A Week Of Milestones

Thank you to those who e-mailed expressing concern for Whisper's safety (and mine) and for the kind words of encouragement.

The north shore of Lake Ontario east of Cobourg is very rural. There was neither cell phone access nor internet connectivity for much of the time Whisper traversed those waters. But what a time it was!

Starting with Cobourg, which bills itself as "Ontario's Feel Good Place": I found a town that has revitalized itself, though on a Sunday morning it was pretty sleepy. The coffee shops didn't even open until 9 a.m. But the marina management stationed a young man with a coffee pot at the dockhead, and he gamely sat there in the rain dispensing the elixir of the gods.

From Cobourg, Whisper made way for the tiny outpost of Presqu'ille at the outlet into Lake Ontario of the Trent Severn Waterway, a system of rivers, lakes and canals connecting Georgian Bay (Lake Huron) to Lake Ontario. I would have loved to take that route, but the limiting draft is 5 feet and Whisper draws 6. It's a paradise for powerboaters.

Presqu'ille is the third such named town on our route. Whisper also anchored off Long Point one night and a different Long Point the next. Two of my favorite place names were the Palen Bank and Penninsula Point. Of the former, I thought it apropos to name a hazard to navigation after Alaska's now deposed governor......I suspect there are some Republicans who would agree. For the latter, enough said. It seems the fur trappers and lakes traders were not too imaginative when it came to place names.

Whisper's tour of the Thousand Islands region culminated in Sacket's Harbor, NY famous for its battle in the War of 1812 and now a small outpost of tourism at the outlet to the St. Lawrence River.

The Thousand Islands (I didn't count them) region is rich with opportunities for exploration and beauty befitting its reputation. This is a sailor's paradise. I could happily have spent weeks exploring.

It was with great regret that I turned Whisper's transom on the St. Lawrence and headed south to Oswego, NY and our entrance to the New York State canal system. Whisper has transited the Panama Canal, the Suez Canal and now the Welland. She will now add the Erie Canal to her list of waterways.

As for milestones this week:

a) We (Whisper and I) celebrated 1 month underway from Racine. A wistful celebration at best.

b) We passed the 1000 mile mark on our eastbound course.

c) We have now exceeded 1400 miles total travel......Sailboats often cannot go from Point A to Point B in a straight line, and sometimes cruising sailboats must go by way of Penninsula Point.

d) We weathered our first major crisis......but that's another post.