Red Man's Land

Saint Regis
N 45 00.296 W 74 39.229

Last night I made a big, almost disastrous error. We didn't get through Snell Lock until after dark. We had 5 miles to go to the first anchorage. The current was strong and I was feeling uneasy out on the river and anxious to leave the channel and anchor. We came around the last bend and I started to cross the channel to the anchorage. There were lots of lights on shore from different buildings. Suddenly I heard a very loud whistle. I looked up and there was a big ship bearing down on us
at 12+ knots. I had mistaken his lights with those of a building on shore. Instantly I put the helm hard over, even before the second blast on the whistle. I turned 90 degrees from the ship's course before the second blast was finished. The ship continued for the 5 blasts on the whistle which means "emergency danger." I've been thinking about that mistake all day long. It rattled my confidence.

Today we headed to Cornwall to check in with customs. It was only 6 miles away and the adverse current wasn't as strong as I feared. No doubt, doing it on a Sunday morning helped because the Moses Power Dam upstream would not be running at peak capacity.

The Marina 200 in Cornwall kindly let us put in to a slip for 3 hours at no charge. It was a delightfully nice place. We got a new clearance number from Canadian Customer, Libby did the laundry, we both took showers. I walked to a near by mall to a grocery store and encountered an antique car show in the parking lot. The grocery store was a surprise. The food was more varied and better quality than that found in American stores; especially the produce. The prices were lower than American
stores. Very nice.

When the three hours were up, I was a bit reluctant to leave. We have a limited data sample. Nevertheless, Libby and I are very impressed with Ontario and Ontarians. That includes the Ontarians we've met while cruising. This would be a very nice and stimulating place to live.

We left the marina too late in the afternoon to set sail for Montreal so we returned to the same anchorage as last night. This exact spot is a kind of no man's land or any man's land. It may be better to call it red man's land. Studying the chart, we seem to be anchored exactly on the spot where New York, Ontario, and Quebec meet. Not only that, but the land on both sides of us is The Akwesasne Indian Reservation. That didn't bother us, but after anchoring we noticed that we were getting repeatedly
buzzed by speed boats and jet skis passing overly close. I got the idea that we might not be welcome here. It is also possible that the Indian teenagers like to harass people and feel free from prosecution. We ignored it.

After a few hours, we were below deck when one more boat buzzed us. This time we heard an enormous crash and gallons of water rained in to the cabin from the open companionway and from the hatch under the dinghy. We were both sure that a boat actually collided with us. I rushed up on deck. The water was streaming from the scuppers in a cascade. I looked back to see a jet ski speed away from us. I looked all around at the hull and I can't see any marks. Amazingly, it seems that the jet ski
didn't collide but rather hit us with an enormous wave at high speed. When we calmed down we started cleaning up all the wet things and wet papers in the cabin. No wave at sea breaking over the bow ever put so much water on our decks and in the cabin as that event. Libby had the right attitude though. She said that she would not be intimidated by a bunch of teenagers.