The Saga of the package continues

Monday, June 28^th

Shopping in the morning so we will be ready to leave for Kingston, Ontario as soon as it gets here. While working on the boat I looked up and saw the UPS truck past the Museum. When I went to the museum they told me it did not stop. I wanted to call UPS, but did not have a tracking number. We had to wait until noon when Radiolab opened in California. At noon the company called UPS and was told that the package was refused- refused? The driver did not even stop! What is going on? I get hold of the company and the tracking number, called UPS and got hold of a supervisor. Once again it was sent to the Post Office, the address never changed. More phone calls and the package will now be sent to Trenton, Ontario. We can wait for it there.

Off to Kingston, Ontario – 3 hrs. later we are out of the country! Kingston seems nice. Large well protected Marina. On arrival we are greeted by a looper (the one who sent us a picture of Serendipity at Boldt Castle he took as he went by on a tour boat). We are invited to a BYO cocktail party on “Mas Buenos”. After checking through customs – five minutes on the phone – they had all of our information from last year – we joined the cocktail party. Seven other loopers of which five were from Tennessee. We had a good time and got some Kingston Information. They were all leaving in the morning, no room at the Marina with Canada Day coming up. We were able to stay another day since we were smaller and they did not need our dock.

We finished off the day at the “Pilot Bar” with Fish and Chips for Carole and Steak and Kidney Pie for me. A nice ending after a disappointing start. It seemed like two different days.

Tuesday, June 29^th

Shopping this morning. Carole for Art Supplies and I for a new USB Mouse. Both very successful. Kingston is a great stop. The downtown area is right on the waterfront. The art supply store was only six blocks from the waterfront with the computer shop two doors away. We even took Annie in to the stores and no on e seemed to mind. Actually many of the stores had dog treats for her.

Kingston is the largest city in the area and yet feels like a village. No one seems to be in a hurry. Even the cars are not rushing from one light to the next. And lots of people walking. Today was farm market day in the town square, really nice looking produce from local towns and islands. This time of year it was Radishes, garlic, lettuce, peas onions, and asparagus. The town square has a freezer coil under it and doubles as an ice rink in the winter. There is even a building for the Zamboni machine.

In the afternoon we took the Trolley tour. The tour covered the historic parts of the city and several of the forts (had to keep the Americans from taking Canada in 1812).

Later we went clothes shopping for Annie. Carole wanted a harness to make it easier to get her out of the water if she fell off the dock. I did not think we needed it - until  she fell off the dock and I had to drag back on to it by the scruff of her neck.. She looks kind of spiffy in her new harness.

There are so many restaurants here that we had to eat out. I was opting for a brewery pub, but Carole won out with an upscale french place where she could get Duck Confit. Meal was excellent.

Westward Ho – tomorrow.

Wednesday, June 30^th

Clear and cold ~ 51 degrees with west winds about 15- 20 Kts. The Gods must think we have a sailboat, the wind is right on our nose. We are looking at whitecaps on the lake and 2-3 ft. seas. We have to go about 5 miles across the lake and then we will get some protection in North Channel (not THE North Channel – that's much later) behind Amherst Island. The seas drop to 1-2 ft and it is quite comfortable. Annie who is nervous in bumpy water is asleep on the bridge. The wind continued and as we turned in to Picton Bay it seemed to increase. It has stayed cold all day. We stayed at Tip of the Bay Marina on the skinniest docks we have seen yet. The base of our two step ladder that we use for boarding almost does not fit the dock. We stick out about 6 ft off the end of the dock, and then they dock a 50ft. Tugboat next to us!

Town of Picton is smaller than Kingston and yet feels more like a city. Still very nice. There was a Juried Art Show for local artists and there were some really good works there. A first class show. Also the marine artists guild has there headquarters there and they were also showing some good works.

This would be a primo stop if it weren't for the docks. The town dock was nice, but it only has room for two boats.

Thursday, July 1^st Canada Day

Clear and cold again, 55 degrees. Calm at 7:00 am, we shall see as we get underway.

It started to warm up and by midmorning the wind had gone to 20 Kts. Gusting to 25 and still from the west – the direction we are going. Another 5 mile stretch (Big Bay) with whitecaps.

We arrived in Trenton, Ontario to find 12 other loopers already there. Including the Tennessee contingent and “Two Turtles” our friends Tony and Liz. Marina Managers Sandy and Craig decided to put on a Canada Day BBQ for all of the boats. We all brought the sides and they grilled Hot Dogs and Burgers. We talked until dark when there was good fireworks show preceded by the lighting of the new “Quinte West – Gateway to the Trent Severn” sign for the first time. We had front row seats with two other couples on our bow.

What great people! We spent 4 days with the loopers, the marina managers and some seasonal people on the dock. Rides were offered when we needed something as well as good conversation. We – of course were waiting for our packages. What with Canada Day and July 4^th we did not expect them to get there until Monday. We were hoping for Friday, but of course that did not happen and Canada does not have Saturday mail delivery. We did get to visit the RCAF air museum. A trip worth making. There is a restored WWII DeHaviland bomber that was recovered from a lake in Norway after 50 years underwater. The rest of the time we worked on the boat and harrassed Craig and Sandy.

Monday came and went without any packages arriving!

Wednesday, July 7^th

We waited for the mail and when it did not arrive we made arrangements with Sandy and Craig to figure out how to get it when it did. At 12:30 we left Trenton. It is now very hot and humid. We only went 7 miles and 6 locks, before stopping at Frankford above lock 6. A Pastoral setting. Stopped at the top of lock 6. There was a beach on the river below the canal and campsites in the park. The lockwall had electricity available also – a rarity here.

So far all of the locks are manual. The lockkeepers have to push a “T” bar around in a circle 12 times to open the lock doors. It was really hot at the bottom of the lock as we entered. We are locking up for the first 36 locks – so we enter at the bottom, they close the lock door, putting us in a concrete box and no wind until the lock fills up and we are at the top. Annie likes it here. Water to swim in , ducks and geese to chase and of course, lots of well aged goose poop to roll in.,

Thursday, July 8^th

Package #1 has arrived and Sandy will drive it up to us. We decide to stay another night since she does not get here until afternoon. I went for a swim (?) in the river. Felt great, but it never got more than 3 feet deep all of the way across and had a very rocky bottom. Later I went for a real swim in the canal, weedy but deep. Happy Hour with three other couples. One US and two Canadians. All going to the Georgian Bay but not on the full loop

It is still hot and sticky.

Friday; July 9^th

Slightly Cooler, 6 locks to go to Campbellford. Sandy expects to visit her son in Peterboro on Monday and the packages should be in Trenton so she can bring them up to us there on Monday.

The Alternator died today. Crap! This is the second high output alternator that I have tried. I will put the original one back in and see if I can fix it. The Canadian locks do not allow you to run your engine in the locks, but without an alternator I am worried that I will not be able to start the engine at the top. The first operator said not to worry, let it run. At the second lock I started the Generator and shut down the engine. In the third lock the operator (the first woman we saw) would not let me keep it running. We had a shouting match (we were at the bottom of a twenty foot lock and she was on the top wall. After I refused to stop the generator she opened the lock door and told me to back out of the lock. There was another boat behind us (their sympathy was with us – they were one of our happy hour mates) and I refused to back out. She finally said that if I did not get started she would help tow us out of the lock.so I agreed and shut down. I started the generator first and then the main. I ran the rest of the day with the generator on and had no more trouble at the locks.

Had dinner that night in Campbellford with same couple. Canadians that had a house in Mexico, where they spent the winter. In the summer they spent on the boat, so they only used their house near Kingston about four weeks a year.

Package did not come today.

Saturday, July 10^th

A lot cooler. Moving on we passed up a quiet lock wall since it would leave too long a day tomorrow. We want to be in Peterborough on Sunday night since Sandy will be coming up on Monday. We continued on to a stop above the lock wall in Hastings. Very busy place on a Saturday. We stopped below the lock and I walked up to see if there was any room on the upper wall. The upper wall is usually preferred as the breeze is better and you do not start the day with a lock. There was just enough space up there so we locked on through.. Turns out all of the boats were only day trippers so we had the wall to ourselves that night. We walked down both of the streets in Hastings, but not much to see. One Pizza bar, a beer store and an LCBO (liquor and wine) that was closed by the time we looked. I talked with the lock operator for a while about the locks and where the fish might be. While I was talking to him two young Indian (Asian) women came over with a plate of food (Chicken & corn) for him. They were part of a family gathering and said that they came there to picnic every year and wanted to treat the operator. The lockkeepers are really very nice (with an occasional exception). They seem to want you to enjoy your trip and will go out of their way to be helpful. They always ask if you are going to the next lock. If you ask if there is room at one of the other locks for you to stay overnight, they call ahead to check. Need a restroom key for the evening they have them for you. And most of them will sit and talk with you if there is no lock lock traffic.

We ran the generator for a while so I could watch the soccer match and make popcorn. I also finally found a site that I could download TV shows to watch when we have no internet. Hulu will not send shows to Canada. I could really use that WiFi antenna now. I hope that the second, third time around is the charm.

Sunday, July 11^th

Cool and clear with a light wind. - Off to Peterborough!

Rice Lake was beautiful – calm – I took the opportunity to swing (adjust) the autopilot compass. It worked! The autopilot now agrees with the GPS. From the lake we head up the Otonabee River. It starts with wooded marshy islands, becomes grassy marsh and as we get close to Peterborough it gets rocky. The lock before Peterborough is the oldest lock in the system, and has the worst lockkeeper! I guess not all of them are great. We approached the lock and there was another boat going up, so we knew we would have to wait. The lock came down and I thought I had seen a boat in the lock, so I thought that the lockkeeper would be talking to them for a bit. We then watched the two keepers with their back to us talking to each other. Not only did they not let the boat out, but we could not get in. I thought that maybe they had not seen us, so I sounded the horn signal (three shorts). They looked up told us to wait, and when we finally got in told us that they had seen us and proceeded to tell me that they were not upset with us, but we are pretty big and that if we can see them they have seen us. They treat each person in the lock with as much time as they need and we should be patient. HAH they were talking to each other and could not be bothered to open the lock.

As we left the lock and turned in to Little Lake we were treated to a huge fountain at the entrance to the Marina. The dock hands refused a tip! And after checking in they insisted on giving me a tour of the facility. The showers here were really hard needles – great – helped make the day. It does not take much to get my mind off of the stupid stuff. And we arrived in time for me to watch the World Cup final. Spain won in overtime.

Riley's Pub was So So. Wings were breaded and fried. Flavor 1, Heat 3, meaty 2, Crispy 3, total 9. I need to weight the ratings. A nine is way too high a rating.

Tomorrow the package?

Monday, July 12^th

Fished off the boat for a bit in the morning. Little Lake is supposed to have a number of of Muskies. You could not prove it by me.! Not even a nibble.

At noon I checked on the packages. The good news is that one, the antenna came in. the bad news was that Sandy's son decided that Monday was not good and so she was not coming up until Friday. We decided that we would wait until both packages came in and then Craig would next day them to where ever we would be.

Wednesday, July 13^th

Heading out of Peterborough we found 7 other boats at the first lock. We thought we would have to wait for a while since up until then the operators were only allowing two boats at a time in the lock. Luck was with us. Only four boats were actually waiting and they put all four of us in at once. The next lock is the lift lock and before the lock is the canal visitors center so we stopped. to visit. A good movie of the canal construction was the highlight, also a pretty good explanation of how the lock works. This is the lock that uses an hydraulic cylinder to push a container of water up sixty five feet., and we are in the container. It is counterbalanced by another container that goes down as we go up. To provide the driving force the upper container stops 12” short of the water line and fills with 130 tons more water than the lower container. A valve between them is opened and the water from the upper container pushes the lower container up as it goes down. A quick and easy ride. This lock is 106 years old and still going strong.

Four locks later (in the pouring rain) we arrive at Youngs Point for the night. Fairly isolated, only a few buildings around. No room at the top so we tie up below the lock. Met up with several of our eating and drinking friends and spent some time socializing.

We had a power emergency. We had been using the generator running to use the slow cooker. I noticed that the batteries were running down and I found that there was no voltage from the generator., It then failed to start and the engine start battery was dead. I was able to start the main engine from the house battery (the generator only works from the engine battery) and then could start the generator after I reset the circuit breaker. I was still not charging the engine battery from the inverter/charger for some reason. And then I was not charging anything. I shut down all electrical & started the main engine. I let it run for about an hour to ensure that it would start in the morning.

That was the end of the slow cooked dinner! The pot roast came out of the cooker, a piece of it was cut off and put on the grill. Rice was cooked (the stove is propane) and all else was kept off.

Earlier we confirmed that both packages had arrived and they would be shipped that afternoon via Purolator next day to a resort on Stoney Lake, where we expected to be. Here is hoping.

Wednesday, July 14^th

Engine started easily and we were off at 8:50 – by 10:30 we were at the resort and at 11:00 THE PACKAGES ARRIVED! We were checking in when the Purolator truck pulled in and two packages were delivered. Carole made me go in to make sure that they were not refused, but the driver came out empty handed so we had them finally, YAY! No more stuff sent to Canada unless we have two weeks lead time and we do not have a clue where we will be in two weeks. Everyone tried their best, but with this lifestyle we just have to do things differently.

The three unexpected checks in the mail probably just made up the costs we incurred trying to get the packages.

Nice resort, even though the hot tub is out of service they have a nice beach for Annie to play in and a pool for me. We took a walk in the woods that was cut short because I did not think to put on insect repellent and the mosquitoes were ravenous.

Also I checked the electrical systems and everything is working fine. Who says boats don't have antibodies! Actually I believe it was a power management problem. Too many things on at once and then we turned on the microwave which popped the breaker. I am hoping that I have a handle on it now. Time will tell tomorrow we are going to be at anchor for the first time just off the island that Carole's Family went to in August for several years. She is pretty sure she located it on the chart.

Stoney Lake is …
                                     well stoney.

New Territory

Oswego to Clayton

Sunday, June 20^th

We are leaving the last lock for a while and head off in to Lake Ontario. It is a big flat lake, but we are only going across a small corner of it. We are going to Sackets Harbor so Carole can investigate her origins. She learned that one of her ancestors was buried here in 1828, and she wants to see if she can learn any more.

The lake is pretty flat, but the 1' waves are coming from our side and the boat is rolling about
5 degrees. The day started sunny, but it quickly got overcast. Seeing sailboats with their masts up is a novelty (it doesn't take too much to entertain me).

Navy Point Marine seems to be the only show in town. Liberty Marina's phone is disconnected and the Barracks Marina is closed on Sunday! Navy Point Mariner advertises “concierge” service -HAH! The entire time there we never saw a marina employee on the dock. When you arrive they ask you (over the radio) to go to the office to check in. If you want fuel, you go to the office, give them a Credit Card and pump your own. Same with a holding tank pumpout. Otherwise a nice place to stay. Lots of sailboats here and it is a great sailing area lots of open deep water, consistent wind, and islands and anchorages abound.

Sackets Harbor was involved in the war of 1812 and it was the Naval Center for the Great Lakes for many years. The battlefield and buildings have been preserved and are now museums. One of the guides offered to watch Annie for us while we toured the Commanders House. (In Fulton at the John Wells House they let Annie into the museum with us) It was well worth the visit. The exhibits were very innovative and well planned.

When we went to dinner we saw “Two Turtles” anchored in the harbor.

Monday June 21^st

Carole takes a Taxi to Watertown to do her Genealogy research. Turns out that they have a genealogy researcher at the Library there. Meanwhile I get to scrub the boat.

We called the local Canvas Shop to have semitransparent window covers made. They quoted ¼ the price we got in Brewerton and would have them ready the next morning. The price was so good that I considered staying another day to have side window covers made. Then sanity took over and we decided to wait.

I did order a WiFi amplified antenna for the laptop when I saw that Tony (on Two Turtles) was getting 8- 10 connections available when I could only see 2, and his signal strength was much higher than mine. It is scheduled to arrive by Thursday so we are having it delivered to Clayton, NY.

Tuesday June 22^nd

The window covers were installed first thing in the morning and look great. They also came in under the estimate.

Pumpout and get underway. Headed for Cape Vincent, The gateway to the St. Lawrence. And according to some great plan – it is raining. Our first sight of Canada is a large windmill farm – about 100 of them. They are on Wolfe Island across the St. Lawrence River. Not an ugly sight, but I am sure that many people are lamenting the change of the view.

We stay at a free town dock – no amenities except a picnic table and Port-a-pot. It is quiet and the town is well kept and seems to be in good repair. While docking I was trying to get close to shore and I pushed against an underwater rock shelf with the side of the boat. Lots of grass on the rock so it was well padded. I was only drifting and the only way I new I was against it was that the bow would not turn. The water is so clear that it is almost impossible to determine depth by eyesight. I eased off and tied up farther out on the dock.

Since this was a night for grilling it naturally rained, that is until Carole was finished using the grill outside and then it stopped.

Wednesday, June 23^rd

Walked in town this morning. Very well kept, nice wide (8-10') grass strips between the sidewalk and the street. No curbs. “Two Turtles” reported that two beers and a glass of wine was only $10.00 at the local pub.

We went to the fisheries aquarium. Small, but they have a good display of the local St. Lawrence fish species.

A small market about 1 block from the dock provided a few essentials for the larder.

We left St. Vincent about 10 to head for Clayton. Some brief sunshine and we passed the “Pride of Baltimore II” on the way. She was headed for Oswego for the Tall Ship Festival there this weekend.

It was only a 2 ½ hr. run to Clayton. On the way I was torn between watching the scenery and watching the USA World Cup soccer match. The US game was on French language TV from Canada. I did both. The scenery here is gorgeous. There are a bazillion islands, yet lots of open water.

After Clayton I do not have any paper charts. I can either print them or buy them.

The village of Clayton is upbeat. “Two Turtles” is there ahead of us,. They passed us on the way. I think that we are vying to be the slowest boat on the loop this year – and seem to be winning.

On arriving I called California to check up on when my Antenna would be arriving and learned that it had not even shipped yet! I was expecting it to arrive A real treat. Avery extensive collection of very well restored boats housed in several buildings and some in the water in covered docks. One building is devoted to speed – speedboats from the early 1900's to the present including engines. There is an extensive collection of outboards going back as early as 1894! There is one that has the powerhead at the bottom of the shaft. The propeller serves as the flywheel. To start it you tipped it up, wrapped the starting rope around the propeller shaft and pulled. I it started you lowered the shaft back in to the water – getting sprayed by the turning prop. At that point it would probably stall and you get to do the whole thing over again (the museum's description). .Also in the collection is a Millionaire's Houseboat. - built in 1903 it is a two story house with 5 bedrooms and a master suite (yes bedrooms – not cabins), 4 or 5 bathrooms (with porcelain tubs) and servants quarters. There were also many skiffs and sailboats, mostly related to the Thousand Islands history.

The Antenna should arrive tomorrow and we will head downriver in the afternoon.

Friday, June 25^th

I checked online for the UPS delivery schedule and found that the package had not left California and would not be delivered until Monday! A call to UPS did not help much at first. There was nothing they could do. I had to contact the shipper. They could not change it to next day air. I finally got a manager and she told me pretty much the same until she read the delivery address – the company had not changed the address and it was still scheduled to go to the Post Office and they could not deliver it there. I had to wait until noon to call the company. I realized that nothing was going to happen for a while, so we headed to Heart Island.

On the way I was able to finally reach RadioLabs. What a mess! They had the right address and had not bothered to change it on the package! And now to get it before we go to Canada I have to pay for next day air – which I will not get until Monday anyway. Every other method might get it to me on Tuesday – MIGHT! So I bit the bullet and authorized the shipping. Once I get it I will argue with them some more.

The castle on Heart Island was built by the same millionaire that built the Houseboat. Another astounding place – a 127 room castle on an island in the St. Lawrence River, started in 1899 and construction was stopped when his wife died in 1904. The first building he completed was a power plant where they generated electricity (DC) for the construction. He never returned to the Island although he did keep coming here in the summers. It had been enclosed before construction stopped, but never lived in. Across the water on an another island he had built a boathouse. This was also immense. He was reported to have 60 some boats – from skiffs and raceboats to a 127' steam launch. The boathouse had three slips, all the same length. The center slip housed the steam launch. All of the slips had lifting jacks for raising the boats out of the water in the winter or for repairs. The center slip (which housed the steam launch) had a funnel that could be lowered over the smoke stack so the launch could fire up before leaving the dock.

Continuing with our great timing – we found that when we got to Alexandria Bay that it was the 1000 Island Motorcycle Rally weekend. Big tent at the end of the dock with a sound system set up and several hundred bikes parked around the street. Along with the corresponding number of tattooed, studded, bearded, and beer bellied men and women. The anticipation was worse than the reality. Although crowded, the people were nice and friendly. The music was rock and blues, and the speakers were facing away from the docks so not too loud.

We had the best dinner out since the Highlands, making for a rather pleasant experience.

Saturday, June 26^th

After pumping out we left Alexandria Bay and took a short trip through Canadian waters and back into the U.S. Stopping at Canoe Point State Park for the night. Nice hiking area. And of course it rained. There were a number of boaters from a marina in Alexandria Bay that were all there as a group for the weekend. One of them showed up on a Jet Ski with his wife, and after the party they drove back home on the Jet Ski. He said it was only a 15 minute ride – It took us 2 ½ hrs.! One of the kids was fishing and catching little (like 3” long) perch. At last count he had caught (and released) 125 of them. I suspect that it was the same few fish many times. Oh and did I mention that it rained.

Sunday, June 27^th

Took a short hike this morning – it was sort of sunny. Annie had a great time running through the woods chasing a ground squirrel. She bounced around like a gazelle in the high undergrowth. We tried but could not get a picture. After we returned Carole took out her sketchbook for a while. We also saw our first loon about 20 yards off the dock.

All that before 10:00 when we left to return to Clayton, NY. I spent the afternoon setting up for the new depth sounder. Carole went out looking for art supplies.

We were going to order Pizza. None of the pizza places had anchovies – which is the way I like it. We went out to find some and wound up at the 1000 Island Inn – the original home of 1000 Island Dressing. We tried some and decided on Blue Cheese.

The “Roseway” is in town and I visited to see if there were any familiar faces, but there were none that I knew.

Tomorrow the package comes!

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.

The Adventure Begins

The Adventure begins … or maybe it just continues.
It seems as if we have been on an adventure ever since we decided to make the trip. Just getting the house in shape to sell and then (when it did not sell) renting it was its' own adventure. We listed the rental in Craig's list and had a number of people looking. Within two weeks we had it rented and had exactly one month to move out. By the end of the month we had moved out of the house proper and were living in the Apartment. It took another month to get stuff moved out of the Garage.
Monday, May 31 – Memorial Day
Closed up the house and left with the pickup truck bed filled to the top with boxes of stuff for the boat.
That is after we already loaded everything we thought we needed on board the day before. Last year when we left it looked like an explosion in a Walmart inside. Last week it looked like an explosion in a Home Depot. This time when we left it looked as if the moving van was emptied in to the main cabin. There were boxes and bags everywhere. I would have taken a picture, but we could not find the camera. We knew where it was, it was buried under the boxes and we could not get there.
We did get under way about one o'clock and had an uneventful trip to Cape May.
Having to establish a Buffalo Wing Baseline for this trip, it was necessary to have dinner at C-View. Also got to watch the Flyers Stanley Cup game after Carole beat on the bartender to change the channel. He kept pleading that he needed to take care of customers. Like we were just bystanders.

Tuesday, June 1 – Skinny Water - Cape May to Atlantic City
Hot and humid. We wound our way through the shallows and marshes of the New Jersey ICW (inland waterway). Kicked up mud several times, but nothing serious. Stayed at Gardner's Basin. $1.50/ft. This year sure beats the $4.00/ft. We paid last year at Trump Castle Marina. Of course there are no showers at Gardner's, but $90.00 for a shower is a little steep.




Wednesday, June 2, - Muddy Water - Atlantic City to Brielle, NJ (Manesquan Inlet)
Hot and Hazy, no wind. Visibility about a mile – that lasted for about 1 hr. and then the fog dropped in. Visibility went to about 200 ft. We could not see from one channel marker to the next. If the channel in the marsh was narrow enough we could see the banks, but sometimes there were no banks to see and the deep area was only 50 ft. wide. The GPS on the chart plotter was fortunately very accurate – mostly. We were traveling in water only about 1ft. Deeper than our boat needs to float, and inevitably we did get stuck in the mud. It took about ten minutes to find deeper water and get moving again. The fog finally lifted and we made decent progress. The gremlins were not done with us yet! Just past the Beach Haven inlet we were running outside the channel in what the charts (three of them) showed as 12' of water when we ran aground. This time pretty hard on a sand bar. “Serendipity” came to our rescue again. Just as I realized that we were really stuck Tow Boat US came by. In five minutes were off and on our way again. I expect that he patrolled that area since after he freed us he just hung around that spot. I will say that when other boats called him to ask about that area (the markers are confusing – as well as the mismarked shoal) he told them where the deeper water was.
The rest of the day was uneventful and when we pulled in to Brielle Yacht Club we met another Looper Boat that had just made the same trip from Atlantic City. They took 3 days to do it and only traveled on high tide so never touched bottom. I later learned that they followed a boat that had 1 ft. less draft that constantly radioed them where the deeper water was.

Thursday, June 3 – Ocean Voyage - Manesquan to Atlantic Highlands.
So far we have not taken much time put stuff away. On the ICW it took both of us to navigate much of the time. When we left Manesquan we thought being out on the Ocean (it was fairly calm and there is not much to see) that we might get some stuff done. Once again we departed with 1 mile visibility and when we got to the Ocean the fog was so thick we were lucky to see the front of the boat. With radar and no worry about shallow water we were able to keep going. We did however keep both of us on watch.
The sun came out as we approached Sandy Hook and we got to Atlantic Highlands easily.
The docks at Atlantic Highlands SUCK. They are fixed docks and with a six foot tide we had to climb a ladder to get to the dock at low tide. Annie needed to use her ramp from the deck box on the back of the boat to the dock.

Friday, June 4 – Clean up the mess day.
Eileen and Sal (sister and Brother-in -law) were coming up that night and we were going out to dinner at a bar/restaurant that a friend just opened. We took the opportunity to sort out much of what we had on the boat and sent back four boxes of stuff that we either did not need or were duplicates of things we already had on board but did not remember. They say that the first thing to go is your knees - boy are "they" wrong.
We had a great dinner at Twin Light Bar in Highlands with Eileen and Sal. Our friend Mark also gave us a beer sampling. They have about 15 beers on tap.
When they left that night we only had one layer of boxes, bags and crates to put away!

Saturday, 5 June – The Back Side of Manhattan - Atlantic Highlands to Nyack, NY
I was surprised that NY Harbor and the Lower Bay were empty of boats. On a beautiful Saturday morning there should have been a thousand arrogant NY Boaters out there trying run us down (Sorry New Yorker's, but that has been my experience every other time I was there). We decided to take the long way past Manhattan and went up the East River to the Harlem River and on to the Hudson below Yonkers. A different trip. The Harlem river not very spectacular, but it was certainly interesting. The trip goes by Yankee Stadium, Columbia and several other interesting buildings. One big surprise we got was that the tidal current in the Harlem River runs opposite both the Hudson and the East Rivers. We were doing 9 kts in the East River and 4.5 kts. in the Harlem and then 8 in the Hudson.

We finished the day on a mooring at the Nyack Boat Club. They have a launch service that took us (and Annie) to shore. Wind picked up a bit that night and we did drag their mooring about twenty feet.

Sunday, 6 June – Stormy Weather -Nyack to Peekskill
Bad weather forecast so we hightailed it to Peekskill. With several phone calls we were able to secure a dock. Peekskill Yacht Club is run by the members. They have no paid staff, so it can be difficult to find someone to get a dock for the night. Lat year we made some friends there and I had phone numbers. We got there early and with difficulty tied up securely. It was a floating dock and we had to back in to it. I could not back all of the way in as our keel was catching on the bubbler pipe. We got in far enough so that we could get off the side of the swim platform. Annie was another story. The Annie ramp training took about 15 minutes, with me holding the ramp with my arm while Annie would start on it and then back off. With a lot of coaxing she finally went down the ramp. I then had to reposition it so that she could get off the side of the swim platform on to the dock. At some point I will get pictures of this. The next time she did not hesitate and in fact she did not wait for me to even get a good grip on the ramp. I almost dropped her. Now when I go down the stern ladder to the swim platform she is right there waiting for me to set it up!
We went for a walk. I wanted to find a bar that would have the Stanley Cup Game that night. On the way back we got to the yacht club parking lot when the front came through. We stood in a shed and watched the rain fly by horizontally. Wind was blowing about 40 kts. With gusts as high as 55. All boats were secure and after the rain stopped we went back to the boat. Wind did not let up until about 11 that night.
Our plan was to stay there and rent a car to visit the Storm King Art Center. It turns out they are closed on Monday and Tuesday. So on to plan B!
End of week one!

Waterford

Waterford- everything after this is from 2009

Tuesday 29 September 2009
Cleaning and catching up day today. The surprise was that as we were eating lunch I looked up and here was a really big canal boat (about 65') that looked like it was about to hit us while trying to dock in the space just vacated by two 37' boats. As I got there to help with the docking I took a second look at the boat and it was a steel hulled Dutch Sailing Barge, complete with two Dutch men aboard. Check out the pictures when I get them posted. They have been here three weeks with 17 other Dutch Sailing Barges. They came over on a ship and are participating in the commemoration of the 400th year since Henry Hudson discovered the Hudson River. The owner gave us a tour of the boat and answered lots of questions. The boat was built in 1888 and is used for pleasure now. They also do charters in Holland on the canals, IJsselmeer, and Frisian Islands. We now have a new charter destination. Anybody for a Dutch Sailing adventure?
As soon as they tied up they raised the mast. It took about two minutes. The setup was definitely the product of hundreds of years of innovation. The mast is counterbalanced on a swivel and they pulled easily on two ropes and the mast pivoted up into place. The lift ropes were made off on to cleats and they were done. The boom and gaff were raised using windlass.
Inside the boat was set up for living quarters. A circular dining table and a kitchen (not a galley) this was a KITCHEN. Charterer living quarters were dormitory style for 12 (8 singles , 2 doubles) with only curtains across the bunks. They only recommended sailing with 6, after that it becomes crowded.

Wednesday 30 September

Decided to hang out another day in Waterford. There is a big HooHa here. The Motor Canal Boat Day Peckinpaugh is returning today. It is the first self propelled Canal boat that was specifically built to fit the canal locks. It is 259' long and 35' wide. It was built to just fit in to the lock. There is about 10' extra in length and about 3' on either side in the lock. She is one of only five built and is the last surviving vessel of it's kind. It's arrival was accompanied by the high school band, three buses full of school children, all of the local dignitaries, many Park Service representatives, three historic tugboats, the local fire company, and one of the Dutch Sailing Barges. It was a real happening. We did get to tour it along with touring the 1928 tug “Governor Cleveland” which is a riveted steel hull with wooden gunwales, unusual for a boat built at that time. Fresh water is certainly much kinder to boat hulls than Salt water. The Governor Cleveland is still in service in the canal system and works daily pushing barges and moving dredge piping.
A fun day.

Thursday 1 October
A right turn and we are heading south! One lock and we are back in tidal water again. It was nice while it lasted. I really got spoiled not having to think about tides and currents.
Mitch
New pictures posted at:picasaweb.com/mitchb88

Friends and Family

Friends and Family
Tuesday 15 September
Nice slow day down the canal. Cool and clear (mostly). Arrived in Pittsford early and tied up next to a large collection of Duck poop. There were several hundred ducks on the lock wall when we arrived. Found out that they sold duck food across the canal and people were continually feeding them. Annie took on the mission of clearing the wall of ducks. Anytime she saw several ducks along the wall she ran down the walkway chasing them back in to the water. It was hopeless, no sooner had she run one way when they were back on the wall behind her.
That afternoon we watched the local high school rowing team come by, several times. The coaches boat threw up a larger wake than any of the power boats cruising the canal. They would probably curse me if I did it to them.
Our friend Roger arrived at about 8:45. He is going to ride with us tomorrow. It is nice to have a friend along for a day.
Stayed up jawing til 11:00 (that is late for us on this trip)

Wednesday 16 September
Headed out about 8:15 today. Coldest day yet. Really nice rainbow this morning. The rain was west of us and we never saw any of it.
We were held up at the Fairport lift bridge for almost a half an hour. The bridge operator never answered our radio call or our horn signal. Had to find a dock, Carole got off and walked up to the bridge tower. She opened the door and called in and got no answer. Went upstairs and the door was locked, but the bridge tender's dog was there. She had to walk to the library where they made several call until they located him. Meanwhile I had called the canal office, they gave me the regional control phone number, for the wrong region, but they helped anyway and called around. The bridge operator returned, called me and without any comment he said that he would open the bridge when I was ready. No apology or any other comment. When the regional office called back I told them he had finally been found. At least they apologized.
The rest of the day went well. Lock tenders were really nice (this is the norm), little wind nice scenery.
We arrived in Newark, NY about 1:00, took a short walk around town until Roger's cab arrived to take him back to his car in Pittsford. Sorry to see him leave so soon.
It was really nice having him aboard. A fresh view of the trip and different conversation was fun. Besides I got someone else to steer for me without bothering Carole.
Another quiet day.

Thursday 17 September

Bummer! My package has not arrived. It is a computer chip with the charts for the part of the canal and Hudson river that are missing from our charts. It was due to arrive in Tonawanda last Thursday or Friday, but never got there until Monday – Three days after we left. I arranged for it to be sent on by priority mail to Newark. It was mailed on Tuesday, should have arrived Wednesday or Thursday, did not make it again. Post Office was really helpful, but no package. They are supposed to forward it to Seneca Falls. We shall see.
Easy trip to Seneca Falls. Canal goes through Montazuma Wildlife Refuge. We did not see much in the way of Wildlife. Birds have been about the same for most of the trip, although we did see several Bald Eagles. The bird life so far has been lots of Canada Geese, Black and Mallard Ducks, Gulls, Kingfishers, Cormorants, and Great Blue Herons. Also some swallows and maybe martins. We have also seen several Green Herons, and a few flickers. I guess that this is not the best time of year for birds.
We met three other couples at the dock in Seneca Falls and were having cocktails with them when Eileen and Sal (my sister and Brother-in-law) arrived. They drove to Watkins Glen and the dockmaster, Terry, drove them to Seneca Falls. Terry runs a sailing charter in Watkins Glen in addition to his being the dockmaster (or dockboy as he puts it). He has a cutter rigged Cabot Rico 38. He and his mate Lisa drove Eileen and Sal up to Seneca Falls and we spent another hour talking and swapping stories before they had to leave.
Dinner out again.

Friday 18 September
Cold morning and we are off to Seneca Lake
Not many boats out on the lake. In fact we only saw two, and one was Terry's as he was on the charter he told us about. We did have a helicopter flying by as if it was strafing us. It made about ten passes. We were near the Navy Underwater Research Laboratory on the lake, so Carole thought they were trying to chase us away. We did eventually go away at our leisurely 7 mph.
Arrived at the Marina about 2:30 in the afternoon, and struggled to dock in a 15 mph crosswind and a very tight dock. With help from another boater I was able to spring the boat around a piling and slide in.
After settling in we took a ride out the Race Track(We had Sal and Eileen's car). Sal had raced on the Watkins Glen Course in the sixties and we were interested to see what it looked like. He even remembered how to get there from town. Once there we could not find an entrance that was open. We did find a field we could walk across and could see that there were cars running around the track, but we were looking through a chain link fence. As we backtracked around the race track we finally found the main gate. We were not allowed in, but were told if we came back the next day at 11:30 we would be allowed to follow a pace car around the track. 25 bucks for the whole carload and we could hang out and watch the SCCA races until 2:00. It was a no brainer – we were coming back!
Lumpy night at the dock with a steady north wind and dock lines singing all night.

Saturday 19 September
Clear and cold again, but the morning was in a car so the cold did not bother us.
We arrived early 10:30 at the track and it was good that we did. We were about 4th in line for the “Thunder Road Tour” as it called, and we went up in to the stands and got to watch some sports cars practicing, followed by a sports car race and then a formula car race. It was really great fun, sitting in an almost empty grandstand watching the cars race by. We were between turns two and three (I think) and we could see some passing (and attempted passing) and see which cars were were running well and which were not doing so well. In the Sports car race we saw every make and age of car from an MG TD (circa 1951) to Porsches, Triumphs, MG Bs, Mustangs, and a Cobra. We watched two cars in the Formula Race dueling for the lead most of the race. There was a crash (which we did not see) during the formula race and it held up our track tour until almost 12:30.
The track tour was really fun. Sal got into the spirit of it and even though we were only doing 55-65 mph the only thing missing was the roar of the engine – we did think that we should have removed the muffler for the run, but we did not have any tools and they did not let us near pit row.
When we returned to the stands we found out that the racing would not resume for a while and there was no place to get lunch so we left.
Next it was my turn – I wanted to hike the Watkins Glen Gorge in the State park. After all that was what we came for in the first place. The racing was a bonus.
After lunch we headed for the park. The park was free although they charge a whole 6 bucks for parking. The gorge is spectacular. The Gorge is a mile and half long and rises 900 ft. with 19 waterfalls., The pictures (to be posted later) do not do it justice. It is an amazing sight. I walked both up and down and it was awesome both ways. Every turn was a new vista, and they just kept coming, and each was unique and beautiful. The water had carved the rock into pools and cuts. The canyon was 50 ft. wide in many places and maybe 200-300 ft. deep. Just spectacular. It is times like these that I wish I was really good at descriptive prose. I do not seem to add lots of adjectives when I write. Must be the engineer in me.
Later we even had time to get to two wineries before they closed. Can not say that I would recommend any Seneca Lake wines.
Quite a day! Really one of those you remember for a long time.

Sunday 20 September
Really cold this morning – 43 degrees out. A sea smoke fog layer on the water and very little wind.
Said goodby to Eileen and Sal and headed back up the lake. By the time we got to the canal it was shorts and T shirts.
We'll spend tonight and tomorrow in Seneca Falls.

Monday 21 September
Still no package. A call to the Newark, NY Post Office confirmed that it had just arrived (they remembered me) and would be going out today. Should arrive tomorrow – we shall see. The postal workers have been really helpful and courteous. Not what I expected, but have found to be the norm in the two Post offices I have dealt with.
Sightseeing day today. Seneca Falls is where the first woman's suffrage meeting took place in 1851. A declaration was signed on the second day (by men and women) to declare that women should have the right to vote. The original church that held the meeting is almost not there (two walls left) and is being rebuilt as best as can be determined. When completed it will be easy to see which is original and which is new. We went to the Elizabeth Cady Stanton house. She was one of the organizers of the convention. Much of the artwork in the town is about the Women's Rights Movement.
There is also a 1.5 mile sculpture walk. Again much of it is themed towards the women's movement. However two of the last ones were not. One called “pump man” was made from pump parts (Gould Pumps is the largest employer in the area and has been here well over 100 years. The other was an interesting glass and metal sculpture that looked like it was a waterfall or maybe the canal. I hope that we have a picture.
Got to try a wing place for an appetizer. It was a local bar and I took the wings back to the boat. They were in fifth or sixth place. Decent, but nothing outstanding about them.
Tomorrow it is back to the Erie Canal.

Lakes End

Lake's End
If you saw the last pictures I never mentioned the Green Goo. Going to Erie we came to this green goo. It looked as if it were green food dye in the water. As you could see from one of the pictures it stretched for about two miles. It was some sort of algae we think. It did not plug any of the filters and seemed to break up really easily.
Erie was a great stop as it was the first time. We were docked with a Looper who was probably the last to be going around this year. He and Carole took the bus to the Walmart for shopping while I watched over Annie and did some housekeeping.
Went to dinner at Molly Branigan's Irish Pub and we now have a new leader in the Wing War. These were definitely the best yet. Fives on all points except Heat. Only a 4.7 for spice heat.
Wednesday 9 September
Left Erie for Dunkirk. Weather was pretty good only 1-2 ft. seas to start and then it got better. It kicked back up a little by the time we arrived, but not bad.
Dunkirk is a town For Sale. It seemed like every other house or business property was for sale or rent. Not a bad place, just seemed like it has been hard hit. Pretty much like most of the industrial towns in this area.
Thursday 10 September
Flattest water yet. Barely a ripply all the way to Buffalo. Left the lake in Buffalo on to the Black Rock Canal and the Niagara River.
I once again reaffirmed that motoring on the lake is boring. Other than the green goo there was nothing to see or distract us. I did do a lot of reading underway. If we were sailing it would have been a little more interesting. I can see why most of the power boaters on the lake have fast boats. As I said before at least on the ocean there is a possibility of seeing something interesting, like whales, dolphins, turtles, sharks, sunfish, even jellyfish. On the lake – nothing.
We Stopped at the Smith Boys again, Geoff Smith offered a free dock and we took him up on it.
Friday 11 September
This was going to be a work and shopping day, but hedonism prevailed. We rented a car, got haircuts and drove to Niagara Falls. Took in both the American and Canadian sides. The view is free, but parking is not. It was especially hard to find anything close on the Canadian side – even if I was willing to pay $18.00 for a one hour stay. That said the view on the Canadian side is spectacular. The American side gets you closer to the falls, but you can not see the entire panorama from there. We did not do any of the side tours as we got there rather late. We really liked both sides and are glad we did take the time to go.
Went to the home of wings in Buffalo – Anchor Bar. This is where they were invented, by mother Theresa (the owners mother) – his words. Well they were good, but come in fourth IMHO.
Saturday 12 September
Geoff offered to loan us his truck today to visit an antique boat show, and invited us to stay for the Marina year end party. We seriously considered it, but decided to get underway again.
The canal is fine with Annie. She really likes the flat water. Arrived in Middleport about 4:00 and were helped at the dock wall by a boater from Canada. We met two more boats also. These were weekenders making the trip from Buffalo for the weekend.
I got a good insight as to how subjective the evaluation of Buffalo Wings can be. The Canadian was telling us how great the wings at the local Irish Pub were, and he and his wife were headed there tonight (they make this trip two or three times a year). The people two boats in front of us came back from the pub and said that the wings were not as good as the wings at Anchor Bar. The two on the boat in front of us cam back and said that the wings at the pub were way better than the wings at Anchor Bar. So there you have it Folks! My opinions are just that. Mine alone.
We however went out to The Basket Factory a restaurant recommended by Geoff. All of the other boats concurred that it was a really good restaurant, and they were all right. The meal was excellent.
I just could not face wings again for three nights in a row.

Sunday 13 September
Took another recommendation and went to Peggy's for breakfast. Then spent some time looking at a car show on the main street of Middleport.
We left about 11:00 and traveled to Holley. Nice easy day.
We are docked at a nice parklike setting. Took a walk down to a nearby waterfall. Annie had a good swim in the stream and is now laying contentedly on the foredeck. Her double just walked by. I actually thought the woman had Annie on the leash. Her dog was also a rescue dog and of unknown heritage.
This place has grills, so it is barbecue tonight.

Monday 14 September
We went all of 5 miles today. Stopped in Brockport, NY. The canal wall is really well done and the welcoming committee was so thorough that we were convinced to stay for the night.
Long walk through town to look at the historic buildings and some of the artwork around. This is a college town (SUNY at Brockport), so the town has not collapsed like many of the other towns in the area. However, Pizza seems to be the predominant business here. There are actually more pizza parlors and laundromats then normal, but lots of others not college related also.
Really nice Bill Stewart sculpture at the dock and several other sculptures around the town. Many buildings date back to the 1850's. Some are on the historical registry and have been restored by local volunteers, others are still in use. Nice pleasant town.
Annie is continuing to work on her social skills. The walkway along the canal at most of these stops is the local hangout for dogs walking their people. Annie sits on the boat and watches them go by. If she sees that one of us is not watching her she will take off to put the other dog to the sniff test. She has however been very polite and sniffing the nose first – then the butt! With people she mostly does it the opposite.
We passed on the opportunity to head down the canal a few miles to eat what three different people told us was really great Barbecued ribs. Instead we took a local's suggestion and went to the Smokehouse, a local barbecue joint. It was Monday night and the Buffalo Bills were on. That combined with it being a college town created one of the noisiest places we have ever eaten. We were also the by far the oldest people there. We were older than the combined ages of any three other people in the place, including the staff. There were about thirty TV screens and two projection TV's most of which were tuned to the football game. Every time the Bills made a good play there was a huge cheer, and conversely if something bad happened there was a huge groan. Oh! The meal was pretty good, but not outstanding.
Tomorrow it's Pittsford.