23 June, 2015  Beauharnois

      Awoke to a windy day, wind from the west and building white-caps on the lake. Showers threatening. Luckily we are just in the lee of the point that makes the harbor.

      We head ashore after breakfast and a downpour to catch up on business and internet stuff. Cruising must have been some simple before all this communication. Back to Tim Horton.

Tim's internet was either overloaded or just slow, so as soon as the showers let up we set out to find better, maybe at the town library, er, bibleotech. We found the library at the other end of town but deciphered that it did not open until 1:00 PM, so decided to have lunch aboard.

      We had no sooner started walking down the street, not even near the harbor park area and a car pulled up and asked how we were doing. Then he asked if the motor on our dinghy was locked. We said it wasn't, but we had been looking to buy some padlocks, so asked him if there was a hardware store nearby. He started to explain where, then said, just get in the car. So we hopped in and our new friend Ernest took us hardware shopping. We found a nice set of four padlocks, and some citronella candles, and Ernest brought us back to the boat. He asked if there was anything else we needed and I told him I needed a propane tank re-filled, so he said he would come back after lunch and take me to the refill place. We headed to the boat.

      It rained off and on at lunchtime, so we may have missed our meeting with Ernest. We did go ashore and while Kathy found WIFI at a local trade school, Dan talked with an old timer down by the dock, standing by with my empty propane. Kathy returned, having finished most of her WIFI work, so we went back to the Willie Dawes to drop off her computer stuff.

      We came ashore once again, I with propane bottle in hand, Kathy with grocery bag, to meet back at the landing when we had finished our errands. I got back quite quickly and remember how that I said it was windy, well the wind was screeching now, the lake was all white-caps and the chop was wrapping around the point. Willie Dawes was having quite a ride. And there was a dark blue sailboat circling Willie. I set out in our skiff, and the sailboat came right over to meet me. Seems the wind had blown one of our 6 foot lengths of 2X6 overboard, as well as my lifejacket that rides over the back of our helm-seat. Gerry, in the sailboat had recovered both, and offered to help me relocate the Willie Dawes to a vacant mooring way up in the harbor.

      Gerry took the helm while I pulled the anchor aboard, and he conned us up thru the moored sailboats to the new mooring, real nice job. Gerry had been racing earlier up on Lake Ontario and would be racing again tomorrow over at the Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club, and as we were planning to go there also, (on Ernest's advice), Jerry gave us some info on who to contact. Everyone is very helpful here, very accommodating.

      We had a real good supper aboard, shish-ka-bob chicken, with corn and a green salad. Also still working on that 5 liter bag of wine from Oswego. During supper the wind pooped right out and the sky cleared in the west.

      After supper we took the camera ashore and had a nice long walk, getting some pics of a great double steeple church, and some sunset shots as well some local color.

We also tried out the quad (two facing two) canadian- porch glider, with table and canopy!

      Doubtless, most everyone we passed on our walk was saying, boy that couple from the American boat sure walk a lot!