Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Kingston

Wednesday, July 15

The forecast was for lighter winds and sunny skies, we awoke to just that. We were underway by 7:40 and head down the Bay of Quinte towards Kingston. The Bay of Quinte is long narrow portion of Lake Ontario that winds between the mainland and a large peninsula (Prince Edward County) that makes it a great boating area.

The water is generally deep and there are no buoys for miles. Occasional there is a shoal on one shore or the other (or in the middle) that requires checking the chart and when it is time making sure you find the buoy. There was more boating activity then we have been seeing. There were lots of boats of all types but more than anything lots of cruising sailboats. Many were motoring some were sailing and some were doing both.

Early in the day we past this family of swans, notice also the calm water.

Sometime later we past this interesting little tug.

As the day went on the wind built a little more than forecast and from the worst possible direction, SSW. As we went past the eastern end of Prince Edward County there is an open stretch before the course goes behind Amherst Island, then again after Amherst Island going into Kingston, these are known as the Upper Gap and Lower Gap. The SSW wind blows in off of open Lake Ontario and catches you right on the beam. It was just bad enough that we rolled a bit. Nothing serious but enough to upset the deckhands and the Admiral, and that is not good.

By 4:15 we were into the Kingston harbor and head up to the inner harbor. Kingston is a very old historic city. They have a great deal of sailboat racing activity, since they were the Olympic sailing site when Montreal hosted the Olympics in 1976.

There is a ferry that runs to Wolff Island regularly, Wolff is the largest of the thousand island area in the St Lawrence River.

There was a bridge that does not open during rush hour and the next opening was 6:00. We were able to lay the Bimini flat, lower the radio antenna and get under with about a foot to spare. The Kingston Marina was just beyond the bridge and we were soon tied up.

A pretty good day, but the Admiral does not like the rock and roll of beam seas.

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