Boldt Castle

Since we were at a bit of an impass with doing anything else for our mechanical problem, Captain Keith and I took a tour boat on Wednesday deeper into the Thousand Islands to Boldt Castle.  On the way to Boldt Castle the tour passed many different islands in the Thousand Islands and some of the homes and boat houses were just amazing.

Here are just a few of the houses we saw along the way

We also passed under the Thousand Islands Bridge.  This is an international bridge system over the St. Lawrence River connecting northern New York State with southeastern Ontario, Canada.  It carries two lanes of traffic, one in each direction and has pedestrian sidewalks.  When first constructed in 1937, it had approximately 150,000 vehicle crossings annually.  Today annual crossings are over 2 million.

The Thousand Islands Bridge

(only part is visible)

The weather was unfortunately overcast but this is still a beautiful area.  We arrived at Heart Island about 11:30 AM and had a little over an hour to explore the island and the castle.  Boldt Castle which is on Heart Island is a major tourist attraction in the Thousand Islands.  George Boldt was the general manager of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City and manager of the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia.  He purchased Hart Island and changed its spelling to Heart Island along with building a modest cottage for  his family.  In 1900 Boldt launched an ambitious construction project on the island to buld a huge masonry structure resembling the Bavarian Castles in Europe.  The castle was to be a present to his beloved wife Louise.  However tragedy struck in early 1904 when Louise suddenly died at age 42.  George Boldt abruptly ordered all construction on the castle to a halt.  It s said he was so heartbroken that he never again set foot on Heart Island.  The castle stood empty and unfinished for some 70 years and become victim to harsh weather and occasional vandals.  It was not until 1977 that the Thousand Islans Bridge Authority bought the Heart Island property and nearby yacht house for $1 (no I did not forget any zeros).  They have been slowly restoring the castle and property ever since and keeping it open to the public to see.  It is something like a park with the restored buildings being a museum to the time period.  Furnishings and interior designs are new reproductions of what would have been present in a grand home of the early 1900s.

Boldt Castle

Boldt Yacht House

George Boldt once had 60 boats in the boathouse

Here are some pictures from while we were on the island

There are heart designs all around the castle and grounds

There are also several out buildings on the island

The playhouse

Clock Tower Building

Power building supplying power to the Castle

 Stag Arch

Italian Garden

 Large cargo ship passing on the St. Lawrence River

Many tour boats bring visitors to the Island

The outing was a good way to get us off the boat and our minds off the mechanical problems for a bit.
We had a nice ride back passing the Rock Island Lighthouse on the way.

Rock Island Lighthouse

Among the keepers of the light was William Johnston, a man once known as the "Pirate of the Thousand Islands".  Johnston was an American sympathizer during hostilities along the Canadian and US boarder in 1838.  He and his crew attacked British ships passing along the St. Lawrence River.  He was declared an outlaw and eventually captured and tried, but received a pardon.  After his pardon he became the light keeper at Rock Island Lighthouse from 1853-1861.

Our short reprieve from working in the engine room was nice, however we were back at it on Thursday for most of the day, especially Captain Keith.  After much trial and tribulation we did appear to make some progress on our water flow problem.  We still feel we need to have the boat hauled out and a new shaft seal mechanism installed and now the place that we thought could take us in Ontario is having delays getting their lift fixed (this is the contraption that can lift or haul the boat out of the water).