Tuesday August 13, 2013 Grenadier Island

We are now anchored in a beautiful inlet on Grenadier Island, off of Pitch Pine Point. Nostalgia time – we were here with Excalibur 3 years ago. I took one of my favorite pictures of Excalibur from our dingy here. Of course with Excalibur I anchored in the middle of this harbor, not in a little inlet.

It has been quite a day. It started with a little gentle rain about 6:30. It had rained harder about 12:30 AM last night. I had to close some of the windows, but no overhead hatches like on Excalibur. The rain did not last long. We heard a few thunder boomers but got no wind or rain from them. I was really glad we moved further from the house we were near, because after dark two men showed up. They were really loud, drinking and laughing and having quite a time. I made our coffee and tea, wiped down our plastic chairs and invited Kerry out to enjoy the morning.

Overcast, quiet, still water – beautiful. I decided it would be fun to watch a bobber holding a worm while we drank our coffee. I plopped one in. In no time I had a nice bass, about 10 inches. Of course, I did not have a bucket, gloves or anything up front. It was all in the back – who would think I would need it? Kerry ran around and got me set up. We decided it was big enough to clean and eat so we saved it in a bucket. A few minutes later I asked Kerry if she wanted me to clean it and then cook it. She said no, so the little fish went back in.

Then I put a red and white spinner on my other pole. I talked Kerry into casting it and gave her a demo cast. Well, I got a snag immediately, I thought. Turns out it was not a snag but a bigger bass, about 13” I guess. Kerry had to run and get the net from the stern for that one. He went back too. Then I caught a little blue gill on the worm pole. Then I got a really big bass on the worm pole. He would have been quite a meal. If Lou and Gretchen would have been here we would have had a couple of meals from today’s fishing. It was probably my best fishing day ever. This was in the bay behind Pine Island. Some picture proof follows.

Smallest fish

Small bass

Bigger bass

Biggest bass

Daddy fish!

We enjoyed Rosemary’s quiche for breakfast once fishing was done. Normally we heat them in a microwave. Today we cooked them on the barbeque grill in aluminum foil. No microwave or electricity on this boat. They came out great. About 10 AM we pulled anchor for our 3 mile trip to Little Grenadier Island State Park.

Large House on way to Grenadier

Small house

We decided to try finding a dock one more time. Much to my surprise there were two docks open, each on a separate dock. I headed for the easiest to dock one. Two ladies there did not look happy we were coming. Then some nice folks on the other dock waved and said to dock there. We decided that friendly people trumped easier docking so pulled in next to them with no problem. One captain even said we “almost looked like we knew what we were doing”. Almost, anyway. Our first docking with this baby was successful.

We chatted for a while then set off on an island walk. It was done in 20 minutes, and we stretched it out. Most of the island was closed for habitat restoration. Still we saw some gorgeous views and had a few photo ops.

We enjoyed lunch of smoked oysters, crackers and beer on a dock side picnic table. About 1 ½ hours after arriving we pulled out and came to this anchorage. We both really prefer being anchored rather than tied up to a dock. Tomorrow will be an exception when we go to Alexandria Bay, NY for the night. We need to get fuel and a pump out. This boat only has a 16 gallon fuel tank, 20 gallons of fresh water and a 35 gallon holding tank. It would definitely not be adequate for 4 people. The shower is an 23 x 23“ square. While this boat is better looking on the outside, the boat Big Jim and we chartered in the Trent Severn was better functionally. I don’t think Big Jim would like this shower much.

We passed the afternoon reading mostly. Kerry took a nap too. It really clouded up and looked like it would storm around 3:45 so I rigged the boat for foul weather, which is mostly bringing our folding tables inside and securing the plastic chairs so they will not blow off. One problem we have is not knowing the weather forecast unless we can catch it on the radio. There is no radio on this boat and I have my smart phone data disabled because of the data cost with Verizon. I finally got an NPR station at 4;00 that was broadcasting a weather alert for a severe thunderstorm in the Alexandria Bay Area. We got part of the storm, but the main storm seemed to be on the American side of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Our little houseboat seemed to point in all directions as the storm came and went. I took several compass readings on shore objects so I could be sure our anchor was not dragging. It was set solid.

The storms were really beautiful. We had rainbows, thunder, rain drops hitting the water that sounded a little “chirp” each time they hit. We just watched and appreciated the show. We finished our happy hour on the back of the boat, sitting in the sun and enjoying the setting. The islands are beautiful.

Clouds and little boat mentioned later

Pretty sea weed

Dinner was hamburgers with bacon – delicious. Just as we finished it started raining again. We came inside, cleaned the dishes and made a pot of hot tea. The sun popped out soon again. We are really enjoying this vacation and are so glad we came. We could do this every year.