Thursday August 15, 2013 Picton Island

We might have spent our last night at the Alexandria Dock. There was some nice music playing from one of the restaurants as we went to bed, like Bob Marley. The music was a little loud, but certainly sleepable. No sooner had we climbed in bed that the guy in the powerboat right behind us, and our bed, turned on a gasoline generator he had on the back of his boat. What a racket. That ran for an hour, and then they sat out and partied. It sure confirmed our thoughts that a 4 hour visit would be perfect. Even before this all happened we had mentioned that we wish we were anchoring out rather than docking. We really do like to anchor out in the islands.

I already have the boat reversed at its dock. I saw the other houseboat fellows and asked them to help me turn the boat since there was no one behind me and therefore there was no one to hit. The move went without hitch. The wind was behind us. So we just took a line from the outside bow cleat, tied it to the dock and pushed the stern out. The boat pivoted, we tightened the outside cleat line, now the dockside cleat and it was over. When the stern hit the dock, Kerry popped up in her bed and with really wide, sleepy eyes said, “Are we leaving now?” We weren't and we are still docked at 7:28 AM as I write this now.

I finished updating our blog and made a cup of tea for Kerry. She stepped out on the dock to get in the sun as it was a bit cool and windy this morning. She complained about her foot hurting and it was still swollen. I decided that we should try and get something to treat it because once we leave here we will not be on land again until Saturday morning. She will be miserable on the boat if it continues to swell and redden.

Google Maps said there was a drug store a 3 minute drive away. The dock boy thought Van’s Sun and Fun store might have something. I walked to Van’s only to have him say I should have gone to the drug store and if I had gone that way I would be half way there now, as it is the opposite direction. I was able to get Benadryl for Kerry and she took some immediately upon my return.

Don returning with Benadryl

While I was gone a most beautiful yacht pulled in, Miss Scarlett. It looked like it should be in a museum and it was in that quality of condition.

Miles, the dock boy, helped us off. It was very uneventful because we had already turned around. Our trip today turned out to be the longest of the voyage, 2 ½ hours. We were going against the current, 15-25 knot winds and the waves which made for slow going. It’s a scenic trip and we enjoyed it, but were happy when we turned out of the Seaway and got in some sheltered water.

This Islander likes flags!

We shared the Seaway with big friends

We got to the Picton Island anchorage and only one other boat was there, a sailboat anchored further out that we did, no doubt because of draft.

Picton Island

A few more boats arrived as the afternoon progressed. A little duck came up and begged some bread from me when we anchored. I watched that little beggar, and he paddled up to each new boat as it arrived.

I had a nice conversation with Jim Karpinski. He pulled our location up on Google Earth and said he could see us in the anchorage. Amazing. Kerry took a big nap for about 3 ½ hours saying she had chills and headache. She only got up because I needed her help to reset the anchor which was dragging and covered in seaweed. She did feel better than before though.

But, that was just the first of three re-anchoring we had to do. Prior to this happening, we had no real problems with the anchor holding. What a mess today. We reset once. Then we noticed we were dragging again. As we were proceeding to pull up and re-anchor, these nasty people in a sailboat behind us starting screaming. I told them we were aware of the problem and were in the process of re-anchoring but they seemed unsatisfied with that reassurance from me. I thought afterwards that I just should have stood on our dragging boat and said I was not going to react until they spoke nicely to us. Kerry thought we should have cupped our ears and said “what?”

After three moves and drags we finally are set in. I used the compass on my binoculars to mark points on land to see if the compass headings to them changed. It worked well. I noticed that the boat dragging starts slowly, but then really picks up as a bigger weed ball forms around the flukes of the anchor. When you have a chartered houseboat it appears that you do not get a lot of respect as a knowledgeable mariner. I surprised one captain in a 45’ cigarette boat last night when he said his dream was to go to Picton. Well, I knew it was in the Bay of Quinte and had been there twice. I told him about the town and docks. I think he was really surprised that a houseboat nomad could be knowledgeable. Of course all the anchor dragging today did not enhance our credibility.

Dinner was grilled Italian sausage, macaroni salad and a dessert breakfast bar. Cocktails were rum and tonics, with 5 alarm chili peanuts and pistachios. Anyone want any peanuts?

Note: My internet connection is poor co I cannot load pictures. Tomorrow I will be in Canada with no internet connection. So, I will finish this and tomorrow's post when I get home on Sunday. Bye!