There are differents routes one can sail and we chose the Canadian side of the river, sailed through the narrow channel between Wallace and Ash islands (which does pack a fair current make things exciting for sailboats) and then past the 1000 Island Bridge into smooother waters!
Within the Thousand Island area the narrowest point in the St Lawrence River is in the Thousand Islands Bridge area where the Canadian and American shores are a scant 4 miles apart. However pretty this area can be, the steel bridge is very noisy and we chose a neat little spot about 2 miles past the bridge, just in front of Tar Island, to spend the night. Although Tar island is very close to Rockport, which is an international touristic hub for the 1000 Islands, the continously running tourist boats past well west of us.
Next morning, we motorsailed towards Alexandria Bay. We picked Cherry Island to anchor and took the dinghy over to Heart Island to check in. We had first tried to dock there with the big boat, but the water level was too low to do so. On Heart Island stands the (in-) famous "Boldt Castle", which thousands of tourists come to see each year. But the history of this castle has a rather "hollywoodian" character!
In 1900, millionaire George C. Boldt—proprietor of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City—set out to build a full-sized Rhineland-style castle on Heart Island for his beloved wife Louise. This was to be a rather imposing six-story structure with 120 rooms, complete with a drawbridge and Italian gardens, boathouses, gardens, the "real" thing!. Then in 1904 tragedy struck. Boldt telegrammed the island and commanded the workers to “stop all construction.” His wife had died unexpectedly. Boldt never returned to the island, and teh construction crews left materials and tool behind - where they fell. A big blow to the local community. The castle remained vacant for 73 years. Since 1977, millions of dollars have been invested in the restoration of the Heart Island structures and the Yacht House on Wellesley Island (of which the local communities benefit once more). We figured that we would be happy with the Yacht House alone, large enough for our sailboat to fit, with its mast on!!!!
It was fun taking the dinghy around Bold Castle and through the surrounding islands ... but then we had enough of sight seeing and negotiating the never ending stream of tourist boats, and moved on to our beloved Picton Island anchorage a few miles west.
Time to go home and to install windows - 6 in total, before we opt for another trip! The weather is getting unsettled, a sign that our summer is coming to an end.
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