The Rest of Lake Ontario

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June 29, 2026

Traveled June 17, 2026 – June 26, 2026

Toronto Takes

We worked hard to find the right marina in Toronto. Most of the marinas are not in the downtown area but situated along the coast of the greater Toronto area.. We wanted to be downtown, but also wanted security and not too much craziness. FIFA was playing games in Toronto while we were there and the closest marina to downtown was a wall in the harbour with no security and waves from all the harbour ferries. Someone could just walk onto our boat and we’ve heard stories of this happening, or passers asking if they can sit on your boat. And there was a bar next to the wall. Nope, it just was not going to work for us.

There are some islands that make up the outer side of the harbour. There are 3 or 4 marinas and ferries going back and forth constantly. This looked better and definitely doable. We booked into one.

Can you find Rincon sidden in the boats? it was a bit of a tricky entry and exit to our slip.

The marina was a quirky place with extremely friendly people, a little restaurant/bar almost next to the boat and two ferry options both very close. Perfect, and it was.

How lovely, the view of the skyline of Toronto without living in the hustle-bustle at night when you want peace.

We did lots of wandering around Toronto with no specific agenda. No we must see this or that sight. A lovely, eclectic city.

I loved this fountain! Dogs of various sizes feeidng it. One cat looking on, obviously in charge.
There werer FIFA Fan zones all over the city and just about every bar had the games on. This was Canada vs Quatar so it was VERY popular as it ws played in Vancouver, Canada. We had a nice bar dinner and finished with a nice glass of pinot while watching Canada win.
I call them The Pinkies. Turns out fans of Megan Moroney (whom I’ve never heard of and whos music sounded like teen country to me) all dress in pink and cowboy boots. There wre swarms of them around downtown Toronto one afternoon as Megan had a concert that everning.

Finding Banksy

In my searching on the web, it turns out Banksy did 7 pieces in Toronto in 2010, only 2 of which still exist. We decided it would be fun to find them.

We had to do a bit of searching but managed to find it. The building was been torn down where it was created, but they wisely kept it and installed in in a corridor of the new tall skyscraper. Guard with Balloon Dog. A rather famous Banksy
We did find the second remaining Banksy, but it looked to be in horrible shape. We chatted with the Portuguese workmen who were standing in front of it. They knew nothing of Banksy, or the image and had just started restoration of the building. We did talk Portugal as we had recently been and these guys go back and forth often. The plexi covering the Banksy was cracked and had clearly been vandalized. So sad
Banksy Lives! 9 days later when I suggested my brother visit Banksy while in Toronto before joining us he took this image. Whether it was part of the restoration planned for the building, or initiative by the workers, Banksy’s image was not harmed and now once again visible for all to see. So very nice that my brother went to see thgis one and took this photo!

Transit in Toronto

In our wanders we found there were several elevated indoor walkways between buildings downtown. I had seen these in Minneapolis years ago, but this is a vast indoor walking system. We decided to walk some and manged to quickly get lost. We did find a map in our wanders.

The blue lines are the enclosed walking paths around downtown
Some are the more traditional connections between buildings we might all recognize.
Other paths are open to restaurants or businesses below.

One can also walk outdoors as most of the world does. Ferries are quite common. For instance, there is a 90 second ferry from downtown to one end of the island we are docked for people to get to the regional airport. Plus, 4 city ferries from the Toronto Islands as well as ferries from each of the main marinas in the islands and water taxi’s.

The caged people awaiting release to ride the ferry to the Toronto Islands.

We would take the public ferry from the island, free in that direction, and the marina ferry back to the island (paid). The ferries werer always busy. Some people live on their boats on the islands, but there is a healthy visitor traffic to the beeches and parks on the islands. Most of the time the ferries are quite reliable, but…

Our marina ferry on its way back to the marina hit a good size log. The prop/shaft were not in good shape. The ferry would still run, but it would be slow and the seas werre choppy. They called on the radio and a water taxi arrived. They came along side and the staff, sort of attempted to lash us together.
Meanwhile, another water taxi arrived and came to the front of our ferry. No tying up, just trying to hold station.
And across we all jumped to the waiting taxi. No one was hurt/injured, but a rather dangerous move none the less.
All safely aboard, the taxi cranked up his music to deliver us to our marina. Meanwhile, the sheriffs, police and rescue arrived a day late and a dollar short.
Our ferry stranded and empty of passengers. It was shortly thereafter towed back to the marina where there is a repair yard and the marina used their second ferry to continue moving passangers. Sadly, our ferry crew was not well trained and could use a little emergency procedure training. Our first and only sea rescue!

Boat Guests 2.0

Finally, finally, finally, our friends Doug and Debbie from Vancouver, Washington came to visit. Doug is an avid boater, has had boats for years and was a gentle nudge for us into boating. A couple years before we bought Rincon, we visited Doug and Debbie in Canada and boated with them for a week in the beautiful waters of Desolation Sound. As well as “just a boater”, Doug is an avid fisherman and thus while there he and Debbie filled our tummies with wonderful seafood we caught. Our visit to Rock-n-Ocean helped to set our boating plan in motion; but not the fishing part. Although we have rudimentary fishing tools on the boat, we’ve never used them. As Jim says, he does all his fishing at Costco and always gets his limit.

Doug and Debbie at a lovely lunch at Wapoose Winery with Lake Ontario in the background.

Doug and Debbie joined us in Toronto. We did a bit more town walking, rode the local transit and had an incredible meal in a neighborhood called Kinsington. It is a Bohemian neighborhood, a bit scrungy, but vibrant.

A well photographed car in the hood. But, it is a fun to see. It has clearly been there for a bit.

We stopped and paid for bad advice from a guy; A dollar for a piece of bad advice. We only had a 5 so we each got a piece of bad advice and then I asked him for one piece of good advice, where to eat. He suggested The Cottage Cheese just up the street. It was very good advice. Modern/traditional Indian food. It was excellent! We each had a different plate, lamb curry, chicken saag, shrimp and some sort of traditional lamb pie; all shared. No pics of the food, sorry! The restaurant is Michelin acknowledged and well worth it! Our waiter was from Nepal and said he has climbed all the biggies there. But, he is uncomfortable around water. One challenge vs another. It is all about what you know or learn.

Doug and Debbie spent a week with us, moving east along the north shore from Toronto. One long day, then several shorter ones visiting cute towns along the way. We anchored out one night and and traversed the Murray Canal, a short 9-mile long canal which greatly shortens then path from Toronto to the Bay of Quinte where we ultimately needed to be for Doug and Debbie to catch the train back to Toronto and us to set up for the next part of our trip.

Finally Anchoring!

It was supposed to be a rainy day at anchor in Pasqua’ile Bay. Doug and Debbie were happy to lounge on the boat, but Jim and I NEEDED a dinghy exploration. We’ve had so little on this trip so far and I’d read there were nice walking trails at the park ashore. Dinghy down and off we go to shore.

The park had a nice dock that in one form or the other has been in use for 100 years.

We had our rubber boots and rain jackets which ensured it was not mucky walking, nor that it would rain. This plan almost always works.

About half of the walk was on roads, but there were no cars and the weather was cool. The rest was on trails like this.
We saw wild turkey. This girl was not very afraid of us.
And pretty snails. Along with a nice selection of birds.

We hardly had bugs on our walk, but on return to the boat, in the middle of the bay, all alone, the boat was now covered with bugs! Lots of them! Yuck! One just stayed inside. They were not biting bugs, thank God, but everywhere. At our next stop in the town of Picton (a wonderful stop), we hooked the hose to the freshwater wash-down for the anchor (we are now in fresh water, not salt!) and washed all those nasty bugs off the boat. Once again, the cockpit was enjoyable to sit in!

A glimpse of the bugs covering the boat; some we could spray off, many required a bit of scrubbing. If smashed, they were a lovely green…. kind of like the modernized reflecting pool green in Washington. Thus, we worked hard to not smash then during removal.

But back to Pasqu’ile Bay for a moment. We had read there were lots of plants in the water in the bay and we could see that was true. However, when we pulled the anchor, we learned how true that was. Some people said in their anchor did not hold well in the bay. Given the mud, we would have been fine in a blow.

The first view of the anchor. Jim had removed lots of plant life on the chain during retrievial.
The mud was tough though and required a bit of boat hook interaction while spraying water. As I mentioned, in a good blow, we would have held tight.

Travel in Luxury

We took Doug and Debbie to the train station from our stop in Picton using the personal car of one of the marina guys. He lent it to us for the day to explore Prince Edward County. He even gave us suggestions on places to see and where to eat. All good suggestions!

Doug and Debbie were on their way home and we had a half day run to Kingston on the boat. When we’d been at the east end of Lake Ontario 4 years ago, we did not stop there, but there is general rave about how nice it is, so I want to go.

We had two excellent meals in Kingston but otherwise mostly, again, kicked around Kingston. I did want to visit the museum which has the Keewatin, a luxury liner built in 1907 to run the Great Lakes. This is Titanic era and apparently the last ship of this era still afloat. My Great-great-Grandparents had taken the Lusitania (another ocean going luxury ship of that era) to Wales to visit family and this would give me a slight look into that venture for them. Plus, it in general sounded interesting.

Scale models of the Titanic and Keewatin. Definitely different scales. Thge Keewatin was built in Scotland and sailed to Canada and up the St. lawrence to Quebec City. There it was purposely cut in half and towed through the locks by tug and then refiveted back together.
The ship was in service until around 1965. This is the original Marconi wireless radio system from the boat.
Our premium tour got us into the engine room. This was a coal fired, dry steam powered boat. Rather complex.
It is a single propeller ship. The propeller was amazingly small. All this oiling if for the prop shaft. hand oiled, but through time they did upgrade to spome parts being somewhat auto oiled.
The plant atrium. The ship and her sister ship were owned by the Canadian Pacific Railroad and used to move passengers across the Great Lakes before rail service was not available the length of Canada. Yes, there were live plants where these fakos are now. Apparently when watered there could be quite a bit of water on the deck below.
Most of the cabins were fairly small and could sleep 3 people, two in bunks. many has a wash basin but only a few had a toilet. These were shared between all the cabins.
It took 3 seatings to feed everyone. The tables and chairs were bolted to the floor and there is a soft cushion under the table cloths to help keep dishes in place. The menu was quite nice.
Here you can see the egg poachers and steam tables on the right. A failry modern kitchen.
The larder was quite complete. The butcher table in the picture if original equipment from when she was built.

Although quite modern and luxurious for the time, by todays standards we we find this a rather primative travel experience.

A Happenstance Encounter

I had read on a Kadey Krogen (our boat brand) Facebook group that Jeff and Ellen on Sea Dweller were going to do the Down East Loop, something Jim and I had done 4 years ago. We’d seen they were in Lake Oneida, so headed our way in general. We were surprised when they pulled into the marina in Kingston! We’d last seen them in the Bahamas when we happened upon each other. They were keen to pick our brains for our experiences on the Down East Loop and we were happy to oblige. It was a fun trip for us, but not a trivial one. Every bit of insight is useful to keep you and your boat safe and to keep the travel fun. Who knows when we will happen to see them again. We are headed in very different directions, them east, us west. One of the things I dislike about cruising on a boating, how hard it is to see people you meet again. Unless you ply the same waters over and over, it is likely you will meet, connect and then part ways.

We had a lovely dinner at Chez Piggy and walked back by the trail on our way to our boats.

It’s a Wrap

This chapter is complete… mostly. We have taken a long run back down the Bay of Quinte from Kingston to Trenton (at the east end of the Murray Canal) in preparation for the Trent-Severn. My brother is joining us for this leg. In my last post I talked about downriggers. I found one in Kingston to provide you a pic.

I really still can’t explain how they work beyond ensuring the lines are at a certain depth in the water when fishing and they have electric motors to real them. There are 4 on this boat.

I’ve yet to talk about Canada and it’s people much. There is this imaginary line that separates the United States from Canada, but the sense of place and people is VERY different. True, all along the southern coast of Lake Ontario we found people friendly and generous, but there is this noticeable difference in sentiment, feel and action once you cross that line. And it is good. It is what I think most people in the US have possibly lost and are looking for. We have something to learn from Canada.

Along a waterfront trail under a byilding in downtown Kingston.
Every part of the world used their local “stuff” to make it… local.
The Canada way of life.