In practice however, the Seaway Corporation does every thing it can to flat out discourage Pleasure Craft from transiting the seaway.  Although the each lock in the seaway monitors marine radio.  The lockmasters will not communicate with pleasure boat captains by radio.  Instead the pleasure boat must tie off to a small dock near the lock and call the lockmaster on a phone at the dock to report in.  In one case the dock was large enough for only one boat that did not even have any cleats to tie off with!  The average wait time for us was three hours per lock.  If this was because commercial traffic was passing through it would be one thing.  But in our three days in the seaway I saw one ship and that was after I had gone through a lock.  They didn't put the ship through first.  Our first day on the seaway we left Montreal at 8:00 a.m., got through the first two locks and arrived in Lachine 14 miles away at 5:00 p.m. 

Prior to the opening of the Seaway the water route around the Lachine Rapids was by way of the Lachine Canal.  The canal runs north of the rapids through Montreal to Lake Saint Louis.  Unfortunately once the canal became commercially obsolete it was allowed to fall into disrepair and was eventually closed.  After a major public works effort the Lachine Canal  was reopen this spring allowing pleasure boats an alternative route to lake St. Louis.  However the bridges crossing the canal restrict passage to boats under eight feet in height. 

On our second day on the Seaway after waiting half a day to get through the lower and upper Beauharnois locks we arrived at the Valley field bridge.  This lift bridge was in the down position.  Using my field glasses I could see two bridge operators through the window of the tender's house high up in the bridge.  But for twenty minutes while I maneuvered Vagare against the wind and current there was no motion to suggest that the men were going to open the bridge anytime soon.  Eventually I noticed a third man walking from a parked car at one end of the bridge.  He walked to the middle of the bridge and began a slow climb high up into the bridge where the other two men came outside the house to greet him.  There all three smoked their cigarettes while flicking their ashes into the water three stories below.  Just about the time I was contemplating firing a few shells from my flair gun in the direction of the bridge the first two men descended down the structure and walked to their cars and eventually the third man began opening the bridge.  Apparently, the worker's contract does not require them to open the bridge the first or last half hour of their shifts.  Another great labor union achievement.  Remember this story the next time you vote. 

We stopped at the municipal marina in Cornwall, Ontario that night.  The marina is a very attractive, protected and well maintained facility.  It is also practically empty.  It's only flaw is it's location between the Eisenhower and Iroquois locks on the seaway.  The Seaway Corporation has so successful carried out it's pleasure craft elimination plan that no one wants to keep their boat at this fabulous marina.  In fact one local boater told us the city of Cornwall may close the marina.  That would be a terrible loss to cruisers since there are not a lot of options for moorage in the area and given the conduct of the Seaway Corporation it is nearly impossible to get from lake Saint Louis to the first marinas west of Iroquois lock in a single day.  Oh yeah, did I mention that boats are not permitted to tie up overnight at lock the pleasure craft dock.   So I guess after waiting at the lock all day if the decide not to let you through you need to back track to the nearest moorage. 

It would be very simple for the Seaway Corporation to be pleasure boat friendly by taking just a few simple steps that would probably save them money and would most certainly result in better water conservation.  If they want to pay me a hefty consulting fee I will be happy to instruction them.  But I think they like being in the dark ages. 

Finally out from under the thumb of the Seaway Corporation we proceeded on to Prescott, Ontario.  Prescott is on the north side of the Saint Lawrence River across from Ogdensburg, NY where Rose grew up.  Prescott is also the summer home of Rose's childhood friend Yvette Ward who saw us coming up the river and escorted us into Prescott harbor on her Sea-Doo.  

After the events of 9/11 the customs and immigration procedures were quite in doubt as the federal government reassessed how best to protect our boarders.  Consequently, when doing the preliminary planning for our trip I deferred dealing with customs regulations because no one really knew if the existing rules would remain or be changed.  As more immediate items dominated my attention prior to the start of our trip I forgot about the customs issue.  It was when reading a cruising guide while waiting at one of the Seaway locks that I realized I had failed to get a U.S. Customs Decal for Vagare.  Using our wireless internet connection I was able to find the phone number for the Decal Office in Pittsburgh.  I called the number and got an extremely friendly and knowledgeable person on the line.  She reassured me that I was not the first boater to overlook this requirement and gave me instructions on how to order the decal and have it sent to Yvette's house in Ogdensburg, NY.  When it arrived, in about five days, Yvette drove to her house in Ogdensburg to retrieve the decal and deliver it to us in Prescott. 

While we waited for the decals arrival Yvette accompanied us aboard Vagare for a few days.  We traveled west along the river to the Thousand Islands.  Summer playground of the New York Elite around the turn of the century the thousand islands are quite beautiful and lined with some very attractive waterfront homes.  Several of the Islands are parks managed by the Ontario or New York parks commissions depending on which side of the boarder they lie on.  Many of these parks have small docks and a few, very few have mooring balls as well.  Unfortunately the area is very popular and every dock and mooring we checked was occupied.  We attempted to anchor in several places but now late in the season the bottom grass was so thick we were not able to securely set our anchor.  When it failed to set we would pull it up and it would take a good ten minutes to un-foul the ground tackle.  There were other boats anchored in these harbors.  Maybe they are light enough that a clump of grass will hold them but Vagare is not.  Even if the anchor appeared to hold at this point I knew I would not sleep well wondering if the next gust of wind was going to send us drifting down river.

So after winding our way through the islands of the Canadian Middle Channel we moved on to Kingston.   Kingston boasts two nice man made harbors.  These harbors were constructed for the sailing events of the 1976 Montreal Olympics.  We stayed at Confederation Basin which is right downtown.  The other Olympic Basin is about two miles from town but only a few yards from the maximum security penitentiary.  Confederation Basin, managed by the city is probably 70 percent transients.  That makes for a busy harbor.  There are about ten dock staff on duty all day.  But I don't think there is one person working over the age of twenty.  They do a good job and have a lot of fun.  The ongoing competition among the staff is push the others into the harbor while not going in themselves.  At any one time you will see one or two unlucky staff walking the dock in a dripping red tee shirt. 

The city of Kingston is home to the Canadian Royal Military College.  It was here that a student at the college created first drew the Canadian Flag in 1959.  The flag is based on the school's flag replacing the college emblem with the maple leaf.  Kingston is also home to Queens College which is undergoing tremendous construction.  It turns out that high school in Canada goes to grade 13 but next year that will change to grade 12.  So two years worth of students will be graduating high school and entering college in the same year.  Hence the scramble to build new dorms and class rooms.  I wonder what will come of that in four years when the college population boom is over. 

We return to Prescott to return Yvette, pick up our customs decal and mail that my dad forwarded to us.  Then we set off west again.  This time taking the American Narrows Channel.  We went to Boldt Castle to clear customs.  The immigration officer never asked me if I had a decal and never looked at the boat.  We had our U.S. passports in our hand but she never really looked at them either.  I was pleased that we didn't have any difficulty returning to the U.S.  but it does make me wonder.  Is it this easy for the bad guys?

There was no room on the visitors dock at Boldt Castle so after clearing customs we moved to River's Edge in Alexandria Bay and used the dinghy to visit the castle the next day.  George Bolt the New York Hotelier (Waldorf Astoria) began construction on Boldt Castle as a gift for his wife.  Tragically, after nine years of construction and only eighteen months prior to completion Louise died.  Boldt halted construction immediately and never returned to Heart Island.  The castle fell victim to harsh weather and vandals before it came under the control of the State of New York.  Efforts are underway to stabilize the deterioration and repair the castle to the condition it was in when Mrs. Boldt passed away. 

From Alex Bay we moved to Clayton, NY to visit the Antique Boat Museum.    I had hoped that my visit to Clayton would take me down a nostalgic path seeing the old wood boats common in New England when I was a child.  There were none of those but the museum did boast an impressive collection of wood speed boats and launches common in the Thousand Island during the area's hay day.  Our visit coincided with an antique boat race event which was interesting to watch. 

The Iroquois lock has only about a one foot drop so often small pleasure craft go under the open slough gates and "shoot the falls".

Boldt Castle

The "Children's Playhouse" at Boldt boasts a two lane bowling alley!

Exhibit at the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton