Week two – Plan B

HAH! Bet you thought we did not have a Plan B. Well we did,

Since we were going to rent a car anyway, why not keep on moving to some new places and rent a car from there? After all in a boat (ours anyway) 40 miles is a day and 100 miles is several days. In a car 100 miles is two hours! So we moved on.

Monday, June 7

Traveling extra slow today – wind and current are against us. The Hudson River between Peekskill and Kingston is really beautiful. Traveling upriver in a canyon surrounded by green mountains (so OK to you westerners they are hills) is almost surrealistic at times. This is the section where we go past West Point, Storm King Mountain, Hyde Park, Bannerman's Castle and several lighthouses. As we approach Kingston we are passed by another Looper, "Magoo"(The Great Loop is the name given to the trip we are taking). Stayed at the Kingston Town Docks. There were finger piers that were about ten feet shorter than our boat, so a lot of boat was sticking out into the channel. There were no pilings to tie to so our dock lines were tied to the next dock over to keep us in the slip. Fortunately there were only two of us there that night. Kingston is a nice town, shops near the docks and a nice park. In keeping with our exceptional timing this trip, we arrived at 3:30, the market closed at 3:00 and was not open on Tuesday! The wine shop was open however so we were O.K.

Tuesday, June 8

Long day planned – 53 miles to Waterford and the Erie Canal. Clear and Cold. Wind kicked up a bit around the clouds, otherwise an uneventful day. We arrived at Waterford with no problems. We are now on the Erie Canal.

Wednesday, June 9

Work day. I fit one of the hatch covers and installed it. I shortened and fixed Annie's ramp. It rained heavily several times and we crammed seven people into the restaurant's jeep as we went to dinner at Trader Ed's with the crew from Magoo. Very good meal – no I skipped the wings. Watched the Flyers lose the Cup – bummer.

Also met a couple that used to keep their sailboat "Cygnus" at Greg's Neck Boatyard. For those that do not know- Greg's Neck is a really small yard in a really out of the way place. We had our boat there for several years, but since they left in May and did not return until after Labor Day we never really met them. It does amaze me how small the world is.

Thursday, June 10

We rented a car and drove the 100 miles back to Storm King Art Center. WOW! This is a 500 acre Sculpture Garden. It is modern sculpture, and they do have a tram that rides around to give you the overall picture, but to really appreciate it you need to walk. Many Alexander Calder and Lieberman steel sculptures, most of which were huge. After 3 ½ hours there we were bushed and we had really only scratched the surface.

On Magoo's recommendation we went to the Angry Penguin Bar for dinner. Fish and chips was the attraction, which Carole had. Of course I had to try the Buffalo Wings. After swearing she was not going to get fish and chips again unless it was in New Zealand, This place did it right. It was definitely a local as when we arrived they were in the middle of a two table Poker Tournament, which we watched for a while and got to talk with several of those that were out.

Wing score: Flavor 2, Meaty 4, Hot 2, Crispy 0 – Total 8

Friday, June 11

Lickety Split – into the Canal System

Carole is starting to take the wheel into the locks. I am now relegated to deck hand/line handler at the locks with cables. If there are ropes I get the wheel again – Carole can handle the boat part, but not the quick dash out of the flybridge to the back deck to grab a stern rope.

Weather is really nice today.

We went as far as lock 11 – 10 locks in all. Stayed on the wall past the lock. We had one working 15 amp receptacle which was being shared by a sailboat and a boombox. The boombox belonged to some picnickers who left shortly and we at least had a battery charger for the night.

The people on the sailboat invited us for drinks and found out that they were live-aboards and were planning to travel the Erie Canal and return this year.

Saturday, June 12

Annie Jumps ship.

This morning Carole accidentally turned on the Windshield wiper while Annie was laying against it on the foredeck. Annie jumped into the air and immediately abandoned ship on to the dock. She then turned around and sat down and looked at us. When we called her back aboard, she got up, put her tail between her legs and trotted down the dock to the sailboat and jumped aboard. I guess they were cooking breakfast and that smelled better than Windshield wiper up the butt.

Rainy and wet today – seems to rain harder when we have to get out on deck to go through a lock.

Our planned stop at Canajoharie was thwarted when the dock was full as we passed by. We continued on and stopped at Little Falls Canal Park. The dockage was not free, but was reasonable. We had a really nice evening with a Canadien couple on the Sailboat in front of us. They had completed a circumnavigation about four years ago and were living in Honduras. They were bringing this boat back to Canada to sell. They had a large Catamaran that they chartered in Honduras. Carole had made a beef stew and Laurie brought a Ceasar Salad. The salad reminded me as to what Ceasar Salad was supposed to be like.

Sunday, June 13

Short day today. Went to Lock 21 New London, NY, where we stayed at the lock wall. Lots of goose poop for Annie to roll in. A really quiet stop once Annie finished chasing the geese away. I spent the afternoon finishing the other hatch cover.

Monday, June 14

Across the little big water. We crossed Oneida Lake and stopped in Brewerton at the Terminal Wall. We thought we were going to the quiet end of the wall. As soon as we stopped, three dogs on the boat behind us got the barking started. It did quiet down after a while. It started again when a couple with two black labs and two teenage boys showed up. One lab loved to jump off the wall and get a ball. If the owner did not throw it, the dog would walk over to the edge and drop the ball in the water. He then waited until it floated a little way and jumped in after it. Meanwhile the other lab barked at him. Joined by Annie after a while, and then the three from the boat behind us. So we all contributed. Once they left with the labs all was quiet again.

I finally finished installing the rods for the new drapes at the back of the main cabin.

I noticed today that the batteries were not getting charged properly and the system was loading down. We needed the generator that night for about two hours and again the next morning. I will have to look into it.

Dinner at the Waterfront Tavern – Wings rating: Flavor 3, Hot 2, Crispy 4, Meaty 2 – Total 11

Tuesday, June 15

Day started out sunny. We moved about a mile upriver to Winter Harbor Marina for a planned two day stop. We refueled and moved to a dock. I used the afternoon to do an oil and filter change. We also refilled our water tank. There were about 12 looping boats there for the reunion by the evening. We wanted to go out to dinner, but both courtesy cars were gone – so corned beef hash and poached eggs for dinner – pretty good really.

Wednesday 16 June

Reunion Day

The Winter Harbor people sponsored a reunion. There were two speakers and then a barbeque. It was a great day for socializing – seem to be doing a lot of that lately.

I also used the day to swap out the alternators. I had been planning to install a high output alternator in place of my original (this is not the same one I had so much trouble with last year). I started the replacement by having the yard switch the pulleys on the two alternators. What a fiasco! To make a long story short – it would not work. The reason for the switch was to put the double pulley on the high output alternator (it cam with a single) as two belts can carry a higher load. It was not to be. By the time the yard got through with all of the changes, back and forth I had two beers in me and did not even consider finishing that night.

Winter Harbor put on a super bbq. There were about 40 people there. The women that worked there had mad several salads, and the owner and managers were cooking hamburgers, hot dogs, coneys, sausage, chicken and cheeseburgers. They also served Salt Potatoes. We had a really good time. We also learned a lot from the other loopers that had been to the places we were thinking about.

Thursday, 17 June – Saga of the alternator

I planned to finish my alternator installation this morning and get underway about noon, only a three hour trip planned. Carole was going to do laundry and we found out her prescription would not be ready until 1:30. No Problem.....

The first thing I found when I started to bolt the generator in place was that the fan was just touching the mounting bracket. Take off the alternator and grind a few thousandths off the bracket. Put the alternator back on. Put the old belt on – too long. Walk to the Marina shop and get a smaller belt. Walk back to the boat and try the belt – too short. The marina has nothing in between. Take a courtesy car to the NAPA store . It is about 5 miles away. Get a belt. Back to the boat. Try the belt – still too short.

Now there is no car available. Start back to the boat to wait. While I am waiting (Carole is still st the Laundromat) I decide to find out why our refrigerator will not work on Propane. So I take it out of the wall to check it out. An initial inspection finds nothing wrong and with one pair of hands I can not try starting it and watch the the ignition process at the same time. So I leave that and go to see if a courtesy car has returned. No joy. But another looper that has a car there offers me a ride to the NAPA store and I get another belt – finally the right size! I finish the wiring, clean everything up and a quick test shows all looks good.

Meanwhile I have a refrigerator on the cabin sole. When Carole returns we get to test everything out, and I find nothing wrong. I opened up the gas line all the way to the burner and it looks like the burner is not clogged. I blow it out anyway and put everything back together planning to call the company later. Just for grins I tried to start the refrigerator on propane and it makes a fool of me and starts.

I did get an idea as to why it uses so much power when it is on electric. There is no compressor. It uses the electricity to produce heat and electric heat is really an inefficient way to use it. That is probably one reason our batteries are barely getting through the night.

We were able to leave at 2:30 and we arrived in Fulton at 6:00 where we met up with Tony and Liz on "Two Turtles (this is the Greg's Neck people).

Free dock in Fulton – with power and water. Docks are much like Kingston – fin

ger piers about 10 ft. shorter than the boat. However the docks are in a small backwater behind the lock wall, so it was not an easy entry or exit. The dock was long enough so that when I w

as bow in we could use the side entrance to get to the dock. It was so low however that Annie needed the ramp to get down (She does not like aluminum Docks.

After cocktails on board with Liz and Tony we all went out to eat at the Blue Moon – highly recommended – good, but not up to its billing. No wings tonight.

Friday, 18 June Sunny and warm finally

We went for a walk in the Morning and had a really fun tour of the “John Wells Pratt House” An 1860's house that the local historic society restored. Not all of the interior was restored as some of it was used for informative exhibit space. We were met by the volunteer maintenance man and he really was very interesting. One of the tour highlights was the attached outhouse! By the time we returned to the boat we decided to stay another night in Fulton. Carole took a bus to Kmart and I spent the afternoon rewiring the bridge for AC and DC outlets. The freezer on the bridge had been running from an extension cord so I wired in a weatherproof outlet for it. Also one of my AHA's was that it is more efficient on DC as it does not have to invert the current to run, so I also wired in a DC outlet for it. It naturally did not go as planned, but it got done and is working. I also wired an extra AC outlet so that I can take a laptop up on the bridge and do not have to crawl in to the cupboard up there to plug it in.

That evening One of Tony and Liz's Daughter and Son-in-law came up from Northern Pennsylvania for the weekend. We had cocktails again and talked so much that it was almost nine o'clock before we went to the Tavern on the Lock for dinner. Food was good and yes I had wings.

Wing report: flavor 3, Meaty 4, Hot 2, Crispy 3 Total 12

Things seem to be improving

Saturday, 19 June

Another Sunny Day!

I have noticed that with all of the socializing I am not getting much blogging done. I think that might change a bit – not the socializing, but we are slowing down, so I am getting more time to spend at the writing. Also the most urgent of the maintenance and upgrades are finished.

Went to the farm market in Fulton in the AM. Small, but some really nice veggies for this time of year – radishes, peas, snap peas, sugar snaps, some zucchini, greenhouse tomatoes, scallions. The Amish (or Mennonites) were there with some nice looking bake goods.

We left after the market for a quick 2 hour 4 lock trip to Oswego. The trip was somewhat unpleasant as we were following a converted crew supply boat. This boat had two large diesel engines and if there was a muffler on them we could not tell. There was a boat in front of him in every lock, so we were nose to tail in each lock. Not only did we have to breath his diesel fumes, but we were locking down (which means we were going down into a box, and we also could not hear anything as the sound was deafening. We survived and I can actually hear the music across the canal.

As we passed through lock 7 we noticed a critter swimming in the lock. This time it was a groundhog. I think its parents should ask for a refund on its swimming lessons.

We stopped above the last lock since we learned that the harbor gets rather bouncy. No electric, We will see if the changes I made work, but it is a nice quiet park. We will go through tomorrow and head for Sacketts Harbor.