It was a beautiful sunrise on this our 50th travel day to Kingston Ontario. We had reservations at Portsmouth Olympic Harbour Marina on the St Lawrence River which would set us up for our journey up the Trent Severn Lock system. Our journey today was similar to yesterday’s with winding tight channels with great old locks. We left early but discovered that the Brass Point Swing Bridge did not open until 0800 so we had to hover in Little Cranberry lake for an hour which gave Maria a chance to practice at the helm spinning the boat and moving it up and down the lake. The bridge opened up on time so we continued our journey.
We had several lock to travel through with single, double and Kingston Mills Locks 46 through 49. We arrived at the Kingston Mills Lock and bridges to find us behind several other boats along with a few racing behind us that we have labeled the Quebec Navy. The Canadian workers celebrating their holiday where they get a couple weeks off , get on their boats and race around the lakes and canals. They do not seem to understand boating etiquette where waking other boats is common.
We had to wait for almost two hours to get into the lock system that took that also too about an hour and a half to get through. We were joined in the lock by a nice couple from the vacationing group that did not have experience locking through so the “captain” stopped his boat at each lock door and hand guided it into every lock.
The 4 lock and bridge dropped us into the Cataraqui River that led us into Kingston, Ontario. Due to the delays we were late for the Kingston LaSalle Causeway Bridge opening, so we would have to wait for the 1700 opening hoping to make our marina before it got dark. We Went into the Kingston Marina to fuel up and wait for the opening. We finally got through the bridge by 1730 had worked our way to Portsmouth Olympia Marina in a 30 knot wind. Upon arrival we were assigned a layalong dock for our stay and had to fight the wind to tie off the boat and settle in.
We were invited down to the Confederation Marina where several other loopers were staying so we jumped in an Uber and went to Steve and Edie’s boat “Brand New Day”
On day two in Kingston I made a trip to Canadian Tire and bought myself an E-Bike. If you don’t like E-Bikes you never rode one. I made the mistake of riding Maria’s and had to get one. Today we took a tour of the Kingston Penitentiary which was adjacent to the Marina. The prison is now a museum. The prison is the site of a 1971 riot.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_Kingston_Penitentiary_riot
Later in the day we went to the Aqua Terra restaurant for Steve Oswald’s birthday and took the long walk back to our marina passing beautiful homes along the lake. It was a a great stay in Kingston but was time to rest up for our journey towards the Trent Severn.
