Triangle Loop – Week 13 (Welcome To Canada!)

July 20th to July 26th, 2025

Day 83 – Sunday, July 20th, 2025 – In: Brewerton, NY

On Sunday, it rained for most of the day. We spend the majority of the day on the boat working on getting the blog out. In the late afternoon, the weather cleared up a bit, and I went out to wash the dead bugs off the boat and bring the bikes back on board for our departure the next day.

For dinner, we had leftovers, then chatted with our boat neighbors.

Day 84 – Monday, July 21st, 2025 – To: Oswego, NY
Oswego Harbor Marina

Today, we completed the Eastern Erie Canal and the Oswego Canal, ending our day on the shores of Lake Ontario in Oswego, New York. As we were taking our morning showers, our freshwater pressure pump didn’t turn on. I checked the circuit-breaker, it was fine, I lifted the floor, and checked to see that it was getting power, it was. I disconnected the hoses to make sure there wasn’t a blockage, and the water flowed freely. So, it was the pump, crap. The pressure pump detects when the water pressure drops, then turns on until the pressure builds back up again. There is a pressure switch on the pump that controls it. I took my screwdriver and gave it a few good whacks, and the pump turned on. The pump was replaced when we bought the boat, so I’m not surprised that it was wearing out. We got our showers. We didn’t want to delay our departure until 9:00 when Ess-Kay opened, so I ordered one on Amazon to be delivered in Canada. We left Brewerton at 7:30 to reach our last Erie Canal lock, E-23, at 8:00 when the opened.

We only had to wait a few minutes for them to prepare the lock, then we went into the lock with a smaller boat called Spanish Fly, which navigated the 6.9-foot drop to the level of the Oswego Canal. Six miles later, we reached Three Rivers Junction, where the Oswego Canal and the Erie Canal meet. The Oswego Canal heads north on the Oswego River to Oswego, NY. The Erie Canal switches from the Eastern Erie Canal to the Western Erie Canal and continues West to Buffalo, NY.

We took a right onto the Oswego, cruising past the large New York Canal Authority work yard. 2.5 miles later, we reached our first Oswego Lock, O-1. Lock O-1 has a lift bridge at the far end of the lock. Once in, they lower the water 10.2 feet, then you wait while they stop traffic and raise the bridge before heading out of the lock. At the park next to the lock, a summer camp is being held for kids. As part of their activities, the kids pick up trash in the parks that line that part of the canal. Just as the gates opened, the kids (about 25 of them) started across the bridge with their trash bags. Most were walking slowly, faces firmly planted into their phones. The lockmaster radioed down and apologized for the delay; you could hear the frustration in his voice. Once the kids were off the bridge, he stopped traffic and lifted the bridge for us to go through. As we passed the kids on the bank in the park, they all waved when I tooted the horn.

The Oswego River is fairly large and features seven dams, many of which have hydroelectric power stations. Each of the 7 dams has a lock to lower you to the next level of the river. Our next Lock, O-2, was 10 miles ahead. When we reached the lock, one door was open and one was closed. We waited a few minutes, then called the lock on the radio. The lockmaster from Lock O-3 responded that O-2 was having mechanical issues and to just hold. When Locks have mechanical or electrical issues, it can take a day to get it fixed, so we were worried that we’d get stuck at the lock. Five minutes later, we saw a white pickup with Canal Logos on it pull in and a person walk up to one of the control boxes, open it, fiddle with something, then go to the lock house, and the gate started to open. Woo Hoo!

We pulled into the lock and tied up. The doors closed behind us, and the Lockmaster walked up to us (to get his Goodie Bag), and explained that a circuit breaker had tripped on the lock door motor, and he had fogotten his keys at lock O-3 where he worked yesterday and had to run down to get them in order to open the cabinet and reset the breaker. He apologized for the delay, and within a few minutes, we had dropped 17.8 feet. Lock O-2 also features a bridge over the lock; however, due to the 17-foot drop, we were able to go under it once at the bottom, and it did not need to be lifted.

As you exit Lock O-2, Lock O-3 is directly ahead with its 27-foot drop. I can imagine that the 45-foot drop in less than a mile must have been quite the waterfall back before the canal was built!

The lock was ready and waiting for us. As we pulled in, we startled a flock of seagulls that were perched on the lock wall, causing a cloud of birds to swoop over the boat. Once in, we quickly dropped 27 feet. We remembered from our first Loop trip that the outfall from the dam creates a very strong current across the channel immediately outside the lock. The first time it caught us by surprise, this time, we were ready for it. As we entered the flow, it started to push the boat to the right, so I added power to the starboard engine and we pushed through it without issue. There are large concrete pilings on the right side of the river, and boats have hit them. The area where the water flows out is a break in the wall. I don’t know why they haven’t fixed it!

Lock O-5 is next. When construction of the Oswego Canal began, they planned for eight locks. Partway through construction, they decided to eliminate Lock 4 but increase the size of Locks 3 and 5. It is a 6.5-mile cruise between Lock O-3 and Lock O-5 through tree-lined bluffs, with houses perched on top.

When we reached Lock O-5, the doors were open and waiting for us again. From the top of the lock, you can begin to see the skyline of Oswego, NY, in the distance. We dropped another 20 feet, and as we exited the lock, we entered a side channel that is the navigation canal. The main part of the river is to the left of the navigation canal, and becomes shallow, cascading over rapids.

Lock O-7 is just over a quarter-mile away and drops another 14.2 feet. Just after the lock is a popular tie-up spot for boats. On our first Loop trip, we spent the night along this wall as the Oswego Marina and docks were full. There is no power, but you get a great view, and it’s quite protected from the wave effect of Lake Ontario. Thunderbolt, the electric boat, was docked along the wall. We looked as we passed by, but they were not on board.

Just a half-mile further on, we reached lock O-8, our last lock on the Oswego Canal with its 10.8-foot drop, bringing us to the level of Lake Ontario.

The Oswego Harbor Marina is right after the lock, and we pulled in. Our slip was on the wall right behind the Sun Seeker 67 that we had met in Saint Johnsville. The marina is less than a mile from the harbor entrance and Lake Ontario. The dockhand who helped us tie up commented on our name and said that she was afraid of frogs. We laughed and gave her one of our rubber frogs to “help her get over her phobia.” She got a big kick out of it!

We got settled in and walked to the office to check in. When we got back to the boat, Solitude, who we had heard calling locks behind us, was just docking at the Best Western docks next to the marina. We stopped by and chatted with them for a few minutes, then we crossed the bridge to downtown to grab some lunch. Like many touristy towns, many businesses and restaurants are closed on Monday and Tuesday, but we found a nice cafe that was open. After lunch, we finished our tour of downtown (all half-mile of it). The highlights included a candy shop and a bike repair shop, where I was able to get a replacement mirror for my bike, which had broken while I was putting on the cover.

As we walked back across the bridge to the marina, we saw another Looper boat coming through. Burleigh Girl was just locking through O-8, which is right under the bridge. We stopped and watched the process from above.

For dinner, we walked to The Press Box, at the top of the hill near the marina. After dinner, we stopped and did a Geocache in the park next to the marina. One of the tricks to Geocaching is to avoid “muggles.” Muggles are non-geocachers who might see you find a cache and mess with it. In the park, we had about five Muggles staring at us as we found the cache in a guardrail. This time, we weren’t worried as they were all rabbits! The park was full of them!

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Day 85 – Tuesday, July 22nd, 2025 – To: Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Confederation Basin

Today, we will cross Lake Ontario and enter Canada! Yesterday the wind was 10-15 mph directly from the North, and there were 2-3 foot waves on the lake. The fishing boats at the marina were all in port, and it wasn’t until the wind died down in the late afternoon that a few ventured out. This morning, the wind was only 2-3 mph, and starting at 5:00, a steady stream of boats left the marina. I counted 12 by 6:00!

I went down into the engine room to do my daily engine checks, and everything looked fine, except for a bit of transmission fluid under the port engine. Odd… I wiped around the transmission with a rag and didn’t find the source. There was a bit of fluid around the dipstick, but I figured it was just drips from the last time I checked it.

I turned the dipstick to check the fluid level, and the top came off in my hand. “The end of my dipstick had fallen off!” (an old joke from the “Car Guy’s, Click & Clack” on NPR radio in the 1990s) Panic set in. The dipstick is also the cover for the hole where you fill the transmission fluid, and without the cover, the fluid would spray out. I was able to remove the bottom half of the dip stick from the hole and observed that when the plastic was cast, it contained bubbles, which is where it snapped. There is a hardware store just up the street from the marina, and I thought I might be able to get a plumbing plug that I could seal it with until I could get a new dipstick. While I was waiting for them to open, I looked online and found that due to the age, dipsticks for my model are no longer manufactured. The dipsticks for newer models look the same, so I figured they might fit, but it would take a few days to get one.

When the hardware store opened, I walked up and started searching for something that would work. The fitting is metric and has a very coarse thread. I couldn’t find anything even close. I did find some plastic epoxy that “works on MOST plastics”, so I bought that to try to glue the parts back together. I spent about 15 minutes cleaning the parts to remove the transmission fluid, drilling two small holes to insert finish nails and align the halves, also providing extra shear strength when I tightened it down. I then mixed up the epoxy to glue them together. The parts fit together well, and I held them tightly in my hand for the next 30 minutes, waiting for the epoxy to cure. While I was waiting for the epoxy to cure, I found a company in California that had two new-old-stock dipsticks. I ordered both of them (if one broke, the other probably will too) to be shipped to Kingston, Canada, for next week. The shipping was twice the cost of the dipsticks!

When the 30 minutes were over, I checked, and while it was together, I wasn’t confident that it would stay stuck when I tightened it down. The hardened epoxy was just scraping off the plastic rather than sticking to it. So I fished around in my screw box and found two tiny screws that I installed to hold the two halves together. After replacing the hardened O-ring seal with a new one, I gave it a try, and it seemed to seal well.

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At 9:00, we started the engines, dropped lines, and headed toward Canada. When we reached the end of the harbor breakwater, I checked the transmission for leaks. None! We cleared the breakwall, turned due north, and headed for Kingston, Ontario, 55 miles away. We brought the engines up to cruising speed (about 2,800 RPM, 18 mph) and I checked the transmission again to make sure the increased pressure wasn’t causing a problem. No leaks. If we saw a problem, we had planned to turn around and head back to Oswego. I set a timer on my watch and checked on the transmission every 30 minutes.

There was a light chop on the water, with 1-foot waves, but the boat ran smoothly. Soon, we were in over 500 feet of water! Solitude was right behind us and passed us just as we crossed into Canada at 11:09.

Shortly after that, Amherst and Wolfe Islands with their huge wind farms came into view, and at 12:30, we pulled into Confederation Basin in Kingston, Ontario.

After tying up, we called Canadian Customs to check in. As with our prior check-ins in Canada, they were primarily interested in whether we were bringing in any cannabis products. Cannabis is legal in Canada, and the government controls sales similar to alcohol in the US. They don’t want any competition! They also asked about how much alcohol we had, how much money we had, and took down our passport numbers, then said, “Welcome to Canada! Now go back where you came from!”(just kidding) and gave us our clearance number. The whole call took less than 2 minutes.

Once we were cleared, we walked up to the marina office to check in. Our slip is pretty much the farthest away from shore that you can get at the marina. It’s a 1/4-mile walk from the boat to the bathrooms. (Plan Ahead!)

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After checking in, we walked across the street into downtown for a docking beer. After our docking beer, we went back to the boat, and just as we got back, our friends on Lie-Lo pulled into the marina. Doug and Melissa on Lie-Lo are from Palm Coast. Doug was the mosquito control specialist for our development, and we chatted with him about the Loop before he (and we) left. We passed him in the Albemarle Sound back in April. He and his wife Melissa just came down the Rideau Canal. We’ve been watching their progress and had hoped to meet up. We went over to their boat to meet Melissa (and their dog and cat). We chatted with them for a bit and decided to go to dinner later on.

After chatting with Lie-Lo, I walked about a mile to the UPS Store to pick up our replacement water pressure pump and a few other repair parts that I’d ordered from Amazon. When I got back, it was around 5:30, and time to meet Melissa and Doug for dinner. We went across the street to Tir nan Og, an Irish Pub. We had a great dinner and conversation. After dinner, we took them up the street for their first Canadian Beaver Tails! They were impressed!

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Day 86 – Wednesday, July 23rd, 2025 – In: Kingston, ON

Wednesday morning was project time. Brenda went and did laundry, and I replaced our water pressure pump. Surprisingly, it went more easily than I had expected! Next was replacing the water strainer for the intake on our guest head. The threads on the cover had stripped out, so it was sucking in air and not pumping well. That also went fairly easily. Next was the priming bulb on our generator fuel line. The old, original bulb had collapsed, restricting the flow of fuel. I noticed it when I replaced the filter in Brewerton during the generator maintenance. I got a new one in my Amazon order. Unfortunately, it was the wrong connector size. The generator fuel lines are smaller than our engine fuel lines, so I ordered another one. It should arrive on Thursday. My last project was to install a small water pump in the stern of the boat. The rudder post that we had repaired back in Hampton, VA, was weeping water when we re-splashed. It was just a couple of drops a minute, and stopped after a day. I’ve been keeping an eye on it, and it’s started to weep again. Currently, it’s dripping about 2-3 ounces a day, not bad, but over time, it adds up.

I put a line from my dry bilge pump into the stringer where it drips into and pumped out about 3 gallons of water, which had accumulated since we left Hampton on June 16th, which isn’t bad. We need to replace the O-rings on the rudder post, which requires the boat to be hauled out of the water. Given the slow rate of the leak, I’ll wait until either we have to haul it out for some other reason or we return home. For now, I have installed another dry-bilge pump in the rear bilge, which runs for a minute every hour. It’s the same system we use to remove water from our lower bilge, keeping it nice and dry. There is always something to do on an old boat!

Brenda returned with her two loads of laundry around noon, just as I was picking up. I took a shower, and we decided to take the ferry to Wolfe Island, just a mile from Kingston. The ferry is free for walk-ons, and the island has a couple of restaurants, a bakery, and, the last time we visited, several craft stores and art galleries.

We got to the ferry terminal at 12:30, and the next ferry was at 1:40, so we went to get something to drink and were back to catch the ferry at 1:40. As we were leaving the dock to head over to the ferry, the boat club from Rochester, NY, asked where we were going and we told them about the Island. When we got to the ferry, the entire club was lined up to go to the Island.

The ride over was excellent. We went on our 2019 trip, and they have a new Ferry Terminal on the island (and a new one is just being completed on the Kingston side. They also have a new ferry boat with twice the vehicle capacity of the prior boat. When we got to the island, we walked to the small main street. When COVID-19 hit, they were in the middle of upgrading the ferry terminals. It was initially planned as a 12-month project, but due to pandemic-related restrictions and a loss of funding, the project ultimately took 4 years. This is the first season that they have had full ferry service to the island. Due to the lack of tourist traffic, many businesses, artists, and craftspeople closed or left the island. They are starting to reopen, but many are still closed. Fortunately, the Wolfe Island Bakery is still open and continues to produce its fantastic Butter Tarts, so we were able to get some while we were there. The ferry runs every 2 hours, so we stopped at “the” restaurant that was open for some lunch, then took the next ferry back to Kingston.

In the evening, we walked to The Toucan, another Irish-themed pub located down a series of old stone alleyways. We had a nice dinner, then walked back toward the boat. On the way, we stopped for an ice cream for dessert, then heard an orchestra tuning up in the amphitheatre at the Town Hall. We grabbed a couple of chairs and waited until 7:00 for the concert to start. The band played a big band style, featuring a number of popular big band tunes accompanied by a young singer with an amazing voice. The concert was well attended. There must have been over a hundred people sitting around listening.

We stayed until about 8:00, then headed back to the boat for the night.

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Day 87 – Thursday, July 24th, 2025 – In: Kingston, ON

Thursday worked on the blog until around 10:00, then we walked to the Kingston Maritime Museum. When we were stuck in Penetang, Ontario, on Georgina Bay during our first Loop while our boat was being repaired, we did some exploring. By chance, we came across the SS Keewatin, a luxury steam cruise ship used by the Canadian Pacific Railway from 1908 to 1965 to transport passengers between the east end of the Trans Canadian railway on Port McNicoll on Georgian Bay (Lake Huron) in Ontario, Canada, and Port Arthur/Fort William (now Thunder Bay) on Lake Superior which was the west end of the Trans Canadian Railway. The section between Georgian Bay and the North Channel was too rough and remote to lay track until technology advanced in the 1960s, so steamships were used to transport passengers across the Great Lakes. We toured the ship and found it fascinating. It was one of the trip’s highlights. Like many museums, the pandemic hit the association that owned the Keewatin hard, and they were considering selling it for scrap.

The King’s Great Lakes Maritime Museum learned about the plan, arranged to purchase the ship, and had it relocated to an old dry dock slip next to the Museum in Kingston. One of our plans for this trip was to take another tour of the ship, and today was the day.

The ship is in an excellent, protected area next to the museum. The exterior has been repainted, and many areas of the ship that were not restored during our 2019 visit have now been restored. Now that the ship is in Kingston, it is much more accessible and visible, attracting many more visitors, which in turn means more funding for its upkeep and further restoration. We really enjoyed our visit, it was great to see an old ship being kept alive!

Keewatin was in service from 1907 until 1965. The staff have staged the cabins in decor and fashion from each era. From 1907 to the 1960s. Spats and Bowlers, to GoGo Boots and Couduroy Jackets. Every room on the Keewatin was a first-class cabin. Every passenger ate in the same dining room, had access to the same facilities, and received the same level of service from the staff. However, not all First Class cabins were the same; some were more first-class than others, and a few exclusive cabins even had their own bathrooms!

After we finished our tour, we walked along the waterfront path and found a Geocache. Then we walked into town and up the main business street, Princess Street. We stopped at an antique shop and a small brewery for a drink and a snack before continuing to the UPS Store to pick up our replacement dipsticks and generator primer bulb, then walked back to the boat.

At 5:00, we had a conference call for our HOA Board Meeting, which lasted until 6:30. Then, we went to Chuck’s Roadhouse, located near the marina, for dinner. The town of Kingston has a program where you collect stamps when you patronize downtown businesses, which you turn in for prizes. Brenda has been collecting the stamps. We were missing an “Ice Cream” stamp, so after dinner, we HAD to go next door to Mio Gelato for an ice cream dessert!

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Day 88 – Friday, July 25th, 2025 – In: Kingston, ON

In the morning, we walked up to the Market Square for breakfast at Morrisons Diner, which has been in operation under the same family for 90 years. After a hearty breakfast, we went to the Visitor Center and purchased tickets for the Hop-On-Hop-Off Trolley service. The Trolley is a narrated tour and circles most of the city. It extends as far East as Fort Henry on the other side of the causeway (which we need to go through when they move the bridge on Sunday), to the Prison Museum on the West end of town. It also goes through the Military Academy campus, the campus of Queens University, and through the main shopping district, Princess Street. It’s a bit pricey at $40, but you can ride it all day, and it’s about the same price as an Uber if you go somewhere and back. Our reason for taking it was to visit Bellevue House, a historic site managed by Parks Canada. Belleveue House was the home of Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister. Sort of like going to George Washington’s Mount Vernon. He only lived in the home for 13 months, but much of the Canadian Articles of Confederation were written in the house.

We visited the house in 2019 on our first loop trip, but the inside of the house was closed for renovation. It has recently been reopened, so we wanted to go back and take the tour. The house and grounds have been restored to their original state, as they were in 1848 when Macdonald lived there. The house features several pieces of original furniture, including an embroidered chair and the baby cradle that the Macdonald family brought with them from Scotland. The grounds with their apple orchard and kitchen garden have also been restored to their historic design.

We caught the Trolley next to Market Square and rode it along the waterfront to Bellevue House for the tour. After the tour, we hopped back on the trolley and rode the rest of the circuit past the Canadian Correctional College, their training center for correctional officers. The Kingston Men’s and Women’s Penitentiaries, as well as the warden’s house and the Rockwood Asylum for the Criminally Insane, are all now museums. The Olympic Harbour Marina, where we stayed on our last Loop trip. Through Queen’s University, Canada’s equivalent of Harvard Medical School and MIT. When we returned to the Visitor Center in front of our marina, we decided to stay on the Trolley and cross the causeway to Fort Henry, so we could see the temporary bridge that will be moved on Sunday morning, allowing us to enter the Rideau Canal.

When we got back to Market Square, we hopped off the trolley and did a bit of souvenir shopping, then stopped into Dollar Bills Bar for a drink. Dollar Bill was a notorious rum-runner during Prohibition. When they were digging up the street in front of the bar (which is right across the street from the harbor and the marina), they discovered two tunnels used to move whiskey to boats, for the short trip to Sacketts Harbor in New York. The story goes that on his last trip, the FBI was waiting for him on the New York side, and he never returned to Canada.

While we were chatting with the bartender, he mentioned several restaurants popular with locals. We’ve hit most of the tourist traps, so we’re glad to get some suggestions. One of them was Aqua Terra in the Delta Hotel, which borders the marina basin. We stopped in on our way back to the boat to check the menu and make a reservation.

We got back to the boat around 2:30, just as it started to rain. We spent the rest of the afternoon on the boat. The rain didn’t last long, and by 5:00, when we left for our dinner reservation, it had cleared up and the sun was back out.

Dinner was excellent! Aqua Terra is a gourmet restaurant, so all of the dishes have long ingredient lists. We started with the Charred Heirloom Carrots – Salt of the Earth carrots, cashew & coconut mousse, black garlic aioli, carrot top chimichurri, pickled shallots, tempura crumble.

For dinner, Brenda had the Pan-Seared Scallops – Crispy polenta, zucchini & corn medley, whipped goat cheese, Sicilian lemon gastrique, garlic chips. I had the Pistachio-Crusted Lamb – Lamb loin, pavé au gratin, local summer vegetable velouté, Swiss chard, white truffle oil, olive tapenade.

Everything was excellent, and our waiter was outstanding. A great dining experience! After dinner, we walked across the street to White Mountain Ice Cream Company for dessert, then went back to the boat. Kingston was holding another concert, this time a rock concert in the Market Square, but it didn’t start until 8:00, which was past my bedtime.

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Day 89 – Saturday, July 26th, 2025 – In: Kingston, ON

Today is our last day in Kingston (assuming that they open the bridge tomorrow). When I woke up at 5:30, the marina was covered in a thick fog. You could hardly see the break wall, 150 feet away. We could hear the foghorn on the Wolfe Island Ferry as it passed the marina entrance. Once the sun came up, the fog started to burn off, and by 9:00, it was pretty much gone. At 9:30, we went to a coffee shop for a quick breakfast, and then to the Farmers Market in the Square. We picked up a few things and then stopped to take some photos of Kingston’s Confederation Park and the waterfront.

We then returned to the boat to work on the blog and prepare for our departure in the morning. A picture I had taken of the water weed didn’t come out very well, so I walked back down the dock to take a better one. As I was walking, a mink came strolling up the dock toward me! I thought that perhaps someone’s pet ferret had gotten loose, but a dock hand said that it was a mink, and a family of them hangs out around the marina. He said they were like Canadian rats! They will get into boats, chew up cushions, eat anything food-like, and generally make a mess of the boat.

We spent the rest of the day working on the blogs, and Brenda did a load of laundry.

For our last night in Kingston, we went to the Black Dog Restaurant for dinner. Dinner was excellent again! Afterward, we went to Mio Gelato one last time for dessert, and so that Brenda could finish her Downtown Kingston Bingo card.

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Recap of the week

We traveled 88 miles this week, bringing our total to 1,719 miles so far. We finished the Eastern Erie Canal and the Oswego Canal, then crossed Lake Ontario into Canada! (Yes, they let us in!) The end of my dipstick fell off, causing a bit of a panic. Then we spent the week in Kingston, Ontario, one of our favorite cities on the Loop, waiting for the weekly bridge opening so that we can start our trip up the Rideau Canal.

Next week, we start the Rideau Canal toward Ottawa, the capital of Canada.