ramha.  Alain put together a great meal of two kinds of jerk chicken, and we all had a great evening together.

Sunday dawned sunny and warm, but windy, with winds from the west and southwest.  Checking the conditions on the lake we found that the waves were forecast to be in the 2-3' range, so we decided to wait for Monday.

This decision paid off for us incredibly well.  When we got up this morning we found the wave forecast was for less than a foot, and when we got out on the lake we found that it was almost flat calm.  We had the best crossing of Lake Ontario that we ever could have hoped for.

Our last lock on the Erie/Oswego Canal

Lake Ontario at its best

By noon we had crossed the border (an imaginary line in the middle of Lake Ontario :-)) back into Canada, and by 1500 we passed through the Upper Gap to the west of Amherst Island and made the turn to leave Lake Ontario behind us.

We had originally planned to anchor for the night in Kerr Bay.  However, when we called the NEXUS Customs reporting number and did our clearance over the phone, we were told that we still had to make landfall at a designated Customs receiving port.  We had been ready for this and had told them that we'd go to Collins Bay Marina and stop at the fuel dock.  We were told that a Customs agent *might* be there to meet us, and if no-one showed up by our ETA (which we had set for 1630) then we were free to leave to go to our anchorage.

We were on the fuel dock at Collins Bay by 1620, and waited to see if anyone would show up.  While we waited we refilled our water tanks and talked to the dock hand that was on duty.  He said that in the few years he had been working there, he had never seen a Customs agent come out to a boat, and sure enough none showed up today.  So, water tanks full and our Customs appearance obligations complete, we cast off from the fuel dock at 1632.

Rather than backtrack back to Kerr Bay we decided we'd head to Kingston, and try to get on one of the docks at Cedar Island.  We figured it was early enough in the season that the docks shouldn't be busy, and even if Parks Canada didn't have the floating docks in yet, we could always tie up at the fixed dock on the western shore of the island.

By 1800 we were tied up at the western dock.  The floating docks were in, but there was a sailboat on the bigger floating dock at the north docks, so we decided we'd just take the fixed dock on the western shore.

Back to Cedar Island

We'll spend a couple days relaxing here on Cedar Island.  Wednesday or Thursday we'll head up the Cataraqui River to Kingston Mills, the first lock in the Rideau Canal system.  There we'll tie up at the lower wall and await the Canal opening on Friday.  It's a bit noisy there with trains going by, but after the Hudson River, with almost constant trains running up and down both shores, we figure we can handle it. :-)