Galop Island Anchorage

Thursday June 11, 2015

The forecast for today was decent – some sun and some rain. We dropped the lines at 8 AM and headed into the 1000 Island area. This part of the St Lawrence provides several “routes” thru the islands, and because of our starting point we chose the Canadian “small boat” route. We had also met a Canadian “ex DeFever” family and they wanted us to parade past their house on the water. The area really is quite spectacular – hundreds of tree covered, rocky islands. Some of them hosting attractive houses (and even “chateaus”).

Running in the small boat canal navigation required constant attention and after a dozen or so miles of winding around islands and rocky reefs we made a bee line to the main channel. It was impressive country, but we needed to get some miles under our belts. As the river started to “compress” the current sped up and we were soon making 8 and sometimes 9 knots. Light speed for Tide Hiker.

Some ships

Build the house to suite the island?

Good anchorages are not that frequent in the St Lawrence. The current is a constant and the bottom is rocky. Using “Active Captain” we selected a picked a harbor like spot behind an island that had been created by the building of the Seaway. The entrance was very narrow – maybe 25’ or 30’ – but apparently deep enough, and we held our collective breaths as we slipped thru. All was well, great anchorage.

During the evening we were visited by a US Coast Guard cutter. They were “out for sunset cruise” and came over for a chat. “How in hell did you guys squeeze in here?” was their first question.

The entrance to our anchorage

Ships passing on the other side of the bank