Pine Island ON July 21, 2015

Jim and Jola planned to row to Annie at 7:30 for coffee and cookies. At 7:29 it started to rain which probably saved them a wet ride back, as we canceled the trip. I kept fishing without too much success. I caught a little bluegill and proudly held it up for Jim. One pole had a worm and bobber and I was casting lures with the other. It was a lure that caught the bluegill. I tried a number of different lures with no success. Then I remembered that I had bought a worm harness for walleye fishing. I put a worm on it and made a cast. Zap! I caught a huge (for me) fish. I don’t know what it was. It had a big head and teeth and looked really fit. I got my Canadian fishing rules book, but it did not have any pictures. Kerry wanted me to throw it back and since I had no idea what it was I thought that seemed like a reasonable idea. I used pliers to remove the hook. Before I could hold it up it slipped out of my hand and was gone. I did get a picture of it in the net. It may have been a musky. I think Jola was sorry I let it go as she said we could have eaten for three days on it.

Up anchor time was set for 10:00. NOAA warmed of a thunderstorm coming down the St. Lawrence so we postponed ½ hour, then another as it was raining hard until 11:00. We headed for Pine Island. The trip was pretty uneventful. I made one wrong turn but Jim called and alerted me. The trip was 5.5 miles and we arrived at noon. I had trouble identifying the anchorage using my Gamin chart, but pulled out my phone’s chart which made it obvious. It also correctly identified the depth contours in the harbor. Jim’s anchor caught the first time. It took us three times. And each of the two times when we pulled the anchor up to reset it was full of weeds, huge balls of weeds. It took a long time to hack and clean it off before we could try again. Jim suggested we anchor in a little deeper water which should have fewer weeds. It worked – finally. Yea!

Jola invited us over for strata for lunch. Jim rowed over to pick us up. It was pretty windy for him, but we made it both ways. With no real seat, Jim had fashioned a seat of cushions and bumpers. Half way to Annie it came apart and he found himself sitting in a nice little pool of water from the recent rain. We rowed ourselves back to Annie sitting on bumpers. Then Kerry remembered that I had made a 2x4 bumper for use against poles. It turned out to be the right length for a seat, and even has rubber ends which should keep it for sliding off. Good job Kerry! Of course Jim looked at me and said “You had that all the time?”

The new seat and the old seat on the Debbie K.

I was really surprised to see my solar panels charging at over 19 amps amps. Wow! I did not believe they could do that. They really make a huge plus for energy management while anchored.

I normally run the generator for 30-45 minutes in the morning. When the batteries are in the low 70's the charge rate is really high, and they charge up in the low 80 percent really quickly. Running the engine while moving to a new anchorage and the solar panels complete the energy restocking.

 High charge rate from generator

We invited Jim and Jola over for a grilled hot Italian sausage dinner. It is fun to grill on the boat. The ribs last night were delicious. I need to remember to cook the sausage in two batches. Last time I cooked all 5 at one time and there were flames shooting out everywhere from the grease hitting the fire - scared me. It was a really out of control situation for a while. Kerry has a pecan pie for dessert and plans to surprise Jim with it.

The anchorage here is beautiful. We are in view of one of the Thousand Island bridges. The Karpinskis really like it too. Unfortunately there is no phone of Internet here. The winds in the islands start light in the morning, pick up to 12-15 knots in the afternoon, then go light again at night. This pattern  has been very consistent, which gives us peace of mind when anchored. If the anchor holds in the windy afternoon we can feel confident that we won’t drift away at night.

Enjoying a good book sitting in the sun on my seat cushion, which I am fortunate to have!

My strategy for cooking the sausages worked. The grease flames were at a manageable level. We ate inside as the wind made it cool on the upper deck. Jim’s special desert was a pecan pie. We have enough left for a piece today. That would not have happened if Kip was with us. Jim picked out some fishing lures he wants to try tomorrow before he rowed back. It was really beautiful as night settled in.

We could see mosquitoes by the dozens swarming around our screens. We laughed at them because they could not get to us tasty people, even held our hands by the screen to tease them. Well, they had the last laugh. When we went to bed they somehow got in and at least 2 dozen filled our cabin. And our electronic fly swatter choose that moment to quit working. Damn! We had to squish them the old fashioned way, smashing them on the walls with tissues. We finally got them all, stuffed tissues and bags around the door edges, and went to bed, I think, un-bit. Tomorrow we are off to Grenadier Island, just a short hop from here.