Log 75
Ludington, MI to Harborside
5:15 AM
Friday, August 04, 2000
Harborside Marina
Wilmington, IL.
Day 96
Well we are less than 40 miles away from completing the Great Circle Trip.
We decided to stop at Harborside (where we originally bought the boat) and take a day to regroup, before heading into Starved Rock Marina on Saturday. Actually, for several years I had planned to leave a marina on September 4th, and head to Florida. We accomplished that. 18 months ago when I was planning this trip my goal was to return on Saturday August 5th. That is exactly what we are going to do.
Let me bring you up to speed on the last couple of days.
Wednesday…
After 2 days in dense fog I was eager to get up in the morning and see what the conditions were. To my joy, I could see stars in the sky, and it looked like the day would be clear. In fact the only problem was the boat was covered with bugs. I guess they had been attracted by the lights from the marina, but whatever the case there were thousands of them, so I washed the boat down before heading out. (Which is one of the reasons I didn’t get to write a daily log)
It was a little cool as we left our slip and headed out to the lake. The sun hadn’t come up yet, but it looked like it would be a great day. A cold front had come through over night, and there were strong storms in the central part of Michigan, but they were south of us, and would be gone by the time we got there. There was only a slight ripple on the lake, and I set the RPM’s at about 1100, (10.5 mph) and the autopilot for a spot off the tip of Little Sable Point which was a point we would need to get around before we could head almost due south. Our plan was to make it to Benton Harbor, and that would leave us only 50 miles to go across the lake on Thursday.
About mid morning the lake started to kick up a bit, and by noon it was rolling pretty good (about 1 to 2 footers) with winds out of the southwest. The good news was our heading put these waves on our starboard bow, and we could get over the top of them without too much trouble. It was a little bumpy, but nothing that was all that uncomfortable. It was too rough though to make lunch, so I decided to stop in Holland to get some fuel, and have a chance to make a sandwich while we did so.
After fuel, and lunch, we headed back out to the lake, and it hadn’t changed much. NOA weather predicted the winds to change from the southwest to the west, and then later from the north. That was good news for us for our trip to Benton Harbor but could be bad news for our trip across the lake. In fact what they predicted did happen, but while the winds were shifting they became almost calm, and the lake went from choppy to almost smooth by the time we got to Benton Harbor.
We were about 10 miles out of the harbor when I asked everyone if they wanted to cross the lake now. The lake was almost dead calm, the weather was perfect, and it was only 63 miles to Hammond Marina. The chart plotter said it would take about 3 hours at the rate we were going, and it was only 4 PM so we could be there easily before dark. I explained the prediction of 15 to 20 mph north winds and said it could be very bumpy if that happened. We talked about it for a while, and then decided to stop in Benton Harbor, and head across in the morning.
We tied up at our slip at Pier 33 Marina about 5, and after getting settled Terry and I went in to the show room to look at the new boats they had on display. We ended up talking to one of the sales guys, and he offered to take us into town and drop us off at a restaurant he recommended, so we headed back to the boat to let the girls know, and we left about 6:30.
Dinner was fine, but nothing special, and we walked about a mile back to the boat rather than get a taxi. The cold front had definitely come through. The winds had changed, and were blowing from the north, and the temprature had dropped several degrees.
I think we all fell asleep thinking about the winds, hopping they would diminish, and wondering how they would effect us the next day. I know I did.
Thursday…
It was windy and cold when I got up. The winds were a little lighter than the night before, but not much. The sky was clear; so there would be no rain, but I had a feeling the lake would not be our friend this morning. I decided we would drive from inside this morning because it would be too cold with the winds and a temperature of 58 degrees. Our plan was to leave early so we could at least take advantage of lighter winds in the early morning.
We untied the lines a little before 6 AM. It was still dark out, but the sky was starting to get a little lighter. We had to wait about 30 minutes for a railroad bridge to open so we didn’t get to the lake until about 6:30.
The minute we hit the lake we all knew we should have crossed the day before. We were no more than out of the breakwater and a wave hit our starboard bow and lifted us in the air, and threw us sideways. I hit the throttles hard and made a hard left to get the boat straight and tried to get us in sync with the waves. I fought it for a while and then finally settled in on about 1750 RPM’s, which is about 18 to 20 mph. This may seem fast is heavy seas, but it took this kind of speed to keep up with the waves.
The next 3 hours seemed like an entire day. The waves were averaging 3 to 5 feet, and at times they were averaging 4 to 6, and occasionally someone threw in a rouge wave that was much greater than that. One time Deb was sitting behind me and we went over a wave, and fell into the trough after it, and we looked out the port side of the boat to see the crest of the wave over the top of the boat. (As I write this I am getting help from Terry to make sure I don’t exaggerate) I never felt we were in any real danger because the boat handled things fine, but I sure wanted to be in a lot of other places besides where we were.
After getting pounded for 3 hours, and over 50 miles we reached the Hammond Marina. We were about to go in when Terry said, “Hey, it’s only 8:30 Chicago time, why don’t we head for Harborside?” We talked about it for a minute or so, and decided to go for it. I felt great about the decision because I was very concerned about getting into the Hammond Harbor. It has a narrow entrance, and with the waves I was trying to figure out I would get this done. Going to Harborside meant heading into the Calumet Harbor, which is large, and has a great breakwater to protect the entrance.
It was great to get inside the Calumet and feel the calm waters. We made our way through the channel, and although this is a very industrial area, and it has bad smells everywhere we were glad to be here.
Everything was going great and we were making good time, but when we got to the Lockport Lock we had a couple of problems. The first thing that happened was they were working on the lock, and we had to wait about an hour or so. We finally got in, and ended up tying up to a barge inside the lock. I shut down the engines to wait for them to drop us down, and when the lock opened and I went to start the engines, the starboard engine wouldn’t start. It seemed like the starter wouldn’t engage. So after trying a couple of things, we limped out of the lock with one engine.
With only one engine, we went the 5 miles or so through Joliet, and into the Brandon Road Lock. It was a little tricky getting into the lock, and tied against the wall, but we made it. While I was in the lock I called Detroit, and set up for them to come to Harborside today, and we left the lock with still only one engine, and made the final 7 miles to Harborside, and got here a little after 5.
Today…as we sit here this morning Terry and I need to clean the boat, and I am waiting for the mechanic to get here to look at the engine. If everything goes well, we’ll be out of here early tomorrow morning, and we should be back in Ottawa by noon.
5000 miles behind us.
BK
Friday, August 04, 2000
Wednesday, August 02, 2000
Chapter 74: Lake Michigan Fog
Log 74
Lake Michigan Fog
5:15 AM
Wednesday, August 02, 2000
Ludington Municipal Marina
Ludington, MI.
Day 94
Picture the worst fog you have ever been in, and then double it. That’s what were in all, (yes all) day yesterday. Well that’s pretty dramatic, but it sure seemed like that.
I was up early yesterday to get going because they had predicted fog, and we had a lot of miles we needed to travel. When I got up, the weather seemed fine, it was a little foggy, but nothing we hadn’t seen before. As it got a little lighter you could see the fog start to roll in. We were in a marina on Lake Charlevoix, and we needed to get off of this lake and through another very small lake and then a bridge to Lake Michigan. The bridge lifted only on the hour and half hour, so I wanted to make the 7 AM opening.
We untied our lines at about 6:30 and we were off. It was only about ¾ of a mile from our slip to the opening we needed to get through, but the fog was so thick we had to feel our way to find the channel. (The radar was on, but it was such narrow opening that it was not easy to see on radar) We found the opening, and felt our way through the small lake and to the drawbridge that led us to Lake Michigan.
While we were waiting for the bridge to lift I looked out at the lake, and it looked ok, but you could see the fog starting to set in. I knew if we got out there we would be fine, because the radar, and the chart plotter would get us through. Once on the lake it wasn’t too bad. It was dead calm, and we probably had about 1 mile of visibility. I set the autopilot to about 245 degrees, and that would take us west, around Traverse Bay, and then through the Manitou Passage. (I used to think that the Michigan shoreline was pretty much north and south. I didn’t realize, until we had to go down its entire length, that to get from the top to the bottom you have to go west quite a bit, in order to get around the top)
By the time we had been on the lake an hour or so the fog started to set in. And when it did, it came in hard. I’m sure everyone has been in fog, but this was something. It kept getting thicker, and thicker, until the visibility was so bad we couldn’t see anything but our boat. We saw several boats on radar, but never actually got to see any of them, even though the radar showed them right next to us. We didn’t have a choice on what to do, so we just kept going. We were in no danger, because we could see everything on radar, and the chart plotter kept us on course, but it was very tiring to keep that type of attention.
About noon we decided to stop and get some fuel, and also get some lunch. We picked out Frankfort as a good stop, but it was another thing getting into the harbor. The marker at the entrance was very clear on radar. The chart plotter was very clear where we were, and were the entrance was, you just couldn’t see it. Even when you got so close you could hear the foghorn you couldn’t see it. You could hear the horn right next to the boat, and knew it was there somewhere, but you couldn’t see it.
After fuel and food, we headed back out into the soup. We kept thinking the fog would lift, because you could see the sun high in the sky, but I guess it didn’t have the power to burn off this dense fog. Our plan was to get to Ludington, and we were determined to make it. Which we did, about 4 PM. We had traveled about 130 miles for the day, and considering the conditions, we felt that we had earned out dinner.
We ended up in the Ludington Municipal Marina, which is located right next to downtown. While Deb walked into town to get some supplies, Jeanie started dinner (spaghetti, and it was awesome), and Terry and I cleaned the boat a little. (It needs a total cleaning….bad) The fog was still very thick, and I was wondering what it would be like the next day when we had another 130 miles to go.
We’ll have to wait and see.
BK
Lake Michigan Fog
5:15 AM
Wednesday, August 02, 2000
Ludington Municipal Marina
Ludington, MI.
Day 94
Picture the worst fog you have ever been in, and then double it. That’s what were in all, (yes all) day yesterday. Well that’s pretty dramatic, but it sure seemed like that.
I was up early yesterday to get going because they had predicted fog, and we had a lot of miles we needed to travel. When I got up, the weather seemed fine, it was a little foggy, but nothing we hadn’t seen before. As it got a little lighter you could see the fog start to roll in. We were in a marina on Lake Charlevoix, and we needed to get off of this lake and through another very small lake and then a bridge to Lake Michigan. The bridge lifted only on the hour and half hour, so I wanted to make the 7 AM opening.
We untied our lines at about 6:30 and we were off. It was only about ¾ of a mile from our slip to the opening we needed to get through, but the fog was so thick we had to feel our way to find the channel. (The radar was on, but it was such narrow opening that it was not easy to see on radar) We found the opening, and felt our way through the small lake and to the drawbridge that led us to Lake Michigan.
While we were waiting for the bridge to lift I looked out at the lake, and it looked ok, but you could see the fog starting to set in. I knew if we got out there we would be fine, because the radar, and the chart plotter would get us through. Once on the lake it wasn’t too bad. It was dead calm, and we probably had about 1 mile of visibility. I set the autopilot to about 245 degrees, and that would take us west, around Traverse Bay, and then through the Manitou Passage. (I used to think that the Michigan shoreline was pretty much north and south. I didn’t realize, until we had to go down its entire length, that to get from the top to the bottom you have to go west quite a bit, in order to get around the top)
By the time we had been on the lake an hour or so the fog started to set in. And when it did, it came in hard. I’m sure everyone has been in fog, but this was something. It kept getting thicker, and thicker, until the visibility was so bad we couldn’t see anything but our boat. We saw several boats on radar, but never actually got to see any of them, even though the radar showed them right next to us. We didn’t have a choice on what to do, so we just kept going. We were in no danger, because we could see everything on radar, and the chart plotter kept us on course, but it was very tiring to keep that type of attention.
About noon we decided to stop and get some fuel, and also get some lunch. We picked out Frankfort as a good stop, but it was another thing getting into the harbor. The marker at the entrance was very clear on radar. The chart plotter was very clear where we were, and were the entrance was, you just couldn’t see it. Even when you got so close you could hear the foghorn you couldn’t see it. You could hear the horn right next to the boat, and knew it was there somewhere, but you couldn’t see it.
After fuel and food, we headed back out into the soup. We kept thinking the fog would lift, because you could see the sun high in the sky, but I guess it didn’t have the power to burn off this dense fog. Our plan was to get to Ludington, and we were determined to make it. Which we did, about 4 PM. We had traveled about 130 miles for the day, and considering the conditions, we felt that we had earned out dinner.
We ended up in the Ludington Municipal Marina, which is located right next to downtown. While Deb walked into town to get some supplies, Jeanie started dinner (spaghetti, and it was awesome), and Terry and I cleaned the boat a little. (It needs a total cleaning….bad) The fog was still very thick, and I was wondering what it would be like the next day when we had another 130 miles to go.
We’ll have to wait and see.
BK
Tuesday, August 01, 2000
Chapter 73: The North Channel & Upper Michigan
Log 73
The North Channel and Upper Michigan
5:10 AM
Tuesday, August 01, 2000
Northwest Marine Yacht Club
Charlevoix, MI.
Day 93
I woke up at 4:15 this morning, had a lot on my mind so I decided to just get up, and get to it. Getting up at this time reminds me of when we first left on our trip last September, and getting up at this time was a normal day. I can still remember those mornings, and I’m sure I will for a long time.
I was outside earlier making a couple of phone calls (well actually leaving voice mails) and it looks like it will be a pretty good day, weather wise. I was concerned it might be very foggy this morning, but it looks like it will be ok.
Let’s get up to date on our progress…
We left Killarney about 7 AM on Sunday morning and had a beautiful day as we entered, and then crossed the North Channel. The North Channel is somewhat like the Georgian Bay, except it is not as big, and does not have all of the small islands dotting the northern shore. The route we took had us winding around several of the large islands, and it was neat to navigate these islands, as well see all of the beauty. We weren’t sure how far we would go when we headed out, but it was so pretty and such a beautiful day we just kept going.
We ended up crossing almost the entire North Channel in one day. We picked out a neat cove to stop for the night, and anchor in, but when we got close we decided to go on to the next cove, and get some fuel (89 cents a liter) and stay at a marina. Our final choice was Meldrum Bay, a small bay just off the North Channel itself, and just before a pass that would take us to Lake Huron.
After getting some fuel, and tying up the boat it was time for a dinghy ride, and some exploring the cove we were in.
Side note: Here is a key difference in the way we travel, and the way sail boaters travel. We tie up to the dock. Get the power all set. Make sure the sattalite TV will tune in so we can watch it later. Make a drink, and take a dinghy cruise. Sail boaters head to the back of the cove, drop a hook, let the wind blow them where it will, sit back and read a book. That is why God invented all of these coves.
Anyway…..the four of us ran around the cove for a little bit, but it was pretty boring, so we dropped off the girls, and Terry and I went fishing. As usual, we didn’t catch anything, so in an hour or so we were back at the boat. We did have some bad news though, as we were coming back to the boat we noticed that the position of the boat, in relation to the trees would not allow us to get a satellite signal for the TV. Tough duty, we may have to watch a tape later. Which, after a great dinner of kielbasa that Deb prepared, is exact ally what we did.
Monday…
It rained overnight, and it had not totally left the area when we got up. When we were getting ready to leave it started to mist a little, but we decided to go anyway, and drive from the upper station, rather than from inside. By the time we were out of the cove, it went from misting to raining, and we had to put on our rain gear, and make provisions to keep the charts dry. The further we went, the darker it got, and we found ourselves driving by radar, and charts, because we couldn’t see very far at all.
We needed to get from Meldrum Bay to Lake Huron and then to Lake Michigan. To do this there are three passes that take you from the North Channel to Lake Huron. Two of them are well used by ship traffic, and one is not. We chose the one less traveled, and the one closest to our bay. The good news was it was a little closer; the bad news is you have to travel much more on Lake Huron, and they say it can be a terrible lake. As it turned out the decision was a good one. Lake Huron was definitely different than the North Channel, but not that bad at all.
The further we went on Monday, the worse the weather (or I should say fog) got. We were traveling along on Lake Huron with probably 2 foot seas, but they were almost at our stern, so they were fine, but the fog kept getting thicker and thicker. We were navigating by chart plotter, GPS, and radar, and I so glad we had them because if we didn’t I have no clue what we would have done. If you think about it, without the navigation equipment you would be out in the middle of the lake traveling blind. (By the way there are several people who do this, and this is how they get into trouble)
Speaking of getting into trouble, I’ll give you an example of what can happen. We were cruising along when we noticed a blip on the radar. (About 10 miles away) We both commented it looked like a boat rather than a buoy. (Terry does an excellent job of keeping track of our position so he could tell exactly where we were) The further west we went the bigger the blip got, and we started to really pay attention, because it looked like it could be crossing our path. Well for the next 30 minutes we tracked our progress, and the blips, until it became obvious that we were on a direct collision course if one of us didn’t change our direction. That was an easy decision for us, and so we just slowed down, and as we did, out of the fog appeared this HUGE tanker ship, heading southeast down Lake Huron. We were never in any danger because we were aware of his position at all times, but if we hadn’t been…well you know the rest.
When Lake Huron and Lake Michigan meets are called the Straights of Mackinac. This is where Mackinaw Island is and we had planned to stop there as we went by. Well you may not believe this, but we never saw Mackinaw Island. By the time we got there, the fog was so thick that all we say was the buoy off the tip of the island. This may not seem like such a big deal to read this, but you need to know is that this is a big shipping lane and the channel goes right next to the island, and if we did not have the island of radar, it would have not existed. The other thing we had to contend with was all of the ferry traffic. The ship to shore radio was very busy with all of the ferry traffic reporting there positions, and we were very busy looking at the charts trying to figure out where they said they were at the time they reported their positions.
Well I could go on for a long time about the fog, but let me just say it was the worst I have ever been in. We sort of felt our way along for most of the day, and it really didn’t lift until late in the afternoon, when we made it to Charlevoix. We tied up there about 5 PM after traveling over 130 miles in the rain and fog. It was a very interesting day. It is also a day I will look back on with fond memories.
BK
The North Channel and Upper Michigan
5:10 AM
Tuesday, August 01, 2000
Northwest Marine Yacht Club
Charlevoix, MI.
Day 93
I woke up at 4:15 this morning, had a lot on my mind so I decided to just get up, and get to it. Getting up at this time reminds me of when we first left on our trip last September, and getting up at this time was a normal day. I can still remember those mornings, and I’m sure I will for a long time.
I was outside earlier making a couple of phone calls (well actually leaving voice mails) and it looks like it will be a pretty good day, weather wise. I was concerned it might be very foggy this morning, but it looks like it will be ok.
Let’s get up to date on our progress…
We left Killarney about 7 AM on Sunday morning and had a beautiful day as we entered, and then crossed the North Channel. The North Channel is somewhat like the Georgian Bay, except it is not as big, and does not have all of the small islands dotting the northern shore. The route we took had us winding around several of the large islands, and it was neat to navigate these islands, as well see all of the beauty. We weren’t sure how far we would go when we headed out, but it was so pretty and such a beautiful day we just kept going.
We ended up crossing almost the entire North Channel in one day. We picked out a neat cove to stop for the night, and anchor in, but when we got close we decided to go on to the next cove, and get some fuel (89 cents a liter) and stay at a marina. Our final choice was Meldrum Bay, a small bay just off the North Channel itself, and just before a pass that would take us to Lake Huron.
After getting some fuel, and tying up the boat it was time for a dinghy ride, and some exploring the cove we were in.
Side note: Here is a key difference in the way we travel, and the way sail boaters travel. We tie up to the dock. Get the power all set. Make sure the sattalite TV will tune in so we can watch it later. Make a drink, and take a dinghy cruise. Sail boaters head to the back of the cove, drop a hook, let the wind blow them where it will, sit back and read a book. That is why God invented all of these coves.
Anyway…..the four of us ran around the cove for a little bit, but it was pretty boring, so we dropped off the girls, and Terry and I went fishing. As usual, we didn’t catch anything, so in an hour or so we were back at the boat. We did have some bad news though, as we were coming back to the boat we noticed that the position of the boat, in relation to the trees would not allow us to get a satellite signal for the TV. Tough duty, we may have to watch a tape later. Which, after a great dinner of kielbasa that Deb prepared, is exact ally what we did.
Monday…
It rained overnight, and it had not totally left the area when we got up. When we were getting ready to leave it started to mist a little, but we decided to go anyway, and drive from the upper station, rather than from inside. By the time we were out of the cove, it went from misting to raining, and we had to put on our rain gear, and make provisions to keep the charts dry. The further we went, the darker it got, and we found ourselves driving by radar, and charts, because we couldn’t see very far at all.
We needed to get from Meldrum Bay to Lake Huron and then to Lake Michigan. To do this there are three passes that take you from the North Channel to Lake Huron. Two of them are well used by ship traffic, and one is not. We chose the one less traveled, and the one closest to our bay. The good news was it was a little closer; the bad news is you have to travel much more on Lake Huron, and they say it can be a terrible lake. As it turned out the decision was a good one. Lake Huron was definitely different than the North Channel, but not that bad at all.
The further we went on Monday, the worse the weather (or I should say fog) got. We were traveling along on Lake Huron with probably 2 foot seas, but they were almost at our stern, so they were fine, but the fog kept getting thicker and thicker. We were navigating by chart plotter, GPS, and radar, and I so glad we had them because if we didn’t I have no clue what we would have done. If you think about it, without the navigation equipment you would be out in the middle of the lake traveling blind. (By the way there are several people who do this, and this is how they get into trouble)
Speaking of getting into trouble, I’ll give you an example of what can happen. We were cruising along when we noticed a blip on the radar. (About 10 miles away) We both commented it looked like a boat rather than a buoy. (Terry does an excellent job of keeping track of our position so he could tell exactly where we were) The further west we went the bigger the blip got, and we started to really pay attention, because it looked like it could be crossing our path. Well for the next 30 minutes we tracked our progress, and the blips, until it became obvious that we were on a direct collision course if one of us didn’t change our direction. That was an easy decision for us, and so we just slowed down, and as we did, out of the fog appeared this HUGE tanker ship, heading southeast down Lake Huron. We were never in any danger because we were aware of his position at all times, but if we hadn’t been…well you know the rest.
When Lake Huron and Lake Michigan meets are called the Straights of Mackinac. This is where Mackinaw Island is and we had planned to stop there as we went by. Well you may not believe this, but we never saw Mackinaw Island. By the time we got there, the fog was so thick that all we say was the buoy off the tip of the island. This may not seem like such a big deal to read this, but you need to know is that this is a big shipping lane and the channel goes right next to the island, and if we did not have the island of radar, it would have not existed. The other thing we had to contend with was all of the ferry traffic. The ship to shore radio was very busy with all of the ferry traffic reporting there positions, and we were very busy looking at the charts trying to figure out where they said they were at the time they reported their positions.
Well I could go on for a long time about the fog, but let me just say it was the worst I have ever been in. We sort of felt our way along for most of the day, and it really didn’t lift until late in the afternoon, when we made it to Charlevoix. We tied up there about 5 PM after traveling over 130 miles in the rain and fog. It was a very interesting day. It is also a day I will look back on with fond memories.
BK
Sunday, July 30, 2000
Chapter 72: Crossing the Georgian Bay
Log 72
Crossing the Georgian Bay
6:00 AM
Sunday, July 30, 2000
Killarney Mountain Lodge
Killarney, Ontario
Day 91
I’m watching the weather channel this morning, and I can’t believe our luck with the weather on this trip. I just seems like wherever we are at, it’s nice. I’m not sure if this will last the final week, but if not we will have still had awesome weather. (Today is day 91, and I’ll be we have not had bad weather for over 5 days the entire trip)
Today the weather is forecast to be mostly sunny, and about 80. Perfect.
Speaking of perfect, that would sum up the day yesterday. We woke up to a partly cloudy morning, with a light breeze from the east. Terry and I walked over to a small café they had at the marina, and had a large breakfast. It was good to do that, since that was the first time on the entire trip I have taken the time.
We untied our lines at about 8, because we had a lock to go through, and they didn’t open until 8:30, and we wanted to be their first customer, which we were. In fact they even opened a little early, and by 8:40 we were out of the lock, and heading into the Georgian Bay.
Getting into the main part of the bay was a little bit of a navigating chore. The channel wound around rocks in narrow channels, and then around both small and big islands, before we could set out course for the far west side of the Bay, and Killarney. Once clear of the obstacles, we set a course of 322 degrees toward the beacon light at the east entrance to Killarney. (About 100 miles from Port Severn)
The trip across was uneventful, and almost boring. The girls slept part of the way because their Dramamine was kicking in. Terry and I worked on the charts, and basically navigated our way across. I also ran the boat pretty hard coming across. First to get there faster, and also to give it a good workout after having to go slow, and idle all of those hours in the Erie Canal, and the Trent-Severn. (Man it just sounds great to be able to say we have done all of this)
At about 2:30 we entered the mouth of the Killarney Cut, a narrow channel that leads to Killarney Bay, and will get you to the North Channel. We stopped to get fuel (76 cents Canadian for a liter) and then tied up at our slip by 3:30. After a quick clean up we put the dinghy in the water, and explored the channel, and the Killarney Bay. This is really a neat area. The water is crystal clear, and the banks of the water are solid, large red rocks. It makes for some awesome beauty, which I have only seen on a post card, or The Discovery Channel.
For dinner we decided to walk down the channel (Think of this as a channel with boats on both sides, and town on both sides. There are water taxis running around, and in general it has the setting and the feeling of a party area..Which last night it was) for some dinner at a place we checked out while we were on our dinghy ride. The walk, the dinner, and the whole dam thing turned out to be great. It was an absolutely perfect night. Clear and about 75 degrees. (I’m sure they don’t have but a handful of these days here each year) After dinner we took the slow walk back to the boat, and Terry and I looked at the charts for a little bit, while Jeannie checked out what was on the TV, and Deb (I promise this is true) went fishing. (Don’t ask me why…. Maybe she is going through a mid life change)
Bottom line of yesterday…PERFECT!
I’ll keep you posted.
BK
Two other things happened yesterday. My chart plotter quit, and we had to use my small handheld to guide us in. (Which it did with no problem)
And Deb dropped her new digital camera in the sink, (Which happened to have water in at the time) and we still don’t know if it will work or not.
Still a (near) perfect day.
Crossing the Georgian Bay
6:00 AM
Sunday, July 30, 2000
Killarney Mountain Lodge
Killarney, Ontario
Day 91
I’m watching the weather channel this morning, and I can’t believe our luck with the weather on this trip. I just seems like wherever we are at, it’s nice. I’m not sure if this will last the final week, but if not we will have still had awesome weather. (Today is day 91, and I’ll be we have not had bad weather for over 5 days the entire trip)
Today the weather is forecast to be mostly sunny, and about 80. Perfect.
Speaking of perfect, that would sum up the day yesterday. We woke up to a partly cloudy morning, with a light breeze from the east. Terry and I walked over to a small café they had at the marina, and had a large breakfast. It was good to do that, since that was the first time on the entire trip I have taken the time.
We untied our lines at about 8, because we had a lock to go through, and they didn’t open until 8:30, and we wanted to be their first customer, which we were. In fact they even opened a little early, and by 8:40 we were out of the lock, and heading into the Georgian Bay.
Getting into the main part of the bay was a little bit of a navigating chore. The channel wound around rocks in narrow channels, and then around both small and big islands, before we could set out course for the far west side of the Bay, and Killarney. Once clear of the obstacles, we set a course of 322 degrees toward the beacon light at the east entrance to Killarney. (About 100 miles from Port Severn)
The trip across was uneventful, and almost boring. The girls slept part of the way because their Dramamine was kicking in. Terry and I worked on the charts, and basically navigated our way across. I also ran the boat pretty hard coming across. First to get there faster, and also to give it a good workout after having to go slow, and idle all of those hours in the Erie Canal, and the Trent-Severn. (Man it just sounds great to be able to say we have done all of this)
At about 2:30 we entered the mouth of the Killarney Cut, a narrow channel that leads to Killarney Bay, and will get you to the North Channel. We stopped to get fuel (76 cents Canadian for a liter) and then tied up at our slip by 3:30. After a quick clean up we put the dinghy in the water, and explored the channel, and the Killarney Bay. This is really a neat area. The water is crystal clear, and the banks of the water are solid, large red rocks. It makes for some awesome beauty, which I have only seen on a post card, or The Discovery Channel.
For dinner we decided to walk down the channel (Think of this as a channel with boats on both sides, and town on both sides. There are water taxis running around, and in general it has the setting and the feeling of a party area..Which last night it was) for some dinner at a place we checked out while we were on our dinghy ride. The walk, the dinner, and the whole dam thing turned out to be great. It was an absolutely perfect night. Clear and about 75 degrees. (I’m sure they don’t have but a handful of these days here each year) After dinner we took the slow walk back to the boat, and Terry and I looked at the charts for a little bit, while Jeannie checked out what was on the TV, and Deb (I promise this is true) went fishing. (Don’t ask me why…. Maybe she is going through a mid life change)
Bottom line of yesterday…PERFECT!
I’ll keep you posted.
BK
Two other things happened yesterday. My chart plotter quit, and we had to use my small handheld to guide us in. (Which it did with no problem)
And Deb dropped her new digital camera in the sink, (Which happened to have water in at the time) and we still don’t know if it will work or not.
Still a (near) perfect day.
Saturday, July 29, 2000
Chapter 71: Port Severn
Log 71
Port Severn
6:00 AM
Saturday, July 29, 2000
Driftwood Cove Marina
Port Severn, Ontario
Day 90
If you look at a map of the US, (or if you’re watching the weather channel) and you look at the body of water in the chain of Great Lakes that is the farthest to the north, and east, (above the NE corner of Lake Huron) that is the Georgian Bay, and if you look at the far east tip of that Bay, that’s where we are. (It looks kind of like the spike at the far east side) That is the point where the Trent-Severn meets the Georgian Bay. (At Port Severn) If you look a little closer and head west on the Bay you will see a point where the land comes so close it almost touches. That point is called Killarney, and that’s where we hope to be tonight.
Well the chapter of our repairs is over. The boat runs great again, but it was definately an interesting, and very expensive experience. Expense wise we had to pay for the lifting and replacing the prop. (8.90 Canadian $ per foot to lift it, and 8.90 per foot to put it back in the water) Having the Detroit guy come out to tell us that the shutdown had tripped. (Not covered by warranty) And then the cost to fix the prop. (I think I could have bought a new one in the US for less) But Deb says, “we’ll worry about that stuff when the trip is over”, and Terry says, “Hey you had to figure something like that would happen on a trip like this, and it did”. Jeanie…she just smiles and says. “That’s a lot of money isn’t it?” All that said the people at the marina were absolutely fantastic. If we ever could have chosen a place to break down, that would be the place. We will talk about them for some time to come.
Getting here yesterday was a real neat trip. We knew that we had to wait for our prop to be delivered before we could leave (they promised us it would be there by noon) so in the morning Terry and I went fishing again for an hour or so. No luck. I never even got a hit, and I think Terry only had one. (And I question whether that was a hit, or he got caught in the weeds for a second…Donnie, and Les…you know what I mean don’t you?) After fishing we spent some time cleaning the boat. Jeanie and Deb cleaned and vacuumed the inside while Terry and I handled the outside. It still doesn’t look as good as Steve Larry and Darrell kept it, but we’re getting there. (Terry is a huge help around the boat, but his real strength is reading the charts) While we waited, we also topped off the water and fuel, and got a pump out. By noon we were on our way.
I have definitely got a different appreciation for the Trent-Severn the last couple of days. If you ever want to visit this area by boat, or land I recommend the most western part. The waters we were in yesterday we just awesome. I told Deb that, as many pictures as she was taking people still wouldn’t have the feeling of the beauty. It is a very neat boating experience. Why? If you have ever seen “On Golden Pond” you have a sense of it, but the real neat part, from a boating standpoint, is winding your way around these islands, and narrow channels (some are only a little wider than our boat, with huge rocks on both sides of the channel) that connect these small lakes. There are hundreds of very small islands, most of them with a house on them, and you know that people come here to spend their summers. On one hand it is very isolated, on the other you can get to anywhere on your boat (there are lots of classic wooden ones sitting in the boat houses) in just a few minutes. We saw a teenage girl go by us with a couple of smaller kids in a 15 foot aluminum boat with a 15 hp motor on it, and Jeanie said, “it’s probably a babysitter taking the kids back home”. This is a really neat place.
Before I close this I need to answer a couple of e-mails;
· Allan..Happy Birthday a few days ago. I remembered it, but I forgot to say anything.
· Mando..thanks for the note a few days ago. Yes we are looking forward to get back too, and enjoying a day at Blue Lagoon.
· Randy, and Dennis. I’m not sure why you didn’t get log #66, but it is strange that when this happens it always happens to the two of you. (Or maybe you are always the only ones who say anything) Whatever..I hope you got it when I resent it.
· Skip..Thanks for the notes. I’m glad to see you’re doing well. Yes Freidhelm is an interesting guy. You’ll come to like him.
· Barb..Thanks for the message, I’ll do my best to describe the areas as we go. By the way Deb wants to know who was voted off the island last Wednesday. (Hey she can’t lose touch with the real world)
· Hokie…How was the reunion on Saturday? Deb is wondering how I planned a week to be gone so we had to miss that.
I’ll keep you posted.
BK
Port Severn
6:00 AM
Saturday, July 29, 2000
Driftwood Cove Marina
Port Severn, Ontario
Day 90
If you look at a map of the US, (or if you’re watching the weather channel) and you look at the body of water in the chain of Great Lakes that is the farthest to the north, and east, (above the NE corner of Lake Huron) that is the Georgian Bay, and if you look at the far east tip of that Bay, that’s where we are. (It looks kind of like the spike at the far east side) That is the point where the Trent-Severn meets the Georgian Bay. (At Port Severn) If you look a little closer and head west on the Bay you will see a point where the land comes so close it almost touches. That point is called Killarney, and that’s where we hope to be tonight.
Well the chapter of our repairs is over. The boat runs great again, but it was definately an interesting, and very expensive experience. Expense wise we had to pay for the lifting and replacing the prop. (8.90 Canadian $ per foot to lift it, and 8.90 per foot to put it back in the water) Having the Detroit guy come out to tell us that the shutdown had tripped. (Not covered by warranty) And then the cost to fix the prop. (I think I could have bought a new one in the US for less) But Deb says, “we’ll worry about that stuff when the trip is over”, and Terry says, “Hey you had to figure something like that would happen on a trip like this, and it did”. Jeanie…she just smiles and says. “That’s a lot of money isn’t it?” All that said the people at the marina were absolutely fantastic. If we ever could have chosen a place to break down, that would be the place. We will talk about them for some time to come.
Getting here yesterday was a real neat trip. We knew that we had to wait for our prop to be delivered before we could leave (they promised us it would be there by noon) so in the morning Terry and I went fishing again for an hour or so. No luck. I never even got a hit, and I think Terry only had one. (And I question whether that was a hit, or he got caught in the weeds for a second…Donnie, and Les…you know what I mean don’t you?) After fishing we spent some time cleaning the boat. Jeanie and Deb cleaned and vacuumed the inside while Terry and I handled the outside. It still doesn’t look as good as Steve Larry and Darrell kept it, but we’re getting there. (Terry is a huge help around the boat, but his real strength is reading the charts) While we waited, we also topped off the water and fuel, and got a pump out. By noon we were on our way.
I have definitely got a different appreciation for the Trent-Severn the last couple of days. If you ever want to visit this area by boat, or land I recommend the most western part. The waters we were in yesterday we just awesome. I told Deb that, as many pictures as she was taking people still wouldn’t have the feeling of the beauty. It is a very neat boating experience. Why? If you have ever seen “On Golden Pond” you have a sense of it, but the real neat part, from a boating standpoint, is winding your way around these islands, and narrow channels (some are only a little wider than our boat, with huge rocks on both sides of the channel) that connect these small lakes. There are hundreds of very small islands, most of them with a house on them, and you know that people come here to spend their summers. On one hand it is very isolated, on the other you can get to anywhere on your boat (there are lots of classic wooden ones sitting in the boat houses) in just a few minutes. We saw a teenage girl go by us with a couple of smaller kids in a 15 foot aluminum boat with a 15 hp motor on it, and Jeanie said, “it’s probably a babysitter taking the kids back home”. This is a really neat place.
Before I close this I need to answer a couple of e-mails;
· Allan..Happy Birthday a few days ago. I remembered it, but I forgot to say anything.
· Mando..thanks for the note a few days ago. Yes we are looking forward to get back too, and enjoying a day at Blue Lagoon.
· Randy, and Dennis. I’m not sure why you didn’t get log #66, but it is strange that when this happens it always happens to the two of you. (Or maybe you are always the only ones who say anything) Whatever..I hope you got it when I resent it.
· Skip..Thanks for the notes. I’m glad to see you’re doing well. Yes Freidhelm is an interesting guy. You’ll come to like him.
· Barb..Thanks for the message, I’ll do my best to describe the areas as we go. By the way Deb wants to know who was voted off the island last Wednesday. (Hey she can’t lose touch with the real world)
· Hokie…How was the reunion on Saturday? Deb is wondering how I planned a week to be gone so we had to miss that.
I’ll keep you posted.
BK
Thursday, July 27, 2000
Chapter 70: Trouble in Trent
Log 70
Troubles on the Trent
6:30 AM
Thursday, July 27, 2000
Starport Landing
Day 88
I don’t have a lot of time this morning, but I did want to get a few things in a log.
It was a very interesting day on the Trent yesterday.
The morning started out near perfect, with a pretty sky, and the promise of a great day of cruising. We pulled anchor in Deer Bay about 8, after we cleaned all of the bugs off the boat that had accumulated the night before. (I had to leave the anchor light on all night, and being in the middle of a cove these bugs must have said, “hey look…a light, let’s go over there, and then die” because the boat was covered)
Terry and I had discussed our plans for the day several times, and we were trying to make some time to be able to spend more time in the Georgian Bay when we get there. Our thoughts were to get through lock 41, and to Lake Simcoe, the largest lake on the Trent-Severn.
The first few locks were ok, but going a little slow, so we knew we were going to be tight on time, so we decided any time we had open water we would go as fast as we could, to make up some time. This worked out great as we blasted across a couple of the smaller lakes, and things were looking good.
Then the problems began.
We were coming out of a lock and getting ready to enter what the books says is a very narrow channel, and to be very cautious. We went through there with no problem, and even commented on how all of these “caution areas” were not really any big deal; you just had to pay attention. Shortly after that we entered a fairly large lake, and as planned we were going to go fast. We were out in the middle of this lake, in the channel, so I pushed the throttles forward, and all of a sudden “BAM” the props hit something. HARD!
I knew immediately we had a problem, it was just a matter of how big of a problem. I went in the engine room to have a look, and the port engine was vibrating pretty bad, and the generator sitting on the port side was vibrating as well, so I assumed we had hit the port prop. The starboard side seemed ok, but we wouldn’t be able to tell until we get a look at it.
For the next few hours we worked to try to find a place to pull the boat, and change the props. (The good news is I have a new set that I carry with me just for these kinds of emergencies) As it turned out, the best place to get this done was the place we were heading to in the first place. Starport Landing Marina, on Lake Simcoe. The only problem now was that we couldn’t go fast anymore, and so the day would be longer.
The next problem (problems) occurred as we were going down what they call the Trent Canal. This is a man made canal that connects a couple of lakes to help form the Trent-Severn. They report the depth to be over 5 feet, but they are wrong. In a stretch of waterway about 3 to 4 miles long we hit at least 3 times, and the problem is these hits are not like at home where you stir up some mud, the boat lerches a little, and you say we just hit bottom. This entire area is solid rock, so when you hit bottom here, you are hitting rocks.
By now I just want to be done for the day. I know I will probably have to put on both props, and I just wanted to be tied up to a marina for the night, and get this thing done. Time wise, we were not doing to well either. We still had several locks to go, and it was getting to be about 4:30.
All during this time I had several conversations with the marina, just to let them know our time frame, and make sure we had a place to tie up, and they could get to us first thing in the morning. Which they said “no problem” to both of these requests. Things had been better, but we were fine, we just needed to get this chapter behind us.
We came out of lock 41 and into Lake Simcoe about 7PM. Based on our calculations we should be at the marina by 7:40, and the marina was open until 8. Then came problem number, I don’t know, 3 or 4. We were just going along, and the port engine stopped. Dead. No power. The computer display beeped a warning, and the read, “code 338 tach signal loss”. Who know what that means? I didn’t, and so I tried everything I knew to get the engine to go again, but with no success.
Soooooooo now we only have one engine. We recalculate our arrival time, and called the marina. This time we were close enough to call on the ship to shore radio, and tell them our problem, and that we would be later than planned, so they should go home, and we would see them in the morning.
4:45 PM
Same day
Same place
Sorry, I was pulled away for 9 hours, to fix the boat.
So here we were limping along with one engine, trying to keep the boat straight. The sun was going down at a high rate of speed, and I’m trying to decide how I was going to get Headquarters in a slip. Just then we got a call from the marina on the VHF. They wanted to know are position, and said they would be there on the dock to catch our lines when we got there. Knowing that helped with at least one of our problems.
Well we made it in, without crashing the dock, and at least we were tied to something. The next hour was spent trying to get power to the boat. To explain all that went on would take too long, and probably not be funny (unless you were there) but trust, me it was a treat. The one thing I will say though is that this is probably the friendliest marina we have ever been to. Ever.
Earlier in the day, Deb figured out that we would be late getting in so she decided to cook some enchiladas for dinner, (which she did as we went through the locks) but she needed to finish them in the oven. Well we finally had power to the boat, but it was not adequate for running all we needed so, we had no more than turned on the oven, and the stove, and the circuit breaker “broke”. Now we had no power, unless we ran the generator. (The marina was now closed, and we couldn’t get to the circuit breakers) We ran the generator to get us through dinner, but there was some good news. While we were finally eating dinner (at 10:30) we saw the lady who owns the marina going into the office, so I went and found her, and ask her to open the door to the circuit breakers. (I knew where it was because of all the time we had spent earlier trying to get power) She was only happy to do so, and as soon as I got to the breaker panel I saw which one was “broke” and I “flipped it”. Wha-la…power! We were back in business, and we could turn the generator off, and sleep for the night.
Which we did.
The first thing I did this morning (after writing the beginning part of this log…hey they don’t open until 7…eastern) was to call the engineers at Detroit to ask them about the boat, and what could have happened. The engineer asked me if I had checked the emergency shut down. Which I told him no, I don’t know where it is. Well he said when the mechanic gets on board have them check this to see if that could be the problem. (If we get one to come, I’ll do that)
The owner of the marina (Freeman) and his entire staff are the most helpful people you could ever imagine. When they opened this morning (8:30) he was standing beside my boat and telling me what he had already done. Without even being asked, he was contacting the local Detroit dealer to see how soon they could get here, and they were getting the lift ready to pull my boat, and check out the prop. I like this place!
With only one engine, the trip from the fuel dock, where we were docked, to the boat hoist was an adventure, but we made it without hitting anything. When I saw the lift I could tell they were not used to pulling this size of boat, and I wasn’t sure if it would do it or not, but it did. Once the boat was in the air it confirmed my thoughts, and we could see the port prop was heavily damaged. The starboard prop looked good, so we decided to just change the port one, and put it back in the water. While this was going on I was on the phone with Detroit, and had arranged for the mechanic to come to the boat late in the afternoon.
With the boat back in the water, and the mechanic on his way, but not until later, we decided to take a dinghy ride to see some of the lake. We found a sandy beach not to far away so we stopped there, and got in the water for a while, and just enjoyed the afternoon. The weather, again, was perfect. (We have had nothing but perfect weather since we left Syracuse last Saturday, and they tell us this has been the nicest days of the summer)
6:15 AM
Friday, July 28, 2000
Day 89
We had just finished dinner, when the mechanic got on board about 7:30 PM, last night. After determining that they had given him the wrong connection for the engine computers, he started looking around to see if he could tell what the problem might be. As he was doing this, I mentioned to him what the Detroit engineer had said, so he looked at the shut down to see if anything was wrong. Guess what? It was tripped, and once he reset it the engine fired just fine. We talked for a while about how, or why this happened. He asked us if the water was rough, because maybe that had jarred the trip loose. After a lot of discussion the only thing we could figure is that 1) this could just be a fluke (and that would be under warranty) or 2) maybe hitting the prop that hard could have caused the problem. (Which means I would have to pay for the service call) He said he did not make that decision, that would be up to Brian, his service manager. (Can you guess who I’ll be on the phone with first thing this morning)?
The bottom line of where we are at this point is that we have lost about 1-½ days of travel time, but if the weather will cooperate with us we should still be able to still get back to the marina on Saturday, August 5th. When I figured out the travel plan for this leg I built in a couple extra days for weather, and we have now used them for repairs, so we’ll just have to see how we do. What it also might mean is that some of the special places I wanted to stop at we have to bypass. Oh well.
Today…
Another beautiful morning, but there is a chance of rain later.
Now that everything is running normal again, we are ready to go, but we have to wait for the prop to be repaired so we can leave. The prop shop told us they would have it back by noon, so we should be out of here very shortly after that. Our plan is to try to get to the end of the Trent-Severn today, and at the mouth of the Georgian Bay. It is fairly aggressive to think we can do this but we’ll see how we do.
I’ll keep you posted.
BK
Troubles on the Trent
6:30 AM
Thursday, July 27, 2000
Starport Landing
Day 88
I don’t have a lot of time this morning, but I did want to get a few things in a log.
It was a very interesting day on the Trent yesterday.
The morning started out near perfect, with a pretty sky, and the promise of a great day of cruising. We pulled anchor in Deer Bay about 8, after we cleaned all of the bugs off the boat that had accumulated the night before. (I had to leave the anchor light on all night, and being in the middle of a cove these bugs must have said, “hey look…a light, let’s go over there, and then die” because the boat was covered)
Terry and I had discussed our plans for the day several times, and we were trying to make some time to be able to spend more time in the Georgian Bay when we get there. Our thoughts were to get through lock 41, and to Lake Simcoe, the largest lake on the Trent-Severn.
The first few locks were ok, but going a little slow, so we knew we were going to be tight on time, so we decided any time we had open water we would go as fast as we could, to make up some time. This worked out great as we blasted across a couple of the smaller lakes, and things were looking good.
Then the problems began.
We were coming out of a lock and getting ready to enter what the books says is a very narrow channel, and to be very cautious. We went through there with no problem, and even commented on how all of these “caution areas” were not really any big deal; you just had to pay attention. Shortly after that we entered a fairly large lake, and as planned we were going to go fast. We were out in the middle of this lake, in the channel, so I pushed the throttles forward, and all of a sudden “BAM” the props hit something. HARD!
I knew immediately we had a problem, it was just a matter of how big of a problem. I went in the engine room to have a look, and the port engine was vibrating pretty bad, and the generator sitting on the port side was vibrating as well, so I assumed we had hit the port prop. The starboard side seemed ok, but we wouldn’t be able to tell until we get a look at it.
For the next few hours we worked to try to find a place to pull the boat, and change the props. (The good news is I have a new set that I carry with me just for these kinds of emergencies) As it turned out, the best place to get this done was the place we were heading to in the first place. Starport Landing Marina, on Lake Simcoe. The only problem now was that we couldn’t go fast anymore, and so the day would be longer.
The next problem (problems) occurred as we were going down what they call the Trent Canal. This is a man made canal that connects a couple of lakes to help form the Trent-Severn. They report the depth to be over 5 feet, but they are wrong. In a stretch of waterway about 3 to 4 miles long we hit at least 3 times, and the problem is these hits are not like at home where you stir up some mud, the boat lerches a little, and you say we just hit bottom. This entire area is solid rock, so when you hit bottom here, you are hitting rocks.
By now I just want to be done for the day. I know I will probably have to put on both props, and I just wanted to be tied up to a marina for the night, and get this thing done. Time wise, we were not doing to well either. We still had several locks to go, and it was getting to be about 4:30.
All during this time I had several conversations with the marina, just to let them know our time frame, and make sure we had a place to tie up, and they could get to us first thing in the morning. Which they said “no problem” to both of these requests. Things had been better, but we were fine, we just needed to get this chapter behind us.
We came out of lock 41 and into Lake Simcoe about 7PM. Based on our calculations we should be at the marina by 7:40, and the marina was open until 8. Then came problem number, I don’t know, 3 or 4. We were just going along, and the port engine stopped. Dead. No power. The computer display beeped a warning, and the read, “code 338 tach signal loss”. Who know what that means? I didn’t, and so I tried everything I knew to get the engine to go again, but with no success.
Soooooooo now we only have one engine. We recalculate our arrival time, and called the marina. This time we were close enough to call on the ship to shore radio, and tell them our problem, and that we would be later than planned, so they should go home, and we would see them in the morning.
4:45 PM
Same day
Same place
Sorry, I was pulled away for 9 hours, to fix the boat.
So here we were limping along with one engine, trying to keep the boat straight. The sun was going down at a high rate of speed, and I’m trying to decide how I was going to get Headquarters in a slip. Just then we got a call from the marina on the VHF. They wanted to know are position, and said they would be there on the dock to catch our lines when we got there. Knowing that helped with at least one of our problems.
Well we made it in, without crashing the dock, and at least we were tied to something. The next hour was spent trying to get power to the boat. To explain all that went on would take too long, and probably not be funny (unless you were there) but trust, me it was a treat. The one thing I will say though is that this is probably the friendliest marina we have ever been to. Ever.
Earlier in the day, Deb figured out that we would be late getting in so she decided to cook some enchiladas for dinner, (which she did as we went through the locks) but she needed to finish them in the oven. Well we finally had power to the boat, but it was not adequate for running all we needed so, we had no more than turned on the oven, and the stove, and the circuit breaker “broke”. Now we had no power, unless we ran the generator. (The marina was now closed, and we couldn’t get to the circuit breakers) We ran the generator to get us through dinner, but there was some good news. While we were finally eating dinner (at 10:30) we saw the lady who owns the marina going into the office, so I went and found her, and ask her to open the door to the circuit breakers. (I knew where it was because of all the time we had spent earlier trying to get power) She was only happy to do so, and as soon as I got to the breaker panel I saw which one was “broke” and I “flipped it”. Wha-la…power! We were back in business, and we could turn the generator off, and sleep for the night.
Which we did.
The first thing I did this morning (after writing the beginning part of this log…hey they don’t open until 7…eastern) was to call the engineers at Detroit to ask them about the boat, and what could have happened. The engineer asked me if I had checked the emergency shut down. Which I told him no, I don’t know where it is. Well he said when the mechanic gets on board have them check this to see if that could be the problem. (If we get one to come, I’ll do that)
The owner of the marina (Freeman) and his entire staff are the most helpful people you could ever imagine. When they opened this morning (8:30) he was standing beside my boat and telling me what he had already done. Without even being asked, he was contacting the local Detroit dealer to see how soon they could get here, and they were getting the lift ready to pull my boat, and check out the prop. I like this place!
With only one engine, the trip from the fuel dock, where we were docked, to the boat hoist was an adventure, but we made it without hitting anything. When I saw the lift I could tell they were not used to pulling this size of boat, and I wasn’t sure if it would do it or not, but it did. Once the boat was in the air it confirmed my thoughts, and we could see the port prop was heavily damaged. The starboard prop looked good, so we decided to just change the port one, and put it back in the water. While this was going on I was on the phone with Detroit, and had arranged for the mechanic to come to the boat late in the afternoon.
With the boat back in the water, and the mechanic on his way, but not until later, we decided to take a dinghy ride to see some of the lake. We found a sandy beach not to far away so we stopped there, and got in the water for a while, and just enjoyed the afternoon. The weather, again, was perfect. (We have had nothing but perfect weather since we left Syracuse last Saturday, and they tell us this has been the nicest days of the summer)
6:15 AM
Friday, July 28, 2000
Day 89
We had just finished dinner, when the mechanic got on board about 7:30 PM, last night. After determining that they had given him the wrong connection for the engine computers, he started looking around to see if he could tell what the problem might be. As he was doing this, I mentioned to him what the Detroit engineer had said, so he looked at the shut down to see if anything was wrong. Guess what? It was tripped, and once he reset it the engine fired just fine. We talked for a while about how, or why this happened. He asked us if the water was rough, because maybe that had jarred the trip loose. After a lot of discussion the only thing we could figure is that 1) this could just be a fluke (and that would be under warranty) or 2) maybe hitting the prop that hard could have caused the problem. (Which means I would have to pay for the service call) He said he did not make that decision, that would be up to Brian, his service manager. (Can you guess who I’ll be on the phone with first thing this morning)?
The bottom line of where we are at this point is that we have lost about 1-½ days of travel time, but if the weather will cooperate with us we should still be able to still get back to the marina on Saturday, August 5th. When I figured out the travel plan for this leg I built in a couple extra days for weather, and we have now used them for repairs, so we’ll just have to see how we do. What it also might mean is that some of the special places I wanted to stop at we have to bypass. Oh well.
Today…
Another beautiful morning, but there is a chance of rain later.
Now that everything is running normal again, we are ready to go, but we have to wait for the prop to be repaired so we can leave. The prop shop told us they would have it back by noon, so we should be out of here very shortly after that. Our plan is to try to get to the end of the Trent-Severn today, and at the mouth of the Georgian Bay. It is fairly aggressive to think we can do this but we’ll see how we do.
I’ll keep you posted.
BK
Wednesday, July 26, 2000
Chapter 69: Still on the Trent-Severn
Log 69
Still on the Trent-Severn
5:30 AM
Wednesday, July 26, 2000
Deer Bay
Day 87
Ok I think I spoke to soon. I was saying that the Trent-Severn reminded me (actually all of us) of the Illinois River. Well in places is did, and still does, but for the last couple of days it has changed dramatically, and it’s now living up to its reputation of “natures gift to boaters”.
The first part of the Trent-Severn is like weeds connected by water, and locks. It was unbelievable. I have been cleaning out my engine strainers 3 times a day because they get all clogged up, and I’m afraid the engines will overheat. In many places it is like a driveway down a narrow channel of weeds. I’m not talking about weeds on the side of the channel; I’m talking about weeds in the water, and under the water. The water is very clear, so they must be able to grow because they can get light, but they are definitely a nuisance.
We have gone through 30 locks now, in a little over 115 miles. Most of the locks are easy, and most of them expect you when you get there, because the last lockmaster called ahead and told them you were coming. They average between 9 feet lift to 30 feet so far, but the most dramatic was the one at Peterborough. It is a little hard to describe but I’ll try. Picture two huge metal tubs of water sitting side by side, with a tower in the middle of them. One is 65 feet in the air, at the level of the water above, and the other is in the water below. As you approach the lock they lower the gate on the lower one so we can drive in. As we did this you could see a boat driving in the huge tub of water above. Once we got in you tie the boat to a rail, so it won’t move. The next thing that happens is they lift the gates to keep the water in, and you are now floating in a tub of water. In order to raise the lower one, they fill the tub on top with enough water to make it heavier than the lower one, and all of a sudden we start to rise in the air, while floating in this tub of water. Half way to the top you pass the other tub on the way down, and in about 2 to 3 minutes you are on top. 65 feet higher than you were. They open the front gate, and you drive out of the tub, and into the river above. Amazing. Terry and I were saying could you imagine the guy who first thought about designing that thing. People were saying, “You want to do WHAT?”
One of the things that you notice here is how friendly everyone is. I mean everyone. They seem happy to see you, and all to happy to help if they can. The lockmasters are all smiling, and they make locking through easy, and a pleasure. (We should transfer a few of these to the Illinois locks) Most of the locks have two people in them. One is full time, and the other is usually a student just working for the summer. Oh yea. I forgot to tell you, most all of the lock doors are operated manually. They are huge wooden doors with an arm on them that has teeth on it. This arm is then connected to, and through, the side of lock. This arm is then connected to a gear that fits into these teeth, and when the gear is turned it moves the arm back and forth. So…..if the lockmaster wants the doors opened two people (one on each side) grab these pipes (which are attached to the gears) sticking out of the ground, and push these pipes as they walk around in circles. Which turns the gear, which makes the teeth move the arm, which opens the doors. Does this make any sense? (It takes an average of 12 complete circles to open a door) These folks are doing all of this work, and still smiling.
Starting yesterday morning the scenery on the Trent-Severn seemed to change, and by afternoon is was dramatically different, and some of the neatest waters I have ever been in. The channel winds around hundreds of islands as it makes its way between the locks. If you have ever seen “On Golden Pond” you have an idea of what we are seeing, but with a lot more islands. Most of these islands are very small, and most have houses on them. It is amazing to see these homes, and trying to figure out how in the world they built them. In some cases the home takes up the entire island. All you see is a home built on a rock, with a garage built on the water for the boat. And as I say the channel winds it’s way through these, and in some cases between two islands that are no more than a couple of boat widths wide.
The weather has been near perfect. When we got on the boat last Friday evening, a storm has just passed through, and it turned clear, and sunny. It has been that way ever since. The early mornings are a little cool, (mid 50’s) but without any clouds, when the sun comes up it warms things up in a hurry. We normally start the day out with the bimini top down, and by mid day we need to put it up because it is too hot.
This morning we are anchored in Deer Bay. It is a beautiful medium sized bay just off of the main channel. We got here about 5:30 last night. As soon as we did, everyone (except me) went swimming, and used the bay to take a bath in. After that we all took a dinghy ride to explore the bay, and then Terry and I then took the dinghy to try to find Walter. (Remember the fish in “On Golden Pond”?) After a lot of casting, and only one small bass, we came back to the boat for some dinner, and a quite evening of relaxing as we gently swung around on our anchor line.
Today…
We need to head out of here about 7:45 because the locks open at 8:30. We will try to get as far as we can, but it is hard to judge just how far that will be. We usually don’t even make plans for the night until after lunch sometime because you just can’t tell.
The weather looks like it will be great today, but then we may be in for some rain the next couple of days.
I’ll keep you posted…
BK
Still on the Trent-Severn
5:30 AM
Wednesday, July 26, 2000
Deer Bay
Day 87
Ok I think I spoke to soon. I was saying that the Trent-Severn reminded me (actually all of us) of the Illinois River. Well in places is did, and still does, but for the last couple of days it has changed dramatically, and it’s now living up to its reputation of “natures gift to boaters”.
The first part of the Trent-Severn is like weeds connected by water, and locks. It was unbelievable. I have been cleaning out my engine strainers 3 times a day because they get all clogged up, and I’m afraid the engines will overheat. In many places it is like a driveway down a narrow channel of weeds. I’m not talking about weeds on the side of the channel; I’m talking about weeds in the water, and under the water. The water is very clear, so they must be able to grow because they can get light, but they are definitely a nuisance.
We have gone through 30 locks now, in a little over 115 miles. Most of the locks are easy, and most of them expect you when you get there, because the last lockmaster called ahead and told them you were coming. They average between 9 feet lift to 30 feet so far, but the most dramatic was the one at Peterborough. It is a little hard to describe but I’ll try. Picture two huge metal tubs of water sitting side by side, with a tower in the middle of them. One is 65 feet in the air, at the level of the water above, and the other is in the water below. As you approach the lock they lower the gate on the lower one so we can drive in. As we did this you could see a boat driving in the huge tub of water above. Once we got in you tie the boat to a rail, so it won’t move. The next thing that happens is they lift the gates to keep the water in, and you are now floating in a tub of water. In order to raise the lower one, they fill the tub on top with enough water to make it heavier than the lower one, and all of a sudden we start to rise in the air, while floating in this tub of water. Half way to the top you pass the other tub on the way down, and in about 2 to 3 minutes you are on top. 65 feet higher than you were. They open the front gate, and you drive out of the tub, and into the river above. Amazing. Terry and I were saying could you imagine the guy who first thought about designing that thing. People were saying, “You want to do WHAT?”
One of the things that you notice here is how friendly everyone is. I mean everyone. They seem happy to see you, and all to happy to help if they can. The lockmasters are all smiling, and they make locking through easy, and a pleasure. (We should transfer a few of these to the Illinois locks) Most of the locks have two people in them. One is full time, and the other is usually a student just working for the summer. Oh yea. I forgot to tell you, most all of the lock doors are operated manually. They are huge wooden doors with an arm on them that has teeth on it. This arm is then connected to, and through, the side of lock. This arm is then connected to a gear that fits into these teeth, and when the gear is turned it moves the arm back and forth. So…..if the lockmaster wants the doors opened two people (one on each side) grab these pipes (which are attached to the gears) sticking out of the ground, and push these pipes as they walk around in circles. Which turns the gear, which makes the teeth move the arm, which opens the doors. Does this make any sense? (It takes an average of 12 complete circles to open a door) These folks are doing all of this work, and still smiling.
Starting yesterday morning the scenery on the Trent-Severn seemed to change, and by afternoon is was dramatically different, and some of the neatest waters I have ever been in. The channel winds around hundreds of islands as it makes its way between the locks. If you have ever seen “On Golden Pond” you have an idea of what we are seeing, but with a lot more islands. Most of these islands are very small, and most have houses on them. It is amazing to see these homes, and trying to figure out how in the world they built them. In some cases the home takes up the entire island. All you see is a home built on a rock, with a garage built on the water for the boat. And as I say the channel winds it’s way through these, and in some cases between two islands that are no more than a couple of boat widths wide.
The weather has been near perfect. When we got on the boat last Friday evening, a storm has just passed through, and it turned clear, and sunny. It has been that way ever since. The early mornings are a little cool, (mid 50’s) but without any clouds, when the sun comes up it warms things up in a hurry. We normally start the day out with the bimini top down, and by mid day we need to put it up because it is too hot.
This morning we are anchored in Deer Bay. It is a beautiful medium sized bay just off of the main channel. We got here about 5:30 last night. As soon as we did, everyone (except me) went swimming, and used the bay to take a bath in. After that we all took a dinghy ride to explore the bay, and then Terry and I then took the dinghy to try to find Walter. (Remember the fish in “On Golden Pond”?) After a lot of casting, and only one small bass, we came back to the boat for some dinner, and a quite evening of relaxing as we gently swung around on our anchor line.
Today…
We need to head out of here about 7:45 because the locks open at 8:30. We will try to get as far as we can, but it is hard to judge just how far that will be. We usually don’t even make plans for the night until after lunch sometime because you just can’t tell.
The weather looks like it will be great today, but then we may be in for some rain the next couple of days.
I’ll keep you posted…
BK
Monday, July 24, 2000
Chapter 68: Lake Ontario and the Trent-Severn
Log 68
Lake Ontario, and the Trent-Severn
5:35 AM
Monday, July 24, 2000
Lock wall—lock #6
Trent-Severn Waterway
Frankford, Ontario
Day 85
Well the state of New York is behind us, and so is one of the Great Lakes. We just seem to be ticking these things off one at a time. I figured out that we have put over 4000 miles on the bottom of this boat.
Yesterday was an almost perfect day to cross Lake Ontario. Or any lake for that matter. We untied the lines at about 6:15, and by 6:30 we were at the mouth of the lake. The sun had just come over the only cloud we could see, and it was going to be a beautiful morning, and day.
The waves were probably about 2 feet when we first hit the lake. On top of that there was a slight chop, and it took me a couple of minutes to work with the trim of the boat, and the speed to make it as smooth as possible. The perfect combination seemed to be 1650 RPM (about 18mph), and a medium trim, which made the nose of the boat stick up a little to make the chop less of an issue. With that all done, I hit the autopilot and we were locked in on the other side, with 61 miles to go. If you look on the map, we crossed from Oswego, NY to Brighton, Ontario.
For the early part of the crossing the swells were more of an issue. They really didn’t bother us, but they were there. Jeanie noticed that the timing of the swells was just perfect with our speed because we would just get over one, and then lay in the bottom of another. Whatever the case the further we went the smoother it got, and by the time we were about 80% there, there was only a light chop, and we had picked up out RPM to about 1750.
The total crossing took exactly 4 hours. By the time we were on the other side the sun was high overhead, and it was getting nice and warm. We had left the bimini top down, so it was actually hot when we slowed down.
The next thing we had to find after the crossing was a small boat channel called the Murray Canal. It was nestled in a small cove, and is about 8 miles long, and would connect us to a small lake, and the town of Trenton. With some good chart work by Terry we found it no problem, and before you knew it we were there. From that point it was pretty straight forward as we moved through the canal, which included paying them a toll for using it. This was an interesting procedure. When they open the first bridge on the canal, as you are moving through it, they stick this long pole out to your boat, and they expect you to put $4 in it. I’m not sure what they would do if you just waved, and said’ “Thanks, we’ll catch you next time”, but I didn’t want to find out. By the way, I think this is also about the point where the girls started to speak Canadian. I don’t know how the Canadians really speak, but the girls seem to have it figured out. No matter what the question, or the answer, you just say, “Yaa…u betcha” (I think they’ve seen “Fargo” to many times)
Once in Trenton, we stopped at a marina, and got fuel (68 cents @ liter..You figure it out) and a pump out of the holding tank. This is also the place where you clear Canadian Customs. This was not a big deal, except when they ask me how much liquor we had on board. I was going to tell them, but I didn’t want them laugh, then come and board the boat to see for sure, so I said 2 cases of beer, some gin, and some rum. “How much rum and how much gin” they asked. “Oh…a small bottle each” was my reply, and that seemed to do it. (I figure if they do board the boat later, I’ll tell them that my wife had gone shopping, and I’m flabbergasted at how much she had bought)
We started the Trent-Severn at 1:30. It is just like the Erie Canal. Narrow waterways, and lots of locks. (In fact, it is a little early for this, but you could make a comparison of what we have seen so far to the Illinois River. The water is not as clean, but the scenery is very similar) these locks are much smaller than what we have been used to. They are only about 150 feet long, and 45 feet wide. Kind of interesting getting Headquarters in and out of them. I hope it doesn’t get very windy while we do this, or there could be trouble.
The guidebook says that at the top of lock #6 is a good place to stop for a while, or for the night, and they were right. We made it here about 3:30, and decided with what lay ahead, this was the best place to stop, so we did. After tying up Terry and I headed into town to get a fishing license. We now were going to be in Canada for a few days so we decided a license would be in order. The lockmaster said the hardware store would sell us a license, and they closed at 5, but when we made the 15-minute walk, and found the store, there was a closed sign in the window. As we were trying to figure out if we had any other options people started coming out of the hardware store door. It was obvious they were leaving for the day, and had just closed. Terry (smart thinker that he is) hollered across the street, “Hey…you wouldn’t think about selling a couple of out of towners a fishing license would ya?” They all looked at one another, and said, “sure, come on in” (You got to love these Canadians).
So fishing license in hand ($35 each, for 1 week…I sure hope we catch some fish) we head back to the boat. By the time we got back Deb had made friends with everyone at the lock, and we were set for the night. Jeanie and Deb had also been straightening up a little, and we were starting to talk about what sounded good for dinner. Good time for a cocktail.
With cocktail hour winding down, I washed the dinghy, while Terry and the girls started to prepare for dinner (some kind of a chicken dish where the chicken floats in a butter sauce…I think Terry called it curry chicken…great stuff). In between the cooking and the cleaning we threw the lines in the water to see if anything was there. Nope!
After dinner we had a special treat. Ice cream. The girls had bought some while we were fueling up in Trenton, and it was great. (4 different kinds) Terry went back out to try the fishing, the girls were watching something on TV, and I took a shower, and went to bed.
A GREAT DAY.
I’ll keep you posted…
BK
Lake Ontario, and the Trent-Severn
5:35 AM
Monday, July 24, 2000
Lock wall—lock #6
Trent-Severn Waterway
Frankford, Ontario
Day 85
Well the state of New York is behind us, and so is one of the Great Lakes. We just seem to be ticking these things off one at a time. I figured out that we have put over 4000 miles on the bottom of this boat.
Yesterday was an almost perfect day to cross Lake Ontario. Or any lake for that matter. We untied the lines at about 6:15, and by 6:30 we were at the mouth of the lake. The sun had just come over the only cloud we could see, and it was going to be a beautiful morning, and day.
The waves were probably about 2 feet when we first hit the lake. On top of that there was a slight chop, and it took me a couple of minutes to work with the trim of the boat, and the speed to make it as smooth as possible. The perfect combination seemed to be 1650 RPM (about 18mph), and a medium trim, which made the nose of the boat stick up a little to make the chop less of an issue. With that all done, I hit the autopilot and we were locked in on the other side, with 61 miles to go. If you look on the map, we crossed from Oswego, NY to Brighton, Ontario.
For the early part of the crossing the swells were more of an issue. They really didn’t bother us, but they were there. Jeanie noticed that the timing of the swells was just perfect with our speed because we would just get over one, and then lay in the bottom of another. Whatever the case the further we went the smoother it got, and by the time we were about 80% there, there was only a light chop, and we had picked up out RPM to about 1750.
The total crossing took exactly 4 hours. By the time we were on the other side the sun was high overhead, and it was getting nice and warm. We had left the bimini top down, so it was actually hot when we slowed down.
The next thing we had to find after the crossing was a small boat channel called the Murray Canal. It was nestled in a small cove, and is about 8 miles long, and would connect us to a small lake, and the town of Trenton. With some good chart work by Terry we found it no problem, and before you knew it we were there. From that point it was pretty straight forward as we moved through the canal, which included paying them a toll for using it. This was an interesting procedure. When they open the first bridge on the canal, as you are moving through it, they stick this long pole out to your boat, and they expect you to put $4 in it. I’m not sure what they would do if you just waved, and said’ “Thanks, we’ll catch you next time”, but I didn’t want to find out. By the way, I think this is also about the point where the girls started to speak Canadian. I don’t know how the Canadians really speak, but the girls seem to have it figured out. No matter what the question, or the answer, you just say, “Yaa…u betcha” (I think they’ve seen “Fargo” to many times)
Once in Trenton, we stopped at a marina, and got fuel (68 cents @ liter..You figure it out) and a pump out of the holding tank. This is also the place where you clear Canadian Customs. This was not a big deal, except when they ask me how much liquor we had on board. I was going to tell them, but I didn’t want them laugh, then come and board the boat to see for sure, so I said 2 cases of beer, some gin, and some rum. “How much rum and how much gin” they asked. “Oh…a small bottle each” was my reply, and that seemed to do it. (I figure if they do board the boat later, I’ll tell them that my wife had gone shopping, and I’m flabbergasted at how much she had bought)
We started the Trent-Severn at 1:30. It is just like the Erie Canal. Narrow waterways, and lots of locks. (In fact, it is a little early for this, but you could make a comparison of what we have seen so far to the Illinois River. The water is not as clean, but the scenery is very similar) these locks are much smaller than what we have been used to. They are only about 150 feet long, and 45 feet wide. Kind of interesting getting Headquarters in and out of them. I hope it doesn’t get very windy while we do this, or there could be trouble.
The guidebook says that at the top of lock #6 is a good place to stop for a while, or for the night, and they were right. We made it here about 3:30, and decided with what lay ahead, this was the best place to stop, so we did. After tying up Terry and I headed into town to get a fishing license. We now were going to be in Canada for a few days so we decided a license would be in order. The lockmaster said the hardware store would sell us a license, and they closed at 5, but when we made the 15-minute walk, and found the store, there was a closed sign in the window. As we were trying to figure out if we had any other options people started coming out of the hardware store door. It was obvious they were leaving for the day, and had just closed. Terry (smart thinker that he is) hollered across the street, “Hey…you wouldn’t think about selling a couple of out of towners a fishing license would ya?” They all looked at one another, and said, “sure, come on in” (You got to love these Canadians).
So fishing license in hand ($35 each, for 1 week…I sure hope we catch some fish) we head back to the boat. By the time we got back Deb had made friends with everyone at the lock, and we were set for the night. Jeanie and Deb had also been straightening up a little, and we were starting to talk about what sounded good for dinner. Good time for a cocktail.
With cocktail hour winding down, I washed the dinghy, while Terry and the girls started to prepare for dinner (some kind of a chicken dish where the chicken floats in a butter sauce…I think Terry called it curry chicken…great stuff). In between the cooking and the cleaning we threw the lines in the water to see if anything was there. Nope!
After dinner we had a special treat. Ice cream. The girls had bought some while we were fueling up in Trenton, and it was great. (4 different kinds) Terry went back out to try the fishing, the girls were watching something on TV, and I took a shower, and went to bed.
A GREAT DAY.
I’ll keep you posted…
BK
Sunday, July 23, 2000
Chapter 67: Oswego
Log 67
Oswego, NY
5:10AM
Sunday, July 23, 2000
Oswego Marina
Oswego, NY
Day 84
There’s a sign on the water tower here in town that says “ Oswego..Where the water never ends”. We left Chicago over 10 months ago, and we’ve been on the water ever since, so I guess they’re right.
Well as you can see by our location, we made it to Lake Ontario. In a few minutes (as soon as I can finish this log) we’ll be heading across it. The trip here was great. We left our slip in Brewerton about 6:30, and we made it to the first lock (lock #23 on the Erie Canal) by 7 AM when they opened. Once clear of that lock we had about 4 miles to go before we came to a place called three rivers, and joined the Oswego River, and the beginning of the Oswego Canal. This canal headed straight north, and took us to Oswego, NY (once we went through 7 locks) and the junction of Lake Ontario. When we got out of lock #8 (I know I said there were only 7 locks on the Oswego Canal, but some how they left out a number, and the last one is #8) we could see the lake, and it didn’t look good at all. There is a rock break wall at the lake’s entrance, and the waves were crashing over it like something out of a movie, so we decided that we’d make the trip when things calmed down.
Without being able to cross, we made some alternative plans, and found a marina to enjoy the rest of the day. (It was only 1 PM) Once settled, we took the dinghy off the swim platform, and Terry and I went fishing. Well almost. We went out in the dinghy, and decided we better get a fishing license, but after tying up to a wall, and walking into town to buy one, and the place was closed, we decided to just take a boat ride and not risk being pulled over by some conversation police.
We thought we’d go out to the lake and see how big the waves were, and if it had calmed down any. We came around the lighthouse at the mouth of the harbor, and got caught in a huge wave that almost came over the side of the dinghy. (It looked like something out of Perfect Storm of something) I made a hard right turn, and gunned the 25 horse motor on the dinghy. We were down in the wave, and working our way out. As it turned out there was no problem, but we looked at one another and were glad we had decided not to cross.
One thing I did forget that happened while we were getting our slip. As I was leaving the boat I knocked one of our folding chairs in the water (Annie..remember the one you knocked in, and Donnie caught? That one!) and we spent the better part of an hour trying to hook it with something, and get it out. Which we did, while Deb and Jeannie watched, laughed, and took pictures.
The rest of the day was spent doing a number of things, but nothing if you know what I mean. For dinner we decided to go out because Terry and I were working on the charts, and we figure that this may be the last restaurant we see for a few days. The Trent-Severn coming up is fairly remote, and we will probably be eating on the boat. We found a good place right next to the marina, and all had great meals. After which we walked into town and went to the grocery store for some last minute stocking up. (I don’t mind being in a desolate area, but I didn’t want to run out of tonic)
Once back to the boat things slowed down pretty quickly. The girls took showers, and Terry and I tried to throw a line in the water, and see if we cound snag anything. (Which may have been the only way we would catch anything) All we ended up doing was practicing for the big cast, because we didn’t catch any fish. I hope with all of the opportunities ahead of us to catch some big fish, I don’t end up just saying, “All we did was cast”.
Today…
NOA weather says, “winds less than 10 mph, and waves 2 feet or less”.
As soon as the sun is up over the trees to warm things up a bit we’re heading out. The chart plotter says we’ve got about 65 miles to our destination (Trenton Canada) on the other side. From our slip it looks like it will be a great day to cross. It won’t be “dead calm” but it shouldn’t be too bad. Whatever the case…here we go.
I’ll keep you posted..
BK
Oswego, NY
5:10AM
Sunday, July 23, 2000
Oswego Marina
Oswego, NY
Day 84
There’s a sign on the water tower here in town that says “ Oswego..Where the water never ends”. We left Chicago over 10 months ago, and we’ve been on the water ever since, so I guess they’re right.
Well as you can see by our location, we made it to Lake Ontario. In a few minutes (as soon as I can finish this log) we’ll be heading across it. The trip here was great. We left our slip in Brewerton about 6:30, and we made it to the first lock (lock #23 on the Erie Canal) by 7 AM when they opened. Once clear of that lock we had about 4 miles to go before we came to a place called three rivers, and joined the Oswego River, and the beginning of the Oswego Canal. This canal headed straight north, and took us to Oswego, NY (once we went through 7 locks) and the junction of Lake Ontario. When we got out of lock #8 (I know I said there were only 7 locks on the Oswego Canal, but some how they left out a number, and the last one is #8) we could see the lake, and it didn’t look good at all. There is a rock break wall at the lake’s entrance, and the waves were crashing over it like something out of a movie, so we decided that we’d make the trip when things calmed down.
Without being able to cross, we made some alternative plans, and found a marina to enjoy the rest of the day. (It was only 1 PM) Once settled, we took the dinghy off the swim platform, and Terry and I went fishing. Well almost. We went out in the dinghy, and decided we better get a fishing license, but after tying up to a wall, and walking into town to buy one, and the place was closed, we decided to just take a boat ride and not risk being pulled over by some conversation police.
We thought we’d go out to the lake and see how big the waves were, and if it had calmed down any. We came around the lighthouse at the mouth of the harbor, and got caught in a huge wave that almost came over the side of the dinghy. (It looked like something out of Perfect Storm of something) I made a hard right turn, and gunned the 25 horse motor on the dinghy. We were down in the wave, and working our way out. As it turned out there was no problem, but we looked at one another and were glad we had decided not to cross.
One thing I did forget that happened while we were getting our slip. As I was leaving the boat I knocked one of our folding chairs in the water (Annie..remember the one you knocked in, and Donnie caught? That one!) and we spent the better part of an hour trying to hook it with something, and get it out. Which we did, while Deb and Jeannie watched, laughed, and took pictures.
The rest of the day was spent doing a number of things, but nothing if you know what I mean. For dinner we decided to go out because Terry and I were working on the charts, and we figure that this may be the last restaurant we see for a few days. The Trent-Severn coming up is fairly remote, and we will probably be eating on the boat. We found a good place right next to the marina, and all had great meals. After which we walked into town and went to the grocery store for some last minute stocking up. (I don’t mind being in a desolate area, but I didn’t want to run out of tonic)
Once back to the boat things slowed down pretty quickly. The girls took showers, and Terry and I tried to throw a line in the water, and see if we cound snag anything. (Which may have been the only way we would catch anything) All we ended up doing was practicing for the big cast, because we didn’t catch any fish. I hope with all of the opportunities ahead of us to catch some big fish, I don’t end up just saying, “All we did was cast”.
Today…
NOA weather says, “winds less than 10 mph, and waves 2 feet or less”.
As soon as the sun is up over the trees to warm things up a bit we’re heading out. The chart plotter says we’ve got about 65 miles to our destination (Trenton Canada) on the other side. From our slip it looks like it will be a great day to cross. It won’t be “dead calm” but it shouldn’t be too bad. Whatever the case…here we go.
I’ll keep you posted..
BK
Saturday, July 22, 2000
Chapter 66: Leaving Oneida Lake - Final Leg Begins...
Log 66
Leaving Oneida Lake, NY
5:15 AM
Saturday, July 22, 2000
EssKay Yards
Brewerton, NY.
Day 83
Our final leg has begun.
Deb, Terry, Jeanie, and I left Chicago at about 2 and arrived Syracuse at 4:30 eastern time. We thought we were going to have a problem when we were on the plane, and they announced that we should grab our stuff, and leave because the plane was broke, and they needed to find us one that worked. The good news was they found one that would fly very quickly, and we ended up only being about 35 minutes late arriving Syracuse. I would have bet a fair amount of money that that would not have happened, but it did.
Once we arrived in Syracuse, we got a taxi, and headed toward the boat. Along the way we dropped the girls off at the grocery store while Terry and I went to the liquor store. Liquor is very expensive here. They say they have a “sin” tax and things are 50% to 75% higher than at home. (The cab driver told us that cigarettes are $5 a pack. YIKES)
Terry and I finished quickly, and had the cab driver take us to the boat, and our plan was to come back and get the girls once they got finished. That would allow Terry and I a chance to unpack some things, and to get the boat ready. Everything went great. We unpacked things, and went to the marina and got the charts we would need for the rest of the trip. (I would love to have just ½ of the money back I have invested in charts that I’ll never use again)
The girls had no problems at the store, and we had the owner of the marina pick them up when they were done. (It was less than 5 minutes away)
By 7:30 we had all of our provisions for the first week, the boat was organized, we had eaten dinner (carry out Chinese) and we were sitting back to relax and plan our trip. I went in the engine room and got out the fishing poles so Terry and I could fish a little. As it turned out I went casting, and Terry went fishing. He caught a couple of large mouth bass right next to our boat. (That’s the same area the Steve Larry caught his fish when we were here 2 weeks ago) He is getting geared up for the big ones we think we’ll find up in the North Channel. The fishing must have tired him out, because almost as soon as he came in, he announced that he was done for the day, and heading to bed. We all followed.
Today…
Our plan is to head out about 6:30, and get to the first lock at 7AM. We have 6 locks to go today, and then we’ll be at Lake Ontario. Depending on the weather (The weather channel says it will be mostly sunny, and 70 degrees) we may cross Lake Ontario, and head to Kingston, Ontario, Canada. That would put us in good shape to join the Trent-Severn tomorrow, and get a jump on all of those 42 locks.
We have a long way to go, and some unbelievable territory to explore.
I’ll keep you posted…
BK
Leaving Oneida Lake, NY
5:15 AM
Saturday, July 22, 2000
EssKay Yards
Brewerton, NY.
Day 83
Our final leg has begun.
Deb, Terry, Jeanie, and I left Chicago at about 2 and arrived Syracuse at 4:30 eastern time. We thought we were going to have a problem when we were on the plane, and they announced that we should grab our stuff, and leave because the plane was broke, and they needed to find us one that worked. The good news was they found one that would fly very quickly, and we ended up only being about 35 minutes late arriving Syracuse. I would have bet a fair amount of money that that would not have happened, but it did.
Once we arrived in Syracuse, we got a taxi, and headed toward the boat. Along the way we dropped the girls off at the grocery store while Terry and I went to the liquor store. Liquor is very expensive here. They say they have a “sin” tax and things are 50% to 75% higher than at home. (The cab driver told us that cigarettes are $5 a pack. YIKES)
Terry and I finished quickly, and had the cab driver take us to the boat, and our plan was to come back and get the girls once they got finished. That would allow Terry and I a chance to unpack some things, and to get the boat ready. Everything went great. We unpacked things, and went to the marina and got the charts we would need for the rest of the trip. (I would love to have just ½ of the money back I have invested in charts that I’ll never use again)
The girls had no problems at the store, and we had the owner of the marina pick them up when they were done. (It was less than 5 minutes away)
By 7:30 we had all of our provisions for the first week, the boat was organized, we had eaten dinner (carry out Chinese) and we were sitting back to relax and plan our trip. I went in the engine room and got out the fishing poles so Terry and I could fish a little. As it turned out I went casting, and Terry went fishing. He caught a couple of large mouth bass right next to our boat. (That’s the same area the Steve Larry caught his fish when we were here 2 weeks ago) He is getting geared up for the big ones we think we’ll find up in the North Channel. The fishing must have tired him out, because almost as soon as he came in, he announced that he was done for the day, and heading to bed. We all followed.
Today…
Our plan is to head out about 6:30, and get to the first lock at 7AM. We have 6 locks to go today, and then we’ll be at Lake Ontario. Depending on the weather (The weather channel says it will be mostly sunny, and 70 degrees) we may cross Lake Ontario, and head to Kingston, Ontario, Canada. That would put us in good shape to join the Trent-Severn tomorrow, and get a jump on all of those 42 locks.
We have a long way to go, and some unbelievable territory to explore.
I’ll keep you posted…
BK
Sunday, July 16, 2000
Chapter 65: Two Weeks Remaining...
Log 65
2 Weeks remaining---Update
5:45 AM
Sunday, July 16, 2000
Sitting in my study at home
This is the first weekend Deb and I have been home since the first of May. (At one point I hadn’t slept in my bed at home for over 7 weeks) I’m sitting here planning our last two weeks of the trip, and I thought I’d get out an update to our status, and what we have left to do.
As I write this, the boat is in the small town of Brewerton, NY. If you were to look at a map of New York you would see a lake that runs east and west almost in the center of the state. That lake is Oneida Lake. The boat is located where Interstate 81 crosses that lake. Actually it is just to the west of there, but you get the idea. As I have written before, my original plans were to get it to Oswego, NY, and the bottom of Lake Ontario, But we ended up finding a great little marina, close to the Syracuse airport, so we decided to leave it there. I think it is going to work out great.
The remaining two weeks of our trip should be very exciting. Early last summer when we were testing the boat, we were in Michigan at a marina next to a fella, and we got talking about our boat, and that led us to the fact we were going to make the “Great Circle”. This guy went on to tell us he had made that trip. Twice! Well I must say I was a bit skeptical, but as he went on you could tell he was telling the truth. Anyway, during this conversation he ask me which way I was going once I got to Lake Ontario. I told him my plans were to go on to Lake Eire, then Lake Huron, and back around to Lake Michigan. “I went that way once” he said, “bad idea”, and he goes on to tell me the only way to make the trip is to cross Lake Ontario, and take the Trent-Severn Waterway. (I had heard about the Trent-Severn, but that’s about it. I didn’t have a clue what it was, or even where it was) He went on to say that was the only way to go, and it was some of the prettiest water he had ever seen in his life. Well I never forgot that conversation, although I was still planning on taking Lake Eire, because I didn’t feel we had enough time to take the “northern route”.
One of the great things about making this trip (or cruising in general) is the different people you meet, and listening to their stories. You normally start to talk to people when they see your boat name, and where your homeport is. You don’t see many boats from Illinois on the waterway, so they all want to know what you’re doing here. “You’re sure a long way from home” is a common response, and that starts the discussion. We have met people from all over the world, and they all have a story to tell. (Just thinking about all of the docks we have stood on, and had these discussions, gets me excited) The point of all of this is that during these conversations I have had many a discussion with captains who have taken the “northern route”, and every one (every single one) said it is some of the best boating, and most beautiful water they have ever been in. With all of those conversations in mind, I started doing some homework, and trying to figure out what all of the fuss was, and……… could we do this? After a fair amount of reading I figured out what the route would be, and…….yes…..we could do this.
So with that introduction, here is what our plans are for the final two weeks:
We get back to the boat on Friday, July 21st. Terry and Jeanie (Deb’s sister, and brother in law) will be with us for the entire time. They have been with us before, and they are a great crew.
We will depart Brewerton, NY on the 22nd, and finish the few miles remaining of the Eire Canal.
After 1 lock, and about 5 miles on the Eire Canal, we will join the Oswego Canal, and head due north.
On the Oswego Canal we will go about 20 miles, and through 5 locks before we reach Oswego, NY, and lake Ontario.
Depending on the time, and the lake conditions we will either stop for the night, or head northeast across Lake Ontario to Kingston, Ontario. We will now be in Canada for a while, and we will need to clear customs. (Some say they will board our boat, some say they won’t)
From Kingston we go a little southwest, to the town of Trenton, and to the beginning of the Trent-Severn Waterway. This waterway is about 240 miles long, with 42 locks. (Yes, 42 locks)
The Trent-Severn drops us at Port Severn, near the town of Midland, and the southwest corner of Georgian Bay. (You can see this on an atlas)
From there we will (depending on the weather conditions) either cross the Georgian Bay, or wind our way around the “small boat route”, and what they call the “Thousand Islands” (See…I told you I have been doing some reading) They say this area is absolutely awesome, but we will have to see how much time we have.
Across the Georgian Bay we come to Killarney, and the start of the North Channel. The North Channel is the body of water at the very northern end of Lake Huron. We will cross the North Channel, and end up joining Lake Huron at the northwest side, near Drummond Island.
From here we will skirt the northern end of Lake Huron, and join Lake Michigan at the Straits of Mackinac. Hopefully we will have time to stop at Mackinac Island.
Once we reach Lake Michigan, we will follow the eastern edge of the state, and work our way down to Benton Harbor, or maybe even Michigan City, before we cross Lake Michigan to Chicago.
From Chicago we have about 90 miles, and two days running to get us back to our slip in Ottawa, IL. (Our plan is to be back by Saturday, August 5th) where we left 11 months before that.
So that’s it. Our plan for the final two weeks. On one hand, it’s pretty straightforward, on the other, there is a lot of open water on this leg, and depending on the winds we will have to see how far we can get each day. There is also a tremendous amount of navigating, which I love, and Terry does as well. I’m sure we will have to sit a day or two along the way and wait for better weather, and I’m also sure we will have to “blast” on some other days to take advantage of “flat” water. That’s the adventure part.
What ever happens I want to be sure to soak all of this in, and enjoy the final leg.
It’s hard to believe it is getting close to being over. We’ve come a long way, but we’ve got a ways to go.
YeeeeHaaaaa!
BK
2 Weeks remaining---Update
5:45 AM
Sunday, July 16, 2000
Sitting in my study at home
This is the first weekend Deb and I have been home since the first of May. (At one point I hadn’t slept in my bed at home for over 7 weeks) I’m sitting here planning our last two weeks of the trip, and I thought I’d get out an update to our status, and what we have left to do.
As I write this, the boat is in the small town of Brewerton, NY. If you were to look at a map of New York you would see a lake that runs east and west almost in the center of the state. That lake is Oneida Lake. The boat is located where Interstate 81 crosses that lake. Actually it is just to the west of there, but you get the idea. As I have written before, my original plans were to get it to Oswego, NY, and the bottom of Lake Ontario, But we ended up finding a great little marina, close to the Syracuse airport, so we decided to leave it there. I think it is going to work out great.
The remaining two weeks of our trip should be very exciting. Early last summer when we were testing the boat, we were in Michigan at a marina next to a fella, and we got talking about our boat, and that led us to the fact we were going to make the “Great Circle”. This guy went on to tell us he had made that trip. Twice! Well I must say I was a bit skeptical, but as he went on you could tell he was telling the truth. Anyway, during this conversation he ask me which way I was going once I got to Lake Ontario. I told him my plans were to go on to Lake Eire, then Lake Huron, and back around to Lake Michigan. “I went that way once” he said, “bad idea”, and he goes on to tell me the only way to make the trip is to cross Lake Ontario, and take the Trent-Severn Waterway. (I had heard about the Trent-Severn, but that’s about it. I didn’t have a clue what it was, or even where it was) He went on to say that was the only way to go, and it was some of the prettiest water he had ever seen in his life. Well I never forgot that conversation, although I was still planning on taking Lake Eire, because I didn’t feel we had enough time to take the “northern route”.
One of the great things about making this trip (or cruising in general) is the different people you meet, and listening to their stories. You normally start to talk to people when they see your boat name, and where your homeport is. You don’t see many boats from Illinois on the waterway, so they all want to know what you’re doing here. “You’re sure a long way from home” is a common response, and that starts the discussion. We have met people from all over the world, and they all have a story to tell. (Just thinking about all of the docks we have stood on, and had these discussions, gets me excited) The point of all of this is that during these conversations I have had many a discussion with captains who have taken the “northern route”, and every one (every single one) said it is some of the best boating, and most beautiful water they have ever been in. With all of those conversations in mind, I started doing some homework, and trying to figure out what all of the fuss was, and……… could we do this? After a fair amount of reading I figured out what the route would be, and…….yes…..we could do this.
So with that introduction, here is what our plans are for the final two weeks:
We get back to the boat on Friday, July 21st. Terry and Jeanie (Deb’s sister, and brother in law) will be with us for the entire time. They have been with us before, and they are a great crew.
We will depart Brewerton, NY on the 22nd, and finish the few miles remaining of the Eire Canal.
After 1 lock, and about 5 miles on the Eire Canal, we will join the Oswego Canal, and head due north.
On the Oswego Canal we will go about 20 miles, and through 5 locks before we reach Oswego, NY, and lake Ontario.
Depending on the time, and the lake conditions we will either stop for the night, or head northeast across Lake Ontario to Kingston, Ontario. We will now be in Canada for a while, and we will need to clear customs. (Some say they will board our boat, some say they won’t)
From Kingston we go a little southwest, to the town of Trenton, and to the beginning of the Trent-Severn Waterway. This waterway is about 240 miles long, with 42 locks. (Yes, 42 locks)
The Trent-Severn drops us at Port Severn, near the town of Midland, and the southwest corner of Georgian Bay. (You can see this on an atlas)
From there we will (depending on the weather conditions) either cross the Georgian Bay, or wind our way around the “small boat route”, and what they call the “Thousand Islands” (See…I told you I have been doing some reading) They say this area is absolutely awesome, but we will have to see how much time we have.
Across the Georgian Bay we come to Killarney, and the start of the North Channel. The North Channel is the body of water at the very northern end of Lake Huron. We will cross the North Channel, and end up joining Lake Huron at the northwest side, near Drummond Island.
From here we will skirt the northern end of Lake Huron, and join Lake Michigan at the Straits of Mackinac. Hopefully we will have time to stop at Mackinac Island.
Once we reach Lake Michigan, we will follow the eastern edge of the state, and work our way down to Benton Harbor, or maybe even Michigan City, before we cross Lake Michigan to Chicago.
From Chicago we have about 90 miles, and two days running to get us back to our slip in Ottawa, IL. (Our plan is to be back by Saturday, August 5th) where we left 11 months before that.
So that’s it. Our plan for the final two weeks. On one hand, it’s pretty straightforward, on the other, there is a lot of open water on this leg, and depending on the winds we will have to see how far we can get each day. There is also a tremendous amount of navigating, which I love, and Terry does as well. I’m sure we will have to sit a day or two along the way and wait for better weather, and I’m also sure we will have to “blast” on some other days to take advantage of “flat” water. That’s the adventure part.
What ever happens I want to be sure to soak all of this in, and enjoy the final leg.
It’s hard to believe it is getting close to being over. We’ve come a long way, but we’ve got a ways to go.
YeeeeHaaaaa!
BK
Friday, July 07, 2000
Chapter 64: Erie Canal to Oneida Lake
Log 64
Erie Canal—Oneida Lake
6:30 AM
Friday, July 07, 2000
Ess-Kay Yards
Brewerton, NY
Day 81
It started out cold today. When we got up, the outside temperature said 48 degrees. The sky was crystal clear so we knew it was only a mater of time before it warmed up. We wanted to make the 7 AM opening at our first lock of the day, so we left our marina wall at about 6:30. We had not gone a mile when it started to get pretty foggy. Where we were the fog had gone, but further down the canal, it was narrower, and the trees were taller, and the sun wasn’t high enough to melt the fog. The further we went the foggier it got, until you couldn’t see the banks of the canal, even though it was very narrow. No problem though, I just slowed down a little more, and used the radar to help guide us through. As it turned out it didn’t last but a few miles, and the sun was up enough to do its work, and by then we were almost to our first lock.
Speaking of locks, we reached the highest point of locks today. When we got to lock 20 we had climbed 410 feet and traveled 108 miles from where we joined the canal at Troy. As you can imagine we had been lifting all of this way, and the next two locks (# 21, and #22) we dropped down 25 feet each time to reach level of Oneida Lake.
We reached Oneida Lake about 11 AM. Earlier than we had planned. The trip across is about 20 miles of so, and I picked it up a good bit, so we made it in a little over and hour. I’m sure those Detroit engines were very glad to get some good use, after having to been at idle for so long on the canal. Shortly after noon, we found the other side of Oneida Lake, and rejoined the Erie Canal. Our plan was to stop here, and then go through the final lock on the Erie tomorrow, and then up the Oswego Canal to join Lake Ontario. As we were fueling up, ($1.49) the lady who runs the marina (Kim) and I were talking and she asked where we were headed. I told her our plans, and she said, “Why would you do that?” She said that the Syracuse airport was only 15 minutes away, and everything we needed to stock up was real close to here. She had room for the boat, and she would take good care of us, and the boat. Done! Plans changed, and we are here at the Marina (Ess-Kay Yards) where we will leave the boat for a couple of weeks.
With those plans done, we tied up the boat in our semi-permanent slip, and decided Steve and I would go fishing. He went with Kim, the marina owner, to a bait shop, and I worked on cleaning the dinghy, and getting it off the back, so we could find the big fish.
Well as you can imagine the big fish are still there, and we ended up coming back without dinner. The good news was the girls had been cooking, and had a great batch of spaghetti sauce heating up. We decided it needed time to slow cook, so we all jumped in the dinghy in search of the perfect Pina Coloda. (By the way just saying that should tell you we have finally reached civilization again, and there are marinas, and waterside restaurants all over the place) The first place we stopped at looked great, and Deb was all set for one of those fancy drinks, and take it with us in the dinghy. We had a little trouble getting anyone’s attention, and when we did she informed us that they had no “to go” glasses. Oh well, there are more places, lets jump back in the dinghy, and go somewhere else. The next place we went to they had this old lady bartender who looked like she could care less about what we needed, and it turns out that was in fact the case. Deb said do you have any to go glasses, to which she shook her head yes. Great Deb said, I’ll have a Pina Colada. “Don’t have any” was her response. “We’re all out of the stuff” “Got margaritas though”. Well Deb’s heart was broken, but Steve and Claudia took this lady up on her offer for the Margaritas. While we were paying for those drinks, the lady says, “Ever had a blue moon?” (If you saw this lady there would be a lot of things that would go through your mind about now) “No can’t say if I have” I told her “what’s it look like?”
It’s a beer she tells me, and then gives us two small glasses to sample. It turned out to be darn good, so Deb and I ordered a couple of glasses to go. She proudly fills up two medium sized plastic glasses, and then tells us we owe her $7. (No wonder she was pushing them, if you sell enough beer at that price you can do real well)
After a short dinghy ride to finish our drinks, we went back to the boat for some of the spaghetti. It was great, and we enjoyed relaxing with a good meal. After dinner Steve and Claudia went walking with a fishing pole in Steve’s hands, and Steve ending up catching a couple of fish.
Another great boating day. I’ll keep you posted…
BK.
Erie Canal—Oneida Lake
6:30 AM
Friday, July 07, 2000
Ess-Kay Yards
Brewerton, NY
Day 81
It started out cold today. When we got up, the outside temperature said 48 degrees. The sky was crystal clear so we knew it was only a mater of time before it warmed up. We wanted to make the 7 AM opening at our first lock of the day, so we left our marina wall at about 6:30. We had not gone a mile when it started to get pretty foggy. Where we were the fog had gone, but further down the canal, it was narrower, and the trees were taller, and the sun wasn’t high enough to melt the fog. The further we went the foggier it got, until you couldn’t see the banks of the canal, even though it was very narrow. No problem though, I just slowed down a little more, and used the radar to help guide us through. As it turned out it didn’t last but a few miles, and the sun was up enough to do its work, and by then we were almost to our first lock.
Speaking of locks, we reached the highest point of locks today. When we got to lock 20 we had climbed 410 feet and traveled 108 miles from where we joined the canal at Troy. As you can imagine we had been lifting all of this way, and the next two locks (# 21, and #22) we dropped down 25 feet each time to reach level of Oneida Lake.
We reached Oneida Lake about 11 AM. Earlier than we had planned. The trip across is about 20 miles of so, and I picked it up a good bit, so we made it in a little over and hour. I’m sure those Detroit engines were very glad to get some good use, after having to been at idle for so long on the canal. Shortly after noon, we found the other side of Oneida Lake, and rejoined the Erie Canal. Our plan was to stop here, and then go through the final lock on the Erie tomorrow, and then up the Oswego Canal to join Lake Ontario. As we were fueling up, ($1.49) the lady who runs the marina (Kim) and I were talking and she asked where we were headed. I told her our plans, and she said, “Why would you do that?” She said that the Syracuse airport was only 15 minutes away, and everything we needed to stock up was real close to here. She had room for the boat, and she would take good care of us, and the boat. Done! Plans changed, and we are here at the Marina (Ess-Kay Yards) where we will leave the boat for a couple of weeks.
With those plans done, we tied up the boat in our semi-permanent slip, and decided Steve and I would go fishing. He went with Kim, the marina owner, to a bait shop, and I worked on cleaning the dinghy, and getting it off the back, so we could find the big fish.
Well as you can imagine the big fish are still there, and we ended up coming back without dinner. The good news was the girls had been cooking, and had a great batch of spaghetti sauce heating up. We decided it needed time to slow cook, so we all jumped in the dinghy in search of the perfect Pina Coloda. (By the way just saying that should tell you we have finally reached civilization again, and there are marinas, and waterside restaurants all over the place) The first place we stopped at looked great, and Deb was all set for one of those fancy drinks, and take it with us in the dinghy. We had a little trouble getting anyone’s attention, and when we did she informed us that they had no “to go” glasses. Oh well, there are more places, lets jump back in the dinghy, and go somewhere else. The next place we went to they had this old lady bartender who looked like she could care less about what we needed, and it turns out that was in fact the case. Deb said do you have any to go glasses, to which she shook her head yes. Great Deb said, I’ll have a Pina Colada. “Don’t have any” was her response. “We’re all out of the stuff” “Got margaritas though”. Well Deb’s heart was broken, but Steve and Claudia took this lady up on her offer for the Margaritas. While we were paying for those drinks, the lady says, “Ever had a blue moon?” (If you saw this lady there would be a lot of things that would go through your mind about now) “No can’t say if I have” I told her “what’s it look like?”
It’s a beer she tells me, and then gives us two small glasses to sample. It turned out to be darn good, so Deb and I ordered a couple of glasses to go. She proudly fills up two medium sized plastic glasses, and then tells us we owe her $7. (No wonder she was pushing them, if you sell enough beer at that price you can do real well)
After a short dinghy ride to finish our drinks, we went back to the boat for some of the spaghetti. It was great, and we enjoyed relaxing with a good meal. After dinner Steve and Claudia went walking with a fishing pole in Steve’s hands, and Steve ending up catching a couple of fish.
Another great boating day. I’ll keep you posted…
BK.
Thursday, July 06, 2000
Chapter 63: Erie Canal to Ilion
Log 63
Eire Canal-Ilion NY.
5:20 AM
Thursday, July 06, 2000
Ilion Marina
Ilion, NY.
Day 81
This is what I thought the Eire Canal was: A long narrow man made channel that went through towns that had docks next to their downtown areas. As you traveled this canal, you would stop each night at one of these little towns, and enjoy their local flair. Sort of like the canal systems in Europe. (Who knows where I got this idea)
I now know what the Eire Canal is. It’s a road of water. A scenic road that is in the middle of nowhere, and takes you to somewhere, but along the way there is no place to really stop. If you picture this kind of road, (like maybe a desolate back road) only water, that’s what the Eire Canal is. With all of that said, it is beautiful. There are lots of hills, and some mountains, and almost always there are trees growing up to the canal edge. Most of what we are on is the Mohawk River, but it is connected by man-made waterways, and lots of locks. (We have gone through 19 in two days). Yesterday we went through a lock that lifted us up over 40 feet, in about 11 minutes.
We untied at about 6:30 yesterday, and made it to our first lock at exactly 7AM. The sky was a bright blue, sunny, and with a slight chill in the air. (About 64 degrees) This is one of the few times since we have left home that I had to wear a sweat suit to drive the boat. The night we spent in Amsterdam we had the misfortune to meet a couple of boats that were going the same place we were. These were two McKenna 57 foot boats that had captains on them and they were delivering them somewhere. We don’t know where because we didn’t want to talk to them. (To long a story, let’s just say they were not your normal kind of boaters) Anyway….as I have said there is a speed limit of 10 MPH on the waterway, and we wanted to get ahead of these guys, so we wouldn’t have to lock through with them all of the way. When we left the lock wall in Amsterdam there was no sign on life on their boats so we knew we would make it to the first lock before them, and stay ahead of them all day. Well, by the second lock (where we had a slight delay getting in the lock) they were right behind us, and we knew they would probably catch us at the next lock. As we were locking through, and talking to the lockmaster, we mentioned these two boats behind us, and he said he had heard about them. It seems that they had already had two warnings about their speed. He went on to tell us that although he personally couldn’t give them a ticket, he could sure make their life miserable, by finding all kinds of ways to slow down the lock process. Well that was at lock # 12, and for the rest of the day we were talking to the lockmasters warning them about the two upcoming McKenna boats. It became a game to Steve, and he was really having a good time trying to get the lockmasters to delay these guys coming through the locks. (Like saying “Why do you think those guys feel that all lockmasters are hicks”?) By the end of the day they ended up being a couple of hours behind us, and I’m sure very frustrated with the slowness of the New York Canal System.
We reached Ilion NY by about 2:30 in the afternoon. It was really too early to stop, but it was the only place for quite a while where you could tie up, and have electricity as well. So we took advantage of it, and made it a relaxing afternoon of cleaning up the boat, and telling stories.
At the marina (they call it a marina, but actually it’s not a marina, it’s just a long wall where about 8 to 10 boats can tie up) they said you could you could call two different local restaurants, and they would come and get you for dinner. We studied the different menus, and decided on one, and I called for reservations, and a pick-up. It really worked out great. Not only did they pick us up, but the food was great, and on the way back the owners wife stopped at the grocery store so we could run in and get a couple of things. Back at the boat we had a nightcap, watched a little TV, and off to bed. Two good days on the Erie Canal.
I’ll keep you posted.
BK.
Eire Canal-Ilion NY.
5:20 AM
Thursday, July 06, 2000
Ilion Marina
Ilion, NY.
Day 81
This is what I thought the Eire Canal was: A long narrow man made channel that went through towns that had docks next to their downtown areas. As you traveled this canal, you would stop each night at one of these little towns, and enjoy their local flair. Sort of like the canal systems in Europe. (Who knows where I got this idea)
I now know what the Eire Canal is. It’s a road of water. A scenic road that is in the middle of nowhere, and takes you to somewhere, but along the way there is no place to really stop. If you picture this kind of road, (like maybe a desolate back road) only water, that’s what the Eire Canal is. With all of that said, it is beautiful. There are lots of hills, and some mountains, and almost always there are trees growing up to the canal edge. Most of what we are on is the Mohawk River, but it is connected by man-made waterways, and lots of locks. (We have gone through 19 in two days). Yesterday we went through a lock that lifted us up over 40 feet, in about 11 minutes.
We untied at about 6:30 yesterday, and made it to our first lock at exactly 7AM. The sky was a bright blue, sunny, and with a slight chill in the air. (About 64 degrees) This is one of the few times since we have left home that I had to wear a sweat suit to drive the boat. The night we spent in Amsterdam we had the misfortune to meet a couple of boats that were going the same place we were. These were two McKenna 57 foot boats that had captains on them and they were delivering them somewhere. We don’t know where because we didn’t want to talk to them. (To long a story, let’s just say they were not your normal kind of boaters) Anyway….as I have said there is a speed limit of 10 MPH on the waterway, and we wanted to get ahead of these guys, so we wouldn’t have to lock through with them all of the way. When we left the lock wall in Amsterdam there was no sign on life on their boats so we knew we would make it to the first lock before them, and stay ahead of them all day. Well, by the second lock (where we had a slight delay getting in the lock) they were right behind us, and we knew they would probably catch us at the next lock. As we were locking through, and talking to the lockmaster, we mentioned these two boats behind us, and he said he had heard about them. It seems that they had already had two warnings about their speed. He went on to tell us that although he personally couldn’t give them a ticket, he could sure make their life miserable, by finding all kinds of ways to slow down the lock process. Well that was at lock # 12, and for the rest of the day we were talking to the lockmasters warning them about the two upcoming McKenna boats. It became a game to Steve, and he was really having a good time trying to get the lockmasters to delay these guys coming through the locks. (Like saying “Why do you think those guys feel that all lockmasters are hicks”?) By the end of the day they ended up being a couple of hours behind us, and I’m sure very frustrated with the slowness of the New York Canal System.
We reached Ilion NY by about 2:30 in the afternoon. It was really too early to stop, but it was the only place for quite a while where you could tie up, and have electricity as well. So we took advantage of it, and made it a relaxing afternoon of cleaning up the boat, and telling stories.
At the marina (they call it a marina, but actually it’s not a marina, it’s just a long wall where about 8 to 10 boats can tie up) they said you could you could call two different local restaurants, and they would come and get you for dinner. We studied the different menus, and decided on one, and I called for reservations, and a pick-up. It really worked out great. Not only did they pick us up, but the food was great, and on the way back the owners wife stopped at the grocery store so we could run in and get a couple of things. Back at the boat we had a nightcap, watched a little TV, and off to bed. Two good days on the Erie Canal.
I’ll keep you posted.
BK.
Wednesday, July 05, 2000
Chapter 62: Troy to Amsterdam
Log 62
Troy NY to Amsterdam NY
5:10 AM
Wednesday, July 05, 2000
Tied to lock #11 wall
Amsterdam NY.
Day
The guidebook says to leave Troy docks at 7 AM to get the best jump on the Eire Canal, and that is exactly what we did. Steve and I were both up early. I got up to write this log, and he must have got up to clean, because that is exactly what he did. By the time 6:30 came around we were both antsy to get started, and by 6:45 we were rolling.
The first lock was Troy Lock, and it was only about ½ mile away. They opened at 7 AM, and were their first customer. We were also joined by a 60+ foot Viking Sport Fish (Eagle One) who was behind us at the Troy Town Dock. They had a captain, and crew aboard, as well as the new owners, and were heading to Sturgeon Bay, WI.
Once we exited the Troy Lock we only had about 2 miles to go before we had to make a decision on whether we go north toward Lake Champlain, or west on the Eire Canal. The first lock we came to was Lock #2. (No fancy names for these New Yorkers….and where did lock #1 go to?) It was an old lock and when you got to the top of the 45-foot lift you could look over at the original lock that was dug by hand back over 170 years ago. We no more than got out of that lock and we were back in another one (Lock #3). Then another, then another. We actually went through 5 locks in about 2 to 3 miles. All of them lifted us between 15 and 45 feet, so before we were done we had been lifted about 167 feet in a very short time. Once we got out of lock # 6 things started to spread out a little, and the locks were about 30 minutes to an hour apart. This is the way they explain them in the guidebook, and the reason is they have a speed limit on the water, and so everyone goes the same speed if you are “canalling”.
So far this has been very different than I expected. I pictured a fairly narrow canal that was man made, and all along the way there would be towns where boats could tie up, and walk into the towns to enjoy the local flair. In fact what we have found is very similar to the Illinois River, and it’s locking system. In this case we are on the Mohawk River, and you really don’t see any marinas of any size. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. It is very pretty, and a pleasure to navigate, it’s just not what I expected. Yet. As I read the book I think some of those towns where you tie up near there downtown areas may be coming up. (At least they show pictures that look like that)
We got to lock #11 about 2:30, and after going through we saw a pretty little park, and it was located next to a town, so we decided to stop for the night. (There were no marinas for a long ways ahead) Once we tied up to the lock wall Steve and Claudia went exploring into town (Amsterdam) to get their bearings, and see where we could eat dinner. After about an hour they came back to announce that based on their observations the town was a lost cause, and the best place to eat was on the boat. (So much for quaint little towns with lots of personality)
The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing, and reading about what was to come on the canal. (I have read that book a few times now, but I’m still not sure where we will end up, because it’s hard to plan with all of the locks) We did end up eating on the boat (great chicken on the grill with some of Debs great pan fried potatoes) and just sitting around watching the boats go by. We ended the evening watching Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and the New York Fireworks on TV. In total we had a great first day on Eire Canal.
Today…
The sun is up now, and it promises to be a very pretty day. We need to get out of here by 6:30 so we can be at lock #12 by 7 AM when they open. That should give us a good start on the day. I don’t know where we’ll end up yet; we’ll just have to see how the locks treat us.
By the way Happy Anniversary to Les and Ann Walleck. I know today is their wedding anniversary, but I’m not sure how many years. 26? Have a great day!!
I’ll keep you posted…
BK.
Troy NY to Amsterdam NY
5:10 AM
Wednesday, July 05, 2000
Tied to lock #11 wall
Amsterdam NY.
Day
The guidebook says to leave Troy docks at 7 AM to get the best jump on the Eire Canal, and that is exactly what we did. Steve and I were both up early. I got up to write this log, and he must have got up to clean, because that is exactly what he did. By the time 6:30 came around we were both antsy to get started, and by 6:45 we were rolling.
The first lock was Troy Lock, and it was only about ½ mile away. They opened at 7 AM, and were their first customer. We were also joined by a 60+ foot Viking Sport Fish (Eagle One) who was behind us at the Troy Town Dock. They had a captain, and crew aboard, as well as the new owners, and were heading to Sturgeon Bay, WI.
Once we exited the Troy Lock we only had about 2 miles to go before we had to make a decision on whether we go north toward Lake Champlain, or west on the Eire Canal. The first lock we came to was Lock #2. (No fancy names for these New Yorkers….and where did lock #1 go to?) It was an old lock and when you got to the top of the 45-foot lift you could look over at the original lock that was dug by hand back over 170 years ago. We no more than got out of that lock and we were back in another one (Lock #3). Then another, then another. We actually went through 5 locks in about 2 to 3 miles. All of them lifted us between 15 and 45 feet, so before we were done we had been lifted about 167 feet in a very short time. Once we got out of lock # 6 things started to spread out a little, and the locks were about 30 minutes to an hour apart. This is the way they explain them in the guidebook, and the reason is they have a speed limit on the water, and so everyone goes the same speed if you are “canalling”.
So far this has been very different than I expected. I pictured a fairly narrow canal that was man made, and all along the way there would be towns where boats could tie up, and walk into the towns to enjoy the local flair. In fact what we have found is very similar to the Illinois River, and it’s locking system. In this case we are on the Mohawk River, and you really don’t see any marinas of any size. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. It is very pretty, and a pleasure to navigate, it’s just not what I expected. Yet. As I read the book I think some of those towns where you tie up near there downtown areas may be coming up. (At least they show pictures that look like that)
We got to lock #11 about 2:30, and after going through we saw a pretty little park, and it was located next to a town, so we decided to stop for the night. (There were no marinas for a long ways ahead) Once we tied up to the lock wall Steve and Claudia went exploring into town (Amsterdam) to get their bearings, and see where we could eat dinner. After about an hour they came back to announce that based on their observations the town was a lost cause, and the best place to eat was on the boat. (So much for quaint little towns with lots of personality)
The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing, and reading about what was to come on the canal. (I have read that book a few times now, but I’m still not sure where we will end up, because it’s hard to plan with all of the locks) We did end up eating on the boat (great chicken on the grill with some of Debs great pan fried potatoes) and just sitting around watching the boats go by. We ended the evening watching Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and the New York Fireworks on TV. In total we had a great first day on Eire Canal.
Today…
The sun is up now, and it promises to be a very pretty day. We need to get out of here by 6:30 so we can be at lock #12 by 7 AM when they open. That should give us a good start on the day. I don’t know where we’ll end up yet; we’ll just have to see how the locks treat us.
By the way Happy Anniversary to Les and Ann Walleck. I know today is their wedding anniversary, but I’m not sure how many years. 26? Have a great day!!
I’ll keep you posted…
BK.
Monday, July 03, 2000
Chapter 61: Kingston to Troy
Log 61
Kingston NY to Troy NY
4:00 PM (cocktail hour)
Monday, July 03, 2000
Troy Town Dock Marina
Troy NY.
I thought I’d try something different. With Steve Larry aboard he gets up so early that I don’t have time to write a morning log sometimes, so I thought I’d get a jump on today’s entry.
Today we went from Kingston to Troy NY. About 60 miles on the Hudson River. It was an easy trip, and we made it to our dock about 2 PM.
The morning started out with a bright sun, and very little wind. Kingston looked quite a bit different than it did last night, with all of the festivities going on. Most of those happy boaters last night, were still sleeping this morning as we passed them on the creek that led us back to Hideaway Marina. Steve was up early, and cleaning the boat like we were going to sell it, or something. I tried to get off a log, and ended up doing so, but it was tough to concentrate with him scurrying around everywhere. We needed fuel, so we left our slip at about 7:30, in order to go out in the channel, and around the bend to another marina that opened at 8 AM. They had fuel, but the cost was $1.89 a gallon. Yikes, we have finally hit that high priced fuel that we heard about. I decided not to fill up, and hope the price would get cheaper somewhere else.
The trip north was about the same as yesterday. The Hudson continues to impress us. High banks, beautiful scenery and easy to navigate. The only thing to worry about is all of the debris that is floating. To most boaters it would be a big deal, but if you have boated on all the rivers we have, you are somewhat used to it. Anyway, if you keep a sharp eye out you have no problem.
We got here a little earlier than normal because I went fast a good part of the way, and that allowed us time to get to the grocery store, and also the hardware store. For a while now we have had a problem with the faucet in the galley. It has one of those sprayers on it, and all of a sudden it quit coming out of the faucet, and will only come out of the sprayer. At first it seemed like a big hassle, but we have learned to live with it. When Steve got aboard he thought he knew how to fix it, so when we got here today he took it apart. The good news is, it was exactly as he had said, and we took off about 8 blocks to the hardware store. The bad news is they didn’t have the thing we needed, so we wasted a trip. (Well not totally, because we stopped at the liquor store on the way back and got a few things. Which reminds me it’s almost time for a gin and tonic)
4:30 AM
Tuesday, July 04, 2000
I ended the log at exactly the point above, and got a gin and tonic, and never made it back to it, so I’ll finish it now.
As the time shows, it’s very early here. I woke up at about 4, and thought about the day, and all we had to do, so I just got up. The coffee is brewing, the weather channel is on, and I’m on a boat, so I’m getting a great start to this Forth of July.. Although it’s dark outside, it looks like it will be a nice day here.
Meanwhile….back to yesterday.
On our way back from the hardware store, it started to rain, and continued for the next couple of hours. Steve and Claudia decided to hitch a ride to the local grocery store, and Deb and I stayed on the boat. I needed to have some time to review the cruising guide and get an understanding of the Eire Canal. (Which is why I ended the log so abruptly above) Once back from the store we all cleaned up, and made it up to the local Brewery for some dinner, and got to bed early, so we could be ready for an early morning.
Side note: I forgot to tell you a great story that happened while we were in Kingston. The marina we stayed in (Hideaway Marina) was located all the way back on a small creek. It was very narrow, and normally only smaller boats were back there, but the owner said he had room, so we ended up tying up to a dock next to the boat ramp. (Actually it was the one you use to tie to when you drop off your boat) The dock was about 40 or 45 feet long, and our boat is 50 feet. Anyway, it was tight getting around us in the channel. As we were sitting on the boat waiting for the fireworks, a sailboat, with the wife driving, were going past us when she ran aground. (It was low tide, and she only had about 3 to 4 feet of water) You could tell the husband was upset, and he was explaining to his spouse the rules of the road, and what she had done wrong. After a fair amount of animation (with a lot of people sitting on their boats watching all of this) he took over and tried, in vain, to use the engine to get off the mud. About this time the owner of the marina (a big guy that looks like an older Grizzly Adams with a pony tail) came over in his boat to help him by pulling him backwards off the shoal. It was obvious to everyone watching that the husband was making a big deal about this, and was directing everything. Well Grizzly (actually his name was John) did just what he should and pulled the sailboat backwards, and she (the boat, not the wife) was floating again. The husband, now completely in charge, was going to show his wife the way this should be done. He reached down to fire up the outboard engine that powered their boat, and really gave it the gas. The boat took off, and he drove it exactly where his wife had gone, only this time much faster, and in front of the entire world he ran aground, much harder, because of his speed. It was great. Everyone cheered, and clapped, and he went below, telling everyone that he was done, and his wife was in charge. Which, from my point of view, was a smart decision, because when John pulled her off the shoal, she calmly drove off without a problem.
Back to today…..
It’s starting to get light out now (5:10). The weather channel shows it will be mostly sunny, and somewhere in the 80’s. I’m not sure how far we will get today on the Canal. I’ve done some reading about the trip ahead, but I need to do more, just as soon as I finish this. (Then I’ll use my cell phone to send it off) I do know that we have about 28 locks to go through before we get to Oswego NY, where we will leave the boat for a couple of weeks while I go back to work. I also know that the accommodations along the way will be somewhat less that we have come accustomed to. Rather than normal marinas, we will be tied along walls of towns, or lock walls. As I look at the guides it talks about electricity availability (or lack there of). There is a good chance we will be running the generator some nights. Oh well it’ll be an adventure.
So I guess I should get going. Steve will be up soon, and we need to be ready to leave about 6:45, because the locks open at 7 AM.
I’ll keep you posted….
BK.
Kingston NY to Troy NY
4:00 PM (cocktail hour)
Monday, July 03, 2000
Troy Town Dock Marina
Troy NY.
I thought I’d try something different. With Steve Larry aboard he gets up so early that I don’t have time to write a morning log sometimes, so I thought I’d get a jump on today’s entry.
Today we went from Kingston to Troy NY. About 60 miles on the Hudson River. It was an easy trip, and we made it to our dock about 2 PM.
The morning started out with a bright sun, and very little wind. Kingston looked quite a bit different than it did last night, with all of the festivities going on. Most of those happy boaters last night, were still sleeping this morning as we passed them on the creek that led us back to Hideaway Marina. Steve was up early, and cleaning the boat like we were going to sell it, or something. I tried to get off a log, and ended up doing so, but it was tough to concentrate with him scurrying around everywhere. We needed fuel, so we left our slip at about 7:30, in order to go out in the channel, and around the bend to another marina that opened at 8 AM. They had fuel, but the cost was $1.89 a gallon. Yikes, we have finally hit that high priced fuel that we heard about. I decided not to fill up, and hope the price would get cheaper somewhere else.
The trip north was about the same as yesterday. The Hudson continues to impress us. High banks, beautiful scenery and easy to navigate. The only thing to worry about is all of the debris that is floating. To most boaters it would be a big deal, but if you have boated on all the rivers we have, you are somewhat used to it. Anyway, if you keep a sharp eye out you have no problem.
We got here a little earlier than normal because I went fast a good part of the way, and that allowed us time to get to the grocery store, and also the hardware store. For a while now we have had a problem with the faucet in the galley. It has one of those sprayers on it, and all of a sudden it quit coming out of the faucet, and will only come out of the sprayer. At first it seemed like a big hassle, but we have learned to live with it. When Steve got aboard he thought he knew how to fix it, so when we got here today he took it apart. The good news is, it was exactly as he had said, and we took off about 8 blocks to the hardware store. The bad news is they didn’t have the thing we needed, so we wasted a trip. (Well not totally, because we stopped at the liquor store on the way back and got a few things. Which reminds me it’s almost time for a gin and tonic)
4:30 AM
Tuesday, July 04, 2000
I ended the log at exactly the point above, and got a gin and tonic, and never made it back to it, so I’ll finish it now.
As the time shows, it’s very early here. I woke up at about 4, and thought about the day, and all we had to do, so I just got up. The coffee is brewing, the weather channel is on, and I’m on a boat, so I’m getting a great start to this Forth of July.. Although it’s dark outside, it looks like it will be a nice day here.
Meanwhile….back to yesterday.
On our way back from the hardware store, it started to rain, and continued for the next couple of hours. Steve and Claudia decided to hitch a ride to the local grocery store, and Deb and I stayed on the boat. I needed to have some time to review the cruising guide and get an understanding of the Eire Canal. (Which is why I ended the log so abruptly above) Once back from the store we all cleaned up, and made it up to the local Brewery for some dinner, and got to bed early, so we could be ready for an early morning.
Side note: I forgot to tell you a great story that happened while we were in Kingston. The marina we stayed in (Hideaway Marina) was located all the way back on a small creek. It was very narrow, and normally only smaller boats were back there, but the owner said he had room, so we ended up tying up to a dock next to the boat ramp. (Actually it was the one you use to tie to when you drop off your boat) The dock was about 40 or 45 feet long, and our boat is 50 feet. Anyway, it was tight getting around us in the channel. As we were sitting on the boat waiting for the fireworks, a sailboat, with the wife driving, were going past us when she ran aground. (It was low tide, and she only had about 3 to 4 feet of water) You could tell the husband was upset, and he was explaining to his spouse the rules of the road, and what she had done wrong. After a fair amount of animation (with a lot of people sitting on their boats watching all of this) he took over and tried, in vain, to use the engine to get off the mud. About this time the owner of the marina (a big guy that looks like an older Grizzly Adams with a pony tail) came over in his boat to help him by pulling him backwards off the shoal. It was obvious to everyone watching that the husband was making a big deal about this, and was directing everything. Well Grizzly (actually his name was John) did just what he should and pulled the sailboat backwards, and she (the boat, not the wife) was floating again. The husband, now completely in charge, was going to show his wife the way this should be done. He reached down to fire up the outboard engine that powered their boat, and really gave it the gas. The boat took off, and he drove it exactly where his wife had gone, only this time much faster, and in front of the entire world he ran aground, much harder, because of his speed. It was great. Everyone cheered, and clapped, and he went below, telling everyone that he was done, and his wife was in charge. Which, from my point of view, was a smart decision, because when John pulled her off the shoal, she calmly drove off without a problem.
Back to today…..
It’s starting to get light out now (5:10). The weather channel shows it will be mostly sunny, and somewhere in the 80’s. I’m not sure how far we will get today on the Canal. I’ve done some reading about the trip ahead, but I need to do more, just as soon as I finish this. (Then I’ll use my cell phone to send it off) I do know that we have about 28 locks to go through before we get to Oswego NY, where we will leave the boat for a couple of weeks while I go back to work. I also know that the accommodations along the way will be somewhat less that we have come accustomed to. Rather than normal marinas, we will be tied along walls of towns, or lock walls. As I look at the guides it talks about electricity availability (or lack there of). There is a good chance we will be running the generator some nights. Oh well it’ll be an adventure.
So I guess I should get going. Steve will be up soon, and we need to be ready to leave about 6:45, because the locks open at 7 AM.
I’ll keep you posted….
BK.
Chapter 60: New York City to Kingston
Log 60
NYC to Kingston, NY.
5:50 AM
Monday, July 03, 2000
Hideaway Marina
Kingston, NY.
Day 78
Steve and Claudia arrived right on schedule. They caught a 6:30 AM flight from Chicago, and got to the boat about 10:30 on Saturday. The day was just beautiful. Sunny, and about 83 degrees.
Once we straightened up their stuff, we took a cruise of the New York Harbor. We went up the East River, which is between Manhattan, and Brooklyn. (I’m assuming somewhere along here we went under the Brooklyn Bridge) This is also the river that takes you out to Long Island Sound. We also went along, and around the Statue of Liberty again. Quite a sight from the boat.
For dinner we took the ferry from our marina to Manhattan. We have done that three times now, looking for a place to eat. The first time was with Rome and Theresa, and we ate at a place called Fox Hounds. The next time just Deb and I went over (on Friday night), we thought it over, and we ate at a place called Fox Hounds. On Saturday night with Steve and Claudia we introduced them to a great place called…..you guessed it…..Fox Hounds. Hey it was a good place.
Sunday…
We left New York with a lot going on. Here is a small example…
· They are expecting about 40 million people to be on the New Jersey Turnpike.
· About 160 Tall Ships will be there. The largest gathering in history.
· The carrier “The John F. Kennedy” will be in the harbor with President Clinton on board.
· They plan on the largest fireworks display in the world.
· They expect 40,000 boats in the harbor to see the fireworks. Yes…that’s 40 THOUSAND!
· Protection?? The State Police—Secret Service—NYC Police—FBI—Coast Guard and the Navy.
They are missing one thing though. Headquarters. We got the heck out of there, so I guess there will only be 39,999 boats now. (Call me boring, but there is no way I would want to be a part of that)
The trip up the Hudson was just awesome. It was everything I could ever expect, and a lot more. The first thing we encountered was a May Day call on the ship to shore radio. Someone was calling the Coast Guard saying they were taking on water and sinking near the George Washington Bridge. This was interesting to me, because we were just south of the bridge, and I immediately got the binoculars out and looked to see if I could see someone, and possibly help. The strange thing was no one was around. The caller told the Coast Guard they had 5 persons aboard, and going down. For the next few minutes there was a lot of chatter on the radio, but no one heard from the distressed boat again. I called the Coast Guard, and told them I was near the bridge, and I didn’t see anyone. The next thing you see is a Police boat, and then a helicopter, and then a Coast Guard boat. We saw the Coast Guard up close. Very close. In fact they had their blue lights on and pulled us over. They asked us a lot of questions, and took our boat information. I think, and so do they, that it was a crank call. A shame to have all of that happen for nothing, but it was an exciting way to leave the city.
North of NYC the Hudson is absolutely spectacular. Tall cliffs line the sides of the water, and it is wide and easy to navigate. In fact the entire 90 miles we went yesterday was very pretty. We passed West Point (that was really neat) and made our way up to Kingston, NY. All along the way we passed boats heading south. We assumed they were all heading to NY for the big show. It was a beautiful day, and a joy to spend it on a boat on the Hudson.
The Guide Book describes Kingston as sort of oasis. It is the only main stop off between NYC and Troy, NY. (Which is where we turn west, and join the Eire Canal) What we found in Kingston was a small town in need of jobs. They were having their July 4th celebration, and you could tell there was a fair amount of poverty. Nonetheless, everyone was having a great time. We found our way from our marina, to Rosita’s, a Mexican restaurant in the heart of town. It turned out to be a good place to eat, and afterwards we walked around the town, and watched all of the festivities. The boats were fender to fender. All waiting to see the main event. The fireworks. Which I must say was very good. (Although I can’t figure out why they have to have them so late. 9:45 Come on.) Good day!
I’ll keep you posted.
BK.
NYC to Kingston, NY.
5:50 AM
Monday, July 03, 2000
Hideaway Marina
Kingston, NY.
Day 78
Steve and Claudia arrived right on schedule. They caught a 6:30 AM flight from Chicago, and got to the boat about 10:30 on Saturday. The day was just beautiful. Sunny, and about 83 degrees.
Once we straightened up their stuff, we took a cruise of the New York Harbor. We went up the East River, which is between Manhattan, and Brooklyn. (I’m assuming somewhere along here we went under the Brooklyn Bridge) This is also the river that takes you out to Long Island Sound. We also went along, and around the Statue of Liberty again. Quite a sight from the boat.
For dinner we took the ferry from our marina to Manhattan. We have done that three times now, looking for a place to eat. The first time was with Rome and Theresa, and we ate at a place called Fox Hounds. The next time just Deb and I went over (on Friday night), we thought it over, and we ate at a place called Fox Hounds. On Saturday night with Steve and Claudia we introduced them to a great place called…..you guessed it…..Fox Hounds. Hey it was a good place.
Sunday…
We left New York with a lot going on. Here is a small example…
· They are expecting about 40 million people to be on the New Jersey Turnpike.
· About 160 Tall Ships will be there. The largest gathering in history.
· The carrier “The John F. Kennedy” will be in the harbor with President Clinton on board.
· They plan on the largest fireworks display in the world.
· They expect 40,000 boats in the harbor to see the fireworks. Yes…that’s 40 THOUSAND!
· Protection?? The State Police—Secret Service—NYC Police—FBI—Coast Guard and the Navy.
They are missing one thing though. Headquarters. We got the heck out of there, so I guess there will only be 39,999 boats now. (Call me boring, but there is no way I would want to be a part of that)
The trip up the Hudson was just awesome. It was everything I could ever expect, and a lot more. The first thing we encountered was a May Day call on the ship to shore radio. Someone was calling the Coast Guard saying they were taking on water and sinking near the George Washington Bridge. This was interesting to me, because we were just south of the bridge, and I immediately got the binoculars out and looked to see if I could see someone, and possibly help. The strange thing was no one was around. The caller told the Coast Guard they had 5 persons aboard, and going down. For the next few minutes there was a lot of chatter on the radio, but no one heard from the distressed boat again. I called the Coast Guard, and told them I was near the bridge, and I didn’t see anyone. The next thing you see is a Police boat, and then a helicopter, and then a Coast Guard boat. We saw the Coast Guard up close. Very close. In fact they had their blue lights on and pulled us over. They asked us a lot of questions, and took our boat information. I think, and so do they, that it was a crank call. A shame to have all of that happen for nothing, but it was an exciting way to leave the city.
North of NYC the Hudson is absolutely spectacular. Tall cliffs line the sides of the water, and it is wide and easy to navigate. In fact the entire 90 miles we went yesterday was very pretty. We passed West Point (that was really neat) and made our way up to Kingston, NY. All along the way we passed boats heading south. We assumed they were all heading to NY for the big show. It was a beautiful day, and a joy to spend it on a boat on the Hudson.
The Guide Book describes Kingston as sort of oasis. It is the only main stop off between NYC and Troy, NY. (Which is where we turn west, and join the Eire Canal) What we found in Kingston was a small town in need of jobs. They were having their July 4th celebration, and you could tell there was a fair amount of poverty. Nonetheless, everyone was having a great time. We found our way from our marina, to Rosita’s, a Mexican restaurant in the heart of town. It turned out to be a good place to eat, and afterwards we walked around the town, and watched all of the festivities. The boats were fender to fender. All waiting to see the main event. The fireworks. Which I must say was very good. (Although I can’t figure out why they have to have them so late. 9:45 Come on.) Good day!
I’ll keep you posted.
BK.
Saturday, July 01, 2000
Chapter 59: New York City
GCT Log 59
New York City
5:30 AM
Saturday, July 01, 2000
Liberty Landing Marina
Jersey City, NJ.
Day 78
Well the boat hasn’t moved for the last two weeks, but I thought I’d keep everyone up to date.
We arrived New York on Friday, June 17th. It was a great day, and quite spectacular to come into the New York Harbor, and see the Statue of Liberty. I ended up leaving the boat the next day, (While everyone else stayed on the boat, and went home on Sunday) and heading for Richmond, VA, and I stayed there the next 12 days. I came home from Richmond on Wednesday, June 28th, and after a day in the office, Deb and I headed back to the boat.
Yesterday (Friday, June 30th) Deb and I flew from Chicago to Newark, NJ, and took a short cab ride to the boat. It’s really easy to get here, because all you do is tell the cab driver to head to the Statue of Liberty State Park. The boat was just as we left it, only a little dirtier. (Which I need to work on as soon as it gets a little warmer) We did have to move the boat yesterday to another slip in the marina because they are trying to make room for some of the tall ships that will be coming in. (we leave in the morning, so I’m not sure if we’ll get to see any)
The rest of the day yesterday was spent just getting our bearings again, and organizing the boat. I have been so busy, that I didn’t even have a plan on where we would stay once we head north up the Hudson, so I worked on making those reservations. (Which turned out to be quite a hassle because of July 4th) Deb got ready for our next crew.
Once we were organized, we needed to get some groceries, so we caught a ferry from our marina to Manhattan. (5 minute ride across the Hudson for $5) Our plan was to get an early dinner, and then stop at a grocery store on our way back. (It does make you think about what you will buy when you know you have to carry it back on a ferry) We went to the same restaurant that we ate at when we were here a couple of weeks ago, and were not disappointed. As I had said before, it is typical New York, and the food is good. Plus…. they have a grocery store across the street.
After our trip to NY, we were back at the boat before 8PM. It was a beautiful night, so Deb went up top to watch all of the activity. I joined her for a while, but I got up way too early yesterday, so I didn’t last long. In fact we were both in bed by 9:30.
Today..
New crew this morning. Steve, and Claudia Larry (Steve is a VP with our company) will join us for the week, and our trip to Lake Ontario. They fly in from Chicago, and should arrive about 11 AM. As I said, I haven’t done a very good job of planning this week yet, so I’ve got to get busy and do this.
The sun is up now, and it looks like it will be a beautiful day in New York. I need to install our new radio on the bridge (the one to replace the one that got wet when we were in Wrightsville Beach, NC) I also need to wash the boat, and get ready to head up the Hudson, and across the Eire Canal.
No more salt water. Only fresh water from here on.
Leg # 4 begins today.
I’ll keep you posted…
BK.
New York City
5:30 AM
Saturday, July 01, 2000
Liberty Landing Marina
Jersey City, NJ.
Day 78
Well the boat hasn’t moved for the last two weeks, but I thought I’d keep everyone up to date.
We arrived New York on Friday, June 17th. It was a great day, and quite spectacular to come into the New York Harbor, and see the Statue of Liberty. I ended up leaving the boat the next day, (While everyone else stayed on the boat, and went home on Sunday) and heading for Richmond, VA, and I stayed there the next 12 days. I came home from Richmond on Wednesday, June 28th, and after a day in the office, Deb and I headed back to the boat.
Yesterday (Friday, June 30th) Deb and I flew from Chicago to Newark, NJ, and took a short cab ride to the boat. It’s really easy to get here, because all you do is tell the cab driver to head to the Statue of Liberty State Park. The boat was just as we left it, only a little dirtier. (Which I need to work on as soon as it gets a little warmer) We did have to move the boat yesterday to another slip in the marina because they are trying to make room for some of the tall ships that will be coming in. (we leave in the morning, so I’m not sure if we’ll get to see any)
The rest of the day yesterday was spent just getting our bearings again, and organizing the boat. I have been so busy, that I didn’t even have a plan on where we would stay once we head north up the Hudson, so I worked on making those reservations. (Which turned out to be quite a hassle because of July 4th) Deb got ready for our next crew.
Once we were organized, we needed to get some groceries, so we caught a ferry from our marina to Manhattan. (5 minute ride across the Hudson for $5) Our plan was to get an early dinner, and then stop at a grocery store on our way back. (It does make you think about what you will buy when you know you have to carry it back on a ferry) We went to the same restaurant that we ate at when we were here a couple of weeks ago, and were not disappointed. As I had said before, it is typical New York, and the food is good. Plus…. they have a grocery store across the street.
After our trip to NY, we were back at the boat before 8PM. It was a beautiful night, so Deb went up top to watch all of the activity. I joined her for a while, but I got up way too early yesterday, so I didn’t last long. In fact we were both in bed by 9:30.
Today..
New crew this morning. Steve, and Claudia Larry (Steve is a VP with our company) will join us for the week, and our trip to Lake Ontario. They fly in from Chicago, and should arrive about 11 AM. As I said, I haven’t done a very good job of planning this week yet, so I’ve got to get busy and do this.
The sun is up now, and it looks like it will be a beautiful day in New York. I need to install our new radio on the bridge (the one to replace the one that got wet when we were in Wrightsville Beach, NC) I also need to wash the boat, and get ready to head up the Hudson, and across the Eire Canal.
No more salt water. Only fresh water from here on.
Leg # 4 begins today.
I’ll keep you posted…
BK.
Wednesday, June 28, 2000
Chapter 58: Cape May to New York City
Log 58
Cape May, NJ to New York City
2:00 PM
Wednesday, June 28, 2000
Richmond Airport
Richmond, VA.
Day??
Well it’s time to update my logs. It has been some time since I sat down and tracked our progress, and a lot has happened. So let me get everyone updated.
Day 74
The trip from Cape May to Atlantic City was some the roughest of the entire trip. We had planned to leave Cape May early, but heavy fog, and rain had us rethink our decision, so we decided to delay our departure while the girls made us a great breakfast. While waiting I watched the weather, and
listened to the ship to shore. The prediction was for the rain to pass, and then to return again later in the day. As I waited, I got antsy, so we decided to leave about 9 AM, and try to head out and see what it was like.
The trip from the marina to the Atlantic was only a mile, or less. While we were heading out we could tell that it didn’t look to good, and as we entered the mouth of the channel the boat started to climb over the swells. By the time we were out in the Atlantic we could tell we were in for a long trip, even though it was only about 35 miles. Our course up to Atlantic City showed to be about 60 degrees on the autopilot, but the waves (on the dock they said they were 4 to 6 with a regular 7 tossed in for good measure) wouldn’t let me follow that heading because it was too rough. I ended up having to almost tack like a sail boat would in order to make it as comfortable as possible, and even then it was almost impossible to stand up. Deb found a new spot on the boat. She ended up perching between the kitchen counter, and the electrical panel. (I realize that doesn’t mean anything to some of you, but if you have been on the boat you’ll know exactly where I mean) That position was as far back as you can get inside the boat (which is always the smoothest spot) and it was next to the window, so she could see out. The good news was seeing out the window helped her not to be as sea sick (which she still was) but the bad news was she could see the large swells coming toward the boat, and occasionally she would call out “hold on” as a rouge wave would hit us on the side. The other thing about this leg was we couldn’t see hardly anything. The fog remained pretty thick, so I had to count on the radar to make sure we were tracking the shoreline. It was interesting.
We arrived Atlantic City about 1:30 PM. We stayed at Trump Plaza Marina, which is very close inside the harbor, and you would never guess that it was bad out there (the Atlantic) at all. Inside it was a light wind, and actually very pleasant. You could also tell it was starting to warm up, which is exactly what the prediction was.
The afternoon was spent recouping from the trip, and getting our bearings around the harbor. We all took a walk around the marina, and we also went into the large Trump casino attached to the marina. Looking back it was kind of neat to see that, but when we were there I didn’t take advantage of it at all. When I’m on a boat that is all I do. Boat.
For dinner we made reservations at the Trump Marina restaurant, and got a table overlooking the harbor. We had a great dinner, even though it was the most we had paid so far. You would think that after that we would all head to the casino to try our luck, but instead we didn’t even talk about it, and just naturally headed back to the boat. Looking back it seems strange, but at the time, it made perfect sense.
Day 75
The weather was predicted to be better than yesterday, but still 2 to 4 footers on the ocean. We decided to get an early start before the winds picked up, and things had a chance to stir up more than they were. Coming out of the harbor you could tell it was much better than the day before, but still fairly rough. We had about 50 miles to go to get to Manasquan Inlet, and the heading was about 35 degrees. We had now spent the last two days driving from inside, so this was normal for us to take our positions. Barb and Theresa on the couch, Rome up near the helm, and Deb on her “panel perch”. As it turned out the trip was not that bad. It certainly wasn’t smooth, but after the day before we were grateful for anything less. It was also a lot foggier. I had to keep a very close eye on the radar, because the visibility was down to less than a quarter of a mile. How do we know? Because a couple of times I had a strong signal on the radar which caused us to alter our course, and we found out when we got very close that they were boats sitting out there fishing, and you couldn’t see them until you were almost on top of them. Without the radar, we would have been lost. Seriously lost. But between the radar, autopilot, and chart plotter, we were in great shape. (A couple of times I pointed out to Deb what great decisions I had made by purchasing these badly needed items) They especially became important when we reached the mouth of Manasquan Inlet. It was so foggy we couldn’t find it, so I used the chart plotter to point to the center of the harbor, and the radar to keep us from hitting anyone. It worked, and once inside the harbor the sky was clear, and not foggy at all.
Rome called Manasquan a weekend town. You could tell it was meant for tourists to come down on a weekend and rent small houses, and condos along the ocean. There were a few marinas, and although they were fairly old, they were adequate. Our marina was nothing special, but it did border the town, and we could walk to a neat little bar/restaurant, which over looked the small harbor. We took advantage of that, and went over there for a late lunch. After lunch while others took walks, and relaxed I spent most of my time on the phone, and working on Pro Source stuff. Things were really heating up in Richmond, and I needed to be in touch. Based on what was going on, I needed to be making a decision shortly as to what I was going to do. I really needed to be there.
Dinner was planned on the boat. I’m sure we had something very good, but I honestly can’t remember what it was. (Hey………it’s been almost 2 weeks) In fact, I can’t seem to remember much about the rest of the evening, but as I say, I’m sure it was great!
Day 76
The day began with a beautiful morning, a bright sun, and no breeze. We had decided to leave early, so we could take advantage of the calm seas, and get to New York early. Everyone was up early, and looking forward to getting to New York. I was excited, and hoping that the Atlantic would cooperate with us today. For the last 3 days we had been in rough seas, and rough weather, and we needed a break. Well we got it. As we headed out into the Atlantic the swells were very gentle, and wide apart, and it made the going easy. Rather than drive from the lower helm, we decided to go up top, because we wanted to come into New York the right way. The sun was coming up, and it was really neat to see it develop over the top of all that water (I swear I could see London) I set up the chart plotter for a buoy in the middle of the New York City Hudson River channel, and locked the auto pilot in on that heading. (26 miles at about 22 degrees)
Side note: When we were in Manasquan we met another couple that were on a boat “The Patty” making the Great Circle Trip (I wonder why I always capitalize this?) This guy was a dandy. They had a single engine trawler style boat, and he was heading to New York too. During the afternoon before, he came over to our boat, and asked if he could tag along with us up to New York because, as he put it “I don’t know why this leg scares me so much, but I sure would like to follow someone into New York. If it’s nice out, no problem, but I’d like to follow you if you don’t mind.” What could I say? “No problem” I said”, we’ll leave at about 6:30”.
So anyway with “The Patty” close behind we were head’n to New York. As it turned out the swells were just enough to make me want to go a little faster than they could go, and it was a gorgeous morning, so I called The Patty and asked if they were ok, and if so I was going to pick it up a little so we could “ride” the swells. (The wind was out of the south, so the swells were almost on our stern)
The rest of the story has two versions. I’ll tell the good one first.
About half way to New York I brought the throttles back to almost an idle, and we traveled that way all the way in. The morning was just perfect. Sunny, with a slight breeze at our backs, and the anticipation of seeing The Statue of Liberty.
We hit our marker about 9:00, and joined the ship channel heading for the Hudson. The first thing that came into view was the New York skyline. The sun was still not all the way up yet, and it was great as it shined on the buildings. As this was happening, all of a sudden a butterfly appeared out of nowhere, and flew just above the fly bridge, as if to welcome us. Then we looked up and the Concord was flying above us, landing gear down, preparing to land. We were all commenting how neat this was when in the distance we could see three helicopters coming down the Hudson. As it turned out it was the President’s helicopter (well we can’t verify that he was in it, but it was the one you always see that lands on the White House lawn), and two escorts. By now we are thinking “WOW” this is quite a welcome.
The next thing we recognized was Coney Island, and then we spot the Empire State Building. I’m thinking this is really neat stuff, and I asked Deb to fix us a bloody mary so we’d be ready to toast when the Statue comes into view. With bloody mary in hand we come under the Verrenzano Bridge, which connects New Jersey to Manhattan. As we do the Statue of Liberty comes into view, and it was pretty special. I’m sure it didn’t have the same meaning that some of our ancestors felt, but I will tell you it was neat, and Barb must have taken a hundred pictures. In fact I just saw some of the pictures that Deb took, and they are great.
Once we passed the Statue we made our way up the Hudson a little ways to see what else we could see. (While we were doing this, a blimp flew overhead, and a jet fighter buzzed us, so the welcome from the sky was complete) The city is getting ready for the Tall Ships to arrive so there were posters everywhere, and people were getting ready to celebrate the 4th. We only went a mile or two up the Hudson, but it was quite a treat to see New York this way. (I can’t wait to go all the way up the Hudson on the next leg)
Our marina is called Liberty Landing. It’s located just across the Hudson from Manhattan, and right next to Ellis Island. As you sit on the back of the boat and look east you see the Manhattan skyline. Look to the Northeast and you see the Empire State Building, and if you look just a little south you see the Statue of Liberty. Like I said. Neat.
Once tied up in our slip we got our bearings, and toured the marina a little bit. The place was quite a buzz of activity because they had over 50 large “muscle boats” (Donnie….you would have loved it!) The dock master told me he was expecting the Mayor, celebrities, bands, and it was going to be quite a happening. He was right, but you could tell that these folks thought they were something special. They walked around like everyone else should be impressed or something. If so, we couldn’t tell why. Oh well.
For dinner we took the ferry that stopped at our marina, and went to Lower Manhattan, in the heart of the financial district, and found a neat “New York style” restaurant. It was not the best place we had ever eaten, but it was perfect for us to experience a typical New York eatery. On the ferry ride back, the night, and the view were just unbelievable. There was a full (and I mean we’re talking FULL) moon that was coming up over the skyline. Something I’ll always remember. Back at the boat everyone sat on the back deck, and enjoyed a Baileys before bed. Great Day!
I’ll keep you posted…
BK
Cape May, NJ to New York City
2:00 PM
Wednesday, June 28, 2000
Richmond Airport
Richmond, VA.
Day??
Well it’s time to update my logs. It has been some time since I sat down and tracked our progress, and a lot has happened. So let me get everyone updated.
Day 74
The trip from Cape May to Atlantic City was some the roughest of the entire trip. We had planned to leave Cape May early, but heavy fog, and rain had us rethink our decision, so we decided to delay our departure while the girls made us a great breakfast. While waiting I watched the weather, and
listened to the ship to shore. The prediction was for the rain to pass, and then to return again later in the day. As I waited, I got antsy, so we decided to leave about 9 AM, and try to head out and see what it was like.
The trip from the marina to the Atlantic was only a mile, or less. While we were heading out we could tell that it didn’t look to good, and as we entered the mouth of the channel the boat started to climb over the swells. By the time we were out in the Atlantic we could tell we were in for a long trip, even though it was only about 35 miles. Our course up to Atlantic City showed to be about 60 degrees on the autopilot, but the waves (on the dock they said they were 4 to 6 with a regular 7 tossed in for good measure) wouldn’t let me follow that heading because it was too rough. I ended up having to almost tack like a sail boat would in order to make it as comfortable as possible, and even then it was almost impossible to stand up. Deb found a new spot on the boat. She ended up perching between the kitchen counter, and the electrical panel. (I realize that doesn’t mean anything to some of you, but if you have been on the boat you’ll know exactly where I mean) That position was as far back as you can get inside the boat (which is always the smoothest spot) and it was next to the window, so she could see out. The good news was seeing out the window helped her not to be as sea sick (which she still was) but the bad news was she could see the large swells coming toward the boat, and occasionally she would call out “hold on” as a rouge wave would hit us on the side. The other thing about this leg was we couldn’t see hardly anything. The fog remained pretty thick, so I had to count on the radar to make sure we were tracking the shoreline. It was interesting.
We arrived Atlantic City about 1:30 PM. We stayed at Trump Plaza Marina, which is very close inside the harbor, and you would never guess that it was bad out there (the Atlantic) at all. Inside it was a light wind, and actually very pleasant. You could also tell it was starting to warm up, which is exactly what the prediction was.
The afternoon was spent recouping from the trip, and getting our bearings around the harbor. We all took a walk around the marina, and we also went into the large Trump casino attached to the marina. Looking back it was kind of neat to see that, but when we were there I didn’t take advantage of it at all. When I’m on a boat that is all I do. Boat.
For dinner we made reservations at the Trump Marina restaurant, and got a table overlooking the harbor. We had a great dinner, even though it was the most we had paid so far. You would think that after that we would all head to the casino to try our luck, but instead we didn’t even talk about it, and just naturally headed back to the boat. Looking back it seems strange, but at the time, it made perfect sense.
Day 75
The weather was predicted to be better than yesterday, but still 2 to 4 footers on the ocean. We decided to get an early start before the winds picked up, and things had a chance to stir up more than they were. Coming out of the harbor you could tell it was much better than the day before, but still fairly rough. We had about 50 miles to go to get to Manasquan Inlet, and the heading was about 35 degrees. We had now spent the last two days driving from inside, so this was normal for us to take our positions. Barb and Theresa on the couch, Rome up near the helm, and Deb on her “panel perch”. As it turned out the trip was not that bad. It certainly wasn’t smooth, but after the day before we were grateful for anything less. It was also a lot foggier. I had to keep a very close eye on the radar, because the visibility was down to less than a quarter of a mile. How do we know? Because a couple of times I had a strong signal on the radar which caused us to alter our course, and we found out when we got very close that they were boats sitting out there fishing, and you couldn’t see them until you were almost on top of them. Without the radar, we would have been lost. Seriously lost. But between the radar, autopilot, and chart plotter, we were in great shape. (A couple of times I pointed out to Deb what great decisions I had made by purchasing these badly needed items) They especially became important when we reached the mouth of Manasquan Inlet. It was so foggy we couldn’t find it, so I used the chart plotter to point to the center of the harbor, and the radar to keep us from hitting anyone. It worked, and once inside the harbor the sky was clear, and not foggy at all.
Rome called Manasquan a weekend town. You could tell it was meant for tourists to come down on a weekend and rent small houses, and condos along the ocean. There were a few marinas, and although they were fairly old, they were adequate. Our marina was nothing special, but it did border the town, and we could walk to a neat little bar/restaurant, which over looked the small harbor. We took advantage of that, and went over there for a late lunch. After lunch while others took walks, and relaxed I spent most of my time on the phone, and working on Pro Source stuff. Things were really heating up in Richmond, and I needed to be in touch. Based on what was going on, I needed to be making a decision shortly as to what I was going to do. I really needed to be there.
Dinner was planned on the boat. I’m sure we had something very good, but I honestly can’t remember what it was. (Hey………it’s been almost 2 weeks) In fact, I can’t seem to remember much about the rest of the evening, but as I say, I’m sure it was great!
Day 76
The day began with a beautiful morning, a bright sun, and no breeze. We had decided to leave early, so we could take advantage of the calm seas, and get to New York early. Everyone was up early, and looking forward to getting to New York. I was excited, and hoping that the Atlantic would cooperate with us today. For the last 3 days we had been in rough seas, and rough weather, and we needed a break. Well we got it. As we headed out into the Atlantic the swells were very gentle, and wide apart, and it made the going easy. Rather than drive from the lower helm, we decided to go up top, because we wanted to come into New York the right way. The sun was coming up, and it was really neat to see it develop over the top of all that water (I swear I could see London) I set up the chart plotter for a buoy in the middle of the New York City Hudson River channel, and locked the auto pilot in on that heading. (26 miles at about 22 degrees)
Side note: When we were in Manasquan we met another couple that were on a boat “The Patty” making the Great Circle Trip (I wonder why I always capitalize this?) This guy was a dandy. They had a single engine trawler style boat, and he was heading to New York too. During the afternoon before, he came over to our boat, and asked if he could tag along with us up to New York because, as he put it “I don’t know why this leg scares me so much, but I sure would like to follow someone into New York. If it’s nice out, no problem, but I’d like to follow you if you don’t mind.” What could I say? “No problem” I said”, we’ll leave at about 6:30”.
So anyway with “The Patty” close behind we were head’n to New York. As it turned out the swells were just enough to make me want to go a little faster than they could go, and it was a gorgeous morning, so I called The Patty and asked if they were ok, and if so I was going to pick it up a little so we could “ride” the swells. (The wind was out of the south, so the swells were almost on our stern)
The rest of the story has two versions. I’ll tell the good one first.
About half way to New York I brought the throttles back to almost an idle, and we traveled that way all the way in. The morning was just perfect. Sunny, with a slight breeze at our backs, and the anticipation of seeing The Statue of Liberty.
We hit our marker about 9:00, and joined the ship channel heading for the Hudson. The first thing that came into view was the New York skyline. The sun was still not all the way up yet, and it was great as it shined on the buildings. As this was happening, all of a sudden a butterfly appeared out of nowhere, and flew just above the fly bridge, as if to welcome us. Then we looked up and the Concord was flying above us, landing gear down, preparing to land. We were all commenting how neat this was when in the distance we could see three helicopters coming down the Hudson. As it turned out it was the President’s helicopter (well we can’t verify that he was in it, but it was the one you always see that lands on the White House lawn), and two escorts. By now we are thinking “WOW” this is quite a welcome.
The next thing we recognized was Coney Island, and then we spot the Empire State Building. I’m thinking this is really neat stuff, and I asked Deb to fix us a bloody mary so we’d be ready to toast when the Statue comes into view. With bloody mary in hand we come under the Verrenzano Bridge, which connects New Jersey to Manhattan. As we do the Statue of Liberty comes into view, and it was pretty special. I’m sure it didn’t have the same meaning that some of our ancestors felt, but I will tell you it was neat, and Barb must have taken a hundred pictures. In fact I just saw some of the pictures that Deb took, and they are great.
Once we passed the Statue we made our way up the Hudson a little ways to see what else we could see. (While we were doing this, a blimp flew overhead, and a jet fighter buzzed us, so the welcome from the sky was complete) The city is getting ready for the Tall Ships to arrive so there were posters everywhere, and people were getting ready to celebrate the 4th. We only went a mile or two up the Hudson, but it was quite a treat to see New York this way. (I can’t wait to go all the way up the Hudson on the next leg)
Our marina is called Liberty Landing. It’s located just across the Hudson from Manhattan, and right next to Ellis Island. As you sit on the back of the boat and look east you see the Manhattan skyline. Look to the Northeast and you see the Empire State Building, and if you look just a little south you see the Statue of Liberty. Like I said. Neat.
Once tied up in our slip we got our bearings, and toured the marina a little bit. The place was quite a buzz of activity because they had over 50 large “muscle boats” (Donnie….you would have loved it!) The dock master told me he was expecting the Mayor, celebrities, bands, and it was going to be quite a happening. He was right, but you could tell that these folks thought they were something special. They walked around like everyone else should be impressed or something. If so, we couldn’t tell why. Oh well.
For dinner we took the ferry that stopped at our marina, and went to Lower Manhattan, in the heart of the financial district, and found a neat “New York style” restaurant. It was not the best place we had ever eaten, but it was perfect for us to experience a typical New York eatery. On the ferry ride back, the night, and the view were just unbelievable. There was a full (and I mean we’re talking FULL) moon that was coming up over the skyline. Something I’ll always remember. Back at the boat everyone sat on the back deck, and enjoyed a Baileys before bed. Great Day!
I’ll keep you posted…
BK
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