We leave the Thousand Islands and head into Gananoque Marina. We were running short of supplies and were excited to go back Riva for a really nice dinner!
Gananoque Marina uses an online form for reservations. We don’t like to plan too far ahead. We prefer to go with the wind and weather. I went online and submitted our reservation the day before.
You can find the reservation form here:
https://www.gananoque.ca/community-services/parks-and-recreation/municipal-marina/reservation-request-form
We still haven’t heard back from Gananoque but we thought we could meander over to the marina anyways. If we couldn’t get a spot then we could always try to find a spot on the day dock for just long enough to get some more supplies.
There was zero wind and the water was glass so we motored for the first little bit. We decide to take a break and just turn off the motor and bob about while we figure out what’s going on with our reservation.
We ended up using the time to also clean the boat. This felt strange the first time we did this. No motor, no sail, no anchor, just floating. But we are doing this more often now. If we don’t need to be anywhere, why rush and where are we going to go when there’s no wind? We were on our own floating private island.
I finally figured out the phone number for the Gananoque Marina and gave them a call to see what was going on with our reservation.
Kim Mcquaid Marina Coordinator - kmcquaid@gananoque.ca 21 Bay Street – at the end of Clarence Street 613 382-4088 613 382-2149 x1514
Well… they didn’t have it. But they were great and found a spot for us. We started the motor and headed into Gananoque.
Entering Gananoque
I used to be so scared of going into Gananoque Marina. There’s always a lot of traffic in the area. And a strange combination of seasoned boaters, professional captains, day sailors, weekend warriors and first time boaters. And boats from the size of a large ferry to a small paddleboard or kayak.
As we enter, we see a small kayak off to the side with a dog standing on the bow. The kayaker waves. We wave back and then slowly it comes into focus. It’s Elliott, the boater we just met back on Camelot Island!
Docking went somewhat smooth, other than I went the wrong way at first and had to do a 180 turn. We later saw Elliott and his boat, Point Zero, just a few docks away and he instantly cracked a few jokes. It was good to see him again.
We let him know our plans to get some groceries and supplies and he graciously offered his car for us to borrow. It’s not a long walk, 16 minutes, but we know some of the stuff will be heavy (beer). We had backpacks and decided it would be good for us to get some exercise.
Take note of the route above… it goes right by the Gan Brewin Company. We had to stop on the way.
Beers are good and cold. But no food, other than a bowl of popcorn. We enjoyed our beer and then continued our walk to Metro for groceries.
Grabbed some fresh supplies, then stopped off at the LCBO on the way back to restock our beer and cider supply. It was also on the main route on King Street. And then… we were thirsty so we stopped off again at Gan Brewery.
The outdoor seating at Gan Brewery are a perfect place to stop during this walk. As a side note, I shared both my pics of Gan Brewery to Google Maps and Nathalie, General Manager, from Gan Brewery contacted me asking to re-share my pics! I said yes, of course.
We get back to the boat and tried to make reservations for Riva for dinner. This is another thing you need to plan for. Riva books up fast! Best to book at least a few days ahead of time if you can.
During this time we see a big storm rolling in and we hid until it passed.
We didn’t hear back from Riva so we thought we’d just take a chance and see what was available. Since it just rained most of the outside diners had moved inside leaving the patio open. We didn’t care about the possibility of rain and asked for a spot outside. It was a good choice, we had a nice dry dinner.
Sailing Statistics
Probably should call this section, motoring statistics. There was no wind, we motored the entire way.
- We left Camelot Island
- We floated and bobbed in this area for about an hour
- We entered the Gananoque Marina
July 20, 2021 Total time: 2 hours 16 minutes Total time under motor: approx 30 minutes Total time floating aimlessly: approx 1 hour 46 minutes Distance: 3.2 nautical miles Weather: No wind, partly sunny with increasing clouds.
Other boaters in the area
There’s a few other boaters, other than MV Point Zero I mentioned already, in the area we need to connect with next time we are there:
- Vitae, of course they are good friends of ours and try to see them as often as we can!
- Sisu 3, posted comments here. Definitely need to meet up with them for a beer next time.
- Okinami, they don’t know us yet. But we’ve been admiring their CS34 at the marina.
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