May and June send water levels to heights not seen in decades, and it affects all those living or visiting the Thousand Islands and other boating areas, such as the Trent Severn (which happens to be our portal to our summer cruise).
Undeterred, we decide to start our summer cruise in familiar waters while we wait for the Trent Severn Waterway (which has enormous amounts of debris hurtling down to Lake Ontario, and dangerous currents), to open a week or two later this season. On June 6 our mate Ron drives us down to the marina in Bath in the pouring rain and we prepare to leave for the Islands the next day. Ron drives our car back to Toronto, so now we are committed to travel by boat.
We head out in lovely weather on June 7, and pass two of our favourite islands which are closed, or mostly closed, to us boaters for a long while to come. We seem to be the only people on the water, and find a great surviving dock to tie up to for two nights – Aubrey Island, near Gananoque.
After two days, we move on to Gananoque Municipal Marina, where we will meet up with old friends Kevin and Cory and Bianca in their boat, since they are dying to get out of their flooded docks at Ivy lea for a night at least.
By the third day at Gananoque, we are ready to leave to have a steering issue looked at by a local marina. This turned out to be a bad idea because the service we got was abominable, and didn’t solve the issue without my demanding that they do it a particular way! We should have gone back to Loyalist Cove in the first place, so we did.
On Thursday, June 15, we headed back to Bath, where my mechanic Dave P was waiting for us, and in no time everything was sorted. We stayed the night, and invited our friend Harold over for burgers.
Friday, June 16, up at 07:30 ready for what we felt was to be Day One of our summer cruise….
