A terrible thing happened. I needed to add a cup of bleach to the water tank. The bleach bottle cap was tight but leaked anyway and now there is a big white spot on the dark blue seat cushion in the cabin. The very same seat cushion that the crew has just finished covering along with the others. The mitigating circumstance is that the cushion was upside down at the time. The bleach bottle is banned from the cabin but the captain is not - yet. We are approaching the end of the Trent-Severn Waterway at Trenton. All 43 locks have small parks at the top and bottom of the lock and usually on both sides of the canal. This makes one to four small well landscaped parks with mooring bits accessible to boaters but not to the general public. We wander the waterway from one to four hours and then moor at a lock using the cruising guide recommendations which turn out to be accurate. Light waterway traffic this year has given us our own private park almost every night so far. The scenery is spectacular and boating is simple with no tides and minimal current. Small towns along the way offer provisions. This is not for the booze-and-boogie boaters that are better entertained in the Bahamas but more for those who appreciate peace and quiet in natural surroundings. I can't understand why the place isn't overflowing with boaters from everywhere. Sidney is still gone. I have noticed a small white, fuzzy ball up in the corner near the spot where he spun his web. Could it be that Sidney is one of those arachnids that sacrifice themselves for the next generation? In that case it may be more proper to call it Sydney. While fixing the dinghy, I did notice a number of very tiny spiders in the area. In college I was totally successful in the avoidance of biological science especially entomology (bugology - yuck). The crew has mostly solved the mosquito problem by sleeping under a net. Actually, the bug density has tapered off considerably. Time of year or location? I dunno. We have arrived in Trenton, the terminus of the Trent-Severn Waterway. A wonderful cruise even though the weather was not always perfect. Even the Canadians are complaining about the slow start of summer and it takes a lot to make a Canadian complain about weather. We are fully fueled and provisioned. The water tank is full and the holding tank is empty so we are ready for the Thousand Islands. Months ago there was a PowerPoint program circulating the internet that had some nice scenes of the Thousand Islands. You may have seen it.
THOUSAND ISLANDS
Lots of wooded islands. Many shallow bays that have a weedy bottom that makes anchoring sometimes difficult. Near Alexandria Bay - the high-rent district - the summer cottages of the filthy rich trying to outdo their neighbor are a bit flamboyant. A multi-storey, thousands of square feet, stone mansion of unique architecture, on fully landscaped grounds (themed, of course) with a quaint bridge to an adjacent island where there may be a spectacular tea house or a boat house like a mini-mansion will get you small notice. You would have to do something unusual to avoid being considered just another neighbor. In this time of high-season there are boats everywhere. Big and little boats, tour boats, and an occasional huge ore carrier or freighter passing through the main channel on the St. Lawrence Seaway. The Seadoos buzz around like bees. No one seems to know the nautical Rules of the Road especially the houseboats. Sailboats imperfectly know only one rule - they have priority over all other traffic at all times. No one is careful with their wake. But, hey, this is New York. A lot of these boaters are drivers in Manhattan most of the year. The border runs through the islands and to go ashore or even put an anchor down, you must have cleared Customs of that country. We did and bought gas for $2.65 instead of the Canadian price of $3.50. Now we have to clear again to reenter Canada (No, we don't have any guns or dangerous vegetables aboard.). I wrapped the port prop with the stern anchor line and had to get wet. I needed a bath anyway. The water is cool and clear. They tell us the water wasn't nearly so clear before the arrival of the zebra mussel. Most locals were horrified at the invasion of the zebra. It was everywhere and its numbers increased out of control with all the zebra food available. Once all that abundance was consumed, the zebra population rapidly fell to balance the supply and it is not considered a problem by most locals. So if that concern is eliminated we can get back to the important stuff like the poor performance of those rascal Mets and Maple Leafs. A worker at a nuke power plant says that every third year they have a diver clear the water course. The zebras scrape off like butter. They are the size of small lima beans. I wonder where they find the calcium to make a shell in this fresh water. Tomorrow, we head for Wolf Island for a night on our way to Kingston and the Rideau Waterway. We want to be clear of T.I. on the weekend. The crew is as happy as possible while bothered by a bronchial cough. The captain remains well fed.
