Any Kingston, ON/ 1000 islands boaters here?

[WTP07]

Anyone from the 1000 islands/Kingston area?

Planning a trip for next year...looking for advice.

Cheers,

Randy.

 

[electricaldoctor]

Hi Randy,
We boat out of Ed Huck Marine in Rockport. This past summer, we cruised up to Westport and back with 4 boats. Last summer, the same bunch took 2 weeks off & cruised to Montreal with several overnights along the way. We are not quite sure what 2009 trip plans will be as yet. Where do you keep your boat?

regards ~ Ken

 

[WTP07]

Hi Ken,

I keep it in Leamington, near Windsor. I plan on trailering it to Kingston/Brighton area to put it for this trip. (It's 8'6" beam, so just under the limit)

I have never boated in the 1000 island area, so was looking for some local input.

Plan on a Montreal round trip, kind of leisurely. It wouldn't bother me if the boat didn't get on plane the whole trip! :grin:

Any idea how long from Kingston to Montreal?

Cheers,

Randy.

 

[spimik]

Hi Randy,
We boat out of Ed Huck Marine in Rockport. This past summer, we cruised up to Westport and back with 4 boats. Last summer, the same bunch took 2 weeks off & cruised to Montreal with several overnights along the way. We are not quite sure what 2009 trip plans will be as yet. Where do you keep your boat?

regards ~ Ken

Hi Guys-

We too boat out of Huck's- Dock D.

This was our first summer with the Sea Ray- We grew up running the river, but mostly on 17-25 day boats. We are looking foward to a planned trip up the Rideau this coming year. Wanted to spend this year getting a feel for the boat and how it handles.

It would be a great time to hook up with other, experienced Ray owners and do a trip together. Please keep me posted on any plans- we are very flexible.

 

[5sman]

We took our first extended trip this year to the 1000 islands. We got there from Cayuga Lake via the NYS Canal system crossing Lake Ontario from Oswego. It was a fabulous trip! We didn't go farther down the St. Lawrence than Chippewa Bay and spent the bulk of our time at Keewaydin State Park Marina. From Keewaydin we took a bunch of day cruises in and around the islands and spent a few days just hanging out relaxing. We also spent a day or so at Clayton, Gananoque, Treasure Island Marina and Cape Vincent.

As anyone will tell you, make sure you have charts and preferably a chartplotter for the St. Lawrence. I don't know how I would've got by without the chartplotter.

We want to go back next year but aren't sure on our plans yet.

 

[electricaldoctor]

Is anyone out there getting itchy throttle fingers yet? In all reality, we have another solid 2 months before we can even think of dunking our boat. This is really not fair ... way too long to wait, but plenty of time to daydream & make plans, eh?

We would like to do some forward planning for our annual summer cruise. I was thinking of heading across to A-Bay to load up on some inexpensive Yankee fuel and then slowly cruise west up along the American side. We would firstly check in at Boldt Castle of course or use our I-68 cards to check in. http://www.cruising.ca/docs/USAE.html (don't forget your passports folks) I would also like to get some tourist information for what's shaking along the south shore of the St. Lawrence River & Lake Ontario this summer for such places as A-Bay, Cape Vincent, Clayton, etc. all the way west to the Henderson & Sackets Harbour area. We would then leisurley cross the lake to Kingston & slowly work our way back to home port in Rockport with a few stops along the way. Dining, shopping, fishing, golfing anyone??

One of our fellow cruising buddies has suggested the Finger Lakes area, but I really do not have any idea what that might entail. Has anyone out there ever journeyed to the Finger Lakes area by boat in the past? Without anyone else joining in, we will probably be 3-4 boats ranging anywhere from 32' to 40'.

That's enough for now ... I can't wait to flog my crew!!

~ Ken :smt024

 

[rblatter]

Hi Randy,
We live in Montreal and have made that trip quite a few times. From Kingston to Montreal, you are looking at three or four days, if you take things slowly. The big problem is the locks, you can have an extended wait at any one of the U.S. or Canadian locks. Last time it took us two and half days to get to Kingston, stopping at around four in the p.m, leaving early every morning. Once past the Beauharnois locks, if your boat does not have an arch, you can use the Lachine Canal to get to downtown Montreal, shorter then taking the seaway locks. We start off in Lachine stop at Craig Quay, next day Crysler Park, then Brockville, arriving in Kingston midday. It is a very nice trip, but it is navigating, lots of traffic and pray for nice weather. Good luck.

Robert
310 Sundancer 2001
5.7L Bravos IIIs

 

[ChuckW]

Can't help with the Kingston to Montreal details, but I am familiar with the Kingston to Alexandria Bay leg. In fact I bought my current 260DA from the SeaRay dealer in Alex Bay, Hutchinson's Boat Works. Great people!

The scenery is spectacular. If you haven't explored the area you may want to plan some time to do so. Wolfe Island is a great stop, along with the Boldt Castle in Alex Bay and Singer Castle a bit further East. Pull your boat right up to the docks, enjoy some history and then move one. Plenty of wine and dine (or steak and ale) spots along the way.

 

[5sman]

One of our fellow cruising buddies has suggested the Finger Lakes area, but I really do not have any idea what that might entail. Has anyone out there ever journeyed to the Finger Lakes area by boat in the past?

From Cape Vincent to Oswego is a 1 hr. 45 min. trip depending on Lake Ontario conditions. It's approximately 2 hrs. from Kingston. Once in Oswego you'll take the Oswego canal south to the Erie canal. There are 7 locks on the Oswego canal. You then take the Erie canal West to the Cayuga/Seneca Canal. There are only 2 more locks on this route for a grand total of 9. The canal trip takes about 10 hours to get into Cayuga Lake. It's easier to make this trip on a weekday as there are less fishermen about on the canals than on the weekend therebye allowing you to make a little better time.

http://www.nyscanals.gov/

 

[electricaldoctor]

Thanx Matt. This sounds very intersting. We are used to locking the Rideau River system from Kingston up to Ottawa & the St. Lawrence Seaway locks down to Montreal, so these 10 locks will not be a problem. What are the local attractions on Cayuga Lake? Are there any towns, restaurants, marinas, etc. that you would recommend? We do a lot of anchoring out, so we would only require the marinas for fuel, pump outs & any possible dreaded repairs that we cannot handle ourselves.

regards ~ Ken

 

[5sman]

On both Cayuga and Seneca Lakes most of the attractions are concentrated on either the North or South ends of each lake with not so much in between. The notable exceptions to this are the wineries with lake access which are spread out.

We spend most of our time on Cayuga Lake. Good marinas at the Northern end are Hibiscus Harbor and Castelli's. At the south end in Ithaca there is Johnson's Boat Yard and Treman State Park Marina.

On the east side of Cayuga about 10 miles from the north end is the village of Aurora which is a quaint town with a nice inn and a pub. They have a village dock.

Ithaca on the southern tip of Cayuga is a nice small city with lots of attractions.

On the canal that connects Seneca to Cayuga Lake the town of Seneca Falls has a nice public wall/dock to tie up to with electric.

 

[electricaldoctor]

This is all good info Matt. I have a very good feeling that we will be doing this cruise at some point this summer. Were do you tie your boat up these days? Are you anywhere near us?

regards ~ Ken