Fellow 1000 Islanders,
Whew! This was really a tough one. We had an onslaught of great responses this month with plenty of information about the area and the “Canadian Empress”, including from a former Captain. For those of you not familiar with her, the Empress has been cruising the 1000 Islands to Quebec City and Ottawa (via Montreal) for many years and offers a wonderful way to introduce friends to the area in a comfortable and stylish way. She has a strong following. Many of her passengers are repeat cruisers with the record holder having taken 136!
Apologies that we can’t have several winners because there were so many worthy submissions, but Kevin, MJ, Kaitlyn, & Meg Lackie of Stonesthrow Island get the nod for this one:
“This picture is a great one of the “Canadian Empress” moored in the bay directly in front of our island (Stonesthrow Island or known locally as the island with the A-frame cottage) in the Wanderers Channel west of Gananoque in the Admiralty group of Islands. This shot of the Empress has the southwestern tip of McDonald Island off its bow and Lindsay Island off its stern. Two more National Park islands, Beau Rivage and Aubrey respectively lie to the west of the small green boathouse and Gananoque is no more than 1.5 miles as the crow flies to the east. That wide expanse of water in the background is the top part of the forty acres shoal area and the large landmass in the background is Wolfe Island. Howe Island is the other large island located on the far right side of the photo. This is where the lower Howe Island ferry transports people and cars to the eastern tip of the island from St. Lawrence beach road on the mainland. My two children and countless other friends and family who have visited our island have learned to ski in this bay. In fact most times our ski route circled that anchorage buoy, when the ship isn’t at anchor of course! Well, it may have happened a few times with it at anchor as well. The water is cool, clear and roughly 10 - 35 feet deep in this bay. Years ago it would very common to see Gananoque fishing guides such as Brendan Reid and Muskie Jake fishing the shoal bed near the Empress’ anchorage for northern pike and bass.
Like clockwork, the Empress rounds the corner at Bishop’s point on its first leg of its journey down river making this anchorage its first overnight stop. At around eight o’clock at night the captain cautiously approaches the marker. A skilled deck-hand lasso’s the marker and secures the ship for the night’s stay. Dinner is then served and as darkness falls, on come the lights in the main salon creating a peaceful glow around the ship. The next morning the ship would set out at 8:00 am sharp on a course east down Wanderers Channel past our island and blowing its steam whistle for all who were willing to get up in morning and greet her.
The stately all aluminum ship was built in Gananoque at Algan shipyards in 1981 and was christened by Shillane Clark, niece of founder Robert Clark on May 8th, 1982. The ship is approximately 110 feet long by 30‘ wide and accommodates 66 passengers. Its homeport is Kingston and it takes passengers on 3, 5, or 6 day cruises. I think Bob probably picked this bay as his first night’s anchorage because of the spectacular sunsets.”
Thanks for the story Kevin and family. The ‘Island Collection’ of six 1000 Islands prints is headed your way and another set is waiting for the person with the best caption for this month's shot:
Enjoy!
Ian Coristine
