Bill and Brenda Favro's Great Loop Cruise

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Played golf this morning and this afternoon we began our boat trip to Trenton Ontario at 1:40 PM. We are headed to the Trent Port Marina to attend a seminar run by America's Great Loop Cruisers Association. They actually have two seminars planned. Friday's session is a briefing on cruising the Trent-Severn Canal, Georgian Bay, and The North Channel; and on Saturday the topic is the Looper Lifestyle. We are attending the Friday Session.
Since it is 73 nautical miles from Alexandria Bay, NY to Trenton, Ontario, we planned to leave today and spend the night at the Clayton Municipal Marina in Clayton, NY. That is 10 Nautical miles up the St Lawrence River. The speed limit on this stretch of the river is restricted to 5 MPH with no wake within 300 yard from shore due to the high water level; consequently it took us 2 hours to go 10 nm.
On Thursday we left Clayton at 7:15 AM and travelled all day arriving in Trenton at 7:45 PM. Obviously this was a very long day on the water; we were headed into the wind most of the day. We made one stop in Picton at 3 PM to give Lulu a chance to get off the boat. We also made our call to Canadian Customs and checked in to Canada as required by Canadian Law. We also pumped out and topped off our fuel.
After attending Friday's briefing we left early Saturday morning and spent the night at Collins Bay Marina in Kingston, Ontario. We headed home on Sunday.
Here are a few pictures I took over the next several days.:

While playing golf on Wednesday morning, I took this picture of the Osprey Nest along 5th hole at Thousand Islands Golf Club

Passing Rock Island Light on the way to Clayton. This Light is a State Park, and tour boats take visitors out to explore the grounds and climb up inside the Light.

EASTNOR docked at the Clayton Municipal Marina. The Harbor Hotel is in the Background

Passing under the TI Bridge on the way up the St Lawrence River to Clayton

Ship coming around the bend in the American Narrows. You can see why they call it the Narrows. I learned in my training courses that TONNAGE rules. I get the hell out of the way.

This was a big one. I took this picture as she passed by.

This is the Canadian Military Academy. They train future Military Officers for the Canadian Army, Navy, and Air Force. Canada does not have separate Academies.

A Gun Turret built to protect Kingston, Ontario during the War of 1812. Kingston was the Capitol of Canada at the time. It was later moved to Ottawa.

Once we arrived in Canadian waters I flew the Canadian Curtesy Flag

Interesting Cloud Formation in the Canadian Channel.

This is an island that was taken over and destroyed by Cormorants who nest on the island. I could smell the Cormorant Guano as we passed. They have almost destroyed all of the vegetation on this island.

We arrived at Trent Port Marina after hours at 7:45 PM. I pulled into a vacant slip, and checked in with the Marina on Friday morning before the briefing began. Thankfully, they agreed to leave me in that slip instead of moving me.

Our meeting began at 9:30 AM in the Marina's large meeting room. This is Ed Donald, Lockmaster of the Peterborough Lift Lock, He is a 31 year veteran of Parks Canada, and manages the 65 foot Lift Lock. One of two Lift locks on the system. He presented a very informative overview of the Trent Severn Canal System

This is Kim Russo, Director of America's Great Loop Cruiser's Association, and Curtis Stokes of Curtis Stokes and Associates. The Trent Port Marina has great facilities and was a perfect place to hold this event. It is a relatively new Marina located at the start of the Trent Severn Canal with 374 boat slips and within walking distance to downtown Trenton.