Thousand Island Wrap-up

We are back in Clayton, anchored in French Creek Bay, but much closer this time to the docks (map). We had a lovely cruise over the past week, slow-rolling to Chippewa Bay and back, and just taking in all of the natural beauty of the area.


Passing the Dutch freighter Fivelborg "on one whistle" in the Saint Lawrence Seaway.

Wednesday after lunch we went for a cruise in the tender, wending our way out of the Thousand Islands Yacht Club anchorage via channels too dicey for Vector. We circumnavigated Boldt Castle, which was mostly an exercise in dodging and weaving among at least a half-dozen giant tour boats from both sides of the river, vying for space on the dock to disgorge their passengers.


The Alster tower at Boldt Castle, aka "the playhouse."

We swung by the Boldt Yacht House on Wellesley Island immediately across from Heart Island and the castle; the Yacht House is a museum in its own right, displaying part of the collection from the Antique Boat Museum right here in Clayton, but is closed right now due to high water.


Boldt Castle powerhouse. The castle itself is hard to capture from the water.

We also wove our way around several nearby islands, including, I kid you not, Manhattan Island, as well as Harbor Island, Fairyland Island, Steamboat Island, Kipp, Ski, Maple, Hub, Belle, and Imperial Islands, and Pullman Island of rail car fame. We also ventured out into the river and circled Sunken Rock Lighthouse, whose rock is more sunken than usual.


The Boldt Yacht House across from the castle, partly submerged.

After a relaxing afternoon we had a nice dinner at the yacht club, where a key feature of the view from the patio was Vector herself. The dining room and bar are open to the public and we were able to reserve on OpenTable. We tied up at the lone guest dock that was not awash.


Sunken Rock Light. With extra sunken.

Finding no need to return to the tiny burg of Alexandria Bay, we decided two nights in this spot was plenty, and Thursday morning we weighed anchor to continue our downriver cruise to Chippewa Bay. Knowing we'd be coming upriver on the margins to stay out of the current, we went downriver in the main channel with a knot or so behind us. Just as we were turning into the channel the Nao Santa Maria, a replica of Columbus' flagship, passed us upriver; I was too busy at the helm to snap a photo. I'm pretty sure we also crossed paths with them somewhere in FL or GA earlier this year.


Vector as seen from the dining patio at the Thousand Islands Yacht Club.

Later in the cruise we passed another tall ship, the Picton Castle, which prompted me to do some searching online, and we learned that there is a tall ship display in Ontario right now followed by one in Buffalo this week, and we surmised both were en route. I learned much later that the Santa Maria was, in fact, already a week late for what was supposed to be a week-long stop in Rochester, owing principally to high current coming up the St. Lawrence. We'd have had the same issue ourselves had we gone much further downriver.


Sail Training Ship Picton Castle.

Before crossing paths with Picton Castle, we first crossed paths with the upbound freighter Fivelborg. Normally I would move well out of the channel for such a meet but, as luck would have it, we met just abreast of Ironsides, a granite cliff that marks the green side of the channel. I called them ten minutes out to arrange the pass; they came out on to the bridge wing and gave us a big wave as we passed them.


Singer Castle on Dark Island as seen from our anchorage. With a photo-bombing bird. A pleasure boat is at the dock.

In less than two hours we were passing Dark Island and Singer Castle to port, and we turned to starboard to circle behind Cedar Island to drop the hook (map). The St. Lawrence is a fjord, and river currents keep the bottom scoured down to rock throughout most of the river. Soundings range from 30' to 170' in the various channels. To find any silt or mud to hold an anchor, you have to look just downriver of the larger islands, or in the larger bays, where it accumulates.


This giant ball of clay was stuck in our anchor when we weighed at the yacht club. This is what holds us in an otherwise rocky river bottom. It took Louise a full 20 minutes with the washdown hose to rinse it off.

Tours of Singer Castle are on the hour, and we learned the 240-person tour boat was due at 2pm. So as soon as we had the anchor set we splashed the tender and zoomed over for the 1pm tour, which we shared with a dozen folks on a much smaller tour boat. Singer Castle is preserved much as it was when it was occupied by sewing-machine magnate Frederick Bourne and then his children. Century-old furnishings make for a shabby but historically interesting site.


The Singer Castle gift shop, in the old boathouse, is awash.

We returned to Vector by way of the State Park docks on Cedar Island. Much of the island is private homes, but there is a small park here with docks, a pavilion, and camp sites. It's $12 to dock here so we only did a touch-and-go to have a look. Everything else in Chippewa Bay is private.


Obligatory Singer Castle selfie.

I had originally figured to spend two nights here, but with no place else to land, we enjoyed just a single dark and quiet night at anchor, weighing anchor Friday morning. Downriver of this spot, the river narrows into just a single channel, and there's not much of interest from here to the Iroquois Locks, so we declared Cedar Island our turn-around point and began our trek back upriver.


The view of Cedar Island from our anchorage. We're very close. Pavilion at center is in the park.

We started by hugging the south shore, where we found virtually no adverse current all the way back up to Goose Bay, passing, this time, behind Ironsides. We threaded our way through the Excelsior Group and crossed the channel at nearly right angles over to the Summerland Group, continuing into Canadian waters and turning up the Canadian Middle Channel at Hill Island. Current in this channel is somewhat lower than in the American Narrows on the other side of the islands.


Sunset over Canada from Cedar Island.

In the Middle Channel we again passed under the Thousand Islands Bridge, the suspension span on the Canadian side being the spitting image of its twin on the American side. We faced a little under two knots passing under the bridge.


Thousand Island Bridge, Canadian edition. Hill Island at left and mainland at right.

Upriver of the bridge the river divides into numerous smaller channels separated by islands and rocky crags; some channels are shallow. We navigated into the largest, Fiddlers Elbow, where we encountered the worst current right at the entrance, about 2.5 kt. Fortunately it was short-lived; the swirling currents here at the confluence had me working hard steering by hand.


This retired lighthouse is mid-river on the American side, downriver of the bridge and narrows.

Emerging back into relatively open water past Myers Island, we angled south back into US waters and dropped the hook in a small cove at Wellesley Island State Park (map). There is a marina here, with a small store and restrooms but little else. Tying up would, again, be $12 and there was nothing we needed ashore. The vagaries of where the good silt accumulates had us anchored just a couple hundred yards from the campground, billed as the largest in the Thousand Islands, and we dined with the faint smell of wood smoke and the sounds of camping activity, shades of a former life.


Our view of campers, at anchor in Wellesley Island State Park.

We had the anchor set and were all settled in well in time for a conference call that we had scheduled with our financial planners in California. When the appointed time rolled around, however, we discovered that neither of us had any voice signal, and our lone Internet source was my T-Mobile phone which was roaming on a Canadian tower. Oh well; the planners understand our weird life and we'll reschedule the call. It is somewhat ironic that the only day in our entire Thousand Islands visit we had lousy connectivity is the day we had a call scheduled.


We've enjoyed being on deck when we can, but when the wind is calm, the bugs drive us indoors. Here the mast is covered in them, at the Cedar Island anchorage.

With nothing calling us ashore or to remain at the state park, we weighed anchor yesterday afternoon and returned here, threading our way between Wellesley and Grindstone Islands. This is really the only place in the region to replenish our groceries, get fuel for the tender, and maybe go ashore for dinner a couple of times. Knowing the bay a little better than our first visit, we opted to drop the hook a lot closer to town to minimize the choppy tender ride.

There was a cruise ship at the quay as we made our way back; amusingly the M/V Victory II is only slightly larger than the private yacht Bella Vita that was there on our last visit, yet carries twenty times the number of passengers (220 vs. 12). Thankfully it was gone by the time we came into town for dinner.


River cruise ship Victory II at the Clayton dock.

As we were maneuvering to anchor we noticed a number of classic sports cars littering the Boat Museum grounds. It turned out to be the annual Concours d'Elegance. We got a great view of all the cars through our binoculars without ever buying a ticket. A number of boats cruised slowly by the show, we assume for the same reason.


You know you are in small-town America when a local business sponsors flowers at the post office.

We splashed the tender and went ashore for a nice dinner at Di Prinzios along the river. It was gorgeous weather, and we had a pleasant stroll home by way of the hardware store. At least, the first few minutes were pleasant. Then the heavens opened, and we were lucky to make it under cover of what used to be a gas station canopy and is now a pizza joint. We stayed dry, and the first wave was all over in fifteen minutes, but we had left the windows open in the pilothouse and we had a bit of mopping up to do when we got home. Vector never moved, but we learned today that a Grand Banks across the harbor dragged anchor in the storm.


Sunset from Wellesley Island State Park. Island to the right is actually in Canada.

Today we had a surprise visit from good friends Curtis and Gill, completely out of the blue. I was sitting here working on travel plans when a text message came in from Curtis asking if we were enjoying Clayton. I know they generally don't follow the blog so I jumped up to scan the docks for them, figuring they must be in town and saw us in the harbor.

I was looking in the wrong place; they were visiting the Antique Boat Musem and decided to take one of the vintage speedboat cruises the museum offers. They spotted us as they left the docks. I tried to snap a pic of them as they returned but they were a bit too far for my phone camera. We arranged to meet them ashore for lunch, and we strolled over to the Wood Boat Brewery. They were swinging past on their way back from the looper rendezvous in Trent Port, and after lunch they dropped us at the grocery and sped off to Alexandria Bay for the night and to take in Boldt Castle before flying home out of Albany. It was great to see them, and especially to see them taking a rare day off for fun.


Curtis and Gill headed back to the museum aboard a vintage wooden speedboat.

The grocery was kind enough to bring us back to the dinghy dock after we were loaded up on provisions and even a couple of gallons of gas for the dinghy. We went right back into town and dinner time and walked over to the Channelside restaurant for a casual meal. No torrential downpour tonight, fortunately.

We'll likely be here another night, and we'll avail ourselves of the city pumpout dock on the other side of town. At some point we will continue our slow roll west, past Grindstone Island and possibly stopping in Cape Vincent, if anything there is far enough above water to get ashore. From there we may or may not make a return stop at Sackets Harbor, possibly to catch the fireworks, and then work our way towards Rochester.


Vector in Clayton harbor, as seen through a flooded marine business.