Jack Tar Adventures

Note to my subscribers (all ten of you!): I have chosen not to send emails each time I publish a post so that I don’t clutter your inboxes. But when I do send an email, you can always go back to the log entries for any date.

Tues June 16:  It was a gorgeous, clear, cool day, but very windy, so we were glad we chose to take the tour boat to Boldt Castle, so we didn’t have to dock ourselves. The boat ride through the Thousand Islands area was stunning!  The crystal clear, blue water and rocky cliffed islands made it easy to see why the very rich developed the area so quickly, soon after the Civil War. Every house we saw was magnificent in its own right, running the gamut from Victorian cottages to Gilded Age houses to sleek modern steel and glass.

The tour boat made a stop at Boldt Castle on Heart Island. The castle was commissioned in 1900 by George C. Boldt, the wealthy proprietor of the Waldorf Astoria, as a summer home and tribute to his wife, Louise, on Valentine’s Day. He envisioned an extravagant, six-story, 120-room Rhineland-style castle. No expense was spared. The grandiose design included intricate Italian gardens, a drawbridge, a dovecote, underground tunnels, and a powerhouse built to mimic a medieval tower. But in 1904, Louise died suddenly, and a heartbroken Boldt halted construction, and the 120-room estate sat abandoned for 73 years.

In 1977, the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority acquired Heart Island and the remaining estate. They began an extensive multi-million dollar restoration effort to repair the deteriorating masonry and finish the castle’s interiors. There are still two floors that haven’t been restored. Each of the restored rooms has pictures of what they looked like before work started.

Peter and I took too many pictures to post, so I put them all in a link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/DgVanT371WfDvh957

Wed June 17: We had hoped to check in with Canadian customs in the town of Gananoque today, but their marina is all booked for an event through Saturday. Since they are the only marina option on the Canadian side of the Thousand Islands, we will stay put in Clayton for now.

We walked to a sweet little restaurant in Clayton that was right on the St. Lawrence River.

Thurs June 18: Today, thunderstorms and high winds were gusting to 40 mph, so I chose to get myself off the rocky boat to a coffee shop and update the blog. Peter and I have been walking around like a couple of drunk sailors. We’re so used to adjusting to the pitch of the boat that the land feels like it’s rolling us around.

Fri June 19

Sat June 20