Trenton, ON

Day 291, May 31st, 2010

I was on first watch from 8:00 p.m. to 11;00 p.m. It gradually was getting a little lumpier but the boat was handling it well and the mast was secure. I handed over to John at 11:00 and went down below to sleep.

Then it wasn't so good. Of course, I realised that all motion seems exaggerated in the V-berth, in the bow of the boat, but I couldn't relax. The boat's motion got more and more erratic, it seemed and I got quite nervous. Our course was NNW and a wind came up out of the NE at about 8 knots (according to the weather forecast out of Rochester). This caused an uncomfortable swell on the starboard beam. I'm never very comfortable with the mast down. The boat just doesn't feel right. I was muttering under my breath "I'm never going to do this again!" I got up after about an hour and checked with John. As I reached the cockpit, I could see the moon had come up and the water behind us just looked calm and gorgeous. John reassured me that all was well - he'd checked the mast, and all was tight and secure. I went back to bed and this time was able to drop off to sleep. When I got up again at 2:00 a.m. we'd made good headway with only 8 nm to go to our waypoint on the Ontario side! That made me feel much better too. Its awful what tricks your mind can play on you!! The remaining 8 miles diminished steadily and we arrived in Ontario at 3:45 a.m. As soon as we turned the corner into the Adophus Reach in the Bay of Quinte, the water calmed right down and everything was serene!

I went back to bed at 5:00 and John took us the rest of the way to Trenton. We arrived at 11:30 after breakfast on the run. Lovely little town - where John spent his teenage years as an Airforce Brat!!! Its like coming home to him in more ways than one. How lovely to be back in Canada! We sang "O Canada" as we came into the mouth of the Trent River. Docked the boat, cleared customs etc. etc. and then went for lunch at Timmy's!!! Yeah! Canadian. tradition, as good as ever!! Tonight we're going to the movies and get a pizza afterwards. Haven't been to the movies since Miami!!

Lake Ontario

Day 290, May 30th, 2010

Left Rome at 7:00, thinking we'd stop at the Junction of the Erie Canal and the Oswego Canal!
We did much better than that!!

Did lock #21 and #22 and arrived at Sylvan Beach. Such a pretty little place - it always reminds me of Wasaga Beach! Good thing in a way that we didn't reach there as the boats were rafted up at the free dock, 4 deep!! And then across the 20 miles of Lake Oneida. A little choppy but not bad at all. Some boat traffic but again not bad. It was good to get that behind us as it can really kick up in bad weather.

Just kept chugging along. Couldn't be luckier with the weather - sunny and warm.

Came to the junction around 2:00 p.m. and realised we could make it all the way to Oswego so just kept going. Another 7 locks on the Oswego Canal. Passed the little town of Phoenix where we'd stayed a couple of times before. Built all new docks there, which looked very smart.

Arrived in Oswego, Lock #7 at about 7:30 p.m. and were warned of some kids swimming in the canal between #7 and #8. There are two levels to the canal at that point and there can be very dangerous undercurrents caused by the pipes under the water. The lockmasters were afraid for the kids safety. By the time we reached the kids, they were all out of the water. However, one young lady called out to me, asking if we had any fresh water on board. One of the young boys had hurt himself badly - I could see him holding his shoulder and walking as if in pain. John did a 360 while I ran below and grabbed to bottles of water. Then we sidled up to the canal wall and I threw them to her over the wall. When we reached Lock #8 the lockmaster mentioned the kids again and I told him one of the boys was hurt. He called the police to go see to them.

We came through Lock #8 where we could see Lake Ontario clearly - flat and no wind! Again, we decided to keep going. Thunder storms were forecast for late Monday, so we grabbed the opportunity.

It was just beautiful when we started with a lovely sunset.

Rome, NY

Day 289, May 29th, 2010

We'd hoped to get to Sylvan Beach at the beginning of Lake Oneida, but that didn't happen. Several of the locks seemed pretty slow. So we stopped instead at the Free Dock in Rome beside a park which was very pretty, about half way between lock #21 and #22.

It was a lovely day again with good weather. Lovely scenery of the Adirondacks. Passed some mountain climbers on a rock face; some boys jumping off a railway bridge into the River. There's always lots to see. We were surprised though how little boat traffic there was, considering it was their long weekend.

We arrived at the Free Dock in Rome about 7:00 -a couple of boats already tied up there. One boat kindly moved up to make room for us. A good day.

Lock 13, Erie Cana,NY

Day 288, May 28th, 2010

We left Albany at 6:00 a.m. and set off for the Erie Canal. Met another Canadian boat just before Waterford; they'd just bought their boat in Oriental, NC and were taking it home to Toronto. We went through all the locks together that day. Went straight through Waterford - were surprised to see so few boats tied up there. There are 5 locks, one after the other, called the Waterford Flight, to start with. They are very organized though and as you exit one, they have the doors open at the next. Its beautiful country through there with the high craggy peaks of the Adirondacks. We kept going till dusk, arriving on the East side of Lock #13. Tied up on the wall and pretty much went to bed right away.

Albany, NY

Day 287, May 27th, 2010

Definitely a little cooler! Much better! We didn't get out of bed till 7:00 a.m. What a treat! We slept in!! Even had time to cook eggs and bacon for breakfast.

Angela, Mike and four of their kids, Kate, Paul, Rachel and Michelle, arrived shortly after 11:00. It was so good to see them. They came aboard Periwinkle and saw our modest abode and we talked about our long trip. Then off we all went in their car to a lovely retaurant in Albany for a lovely lunch together. Angela and I haven't see each other since we were kids but it was just like it was with her sisters in Illinois - as if we've known each other forever. When we got back to the marina, Mike set up his computer in the club house and we chatted with Angela's Mom (my aunt) on Video Chat with G-mail. Ain't technology great! It was really special to be able to do that together.

Sad to say goodbye, but now that we've made the connection, we'll just have to make plans for a get together down the road, definitely not leaving it so long!!!!

Tomorrow we're off again. We were able to buy canal passes here at the marina, so we're all set to go. The Erie Canal has just switched to their summer hours - so hopefully we'll make Oswego in 4 days.

Albany, NY

Day 286, May 26th, 2010

Up early again! We'd had our breakfast and were moving the boat into position by 6:45 a.m. The other guys were still on the mooring, nobody in site. We thought they'd join us shortly so just kept doing the next thing. The crane motor was good, although extremely slow - nothing as good as our new fancy system at CYC, but it worked and the remote control thing was extremely good as we could both work on the boat as well. The only other time we've done it with just the two of us, was in Thunder Bay. We hadn't had the boat very long and were pretty green - nearly dropped the b....... thing in the drink until Jim Massey came along and gave us a hand!!!! This time was much smoother. It came down easily and ended up well balanced on the supports. We were pleased. The guys on the other boat dropped the mooring and arrived at the dock just as the job was done! (Something like "dishes diarrhea".)

Scorching hot again! We were lucky we'd made such an early start as the temperature kept rising. It took a while to organize all the lines and shrouds etc. and get it lashed down securely.
Finally we were off around noon. We'd made arrangements to meet my cousin, Angela and her family in Albany the next day, and wanted to reprovision ready for the Erie Canal. We arrived at the Albany Yacht Club at 1:00 and got a cab to the grocery store 5 blocks away. We would normally have walked this distance without batting an eye but it was so hot!!! Going along in the cab we passed one of those eletronic billboards and it gave the temperature as 107 degrees Centigrade. Wow! I don't think I've ever been in such temperatures!!! The air conditioned store felt good, and we weren't all that disappointed when we had to wait nearly 45 minutes to get the cab back.

Our neighbour in the slip next door arrived on his boat and it wasn't long before he had his swim suit on and was going for a swim off his swim platform. "The members of the Boat Club all think I'm crazy but I do this all the time!" "Right", says I "I'm doing the same." Hudson River water does not look exactly clean - its brown, brown, with all kinds of bits floating about, from plastic bottles to cans, old bits of wood, and loads of pollen from the trees. But I'm telling you - that water felt so good! Fortunately our neighbour had set up a hose too, so we could sluice off once we climbed out.

Around 7:30 p.m., when it had cooled a little, we walked the laundry up to the laundromat a block away and looked after that. We were happy that we'd done all the jobs, we'd have a good visit with Angela and her family the next day and then be ready to leave first thing Friday morning.

By the time I got back from having a shower, we enjoyed some lovely fireworks, and then around midnight there was a banging, crashing, thunder storm with some heavy rain. Hopefully it would be a little cooler.

Castleton-on-Hudson, NY

Day 285, May 25th, 2010

Off again at 7:00 and back onto the Hudson. It was overcast but warm. Today we were heading for Castleton-on-Hudson, where the Boat Club has a crane they will rent out for $50.00 for 2 hours to transients to either put your mast up or down. If you going down the East coast and back up the same way, you can even leave all your support lumber there, behind the building, and it will be there when you get back! We did that the last trip!

Anyway, there was very little traffic early in the morning, but the river is wide and deep and we were motoring along outside the channel. There was lots of grass in the river and old logs too, but we didn't think much of it. Then around 8:00 the engine seemed to be laboring. The rpm had dropped and we were only g oing about 4.2 knots with the current in our favour. We reckoned we should have been bombing along. John put the boat in reverse several times thinking the prop. was fouled with grass but it didn't seem to help. (The anxiety was beginning to build, yet again - What now?) Finally we decided to drop the anchor and have a look. John donned his wet suit and snorkel gear. We tied a line around his middle as it was clear the current was strong. I stayed on the deck and held onto the line and he dove on the boat - sure enough he found grass wrapped tightly around the shaft. It was difficult getting it off what with the strong current and the poor visibility but he got quite a bit off and climbed aboard again. Perfect! He was the hero of the day!!! Off we went - all sounded much smoother and we were zipping along well over 6 knots, even up to 7 at times. Ahhhh!!!!!!

We got into Castleton around 2:30, pulling in behind another sailboat with its mast down. It was so hot, we went straight inside to register and sure enough there were these two guys having a long cold drink chatting with the dockmaster, Ron. (We recognised each other from before!) Wayne and his son, Matt, were on their way to Belize, where Matt was going to live on the boat for a bit. We agreed to help each other with the masts. They had some work to do on their electrics yet, and we had to get the rig ready and build the supports.

It was scorching hot but no wind. Really perfect for taking the sails off. We've carried the lumber with us all these miles under the mattress in the quarter berth. Everything had to come out and then get repacked. While I did the packing job, John built the supports again. We were dripping in sweat - the showers felt so good when we were finally done around 9:00 p.m.
Wayne and Matt had taken their boat over to a mooring buoy on the other side of the river but agreed to be back at 7:00 am to work the crane.