To Lake Ontario and Beyond!

Oswego is a small city on Lake Ontario, at the mouth of the Oswego Canal. Our tie-up spot for the night at Oswego Marina was a wall next to the fuel dock.

As we prepared R&R for departure, I was shocked to see the first mate on a boat just ahead of us climb all the way to the top of the mast to work on an antenna!

I hope she got hazardous duty pay!

We left Oswego with a goal of traveling 60 miles to Rochester, the next major port west on the lake.

Leaving the Port of Oswego

The weather was cool and clear, and we had excellent views of lakeshore dunes and towns. Our first few miles were in choppy 2-3 foot waves, but then the wind dropped and the shining big sea water became almost like glass. We decided to continue on to Wilson NY, just short of the Niagara River and Canada.

These unique sand formations were etched into the dunes.
Lake Ontario is very deep only a mile offshore.
A brilliant day to cruise!
Near the end of our day we could see the tall buildings of Toronto in the distance.

After a long and beautiful 127 mile day on Lake Ontario, we arrived at Bootlegger’s Marina in Wilson.

Our 80’ dock neighbor at Bootlegger’s proves yet again that there is always a larger boat!
We enjoyed dinner and a Blues band at the restaurant overlooking the marina.

Canada’s border is closed to US recreational boats due to COVID, so we can’t go north into Canada and we also can’t take our boat south through the (Canadian) Welland Canal that links Lakes Ontario and Erie, bypassing the Niagara Falls. But…a Canadian captain can move a US recreational boat through the Welland Canal. So, on July 2 Captain Bill will move R&R from Wilson through the Welland Canal to a marina in Buffalo.

We cleaned and prepared R&R and then drove a rental car home to Michigan for a July 4 holiday celebration with family.

I plan to pick up R&R in Buffalo on July 6 and travel a few days with nephews Trey and Drew, and then Rhonda will meet us in Cleveland. Looking forward to all of it!

2 thoughts on “To Lake Ontario and Beyond!

  1. Lake Ontario is beautiful! Interesting that Interesting that a Canadian captain can move your boat through the Welland Canel. Enjoy your holiday at home in Holland, Rick and Rhonda.

  2. What a fantastic day to get some miles on Ontario. The water looks perfect.

Comments are closed.