Kingston ON July 14, 2015

When we are anchored with Annie any waves coming at us pound against the hull with kind of a dull thud noise. It's just a characteristic of the hull design. We have gotten use to it. Well, I heard that noise at 4:30 this morning. I thought -wait- how can that be as we are in a dock in a harbor? Well, the wind had picked up to the point that there were little seas running through the harbor. Reluctantly I got up to go out and secure our table and chairs on the upper deck. Now it is raining, but the forecast is for it to pass through shortly.

Environment Canada has issued a high wind warning for today and most of tomorrow. I respect their forecasts because they have proven accurate in the past. Not what I would plan for the start of our anchoring marathon.

Putting the dingy together is on the agenda today. Jim told me over coffee that he does not have a seat for it. And since there is no motor, rowing is the propulsion. Rowing without a seat is not an ideal situation. Of course I had to rag on him for not telling me this when we planned the trip. I wonder if the dollar store would have a milk carton?

Annie docked at Confederation Basin Marina in Kingston

Poor Jimbo. His technology woes continue. He has spent a large part of the 2 days trying to get his phone to work. He has had some type of an google smtp (?) error message. He has researched it on the web, tried new passwords, etc. When I mentioned that the Liberty network was not working he wondered if that was the problem. It was. When he connected to the marina wifi his phone worked again! Now he just told me his iPad screen developed a big crack. He even has it in a case. Jim says he is going to give up all technology. Sometimes we all say that.

I have also been having a problem, that is trying to update the Navionics program on our tablet. It is the same on I have on my phone. I have tried for 3 days to get the charts to update. Finally today I was able to get the Thousand Island charts part to update by finding a lucky park bench. The tablet has a much bigger screen and will be easier to view. I was surprised to learn that the GPS (and then the chart app) on the tablet and phone work when data is shut off and there is no wifi.

Today we defrosted the refrigerator and freezer. It's a messy job, but goes quickly. I wanted to get rid of excess ice buildup as the unit runs more efficiently free of ice. Kerry wanted to inventory what we had and also clean the units. We then all walked downtown for some final shopping. We bought thermometers for our oven and refrigerator, groceries, and a new blouse for Kerry's at Gracie's, where she bought her dresses. That place has single handedly raised our trip cost per day significantly.

Jim and I spent some time identifying potential anchorages for the next two weeks. I marked them on the chart by making them waypoints with a little anchor symbol. Lots of possibilities. The problem is that they are often full of boats when you arrive. That's what happened all the time when we cruised with Lew and Gretchen Myers. Then we walked to the Maritime Museum to tour it and the Alexander Henry, an icebreaker that was decommissioned in 1985. Following that, it was time for a Guinness.

Jim wanted me to mention this. Yesterday when we were on our bikes and stopped at a little Asian lady came up and asked if we were Americans. She welcomed us to Canada after we said we were. I said to Jim I wondered how she knew we were Americans. He laughed and said I had a Nautica shirt on with a big American flag and USA on the back, so it was pretty obvious.

Tonight we are having dinner separately, then going for coffee and desert. We deferred inflating the dingy until tomorrow because big winds and rain were forecast for this afternoon and tonight. The good news is the last time it rained our hatch did not leak. Thank you Captain Tolley!

Well, so far no big winds or rain, and no dinner on the boat either. I think it was a trick. Anyway, we had a very nice  nice reasonably priced dinner at the Pilot House. Jola had desert but Kerry is holding out for chocolate cake and could not find any place serving it.

Blog updates will probably be pretty irregular for the next two weeks. I'll catch up when we are in the States.