Still Sailing!

Tuesday morning there were severe weather warnings including hail, thunder and lightening, and severe winds, so we left our island anchorage by 7:15 am and headed for Cape Vincent.  Winds were maybe 15-20 knots and pretty big waves, so we had a short but somewhat strenuous sail, arriving in Cape Vincent about 9:30 am.  The rest of the day turned out to be very windy but also very hot, forecast in the high 90s.  We ended up most of the day lazing around the boat and jumping in the water periodically, but we did replenish supplies, visit the bakery with the best croissants ever (and air-conditioning), and later took a long walk.

We were able to find a shop (The Belle Epoch) that used to rent bikes and now just loans them out, as we wanted to take bikes on the ferry and go over to Kingston.  Since it was so warm and thunderstorms still forecast (though they never happened!), we decided to wait til the next day and took the 9:30 am ferry.  You take the 10 minute ferry with your person, bike, or car to Wolfe Island and then bike about 7 miles across the island to a 25 minute ferry (free!) that takes you to Kingston, Ontario.

Ferry from Wolfe Island to Kingston - larger than the one from Cape Vincent!

We stayed at a bed and breakfast on Wolfe Island 3 years ago and had a wonderful time -- you can ride bikes all over the island with very little traffic, go over to Kingston for lunch or dinner, and of course, there's water, water, everywhere!  The other really interesting thing was that we'd been there just the year before and no windmills -- 3 years ago, all of a sudden, 72 or 78, I forget which, windmills all over the island -- I don't remember the details now, but we got a tour and were told about them.  They really look quite majestic as you bike through the island.  You can't see them well in this picture, but we stopped to take a picture of the horses with windmills in the background on our bike ride.

We had lunch in Kingston at the Kingston Brewing Company and tried a couple of the local beers, then bought some reefing line in case we needed it for the mainsail.  It was a hot bike ride back, and here is Brian waiting for the ferry to take us back to Cape Vincent -- we couldn't wait to jump in the water!

We left Cape Vincent this morning a little before 9 after breakfast and a walk.  I avoided getting that last cup of coffee and croissant from the little bakery in Cape Vincent, but I heartily recommend that you go straight there if you're in the vicinity.  It took me an hour before I could stop regretting that I'd never tried the almond croissants!  Good wind and low waves today, a good sail back to Henderson Bay where we were meeting friends, John and Donna O'Hara on their boat Syncopation.

We met up with them about 12:30 pm and swam and talked and ate and drank.  Grilled chicken and vegetables on a grill off the boat -- the O'Hara's and Brian swam with their two dogs, Bosun and Tiegen, to shore.  The O'Haras had to go back home, and then we had the prettiest sunset to end the day -- with fresh perked coffee.