Good morning!  Rise and Shine!!  It will be a perfect day to cross Lake Ontario.  Low wind.   It is a brisk 59°F this morning.  Cloudy and cool.  Get your woolens on and let’s get started!!  We actually had to have 2 layers of shirts and our knit caps on first thing.  At 10 mph, that 59°F wind is cold!

The West Pierhead Light marking the entrance to Oswego River.  See the boats ahead of us?  They have been gracious enough to let us follow them all the way across Lake Ontario.

Last look at the great USA from our back door.  Goodbye America.  We will be back soon enough.

I noticed how blue the water was.  Too bad the cloudy day didn’t lend itself to a more pretty picture.  No longer in that tannic brown water we have come to expect.

Today we are expecting 1 foot or less waves.  Yesterday, they were having 3 foot seas.  Glad we waited.  How wonderful!!

Somewhere between the picture above and the picture below, we crossed over into Canada!!  We lost our cell service at least a half hour before.  I don’t know why someone can’t run up some weather balloons and provide constant cell service over the entire lake.  Can you?  I mean, how can any sane person be without cell service and the internet these days?

Do you see all those little black dots on the island?  Zoom in.  You can see them.  They are birds!  That little structure and island is filled with birds!  Is there a market for bird poo these days?  There has got to be a bunch there.  Maybe that is what is holding the island together?

Our second navigation marker is the Presqu’lle Bay Point light.  I thought the sun would come out sometime during the day, but it did not.  The air did warm up to the low 70’s so we were able to take off the knit caps and at least 1 layer of jackets.

Our first Canadian channel marker.  Looks exactly like the USA but different.

There are white things over there we heard on the radio!!  They are swans!!

Ok, back to paying attention to where we are going.  We will be entering Murray Canal.  The Murray Canal is 6 miles long and nine feet deep.  It was cut in the late 1880’s to make a shorter and safer route for commercial traffic in the upper Lake Ontario area.  You can see how straight it is in the picture below so you know it was man-made.  There are 2 swing bridges on either end.  A toll of $5 ( $4.95) is charged for using the canal.

By this time, there were 2 other Looper trawlers ahead of us three.  They snuck out of the Oswego Marina before us.  I didn’t even see them leave.  A caravan of 5 Trawlers going into the Murray Canal.  We were at the tail end.

We noticed the boats ahead of us had put up their yellow quarantine flag.  I hoisted ours.  We have to keep it up on the boat until Wayne, the Captain, checks in with the Canadian Customs at the marina.

Wayne had put up our courtesy Canadian flag on our front pole already.  Some folks put that up after they take down the yellow flag. I don’t know if it makes a difference.  Our American flag is flying on our stern.

 

At the Brighton Road Swing Bridge is the man who collects the toll.  He leans out with a cup on the end of a pole.  Here is the boat ahead of us leaving after they dropped their money in the cup.  You can see the bridge tender already looking at us.  Waiting patiently for our 5 dollar contribution to the canal fund.

This canal is narrow and beautiful.

Sights along the canal.

Out of the Murray Canal and into The Bay of Quinte

We have to make a rather round about course to the Fraser Park Marina to stay in deeper waters.  Wayne highlighted the course so it would be easier to discern.  Even then, the water is a skinny.  Lake Ontario was over 400 feet deep in parts.  So, 10 feet seems skinny.

Since we were the last boat of the caravan, we were also the last boat to get docked.

They sandwiched us all in pretty tight.  The Dock Master had 4 young people helping with the lines.  Very well trained dock hands.  We were very impressed.  Welcome to Fraser Park Marina in Trenton, ON.

The Captains went to the marina office and called the Customs phone number.  All the crew members ( wives and families ) on the other boats can’t get off until the Captain has been cleared.  Wayne took his turn.  There is a list of questions that he needed to be prepared for.  Names, birth dates, boat registration number, etc.  It is all listed on the Canadian website.  We had nothing to declare.  We ate all the fruit and vegetables. No eggs.  No cigarettes.  No problems.  The yellow flag comes down and gets stowed until we have to hoist it again to re-enter the USA.

As Wayne was walking back to the boat he proudly ( and loudly) declared that I could NOW get off the boat to pee!!  Good to let everyone know!!

We will be using any of the free wifi we can find.  Hopefully, that is at every stop along our travels.  Otherwise, you may have to wait for updates.  Lovely night, eh?