Thousand Islands, Alexandria Bay

June 26:  We marveled at the blue-green color and clarity of Lake Ontario. The water that flows into the Lake at the western end funnels past the Thousand Islands at the east end and into the St Lawrence River six years later.

Spring rains have raised the water level along the shores of Ontario and the St Lawrence causing historic flooding on both the US and Canadian sides of the border. In addition to hardship and damage it has caused property and business owners, it has caused boaters some issues too.  Cruise speed was limited to 6 knots, but we also had a 3 knot “push” with the St Lawrence River current.  Speed restrictions marine alerts and broadcasts are now a daily occurrence because water levels are so extraordinarily high (see pix) that even small wakes can cause property damage.  Many island, and river edge, residents of Thousand Islands are finding their living rooms under water or at sea level.
 
We also encountered a significant amount of debris in the canal and river system; and because docks in this area are fixed, not floating, a number of marinas have some or all of their docks underwater causing an issue of more demand than supply.
 

The weather has been very changeable.  We encountered both sun and a brief storm on the 26 mile run across Ontario to the St. Lawrence.  "We are officially aliens" … that was an anonymous pronouncement we had heard over our marine radio apparently from a US vessel that had crossed Lake Ontario into Canadian territory.   

We then anchored in a little cut out behind Carleton Island where we enjoyed a lovely afternoon sitting in sunshine.  We bar-b-q and had dinner in the cockpit.  Looking down, the water was so clear it appeared we are in three feet of water instead of twelve. Later, it became stormy again and we watched the lightening show across the bay.  It cleared briefly and we had another light show – a vibrant rainbow.  It rained periodically during the night and the next day was stormy and so we decided to stay in place and enjoy a quiet day of trip planning and reading.  The bad news and the good news is that we were without phone and internet connections for two days even though we were really not far off the beaten track. 

Again, the late afternoon was beautiful and sunny and then more storm clouds and lightening strikes appeared.  Luckily, the following day was mostly sunny and we had a beautiful cruise with exquisite scenery and many photo ops on the way Alexandria Bay, NY. 

We docked and spent two days at the Riveredge Marina in "Alex Bay" with an unobstructed view of Boldt Castle on the island across a narrow expanse of water.