Coming into Kingston, Ontario on June 16, Charlie counted 86 wind turbines on Wolfe Island. Charlie and I saw on the local Canadian TV news that the wind turbines in general are stirring up lots of controversy these days here as they are in the U.S. These generate enough power for 75,000 homes. One thing people have against them is the low level, continual noise they create.
A general map of the cities and passageway along the Trent-Severn Waterway which runs from Trenton to Port Severn.
June 23, 2009
Greetings from the city dock wall at Old Mill Park Marina in Campbellford, Ontario,Canada! (we are about where the end of the red line is above.)
Freedom's Turn is on her second day on the Trent-Severn Waterway Canal along with her new looper boat buddy "Adagio." We met Adagio's crew Dave and Pam from Akron, Ohio in Kingston, Ontario on June 17 and have had the pleasure of their company since then. Dave and Pam are newbies on the Great Loop having left just three short weeks ago; starting on Lake Erie and entering the western end of the Erie Canal at Buffalo, NY to Oswego to Kingston.
The Trent-Severn canal begins at Trenton and ends at Port Severn; a distance of 240 miles, 42 locks, and a railroad bridge later. We are taking this passage as a way of getting from Lake Ontario to the Georgina Bay on Lake Huron. We estimate this canal trip will us about 12 days traveling about 20 miles and five locks per day or sometimes 40 miles and just a few locks per day. Twice along the way we will spend two or three nights. So far it has been easy locking through, a peaceful journey with beautiful scenery. The next blog will document this trip.
This blog will take us from Oswego, NY to entering Canada at Kingston, Ontario; from June 15-18 and a distance of 95 miles.
Freedom's Turn entered Canadian waters via Lake Ontario on June 16. Her destination for the day was Kingston, Ontario which is in the northeastern part of Lake Ontario. Our reservation was for Confederate Basin Marina, located right in the heart of the downtown. The first task for us was clearing customs.
Other than securing your boat lines, pleasure craft entering Canada are technically not allowed to hook up power or water until they report to Customs. If there is a Customs office on the premises, only one person is allowed to leave the boat and go in person to report in with the proper documentation papers. In our case, there was no Customs office on the property so Charlie called the appropriate number on his cell phone and ended up with more of a situation than we had planned on.
The Canadian government has the basic information about Charlie and I and our boat already because we have been boating in Canada several times since 2002; going through the checking in process each time. In the recent past, a cell phone call and answering a few questions are all that we needed is obtain a report number that we write on a paper and tape it to our window in plain view. We always knew though, that should they want to, the agents can still request to board our boat at any time and any place during our Canadian stay if they wish to.
After answering an affirmative "no" to firearms and illegal drugs to the agent on the phone with Charlie, a "yes" to under the limit of 50 cigars on board per person. Then we told them we had more than the 1.15 liter of alcohol or one case of beer per person on board. (this is the amount allowed duty free) We informed the Customs agent of the exact amount of bottles, remembering from past years that only unopened bottles could be taxed and we didn't have any that were unopened. The opened bottles had been considered just part of our ship's supplies.
The agent we spoke to said the rules have changed and every ounce of alcohol above the limit is taxed per additional ounce and by the type of the alcoholic beverage.
We abided by the rules with as much patience as we could muster up because we had nothing to hide and were honest with them all the way. After we did a thorough inventory and called them back, they surprised us by informing us that two agents would be coming to the the boat in 25 minutes for an inspection! They came and acknowledged that the information was correct then taxed us $25 in duty charges! Honesty is always the best policy but it can been a challenge at times. For those of you that know Charlie you can just imagine the challenge here.
Later, we learned from a fellow boaters that while in the Unites States, Customs reports to Homeland Security, in Canada, Customs reports to the Department of the Treasury!
Oswego, NY June 15
Backtracking a bit, Freedom's Turn turned off the Erie Canal onto the Oswego Canal going north to the town of Oswego. The next day we would be going across Lake Ontario into Canada!
The photo above shows a different view for us because coming into Oswego, the Oswego Canal is running right nest to the Oswego River! Actually, the canal is the tame part of the river.
Coming into Kingston we appreciated looking at the the blue Canadian waters. They are as beautiful as we remember and the lighthouses are still quite striking to us on the blue water. It was the first time we had boated on Lake Ontario. According to our charts, we had depths that day near 600 feet. Lake Ontario is the third deepest lake of the Great Lakes; the deepest is Lake Superior then Lake Michigan. We had read that Kingston is the fresh water sailing capital of the world! The World Sailing Olympics were held in here in 1976.
Getting to the ice cream store is always important. Guess who just went through the opened door here?
Captain Charlie!
At our marina, we spotted an interesting pontoon boat whose owner is proud to be a Canadian!
We toured Ft. Henry. Here is the moat. The walls of the fort are very low profile; designed to make the enemy fall in rather easily if many would rush in and not be able to see ahead in time to stop. If the fall didn't get you, our guide said, the gunfire coming out of the walls would. Kingston, Ontario, June 3 16-18
Charlie and I soon found the downtown of Kingston a lively college town (Queens University) with ethically diverse restaurants and unique shopping. Among the fun things we did were going to a farmer's market where we bought cookies for Charlie and a tart for me. We took a 50 minute trolley tour around the city seeing the historic sights. We paid $3 more than the regular trolley ticket price so we could get off and on as much as we wanted for the day. We enjoyed a stopover at Ft. Henry.
The area of where Kingston is today was first discovered by the French explorer LaSalle in 1669. Following the American Revolution, Kingston was settled by the Loyalists, sympathetic to the British Crown and was Canada's first capital until it was feared that the Americans would attack it. The capital was then moved to Ottawa.
Fort Henry is a British Fort and was built following the War of 1812 on Point Henry overlooking the Canadian Naval Base and the Kingston Harbor. The fort was to defend the waterway to the Saint Lawrence River from a possible United States attack. Although there were never any battles fought here, Fort Henry served as a place to hold prisoners for the Civil war and during other times in addition to being a strategic military stronghold for the British.
We took the tour inside the fort. There was a major restoration in 1936 when the introduction of a guard was established to the garrisons of the earlier days. The guards were not a part of the military but were made up of college students working their summer jobs this way. They did a great job making us feel like we were seeing some of the the sights of the fort as seen during the mid 1800s.
At 12 noon, we witnessed the shooting of the cannon ceremony. This has been a tradition since 1867 when Canada became a sovereign state. Our guide told us that a cannon was shot at 12 noon every day as a way of telling the people in the fort and in the city that it was lunch time, since many of the people did not have clocks.
In the early days, these big guns would shoot cannon balls as a far as 1 kilometer. (.6 of a mile) Our guide told us that each shot would have eight lbs. of gunpower and a 24 lb. ball.
We learned about the meaning behind the design of the British Flag. The red cross is for St.George, England's patron saint. The white diagonal stripes are for Scotland's patron saint, St. Andrew and the red diagonal stripes are for St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland.
There were many unique book stores in Kingston. Here is one that only has mysteries for sale and is named "As the Plot Thickens." Another interesting bookstore was named "A Novel Idea."
The Canadian Royal Military Academy is in Kingston. Here is a dormitory building we saw from our trolley car window. This building here at the Academy as well as many of the buildings in Kingston, including Fort Henry, are made of limestone because of the huge limestone quarry here.
We took the tour inside the fort. There was a major restoration in 1936 when the introduction of a guard was established to the garrisons of the earlier days. The guards were not a part of the military but were made up of college students working their summer jobs this way. They did a great job making us feel like we were seeing some of the the sights of the fort as seen during the mid 1800s.
At 12 noon, we witnessed the shooting of the cannon ceremony. This has been a tradition since 1867 when Canada became a sovereign state. Our guide told us that a cannon was shot at 12 noon every day as a way of telling the people in the fort and in the city that it was lunch time, since many of the people did not have clocks.
In the early days, these big guns would shoot cannon balls as a far as 1 kilometer. (.6 of a mile) Our guide told us that each shot would have eight lbs. of gunpower and a 24 lb. ball.
We learned about the meaning behind the design of the British Flag. The red cross is for St.George, England's patron saint. The white diagonal stripes are for Scotland's patron saint, St. Andrew and the red diagonal stripes are for St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland.
There were many unique book stores in Kingston. Here is one that only has mysteries for sale and is named "As the Plot Thickens." Another interesting bookstore was named "A Novel Idea."
The Canadian Royal Military Academy is in Kingston. Here is a dormitory building we saw from our trolley car window. This building here at the Academy as well as many of the buildings in Kingston, including Fort Henry, are made of limestone because of the huge limestone quarry here. The Royal Academy is the top Canadian Military school for officers for the Army, Navy and Air Force combined. There are over 1,000 cadets in the Academy's five year program. About 25% are females.
This is a photo of the blog writer these days. She was having a good hair day and asked her captain to take her picture.
We hope everyone is enjoying their summer.
This is a photo of the blog writer these days. She was having a good hair day and asked her captain to take her picture.
We hope everyone is enjoying their summer.
Our weather in Canada this week is very warm with highs in the mid to upper 80's!
Sincerely,
Linda and Charlie
