Heading East on Lake Ontario

Good morning blog readers !

Shortly we’ll be leaving Fair Haven, NY, to head east about 40 miles on Lake Ontario toward the Thousand Islands. This is a beautiful spot and we’ve had a wonderful time visiting with our West Hartford friends, Lynn and Kevin Dempsey. The weather has been beautiful - cool mornings, warm afternoons, chilly nights. Yesterday we walked down a long break-water to the point where this small bay meets the big lake. Lots of people were out walking, sitting on the beach, or swimming, but I think the water had to be mighty cold. We went to Trivia Night at O’Connor’s pub and came in 5th of 7 teams, but it was fun and I learned that they used to throw goats, not pigs, out of church belfries in Spain. Who knew?

Fish slapped in the cold water all night and barn swallows have been chattering on the rails of the sailboat next to us. Brian is rinsing off the boat and I should do my chores so we can be on our way.

The last Erie Lock

 NELSON'S ONBOARD!!!

Just through this lock is Lake Ontario!

Our neighbors for the week!

Well our week long delay in Brewerton, NY is finally over.  We were holed up on the town wall for a week in Brewerton as we waited for the NY Canals to finally open after major flooding forced them to close for a week.  It was a long week -- but in the end an enjoyable one.  We spent the entire week with Jodi and Gary from Country Dancer -- taking rides to Walmart with them, riding to a nearby waterfront restaurant or just hanging out getting lessons on electricity from Gary (that's another story!).  Peter and Banu from Denize II who we had traveled much of the Erie over the previous week also finally caught with us and joined the fun.  In the end we had 9 boats on the wall -- all eager for the lock openings on Tuesday.  Both Country Dancer and Denize II were heading all the way to Buffalo on the Erie while we turned right onto the Oswego Canal -- so on Tuesday we said goodbye and wished them well.  It's interesting that while neither had met before -- they are both heading to Duluth, Minnesota!  Go figure.  Banu and Peter to have their boat shipped to Seattle where they will begin the next chapter in their lives while Gary and Jodi head to see Jodi's family and then scoot back to Chicago and down the same rivers we will traverse.  With luck we'll see them again on the journey.  After a week on the wall we have begun what it means to make new friends and share a bond with some wonderful people.

 Banu and Peter

Jodi and Gary

Erie Canal

Running away from the storms!

First Glitch

Today we are learning that we are not actually in charge. The canals are closed and there is nothing we can do about it. We are tied up to the free wall in Brewerton, NY, a very small town, and we are just waiting. If we had our way, we would be out of here and heading north through the Oswego Canal for two days, but we are not in charge. 

The water levels on the lakes and canals are very high due to lots of rain lately. Eventually the water will run down the the rivers and recede, but for now, the gates are closed. We are fortunate to have such a nice boat, and it’s just the two of us, so we have plenty of food and supplies, internet and books to read. The solar panels continue to power up the fridge, freezer and lights, and we have propane for cooking. There isn’t any hot water for showers or dishwashing, but I can boil a kettle of water to add to the cold water. It’s only the amount of water we have on board that concerns me, because there isn’t really a gauge to tell us how much remains. In any case, before we leave, we can refill at a marina and in the meantime, we can be frugal.

We biked to Walmart yesterday, about 8 miles there and back. We are both in love with the tandem bicycle! I could not have biked up those hills by myself, and Brian likes that I can now keep up with him. So far, a good solution. Plus we go mighty fast - possibly twice as fast as a single biker can go. After dinner I spent the rest of the evening lying flat out on the couch.

Nelson is staying in Maryland with Lauren a few extra days, which is perfect timing because we are just sitting here waiting. Jena has made it to El Paso to visit with Momma for a while. Today is Brandon’s last day of school for the year - and I get the impression that teachers are even more joyful about the last day of school than their students! Charlie the cat is giving Brianna a pretty hard time in their NYC apartment, waking up every night around 2:00 and going on a tear for several hours, just like at home.

It rained again last night for about 20 minutes, so the canal will be closed two more days, until Wednesday morning. Aaughhh!

Erie Canal

t turns out that we weren’t on the Erie Canal after all. We were going through locks and traveling west on water, but that water was the Mohawk River. Yesterday we actually traveled on the man-made canal, but it didn’t look or feel much different from the river.

And it turns out that going through a dozen locks hasn’t been boring or repetitious. Going through a lock is actually pretty simple: you position the fenders (a LOT of fenders), you enter the lock, you grab on to the vertical pole or line (wearing gloves), and you use your boat hook to fend off the concrete wall as the boat rises in the box. When the opposite gate opens, you move out. But each lock has its own personality, and you don’t know what it will be until you get there. The locks have provided adventures - there was the adventure of the fast eddies, the adventure of the island of debris at the gate, the adventure of suddenly being pushed to port, the adventure of treading water at the gate, the adventure of the nine boats in the lock, and the adventure of the 40 foot lock. Maybe once we’ve done a hundred locks, it will be routine, but now it is still new and we’ve learned that we need to be alert and a little bit apprehensive every time.

Lock 17.  Tallest to date and coolest by far.

Old Hands

So we've now transited 17 Locks -- and we're finally starting to feel like old hands at this.  The Erie Canal is particularly difficult this year as over the last two weeks they've had huge storms that has risen the regular water height by nearly two feet.  What that means is the "flow" is enormous and every time we reach a lock with a corresponding damn there is a tremendous amount of water flowing over the damn.  We get rocked with enormous water eddies as we enter every lock. It only took one huge swirling eddie which tossed our boat against the wall to teach us what these meant and how powerful they were.  We were cautious before, we're now cautious beyond cautious.  The last two days have been majestic.  No other way of saying it.  The cruise along peaceful scenery interspersed with a highway next to us or a railroad on the other side is surreal.  We've met lovely people from a couple tonight who is doing their second loop to a couple we have been traveling with for several days who came from Turkey across the Atlantic only to do the Erie and Great Lakes.  Go figure!  Wonderful people, wonderful stories.  Today's highlight was Lock 17.  As texting would say -- OMG!  The Lock is over 40 feet in hight -- pictures to follow.  We literally motored in under the lock gate!  Not sure how to describe it -- but the water height is so high that the gate is at the bottom of the lock and raises up to let you in.  We're now nicely tied to a lovely town wall with another Looper -- the one doing it for the second time -- and three sailboats.  One of the sailboats is so old and done this so many times (he's single handling his transit) that his mast is literally a long tree -- just as if it were out Hornblower!  Delightful days, cool nights.  Needless to say -- we're a happy couple.  And if it's Nan reading -- yes, it's Brian's voice!

1st Day on the Erie Canal

We have spent our first night on the Erie Canal. We are tied up on the wall at Waterford, New York, Lock 2. Lock 1 is on the Hudson River at Troy; it’s called the Federal Lock. Every boat passes through it, whether it is going to the Champlain Canal or the Erie Canal. Today we begin making our way west through 23 locks to Three Rivers, then veering north on the Oswego Canal through 7 locks to Lake Ontario. This will take about 10 days, and Nelson is due to join us at some point.

Our “locking through” on the Federal Lock was not a pretty sight yesterday. We had plenty of fenders set up, and I grabbed the pole just fine. But it suddenly started raining, the red ball fell off the front fender, and Brian realized that the bow thruster creates turbulence in a confined space. We rescued the red ball using our 8-foot net, we figured out how to fend off using the boat-hooks, and we wiped up all the rainwater that came inside the boat. Today we have at least 8 chances to practice locking through, so we should be pretty good by the end of the day.

Three lines of storms rolled through after sundown yesterday. We were snug in our boat when the loudest thunder I have ever heard cracked directly overhead. I leaped up, wide-eyed and panic-stricken! Everything was fine, thank goodness, but a small Niagara Falls was pouring off the canal wall next to our neighboring boat. Farther up the canal, past lock 24, the canal is temporarily closed due to too much water, but so far our path is still open.

It is a beautiful, fresh, breezy morning here in Waterford and we are having a wonderful time on the Erie Canal.

Perfect

The run from Kingston to Shady Harbor Marina just below Albany, NY was absolutely perfect today. A cloud covered sky kept the temperature right and a delightful breeze from the west cooled off the boat all day.  We saw a bald eagle fishing, a giant fish skimming along atop the water and miles and miles of isolated shoreline.  We're now nicely tied at Shady Harbor -- a very nice marina -- and catching up on a few items.  We filled Pearl's water and diesel tanks and emptied her black water tank.  All is right with Pearl as it is with us.  Perfect!

Perhaps more excitement than we were looking for

Well the last 24 hours have certainly been exciting, beautiful, delicious, serene and beautiful all wrapped together.  We started out yesterday morning from Croton-on-the-Hudson for what we thought would be a lovely day cruise to Kingston.  It was a beautiful day -- and wonderful to see FDR's home, the Vanderbilt Estate and dozens of other "summer cottages" dotted along the waterway.  What we didn't expect was that almost immediately after passing Hyde Park we notice what looked like debris in the water on the far side of the river.  When we went over to investigate we discovered not just debris, but a capsized and sunk 24 foot sail boat with its owner desperately trying to stay afloat while clutching a few things from his boat that floated.  We were able to swing around his sunk vessel and deploy the LifeSling -- a life vest that is tied to a line that can be thrown from the boat and pulled back in with via the line.  It took two circles to get our range as we needed to steer clear of the sunk boat but we managed to get close enough on to the floundering gentlemen and Ellen made a perfect toss right next to him allowing him to grab on and we could then pull him in.  Needless to say -- after having tread water for about 30 mins he was exhausted, suffering a bit of hypothermia in the cold water and verging on shock.  Ellen wrapped a blanket over him and and we were able to successfully get him back to his home port a few miles up river.  When we finally got him to the dock in good order he turned to both of us and said quite simply "I'm alive!"  Wow.  Never had that experience before.

Needless to say -- the rest of the trip to Kingston was a bit of a blur.  We called in the wreckage to the Coast Guard, put out a mariners warning, and chatted about how lucky we felt to have left late from the dock that morning to be in the right place at the right time.  Life is strange.  We both decided that June 10th will be CM's (his name) I'm alive day!

A couple of thoughts post this event -- first, we now have our life jackets ready at a moments notice (CM was not wearing one); when in an open cockpit boat one should always wear a life jacket; the LifeSling works -- but one should practice to see how best to deploy.  We were lucky (and Ellen smart to tie it off early once he grabbed the line so he wouldn't drift further out).  Not sure one should count on good luck in these situations.

We ended the night meeting new found Looper friends for a marvelous dinner in Kingston.  Good food, conversation, laughter and stories always makes for a terrific evening.  And we discovered the Looper's midnight -- 9pm.  You can turn in then!

Organizational Day on the Hudson

With brother Bob and friend Christer departing this morning, Ellen and I decided to stay at the Half Moon Bay Marina to get re-organized for the trip.  While I cleaned Pearl from the salt spray we received while going down Long Island Sound, Ellen reorganized the packing inside.  Steve, the wondrous Marina owner, drove me to the local hardware store to buy a hand held vacuum as well so we can keep the floors clean from Sophie hair -- something we hadn't thought of upon departure.  We also met a bunch of fellow Loopers.  Amazingly, we are docked with no less than 15 other Looper boats tonight and will head out with many of them tomorrow to Kingston, NY.  It's like traveling with a large family.  Storms were predicted for the day -- but after the showers of the morning it proved to be a beautiful day.  Hopefully this weather pattern will continue.

3rd Day Out, 1st Day on the Loop

With a 6am start we were able to time our passage through Hell Gate and down the East River in New York City beautifully.  The current was with us the entire way and we made great time.  All was wonderful until we reached the end of the East River where it flows into the Hudson -- and then all madness struck.  We suddenly found ourselves in the middle of 11 water ferries rushing New Yorkers off to work (yes -- we arrived at 9am).  It was like an amazing game of dodge ball but with a lot higher stakes.  We quickly figured out that there is a pecking order to all of this and the massive Staten Island Ferries were at the top and we were at the bottom!  We dodged and weaved in the rushing flow of wind, waves and machines and made our way across to the lovely Lady -- the Statue of Liberty.  Next year we will finish the Loop at this spot and officially "cross our wake" at the Statue of Liberty.  It was a grand event celebrated by hanging a brand new American flag from our stern and having our picture properly taken.  We then headed north on the Hudson for a lovely cruise to Croton-on-the-Hudson.  Tonight is our last with brother Bob and friend Christer who have been incredibly helpful in getting us set for the trip.  They head down to NYC tomorrow and then home to Annapolis.  They'll be missed.  We've decided to take a "regroup" day tomorrow and do some repacking of supplies and generally get Pearl more buttoned down and ship shape.  We will continue north on Wednesday.  We're celebrating the day with a bottle of Champagne given to us by our dear friend Russ Jones, another owner of a Nordic Tug.  This follows our afternoon snack of ice cream in town.  We've decided ice cream a day sounds lovely -- provided we can walk it off to compensate as we did today!

We are now on the Loop!  Next year we will 

cross our wake at the Statue of Liberty!

We're about to spend our second night aboard in Glen Cove, NY.  We're now on Long Island and reading the weather reports that tell us that a storm will roll in tomorrow (Monday) night.  So we've decided to bypass NYC and head up the Hudson tomorrow.  With luck we'll make it to Croton on the Hudson tomorrow night before the storms roll in -- which means a 6am departure.  Fortunately we are all very tired after a 66 mile run today so I'm guessing getting to sleep by 10pm shouldn't be a problem.  The day's run was wondrous!  Flat waters complemented by a crystal clear blue sky made for a marvelous run down Long Island Sound.  We docked like pros and then adjourned to the poop deck (as officially named by Christer who is a naval architect and should know about such things).  A beer or wine to celebrate and now off to wet burritos for dinner.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with wet burritos -- they are a marvelous concoction we learned about at a dive bar in Florida.  Make a traditional burrito, pour red enchilada sauce and cheddar cheese over it and bake it in the oven for 20 minutes and yum!!  We turn north tomorrow and begin heading toward Canada and places new to us.  Exciting!

First night.  We're doing this!

Pearl is about to come out of her shell!

Pearl Comes Out of Her Shell

At 3:05pm on June 6th we picked up Pearl's lines and made our way out of her slip in Essex, CT to start our amazing Big Loop adventure.  After 3 years of planning, dreaming and imagining we are finally off.  Brian's brother, Bob, and his friend Christer joined us on Friday the 5th to help out in getting started and will be with us till the 10th.  They've been incredibly helpful in doing many of the small jobs still outstanding aboard Pearl -- from balancing the dinghy on it's lift to cleaning the decks!  It's good to have talented unpaid labor aboard!  Today was filled with activity from Ellen driving home to drop off the car and then be picked up by our daughter Brianna who then returned her to Essex.  Brianna is also in for quite an adventure as she is taking of our very active cat Charlie at her home in NYC.  Charlie is an outdoor hunting cat who will spend the next 6 months living in a two bedroom apartment in Manhattan.  He's in for a rude awakening!  While Ellen was doing the car return Bob, Christer and I took Pearl out to test all of her systems.  We checked the temperature on the engine; ensured everything from the navigation lights to the head were in good working order.  Fortunately everything worked perfectly.  It feels good to commence a trip of this magnitude with everything working well.  First night is in Westbrook, CT -- just a short way from Essex and then tomorrow off to Long Island just outside of NYC.  It's really happening!

Favorite spot in Connecticut

We'll miss home

Thursday, June 4, 2015

We are setting out to see America, but before we go, I must say that one of the most beautiful places in America is Connecticut. Especially in Spring. It is green and cool, overcast or sunny, with pink trees and flowering shrubs. It is just gorgeous. 

Extreme Countdown Mode!

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

It’s less than five days ‘til we depart and we are in extreme countdown mode. Three days ‘til we move onto the boat, two more days of work, one more drive to NYC and one more drive back home. One more choir practice, one more Garden Club meeting, one library book to return, three things in the freezer, eight loads of laundry, a pile of mail, and a to-do list that’s still six pages long. Even so, the list is shorter than it was a week ago, and now when I get something done, it’s DONE! Many of my tasks have nothing to do with going away and still relate to our “real life”, but on Saturday, a new reality begins. 

Yesterday Brian chose his clothes for the six months and for a variety of climates. We will have coats for cold days and sleeveless t-shirts for hot days. Today I’m writing the grocery list and collecting all the paperwork that we need to take with us, because it doesn’t stop. Tomorrow is the big grocery shopping day, plus choosing my clothes. I am tackling these projects one at a time; otherwise the whole thing would overwhelm me. Each task is like a waypoint on our journey.

It has rained for at least three days. I drove through a wall of water on the way back from Essex on Sunday. I got wet, but as you know, if you’re going to live on a boat, you have to get used to that. Even so, dampness is one of the hardest things to deal with on the boat. This weekend is supposed to be clear and sunny, so at least we get to start off dry.

Ready and waiting!  Departure is near.

Yellow Porch with Green Rocking Chairs

Favorite Place