Day 7: Sugar Island to Gananoque to Home

By Patrick

Day 7 was far from idyllic. The day started very early; in fact, it started even before Mom and Dad’s previous day ended. When Mom and Dad went to get ready for bed, a little after midnight, Dad noticed sailboat anchored off to the west that had been out of view.  A little detective work soon made it obvious. Because of the high winds that had moved in from the south, we were dragging our anchors and slowly moving out of our protected little cove between Sugar Island and Match & Patch Island.

At that point, Matty and I were asleep on the front deck.  Mom and Dad, now experienced at handling adventures, woke us up (I apparently needed a few pillow blows to the head to get up) and told us to bring our sleeping bags and cushions inside because we were going to need to raise the anchors.  We went to lay down in the back bunks while Mom and Dad thought it out. I guess I fell sound asleep, because a half-hour later I was getting whacked with pillows again to get me up. With Dad at the wheel, the four big kids pulled up the mud filled anchors and we slowly reversed out of the cove. With strong winds coming from the south, we moved over behind Match & Patch Island and dropped both anchors.  (I did forget to mention that the three boys were doing all of this in our underpants.)  The wind was still blowing hard, but we seemed to be a little more sheltered.  That night Mom and Dad didn’t get too much sleep because they were on alert in case the anchors dragged. I, on the other hand, slept like a rock.

The claw anchor, in more
peaceful times

But Mom and Dad didn’t need to worry, because one of the anchors was certainly stationery, as Bridget and I found out next morning. With the hope of making 11 o’clock mass in Rockport, we woke up around 7 a.m. and gathered to lift the anchors. The wind was still blowing pretty hard and the boat was rocking sideways in the waves.  While Conor and Matty managed the 40-pound anchor, Bridget and I struggled to raise the 30-pound claw anchor, which felt like it weighed 60 pounds. The big anchor was filled with mud and seaweed, and Mom was busy trying to knock the junk off with the pole, while Conor and Matty held the anchor rope.  Once the big anchor was taken care of, all the kids grabbed the rope for the small anchor and hauled it up bit by bit on a one-two-three count.  When the anchor finally came into view, we had two surprises. The first surprise was a basketball-sized rock that was lodged in the spoon-like tongs of the anchor. The next surprise was an electrical cable that was lodged under the rock.  The wind was still blowing and Dad was putting the boat in forward and reverse to hold us in place.  As the kids held the anchor rope, Mom leaned over the front of the boat and tried to dislodge the rock with the pole.  Once she knocked the rock free, we then had to get the cable off the anchor.  Mom hooked the cable with the pole, and we lowered the anchor a little deeper into the water.  Dad threw the boat in reverse so that the anchor dragged in front of us, and then Mom dropped the cable.  We were free and on our way (and I think most of Canada still had electricity).  As Dad steered us away from the cliff and the kids tied up the anchor, Mom exclaimed “And it’s not even 8 o’clock yet!”

Expert deck hands,
docking the boat for the final time

After about an hour of motoring through a pretty heavy cross wind, we pulled safely up to the dock at the Houseboat Holidays marina. Then, Dad and Mom called a rare event: a family meeting. They were actually giving the kids a say in the run of the family. It is like North Korea holding honest public elections. There was bad weather forecast for the rest of the day (rain and thunderstorms), and so we needed to decide whether to stay.  All in all, the vote said that we would go to mass in Rockport, go out to lunch, and then head for home, skipping our last night on the river. We unpacked the houseboat, got everything into the car, and were all set to go with just enough time to make it to mass.  Then we had our final adventure: the car wouldn’t start. We called AAA, but that was going to take over an hour.  Then, just as the skies were opening up, the Houseboat Holidays owner, Pete, showed up and helped us jumped start our car.  We were a little wet and too late to get to mass, but we were on our way. We drove through rain, lightning, a border crossing, two rest stops, and lots of traffic, but nine-and-a-half hours later, we were home.

It was a great trip, full of adventure and fun, but it was good to be home and to have no worries of dragging anchors or driving winds (not that I did anyway).