August 7, 2008 Grenadier Island, St Lawrence River, Ontario

Last night we stayed in Rockport at the Country Boat Inn next to the old Catholic Church with the statue of Mary over looking the water. This was a head start on our trip in our tiny Toyota rental car to Clayton, NY to pick up two new propellers. UPS was great and delivered the 109 pound box by 10:00 AM and the fellows at the Metal Craft Marine were nice enough to help load it into the car. Tom was really glad that he did not decide to try to pick then up riding his bicycle! We made two trips over the huge suspension Thousand Island Toll bridge between the US and Canada in the round trip and could see the small green islands strewn below. We had no trouble passing through customs and were speedy back to the Kingston marina to put the propellers on boat, get the boat back into the water, and head out. We even made it in time to catch the 1:00 pm opening of the Lasalle Causeway Bridge and headed up the St Lawrence River.

The afternoon was rainy, but we cruised up into the 1000 Islands area and saw the interesting houses built on the rocky little islands. We cruised back and forth across the US Canadian border as we went. We saw the incredible Boldt Castle built in 1900-1904 by the owner of the Waldorf Astoria in NYC. There were 300 construction people working on the extravagant stone mansion and out buildings as a present for his 32 year old wife’s birthday when she died suddenly. He left the island and never returned. After 70 years of lying unused, the castle was purchased by the St Lawrence River Association and they are renovating it to be open to the public.

Tonight we are docked at the T-head in the Canadian Saint Lawrence Island National Park. The park which was founded in 1904 includes property on around 20 different islands. We are at Grenadier Island. Several of the other boats have come for the week to enjoy the sandy beach swimming area and the grassy lawn for camping. Too bad we can’t say longer.