Thursday

June 22, 2017

We left Clayton, NY on Wednesday and Headed to Canada.  There was a parade of 6 looper boats with Mikee Likes It in the lead (were quite popular!).  We were all anxious to get customs over with.  We heard stories from multiple sources and were making an inventory of our booze and food etc.  We even sent an email with our names, birthdates and passport numbers to Customs, to expedite the process.  

Crossed the St. Lawrence river and headed up to Kingston, ON.  As the lead boat, Mike was the first captain to call customs.  All other passengers are unable to get off the boat until we are cleared.  Mike went to a special TRC (telephone reporting centre) phone and dialed in.  He was put on hold for a while, then was asked to spell Joell's name and give her birth date.  That was it!   He handed the phone to the next looper and all 6 of us were through the process in minutes.  We figured it was because we had emailed our passport information a few days ahead of time.  That is our story and we are sticking to it.

After spending one night in Kingston (a very nice city), we got up early and boated on to Trent, ON.  Ready to begin our Trent-Severn adventure.  45 more locks, but supposed nice little towns and lots of good anchorages.  We'll see.

We saw this old lighthouse, on the right, and a beautiful new lighthouse on the left.

This is where Mike made the customs phone call.  We are sure the customs agent could see him while he talked.

We were so excited to have gotten through customs easily that we went for a beer at a cute little beer garden.  Larry and Elke had Rouladen.

Mike and Joell had an appetizer of smoked salmon.  Fresh caught from Mike is always best.

We all went to a hardware store and got courtesy flags.

Heading past the 1000 Islands we have to watch out for ferries.  That is the main transportation to and from the islands.  Most of the residents are summer only.  There are a lot of farms on the islands, but they're mostly self-sufficient through the winter.  The St. Lawrence does freeze over, which allows residents to cross by snowmobile.

Joell drove most of the way to Trent, ON.  Mike and Elwood relaxed.  

At Trent we all had docktails in the sun.  Expecting major rains tomorrow.

There is a Canadian Air-force Base nearby.  We will try to catch better pictures of the military planes.  We were so busy with dock-tails, the camera was slow to come out.