FirstLeg – RI to NY
First Leg, Home to NY. Took 6 days. During that period, we saw it all, Heavy wind and large waves in the ocean, 2 days of thick fog in the Race where the currents are strong and the traffic can be heavy. One interesting note, a Submarine appeared out of nowhere in the fog. One day of absolute calm and 2 very pleasant days with perfect wind, waves, and temperature.
The first stop was Block Island. Easy till we reached the ocean. 15-20kt breeze, 4-6ft following seas. The boat does not handle well in a following sea, and just before we reached Point Judith the autopilot gave out. The heading was swinging back and forth. It would not hold a course and had a tendency to turn to stbd. In Block Island I switch to GPS heading as the reference. The autopilot settled out, but was still problematic and need to be watched.
I spent the next week trying to figure it out. Turns out here were 2 issues which made troubleshooting hard. The heading compass was loose and AC (Alternating Current) interference. The heading compass is located in the bottom of the helm station surrounded by wires (it took a while just to find it). It is mounted in a gimbaled sphere. Noticed the sphere was loose inside the gimbal. Tighten it down. The AC interference was harder to track down. Noticed that whenever we used the toaster the boat would start doing circles to stbd (it happens with any AC appliance, but it was the toaster that really stood out). Tried relocating the heading compass. Now when an AC appliance comes on boat does a 30° course change to stbd. The inteference is probably being induced by one of the wires in the bundle. That will take awhile to fix. In the meantime I think I can control it, so I can live wih it.
We spent 2 pleasant days on a mooring in Block Island. Ate at the Oar, no sunset, too cloudy, but the food was good. They did not charge us for the mooring. Nice. We left Block Island, 10 kts breeze, 2ft following seas. The boat rode easy. When we got to the Race, the fog came in. I do not like fog. Spent one night in New Haven. Next morning heavy fog to Stratford, 2 days in Stratford (because of the fog, did I say I did not like fog), one day in Stamford (No fog).
On to NY.
Entered NY thru LI Sound into the East River. Was interesting. It took 3 hrs to get from the Throgs Neck Bridge to the Statue of Liberty. Skyscrapers to the water edge the whole way. There were strong currents and lots of boat traffic, but the channel was wide, deep, and well-marked, so navigation was easy.
When you exit the East River into the Hudson River the Statue of Liberty is right there. For some reason just seeing the Statue of Liberty makes you feel good.
Now, a plug for Safe Harbor Marinas. When we had our troubles on the shakedown cruise last year, we ended up in Safe Harbor Onset. With the exception of the mechanic, they were very helpful and accommodating. Because of that I decided to become a member and use Safe Harbor Sakonnet in Portsmouth for the haul out. Again, they were very helpful and accommodating. As part of the membership, they offer complementary slip on an as available basis for transients (think it is easier to find a complementary slip for a 32ft boat vs a 52ft boat). We reach NY without any mooring or slip cost. We made a reservation at Liberty Marina in NJ. $250 a night! Welcome to NY.
We are now officially on the loop route.
We spent 2 days in NY. Saw a Play. Ate out. Played with the street vendors. Watched the people. So many people. Every time I moved, I bumped into somebody. But everybody was friendly (even in NY) and it was easy to get around. I think Annie REALLY liked it. It did sort of remined me of Manila. Especially late in the day when all the vendors came out and it got crowded. (Imagine that it got even more crowded.) The last thing we did in NY was to stop by Jollibees. We got Chicken Joy. It is good chicken.
Hudson River: NY to Erie Canal
This leg took 14 days. The Hudson River is a tidal river all the way to Troy NY (the entrance to the Erie Canal). The current changes direction twice a day and in some places can exceed 2 kts. In the sailboat we would have played attention to the currents. In the power boat we just powered thru. As for the weather, 2 days of very hot (+100°), the rest was plesant with light winds, and occasional showers.
We left Liberty Marine he next morning and headed North on the Hudson. Spent the next 2 hrs gliding past skyscrapers. When we passed under the Tappen Zee bridge I considered us out of NY. We stopped at Safe Harbor Haverstraw. There is not a lot around the marina and walking was out since that was the days it was +100°. You need transportation to get anywhere. We spent 2 days there. They had a pool.
We left Haverstraw and headed north towards Poughkeepsie. Dropped anchor just past West Point for lunch. Had to get very close to the shore line the water was very deep and fast.
Stayed at Shadows Marine in Poughkeepsie. The Marina itself has very limited facilities, but the Dock master was a character, very helpful and made the stay worth it. Also, there is a lot to see and do in Poughkeepsie. In our case the walkway bridge across the Hudson was the highlight. The bridge is ½ mile long, there is an elevator, and the views are spectacular. We spent 2 days in Poughkeepsie.
Note the insert shows Over Yonder.
We continued up the Hudson. As we passed Kingston I saw a sign for the Hudson River Maritime Museum in Kingston, NY. We stopped to check it out. Ended up staying 2 nights. There was an easy walking waterfront with the museum, restaurants, shops, and a relative good live band that was easy to enjoy at the slip without leaving the boat. As a note, there were a good many people hanging out on there boat enjoying the music.
The next day we motored up to Athens and anchored out.
In Athens the Hudson is split into 2 channels with the main channel to the east. The west channel is protected from the main channel by an island, shallow, has good holding for anchoring, and good visibility north and south. It might be a little problematic in a blow, but the weather was hot and calm, but with enough breeze to keep the bugs away. We anchored close to the island next to the marsh. We saw hawks and large fishing jumping. We spent 2 nights anchored there. We ran the generator twice, 1hr at night inorder to run the AC before bed time. Other than that, we used the power indiscriminately. Even made carrot cake cookies, which mean the oven was on for +1 hr. With 2 days of indiscriminate power us the LIFePO4 batteries were at 28%.
We left Athens and headed toward Troy. Stopped at The Albany Yacht Club. It was an unplanned stop, but it was hot and they had a pool. Ate at the “Son of Egg” and toured the capital. Very Pleasant stay. We made plans to return for the 4th fireworks and then headed to Troy.
We ended up staying 4 days between Albany and Troy. Albany had a pool, the state capital, and fireworks on the 4th. Troy had more to do. Lots of shops and foods within easy walking distance. And, we used the city bikes to extend out range and went to the Burden Iron Works Museum. Well worth the trip.
While in Troy we order a few things thru Amazon for deliver to the Troy Downtown Marina. One of the items was a Cuisinart Ice Cream maker. We have used it twice as of this writing. Makes very good ice Cream. Very simple to use. I think it is going to become my favorite appliance on the boat
Erie/Oswego Canals
We spent 5 days on the Erie Canal and one on the Oswego Canal. The canals are very scenic, with lots of interesting sights and towns, And lots of locks. With that said there is one trait that can be used to classify a canal section into 1 of 2 categories that totally describes the canal, Manmade or River. The Manmade sections are long, straight, narrow, with very consistent depth. No Suprises. One other characteristic of the Manmade section is that the vegetation often grows right to the water edges. It reminds me of the old movies (like Apocalypse Now, African Queen, or Tarzan) where they are traveling thru the jungle by boat and the bad guys can attack at any time from the vegetation without being seen. The only characteristic that is common between the Manmade and River section is long. The River section is long, windy, often wide, and the depth can be anything. There are often surprises, and the scenery is spectacular. The vegetation can grow to the water’s edge or be a wide open meadows, there are marshes (and wildlife), houses, farms, and/or industry. In both cases there are lots of towns with free docks where you can get off the boat and explore. (Actually, there was one other section that could be characterized into its on category, Oneida Lake, 20 miles long, 5 miles wide. For our trip across it was calm, no waves, but a significant amount of boat traffic for a Thursday.)
The Locks themselves can cause strange effects. As the water lowers the sun disappears, the Solar panels quit working. At the bottom any sound can cause strange echoes, Whispers can sound like shouts, water rushing in, and doors cracking and growing. You set in front of 2 doors that look like the doors on “Jurassic Park” and as they slowly creak open you expect a dinosaur to rush in. But, instead it opens to beautiful sunlight and calm water.
As for our trip thru the canal from Waterford to Oswego there were 31 Locks, the first 5 locks have to be completed in one go. They are very close to each other (a lock ever 1500ft) with a total lift of almost 450ft. The first 2 locks were a challenge for Annie and I. We knew the process as it was well published. It was the little things that got us, how to grab lines (what to grab), how to secure the lines, how the water would affect the boat as it filled the lock. It was a good thing we were at the bottom of the lock and nobody else could see us and our antics. But, by the end of the day, Lock 7, we had the process down.
We spent one night on anchor, 2 nights in marinas, and 3 nights on a free wall. The marinas had power and water, the free walls did not. The night we anchored out and one of the nights on the free wall it was very hot, no breeze, and lots of bugs. We drained the batteries running the AC the first night. The second we ran the generator to run the AC, but still made a dent in the battery charge. AC takes a lot of power. As for our stops; the first stop was the Waterford Visitor center. Very pleasant stop. There is an attendant that was able to answer most of our questions. We stopped at Ilions, Sylvan Beach, Johnsville, and Oswego. Ilions and Oswego were also convenient to shopping and grocery stores.
Kingston, Canada and the Thousand Island
We crossed Lake Ontario to Kingston, ON. We had a reservation at Kingston Marine. We had to cross the La Salle Causeway. The lift bridge was out. There was a shorter fixed bridge with a 15’ Clearance. Based on a measurements made at the marina I have an Air clearance of 14’. We were able to pass under it with about 1½’ clearance. Annie and I have a tradition of Kissing when we pass under a bridge, We did not kiss passing under this bridge, I was looking forward and down, listening for the crash. We made it, no problem. Then we kissed.
We spent 3 days in Kingston. They were having the Buskers festival. They closed off streets and the jugglers, fire eaters, and acrobats performed. Also, Kingston has a lot of restaurants, shops, limestone architecture, history, … It would be easy to spend 3 days here anytime.
After we left Kingston, we moved to Gananoque. Gananoque has a nice marina, easy walkable town, and 2 museums, Thousand Island Museum and the Thousand Island Boat Museum, both of which were enjoyable and I found out Thousand Island Dressing was invented here. They also have a playhouse right on the shore which we did not quite make it to. We did take the dinghy on a tour of the Islands, went swimming and had a picnic. We originally meant to spend 2 days in Gananoque, but the weather turned bad and we spent a 3rd day there. While waiting for the weather, one of the neighboring boats offered us the use of their car to going Grocery shopping. How do you say thank you to that?
Trent-Severn Waterway
After Gananoque we headed toward the Trent-Severn Waterway. On the way we spent the night anchored in Picton Bay. It was a pleasant anchorage, but that night before bed I went to check the anchor. I shined a light down the anchor line toward the water. There was a solid mass of bugs leading from the water to our boat along the anchor line. It looked thick enough to walk on. The next morning there were dead bugs all over the aft cockpit. You could barely see the deck thru the dead bugs. They were easy to wash off, but ugg…
After Picton we traveled to Trent Port Marine at the mouth of the Trent-Severn waterway. Very nice facility with easy access to everything. I think they had the best bathroom/showers on the whole trip (Though all the bathroom/showers we saw in Canada were clean and well maintained.) We spent 2 nights there. The first night was a Friday and the marina had live music and a pooless party.
One other event occurred while at Trent Port. We had developed an exhaust leak on the generator exhaust manifold. It is located on the outboard aft section of the generator. Very hard for me to reach. I decided to try a temporary fix using hi-temp epoxy putty. It is usually carried at auto parts stores. There is a NAPA autoparts store approximately 1 mile from the marina. They open at 8AM Monday. I wanted to leave as early as possible on that Monday, so at 7:30 I walked to the store. Bought the putty and walked back. When I got to the Marina, I realized I did not have my wallet. I must have dropped it. I walked back to the auto parts store. It was laying in the middle of the sidewalk about a block from the store. I ended up walking 4 miles for the epoxy and we did not get out of the marine till almost 10AM.
After the Trent Port Marina, we entered the Trent Severn waterway.
We spent just over 3 weeks on the Trent Severn. The Trent Severn and the Erie-Oswego canals are very similar in that it consist of Manmade sections and Naturel River sections. In both cases, the Manmade sections are long, straight, narrow, with very consistent depth. No Suprises. The River section are long, windy, often wide, and the depth can be anything. After that they are totally different. To start, the water. The water temperature was in the mid 70’s and it was clean. You could see the bottom in 10 ft of water. And in some lakes (like Pigeon Lake) you could see it at 15ft. In the rivers and lakes the bottom was a mixture of weeds and sand. Some people are put off by sight of the weeds, but they are gentle in the water and I did not have any issues with them. As a note, the weeds may be one of the reasons the water was so clean. It was easy to find the sandy areas, and there were a couple sand bars we took the dingy to and walked around in waist deep water. The sandy areas were pleasant. We swim often.
There were 4 types of locks on the Trent Severn. A standard lock as on the Erie. A Step Lock, where the output of one lock was the input of the second lock. A lift Lock, where the lock chamber is a water tight tub and the boat in the tub is lifted to the next level. And, A railroad chute, where the boat is placed on a travel lift and moved to the next level. The locks on the Trent Severn are sort of small and some are manually operated. Mostly by kids on summer break. The first couple of locks we had 4 boats in the Lock. I thought that was full. Then we had a lock with 6 Boats, plus the packed in a couple jet skyers and a pod of Kayakers. They had to shuffle boats around just to open and close the lock doors. It was interesting to watch (the first couple time).
As for where to stay at night, there were basically 4 options; “free” walls, “pay” walls, Anchoring, and Marinas. The “free” walls were around all the locks and in some of the towns. They all had bathroom facilities, but nothing else. The pay walls were located at some locks and had power, water, bathroom facilities, but no showers. Anchoring was possible pretty much anywhere at your discretion. For showers you need to stay at a marina.
The first night on the Trent Severn we spent on the town wall in Campbellford. I am supposed to get blood work once a month. I decide to try and do it in Campbellford. About ½ mile from the town wall was a walk-in clinic and a hospital. The process is to take the US lab request to an Ontario doctor. Get the US request translated into a format for the Ontario labs and then make an appointment with the lab. I was able to see a doctor right away at the walk-in clinic. I was not able to make a lab appointment till the next day. The whole process took 2 days. Note, I had to make an appointment with the lab, but not the doctor. Go figure.
Every place we stayed was good. Several places we checked into meaning to stay one night, but ended up staying 2-3 days because we were having such a good time or there was more to see and do. Several places had Concerts in the park next to the boat and we could listen and watch from the boat. Museums like the Canoe Museum, Area Museums, Natural History Museum, etc. And in Peterborough marina, the boaters on the dock we were on, invited us to their cook-out 2 nights in a row.
The last Lock (Lock 45) on the Trent Severn is the smallest lock (80 ft x 23 ft). Over Yonder is 11 ft wide. Two boats our size plus fenders would not fit by side (8”+11’+8”+11’+8“ = 24 ft). When we arrived, there were 5 boats in line. 3 large boats and 2 small boats. They were locking thru 1 large boat plus 2-3 small boats at a time. That lock was our longest wait to lock thru. There was no room on the wall, so it was a drift wait. Ugg. We locked thru with 1 large boat and 2 other small boats. And, it was tight. But, when the lock doors opened we were in the Georgian Bay and no more locks for +600 miles. Everything looked brighter.
Georgian Bay
Georgian Bay is very pretty. Very Clear water, a little cold, but clear. There are lots of rocks, Granite rocks, shaped and sculpted by glaciers. Glaciers scaped away the earths surface, down to the bedrock leaving behind a very distinctive rocky landscape. Most of the islands are covered in wind swept pine trees. How they grow in the rock is amazing. The water depth varies a lot. This is one place you definitely want to stay in the channel. The first 2 nights we anchored in Indian bay and explored the area by dinghy. We ran aground in the dinghy often. The landscape is so picturesque, we took too many pictures.
We stopped (spent the night) at Parry Sound, the birth place of Bobby Orr; The Bustard Islands, Good protected anchorage easy to get in and out off; Bad River, plenty of room and very picturesque. In Bad River we took the dinghy sightseeing and to (and on) the rapids; From Bad River we went up Beaver Stone Bay thru Collins Inlet to Killarney; Collins was like going down a fjord with tall granite cliffs; Killarney, very nice small town. You can walk down the middle of the main street and not be weary of cars; Baie Fine, the most isolated, prettiest place we visited. Note, everything is further away than you think. From the bay I saw where a rock slide had occurred in the past. The rocks were jumbled in a neat pattern. Then I saw that the rocks were as tall as the trees and realized that they were not rocks, but house size boulders; Benjamin Islands, we anchored in a cove between North and South Benjamin Islands. Protected anchorage easy to get in and out of. There were 20 other boats anchored in here; Kagawong, Visited the Bridal Veil Falls and swam in the pool, the Farmers Market, the Manitoulin Chocolate Works, and The Heritage Museum; Gore Bay, easy access to grocery store and hardware store, not many restaurants, but the one we visited was very good; The northwest end of Manitoulin Island, below Vidal Island. Anchored, It was our last stop in Canada.
Back to the USA
We reentered the USA thru De Tour, MI. We used the CBP Roaming app. The process was easy. Fill out all the information in the app. Press the Report Arrival button. An agent initiated a video call. Asked a few questions, then approved the entry. The hard part was the weather turned and we spent (were stuck) 4 days in De Tour. Very small town with 3 restaurants, 2 of which were always closed. The good part was the facilities were nice, and there were 7 other looper boats also stuck there. It turned into a 4 day social event capped off every evening with a docktails. Next was Mackinac Island. It sort of reminded me of Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard, but without the cars. People got around using bikes (no ebikes) and horse carriages. Since you cannot house train a house you can imagine the streets and smell. While there we rented bikes and rode around the island and there was a fort overlooking the town that we toured. (It seems that anytime there is something at the top of a hill Annie wants to do it). The weather was predicted to turn bad and we need to be in Traverse city by Monday so we cut our stay in Mackinac Island a day short.
Lake Michigan
We left Mackinac, stopped and spent the night in Northpoint at the entrance to Traverse Bay. On the map Travere Bay looks small, especially when compared to Lake Michigan, but it is actually bigger the Narraganset bay. The next night we anchored in a cove off of Traverse Bay and then arrived in Traverse City on Sunday. Eliza was scheduled to arrive Monday and we were going to spend a week in Travere city so we rented a car. Picked up Eliza at the airport. And, spent 3 days touring the Traverse Bay area by car. Visited Sleeping Bear Sand dunes, Mackinaw City, and the Wineries. One other thing was that we bought ebikes on line for deliver to Traverse city. They delivered the bikes to 2 different locations. It was a good thing we had rented a car. Eliza returned the car to the airport and left on Saturday. We really enjoyed Eliza’s visit.
We left Traverse City, anchored one night in Traverse Bay and then to Leland (Fishtown). Spent 2 nights in Leland and then to Frankfort. The weather turned again and we spent 5 days in Frankfort. Frankfort is a little bigger city and there were several other loopers also stuck here, so we had plenty to do.
