Crossing Lake Ontario into Canada

Day 67 ... June 26, 2017 ... 53.8 miles traveled in 6 hours, 10 mins
Lock 7/8 Wall, Oswego, NY to Bath, Ontario, Canada

Kayaks locked thru yesterday

Firestorm & Sea Quest leaving Oswego this morning

Winds, waves, weather all indicated today was the Go Day for crossing Lake Ontario. We had been shooting for this day for several days. It is 55+\- miles to cross, making a long day for Cally. Our girl rose to the occasion ... I got a poo and 3 pees out of her on one walk. (TMI, sorry) Much better than expected, we had planned to walk her twice to get her empty for the trip across. With Cally's business done early, we readied the boat and ourselves to make the first lock opening, which was during a brief down pour.

The cut in the break water we go thru to Lake Ontario

Lab Partners heading out to Lake Ontario
Photo courtesy Laurie on Firestorm

Light house at the break water

 Next up was to turn into the marina by the end of the lock for a pump out. Our two friends and buddy boats for the crossing were at the marina ready to go. Pump out down and off we go ... Firestorm, Sea Quest and us.

Firestorm with dark skys beyond

So far, the seas are as forecast with 1 footers to start and decreasing to 0. The seas were a bit "confused" to start; we bounced around a tad. Now, the lake is like wavey glass. We were in and out of dark clouds and bright sunshine all day. A couple showers passed over us and once or twice once we docked.

 

Sea Quest with a rain storm beyond

Dark sky ahead

then bright sunshine

Lake Ontario is DEEP .....

 

Heading 349 Degrees at 8.5 miles per hour
561 feet deep - that is deep!!

We are not far from crossing into Canadian waters. You do not have to report to Canada while traveling. BUT, once you anchor or tie or up to a dock, i.e. touch Canadian soil, you must report. The procedure is to hoist a yellow quarantine flag, then the Captain goes to shore to call into a special phone number to call into for 

Quarantine flag hoisted
under dark skys

Canadian Customs. We have preregistered with our passport ID numbers and Cally's rabies cert number.  Rip then gets a clearance number and the OK to proceed and we, Cally and I as well as Rip, are free to move about the country. Which means Cally gets to go potty!

There are specific phone check in points with designated by Canadian Customs. Rip, along with buddy boat Firestorm, picked a marina as close and quick to get to as they could find that has the designation.

Meanwhile, there are scattered showers or thundershowers on radar we are watching. So far, so good. We knew we crossed into Canada by our chart plotter. So ... the yellow flag goes up.

so nice of Verizon to notify us we were in Canada

Radar to the left shows rain showers
to the right shows a magenta line between the US and Canada
we are getting close to crossing into Canada

 

Verizon, decided to let us know we were now in Canada, too

We entered Prince Edward Bay, passed Prince Edward Island and turned starboard, right, towards our marina destination. 

Prince Edward Island

Check in is next, hoisting the Canadian courtesy flag and having lunch. Well, potty time for Cally when we are cleared.

 

We have officially cleared customs

Firestorm at Loyalist Cove Marina

Our view tonight

the water is so clear; plant life grows up to the top of the water
this is really weird to see, as compared to the Chesapeake Bay
or the rivers & sounds around NC