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 The Wolfe Islander III awaits a load of passengers and cargo to be ferried to Wolfe Island, which is home to about 1,400 people and contains shops, cafes, B&Bs and an award-winning restuarant. |
It may not offer luxury passage but the Wolfe Island ferry service compensates very nicely for that by being free. Yes, it's free, a rare treat in this day and age of user fees on top of taxes. Okay, it's not free-free! As Ontario taxpayers, with this being a service provided by the transportation ministry, we pay for it somewhere along the way.
But users don't pay to board the flagship Wolfe Islander III, which plies its trade between downtown Kingston and the island bearing the name of legendary General James Wolfe, at 124 sq.-km, the largest in the 1,800-plus Thousand Islands cluster.
Some 1,400 farmers, business people and other residents call Wolfe Island home year-round. It's this tight-knit community we can thank for maintaining the refreshing oddity of a free ferry.
Every time some earnest government official suggests applying a fee, the Wolfe Islanders clamber onto their high horses and demand equality with other Ontarians.
After all, they successfully argue, essential surface transportation routes between communities are part of the package of rights granted Ontario residents. Can they help it if the particular surface in this case happens to be water and not ground?
So they continue to get open access to the Wolfe Islander III; 200 feet in length with a capacity of 55 cars and 400 passengers. The Wolfe's big, it's boxy, it's totally functional and not intended to be aesthetically pleasing.
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And it isn't intended primarily as a passenger ship either. It's designed to carry cargo, particularly vehicles, back and forth all day long, offering a departure at either end pretty much every hour.
That includes in the dead of winter, thanks to an aeration system that helps provide an ice-free shipping lane.
NOW A DIVE SITE
Continuing a ferry tradition launched in 1802, the latest version of the Wolfe Islander came into service in 1976. It replaced the smaller Wolfe Islander II which, in 1985, was deliberately scuttled and turned into a dive site in 80 feet of water near Kingston.
Only rarely is Wolfe III out of service, including six weeks last fall when it was dry-docked for a five-year inspection. The smaller Frontenac II, which normally works another route, was pressed into replacement service.
We've often ridden the Wolfe Islander just for the sheer heck of it, simply to bask in the glorious free-ness of it all.
Sometimes with our vehicle, sometimes as foot passengers -- it's gratis either way -- we've made the 20-minute crossing, winter and summer, puttering around the craft shops of Marysville, commercial centre of the island, until the next return trip. When our kids were younger, we jumped on board just to give them a nautical experience.
With the first European visitor thought to be Samuel de Champlain in 1615, Wolfe Island has a long and colourful history, including as the site for the first cheddar cheese manufactured in Ontario in the 1860s, and as a stop on the Underground Railroad that delivered Americans from slavery. Fixing of the border in 1822 had confirmed Wolfe Island as Canadian territory.
Under French rule, it was Grande Ile in 1675; British rule converted it to Wolfe Island in 1792. Presumably, that's the way it'll stay.
French settlers arrived in the early 1700s, followed by waves of United Empire Loyalists, Irish and Scottish immigrants, and Dutch in the wake of World War II.
Today, there are some 70 businesses on the island, including stores, cafes, B&Bs, and the 1860 General Wolfe Hotel with nine renovated rooms and an award-winning restaurant. Last year, the 130-seat dining room picked up a Golden Fork Award from the Gourmet Diners Society of North America.
Nightly accommodation for two starts at $55 for a room with double bed, climbing to $115 for a jacuzzi suite.
Right now at the General Wolfe package deals include one night, breakfast and dinner for two in a king room for $185 or $165 for queen, said operator Mostafa Ismail. --- BOTTOM LINE
MORE INFORMATION: Visit wolfeisland.com.