Partial Sun on Island Castles

Finally some sunshine part of the time

Leaving Clayton early enough to beat the day trippers into Alexandria Bay we were on the water to enjoy the beautiful sunshine and puffy clouds and even mild almost warm temps. Alexandria Bay proved to be the tourist hot spot we expected filled with crowds of visitors, touristy shops and a bevy of restaurant options.  The laundry was not a long walk as advertised, so we took the opportunity to wash a few things like gungy fender covers and spent the night on the municipal dock with only two other boats – after the very busy day use business died down.  The dock services the thousands of islands in the area – literally 1800 or so many of which have cabins on them.  Some of the island are only big enough for a small house, so it is easy to understand why running into Alex Bay is popular both for provisions and to get off the rock. We saw lots of speed boats making a run in to pick up take out and met many curious dock walkers as we sat on our back deck - a friendly place but not a quiet remote stop. 

Our next day offered the peace that we missed in Alex Bay, but first we had a stop at Heart Island to tour Boldt Castle.  This is the mansion that George Boldt  - propriety of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel – built for his beloved wife Louise.  The island’s tragic story adds to the lure of this beautiful park.  All work on the castle was halted when Louise suddenly died in 1906 and George reportedly never returned to the island although he spent time on his properties on nearby Wellesley Island.  The massive buildings were allowed to fall into disrepair until the Thousand Island Bridge Authority took control and began a multimillion dollar restoration project still underway.  The grounds are spectacular, the power plant building has been restored, and many rooms in the castle have been renovated. But, enough is still in the deteriorated condition to show the dramatic transformation. We also took the shuttle to the Wellesley Island to visit the Yacht House – a mansion on its own – with room to house large boats including a lofty space for the houseboat we visited in Clayton.  Even the rain that fell during the afternoon did not dampen the enjoyment of our hours on Heart Island. It is easy to see why this stop is a major tourist draw for the 1000 Island region.  From the dock at Heart we puttered to an anchorage among several cottages behind Whiskey Island. 

The next morning we continued down river to Cedar Island State Park in Chippewa Bay for a stop at Dark Island to visit Singer Castle.  This is another of the millionaire dwellings built during the first decades of the 20^th century when the rich discovered this area as a summer retreat. Frederick Bourne of the Singer Sewing Machine company commissioned this fantasy castle for his family’s summer home. This quirky home is built on a more livable scale than Boldt’s castle (only 28 rooms to Boldt’s 120+), but it has far more secret passages, spy ports and tunnels. The grounds are not as park-like as we found on Heart Island, but the Royal Suite has been renovated and is available for overnight visits should one fancy a castle sojourn. We lucked into a deluxe tour since the crew who run the tours were a little late in arriving the day of our visit giving us a chance to see the seldom visited fifth floor hide out and a walk through the tunnel from the dock under the green space – former tennis court.

 We spent the night anchored behind the state park – which fortunately had excellent holding as a bit of severe weather blew through – short lived, but briefly churning the water and buffeting our canopy.  The next day we heard tornadoes and high winds had downed trees on the mainland just north of us so we felt lucky to have had our anchor hold fast and to have suffered no wind damage.