Leaving the docks of Clayton, we knew by the end of the day we would be saying goodbye to New York and the United States for a while.  This was painful for several reasons – including leaving our homeland, but also because our data plan situation was critical. We were using an average of 2GB per day.  When did we become so dependent on data?  On the road or water one uses a huge amount of data just keeping up to date with the weather, email, stocks, internet look-ups, and how do we get to where we are going next?  What did we do 15 years ago without it? And how are we going to keep up with just marina WiFi? Roaming data is out of the question.

We stopped at Alexandria Bay (just opposite Boldt Castle/Heart Island, visited yesterday) and got some fuel, a pump out and caught up with some of our last US mail. Getting mail in Canada may require a 5-6 day delay because of Customs, etc.   Alexandria Bay is a cute tiny town with water in their harbor as clear as a fish tank.

Alexandria Bay, NY

Then Salty proceeded onto Dark Island – the northernmost reaches of the Thousand Islands – to visit Singer Castle.   Singer Castle is an estate built by the Frederick Bourne – one of the gilded age CEOs of the Singer Sewing Machine Co.   He built an impressive estate that you can actually stay at ($775/night for up to 8 guests with dinner and breakfast).  Salty did us proud again by docking herself in the shade of the castle while we inspected the castle and the grounds.  And we only stayed a hour or so, lucky enough to get a private tour.

Singer Castle on Dark Island

We proceeded further downstream on the St Lawrence River to Brockville – where we bid farewell to the last of the Thousand Islands’ granite-and-woods scenery.  Now, those of you who may still hold a grudge over the annoyances of the War of 1812 (even though the Canadians said we actually started it) will be very irritated to know that this town was named after and glorified Major-General Isaac Brock – one of the British generals who waged that campaign against the American forces, defeating General William Hull in the Battle of Detroit.  The town has a number of stone buildings – chiefly the Court House and subsidiary chambers and an avenue that leads down to the Harbor.  It also boasts the honor of being the birthplace of the Canadian flag.

The Harbor is built up around and houses a number of tall ships – for which the central town high rise is named (Tall Ships Landing).  The locals appear to relish and use the area for entertainment and their afternoon and evening passegiata in the park between the marina and the St Lawrence River. We wound up the evening by happening upon the strangely alluring Brockville Railway Tunnel – Canada’s first Railway tunnel, now a spooky pedestrian passage going underneath the downtown.