Hill Island to Mucaster Island

Day 10: August 19, 2017 
You can monitor our trip at the link: Second Wind's Progress Live

We had another pleasant night’s sleep.  The water was calm after the screaming powerboats went to bed and we had all but no wind.  We have been getting up around 6:00 and today was no different.  We each enjoyed two eggs over easy, bacon and toast as our day starter.

We checked ourselves out and decided we needed a cleansing, so we donned our bathing suits and I dove in while Janine climbed down the ladder into the quite cold water.  Not only was the water well below optimal bathing temperature, the

Ah, to be clean again!!

light breeze was moving the 62 degrees air over bodies as we climbed back aboard the boat COLD!.  We rubbed circulation back into our bodies with large towels and rejoiced in the fact we were back amongst the presentably clean.

We spent the next hour getting caught up on blog postings and recording our expenses.  Our goal for the day was to wander through the islands near Hill Island and stop at another of the National Parks.  As I was pulling the anchor and cleaning another huge glob of weeds and mud from the anchor, we heard a huge power “cigarette” boat roar by in the main river.  And then another.  I would estimate that they were doing well over a hundred miles an hour.  Immediately following, there were 8 or 10 more.  It was obviously a race or something going on.  We moseyed up alongside of a pontoon boat that was obviously parked watching the spectacle.  The folks told us that it was a “Poker Run” which started in Kingston and was running to somewhere down the river

One of Many

where they would stop for lunch before returning.  They said that these were the fastest of the boats and that there would be many more to follow.  And there were.  I would estimate that we saw between 50 and 75 of these roaring monsters.  The fastest ones were throwing water out behind probably 50 yards.  It was quite a sight. ,

We traveled upstream from Batterman’s point towards the International Bridge, weaving our way through the chopped up waters and the spectator boats.  Just before the bridge, we cut back into a passage way that wound behind a number of small islands.  As we entered the passage, I was amazed that we were struggling to make head way.  It turns out that this area is the narrowest part of the St. Lawrence River (hence a great place to place a bridge) causing a tremendous surge of water to pass through.  We fought the strong current and by now the strong headwinds for probably 30 minutes.  On the other side, only the wind and the chop impeded our progress. 

Our destination was Watterson Point State Park which has a protected dock and

some interesting hiking trails.  When we got there, we found the docks lined with power boats, leaving no place to pull in.  We moved upstream to what appeared to be a calm area between Wellesley Island and Crow Island. We dropped our anchor and in the setting process, we realized that it would not hold so Janine took the boat back out into open water while I picked the monster glob of weeds and mud from the anchor.  We went back again, dropped the anchor but did not back it down and this time it appeared to hold. 

We had lunch and realized that this was not a good place to spend the afternoon and night due to the waves from the wind and the numerous boats passing.  So, we again pulled the anchor which had not plowed up the weed pile and started north across the river heading for the Navy Islands.  By this time, the high-speed boats were returning so we crossed with the uneasy feeling of being creamed by one of these 100 mph screamers.  Obviously, we made it without incident. 

The guidebook spoke highly of the Canadian National Park island of Malcaster.   

When we got there, two other boats were already at anchor in what we assumed were the best spots but we found a place that seemed to be somewhat calm.  We dropped the anchor and it held.  The wind and current were strong enough we wanted to be sure that we didn’t drag so be put the boat in reverse and backed the anchor down.  The boat continued rock and bob.  It appeared that this is what we were going to live with.

We rested and read for the rest of the afternoon.  We prepared SOS, (chipped beef on toast) for dinner. We baked a blob carrot cake and after it was finished, we took the Dink over to the island to walk the trail highlighted in the guide book. We pulled up to the nice government dock and after Janine got out, a gentleman on down the dock pointed out that the dock was closed and we were on the wrong side of the fence.  We couldn’t get onto the island.  We pulled the boat around the backside of the dock where the man, his wife and daughter helped us out of the boat.  We struck up a conversation which ultimately ended in an invitation by them to come to their boat for a cocktail. 

We walked a bit on the island before returning to Second Wind where we picked up the cake, a bottle of wine and utensils.  We traveled to join the family on their 26 foot C&C26 named Knotbad.  Tanya, daughter Olga, and (I didn’t get his name) were from Ukraine living now in Buffalo NY.  Olga, who was about 12, was born in the US and spoke both very good English and her parents native tongue. They were truly interesting folks.  They were really new to sailing.  The bought their boat 4 months ago and were gaining experience.  The gentleman had done a lot of reading and checking out utube and seemed to have an amazingly good handle on sailing.  We laughed, told stories, ate cake, sampled his moonshine, and drank a glass of wine.  It was a pleasant evening.  Realizing that we had not turned on our boat’s anchor light and that our boat was sitting in a busy channel, we hurried back at dusk.     

We were rocked to sleep shortly thereafter.