ABOVE Grand Bay, the Saint John River wraps around the end of the Kingston Peninsula. From Lands End to Westfield, the river tends northwest until it turns abruptly around Gregory Point. From there, Long Reach stretches almost 10 miles northeast in a straight and river-like fashion. Rarely, though, is Long Reach a reach. It is either a tacking marathon or a magnificent run or a lulling chug under power.
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Here the river behaves like a river, with downriver currents of up to a couple of knots, moderated slightly by the flood through the Reversing Falls and amplified by the ebb. The intensity of the current can be predicted by the shape of the shoreline. Where a point projects into the river, the current will be greater as it is forced around it. Likewise, where the river is constricted, the current will be greater. Where the river broadens, the current will diminish, often droping its suspended sediment and making the river more shoal.
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Southerly winds will funnel up the Reach against the current, sometimes producing a steep chop or standing waves. Under these conditions, the east side of the Reach offers a little more lee. Turbulence is greatest off Oak Point and between Purdys and Belyeas Point.
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Real harbors are a rarity here, though you can anchor almost anywhere along the riverbanks, choosing your location for protection from prevailing winds. The standard stopover is Whelpley Cove, behind Cantons Island. The indent just upriver from Purdys Point, on the west shore, makes a nice fair-weather anchorage or daystop, with a beach and a high tree-lined bluff with a farm field beyond.
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Upriver from the beautiful farm on Carters Point, the east shore becomes high and much less developed with small beaches at the toes of steep, forested hills. Once past Cantons Island, the main channel of the Reach becomes a labyrinth through low silt-islands—Grassy Island, Mistake Intervale, and Hog Island at the mouth of Belleisle Bay.
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Watch for the spar buoys carefully, particularly the green spar at the submerged tip of Mistake Intervale, which is almost invisible against the trees along the east bank and surprisingly far—more than half a mile when the river is up—from the visible tip itself.
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