New York City to Kingston, NY

Stats Day: 2

Nautical Miles Traveled Today: 75 

Nautical Miles Traveled in Total:  101 

# of Locks  Navigated to Date: 0

We were on our way up the Hudson by 8:00 this morning - quite an achievement for us night owls that were up past 1:00 working on important things like blogs and such.  

I must say that taking the boat lines off at Lincoln Harbor was a hair-raising experience.  The floating docks there shake around so much it is like a perpetual earthquake in progress.  It has literally been years since I was afraid of walking on any floating docks at marinas.  I remember when I first started dating Clark if we walked around shaky docks, I would have a death grip on his arm for fear of going for an unplanned swim.  I haven't felt that way in over 25 years, but I was very nervous working the lines today.  Not only did the docks sway back-and-forth and up and down, but when they slammed into the poles holding the docks, they pitched me forward like someone shoved me in the back.  I found leaning over the cleat at the edge of the dock to untie the lines to be a very scary situation, so I got down on all fours to have a lower center of gravity.  Hey whatever works!

We've been up the Hudson a number of times, and I have few favorite sites along the way.  My first point of interest was Jeffrey's Hook lighthouse at the George Washington Bridge.  I guess I just like the name for some reason.  Here's a picture of the lighthouse made famous by the 1942 children's book The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge by Hildegarde Swift.  Look closely or you might miss the lighthouse.

Further up river we passed by West Point Academy.

Still further upstream we came to Pollepel Island with Bannermans' Castle.  If interested in castles like I am, you can read all about this one built to store military surplus at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollepel_Island

We had heard all sorts of forecasts for inclement weather for today, but other than some light misting and an overcast sky, the weather was fine for boat travel.   We had a Plan A and Plan B for tonight's stay and decided to wait to see how things went to decide which plan to implement.  As it turned out we took neither plan A or B and ended up much further up river than anticipated.  We had the current with us for the entire trip which pushed our average speed from 7.6 nm/hr (about 8 mph) yesterday to over 9 nm / hr (10 mph) today. Going from 8 mph to 10 mph in a car is not noticeable - both are rather painful, but on a boat that 2 mph means something!  

We arrived at another favorite spot of mine, Kingston, NY, at just after 4:00.  We passed by our prior choices of destination much earlier in the afternoon and both of us poo-pooed the idea of stopping given the good conditions for continuing upstream. Having been on the boat for the whole day, I was anxious to get out and stretch my legs.  We walked around Kingston on a mission to find ice cream.  We had almost given up when I asked a local who smiled and pointed directly across the street from where we were standing.  Captain Clark got a vanilla cone and I stole some licks.  Creamy goodness!

The terrain in Kingston is hilly and the walk around town was good exercise.  We stopped at the top of one hill we climbed to take a picture looking down on our boat at the municipal dock.  Can you spot the orange kayak on our upper deck?  Our other distinguishing feature is the blue Bimini top.  The speck of orange is probably the best way to find our boat in the picture.  Here's a hint, we're near the boat that's closest to the bridge.

Given our successful distance covered today, we need to redo our travel plans for the next 2 days. With some luck maybe I can get to the Troy Farmer's Market on Saturday. 

And So It Begins ...

Stats Day: 1
Nautical Miles Traveled Today:  26.5
Nautical Miles Traveled Total: 26.5
# of Locks Navigated To Date: 0

So today we decided to throw off the dock lines and start on our way to explore the Great Loop!  We still had items on the "to do" list and a multitude of last minute activities to get ourselves out of the house.  When all was said and done, we pulled away from our home dock at 3:40 p.m. on our way to New York City for the night.   Here's a picture of "Red 2" buoy with the Highlands in the background as we wave goodbye to our home port!

As we approached the Verrazano-Narrows bridge, we passed the Carnival Splendor cruise ship just leaving New York.  I always find it exciting to see the tankers and cruise ships coming and going from the harbor.  We reached the VZ bridge at just about 6:00, and shortly after passing under the bridge, Clark had the pleasure of seeing a dolphin jump completely out of the water in the waters in front of our boat!  Unfortunately, I was day dreaming and missed the show. The dolphin decided not to make a reappearance for my benefit.   However, even though it was overcast when we arrived at NYC. I did enjoy this lovely site!

Having arrived in New York harbor, we decided we should find a place to spend the night.  Due to it being well after 5:00, it took perseverance and numerous no-answer calls to acquire a slip at Lincoln Harbor Marina for the night.  We stayed there July 4, 2012 and enjoyed our stay as we saw the Macy's fireworks from our fly bridge.  No fireworks tonight, but the marina offers a beautiful view of NY just the same.  Too bad that between my lack of photography skills and a rocky dock, I can't share the full beauty of the moment in this blog, but here's a little taste.

Tomorrow we plan to get an early start to catch the tide to help us along on our way up the Hudson River.   On today's travels, we averaged about 7.6 naughts and that was with a following tide for a good portion of the voyage.  It is a big adjustment going to trawler speeds after years of being in a hurry.  Weather is iffy for tomorrow, so we'll see how far we can get.

Dry Run / Firedrill

So I woke up this morning thinking it was going to be just another day of crossing items off the to do list and was in for a big surprise when Captain Clark suddenly announced at 2 o'clock this afternoon that the weather was perfect for a dry run, sleep on the boat night tonight.

Without saying so to each other, I guess we both translated that into "pretend we're leaving today and see how ready we are".  "Ready,  Set,  Go! "  I started going through my last-minute list and madly throwing items into bags and coolers to be brought onto the boat.

Of course I didn't have meals planned out so the first thing I had to figure out was food for supper, breakfast, and tomorrow's lunch.  When we actually leave, I have to empty the fridge completely. I didn't go quite that far today.  There's still food in there for when we return tomorrow.

Since I'm still using it for some projects, I also decided that my laptop was not part of the exercise. I considered it but concluded "that's just not happening"!  You see, one minute we were strolling around the house removing batteries from clocks and TV remotes in preparation for our trip,  and the next we were in "all hands on deck" mode of operation to see how fast we could pull away from the dock.  Life is never dull with Clark!

I must say that Clark literally did the heavy lifting on this exercise.   He carried all but 3 bags down to the boat including 2 coolers full of food.  When I finally boarded the boat, all I could see was bag after  bag of things to be stowed because he didn't empty any bags he just lined them up in the salon / galley along with our 2 collapsible bicycles.

The trip to our favorite anchorage is about 1.5 hours on a day like today when fighting the tide.   I saw none of the trip out as it took the entire time to get everything put away in its proper place.  I finished just in time to watch the Captain lower the anchor.

Clark decided to dive under the back of the boat after anchoring to change the zincs on the trim tabs.   I was so hot I almost dove in with him!  Instead I put on my swimsuit and doused myself with the shower on the back of the boat. 

After that I decided to make dinner ... spaghetti ... and quickly came to the conclusion that if we were to have enough potable water to make it to tomorrow lunch then we needed to ration our supply since I had severely underestimated the amount needed for cooking and drinking for an overnight.  That's one lesson learned for our trip.

Other than the water issue (we'll just have to suffer through by drinking juice), so far so good.  We have a bag of collected items to remove from the boat as not needed.

The fun part of boating is many-fold especially if you like surprises.  Like tonight after a beautiful sunset we heard boats tooting their horns in a "happy" way.  Clark decided to go check it out and found a boat parade in progress along the Shrewsbury River.   Boats of all styles and sizes decorated with colorful lights.

I look forward to many more happy surprises on our trip!  All said ... so far ... a great dry run!

Great Loop - Preparation for the Trip

Sea Moss on the choppy seas of the Atlantic Ocean

Following our 2012 Triangle Cruise through Canada, we decided we wanted to do the Great Loop trip and have been preparing for this exciting boating adventure ever since.  To learn more about what we might expect from the Great Loop, we attended an America's Great Loop Cruising Association, AGLCA, meeting in May of 2014 as a kickoff to reaching our goal of traveling the loop.  We met many Looper Wannabes as well as experienced Loopers.  The greatest thing about boating is the camaraderie and something we look forward to experiencing more of on our trip as we encounter other Loopers sharing a common goal.

As a result of chatting with other boaters at the AGLCA get together and touring boats of loopers, we left the conference full of great ideas, and last summer we made many small but important improvements  to Sea Moss to make it ready for our future voyage.  Heat sensors were added to the engine room, storage areas were scoped out and shelves added to increase space, the sofa was raised about 6 inches to provide better scenic views from within the cabin, the shower in the stern was upgraded to hot/cold from cold only, ...  All changes were subtle but useful improvements!

I couldn't wait to get the boat out from under the winter cover in April this year, so we could start our trip preparation in earnest.   I spent the first week scrubbing it clean and waxing from bow to stern.  All told it took me about 25 hours of scrubbing to bring it up to snuff - about  4 to 5 hours a day was my limit, but I knew we would be working on the boat and needed to clean off the winter's grime and at least start our trip with a shiny vessel.  We went to the NYC boat show this year and bought much-needed, new electronics to make major improvements to our navigation equipment.  I knew we would be crawling all over the boat to install the new electronics, and I wanted to have a clean boat to crawl around on.

As a result of our efforts, Sea Moss now has an integrated display of radar, GPS, and depth.  We added a new antenna for AIS which identifies our boat to other boat traffic and provides us with a display of AIS-enabled vessels on our chart display.  Swapping out the radar was loads of fun as we had to take off the old unit and remove the wires that were running from the helm to the radar tower.  In fact we had to remove the 5 huge bolts holding the radar tower in place and lower the tower / mast to get to the wires to remove them and feed new ones through. When the original radar was installed, the engineer decided that he would "glue" the wires in place with 4200 sealant - good to keep the water out and terrible to get the wires out.  Without lowering the tower, we would never have moved those old wires or fed new ones. 

The things we get ourselves into ... but we can proudly say we saved at least $5000 doing it ourselves.  The quoted price from a contractor was $1000 / day labor, and the job took several days to complete. So, instead of a "tree hugger", I became a radar hugger as I stood on deck with first the old radar dome in hand (about 20 lbs and >24" wide) while Captain Clark disconnected the unit and later I hugged the new unit (slightly narrower but taller) as he routed wires, made connections, and sealed open areas with 'you guessed it' ... 4200 sealant.  Captain Clark was exceedingly happy with his new integrated display when we tried out the new unit coming home in the dark from meeting up with Looper Boater friends for dinner Saturday night.

Dan & Jacque on "Horizon Chaser", Clark & Evelyn on "Sea Moss", and Angie & Dan on "Sea Horse"

Another addition to the boat is modified scuba gear for the captain. (I am not certified but he and our son Jeff got certified back in '98).  Frequently Captain Clark free dives (i.e. holds his breath) under the boat to have a look around - inspect props for damage, check for lines wrapped around prop shafts, and his "favorite" task - scrape barnacles off props, shafts, etc.  The only dive suit that he owned was a thin-weight "shorty" which is fine for that rare hot day in the middle of summer but not good in cold waters in non-summer months.  We decided to upgrade to a heavy weight full length wet suit to avoid possible hypothermia as we have no idea where and when he might need to dive under.  While we were shopping for a suit, we chatted with the owner of the local dive shop "Divers Two" in Avon-by-the-Sea, NJ who told us he could make a modified / backpack-type arrangement for Clark with a small air tank sufficient to provide him with enough air for diving under the boat.  We were sold on the idea instantly and had one made to order for this trip and future needs.

I have to say that I learn so much working with Captain Clark, and though it can be tedious at times, I truly enjoy most of our projects.  We are both of the mind to fix and reuse instead of buy new even though sometimes it makes a lot of work for us.  Our circa 1990 4 HP outboard for the dinghy (the one I think of as the "new" one) has been temperamental in recent years but finally gave Clark enough complaints that he decided to dig in to see what needed to be fixed.  It quickly became a two-person job - "hold this", "get me the xyz tool", "shine the flashlight over here", ... As a result I now know a lot more than I used to about outboard motor construction, operation, and how to replace worn out parts - not that I'd want to do any repair on my own.  After all who would be my "go-fer" person.  Happy news is that the outboard now has a nice "tail" of water when running showing that everything is flowing as it should.  A new motor on sale was $1200.  The parts cost us less than $50.

Now, as departure day gets ever closer and bigger items are crossed off, we are in the mode of basic provisioning for the boat with cooking equipment, clothes, laundry supplies e.g. quarters for the machines we'll be using along the way in the U.S and Loonies and Toonies for machines in Canada, and hundreds of other items that all have to somehow be absorbed into the limited storage on board.  "To take or not to take" that is the oft asked question around here these days.  Besides all the items we already own and deem essential for the trip, it seems that every time I turn around I am on Amazon ordering yet another item for the boat including essentials like charts (paper and electronic) to "nice to haves" like my new ice maker, and everything it would seem in between from pencils to spare boat parts.  The UPS delivery person must be sick of seeing our address on packages by now.  I know the guys that collect the recycle cardboard must groan when they pull up to our house every two weeks or so.  I know I groan dragging it all out there and piling it up only to turn around and have more delivered the next day.

Miraculously, as we bring things down to the boat they somehow seem to disappear into the storage areas, so much so that I have added a list to my Google Keep records of "where's it hiding" so I can find things we have put in obscure places - the ones we're hoping not to need but deem essential should the need arise, for example, a heavy, bulky prop-puller tool used to remove props.  We certainly hope not to need to do that but you never know in unfamiliar waters, and props are impossible to remove without the prop-puller tool.

So here we are already in June, it's getting down to the wire, and we feel there is still a lot to do.  We're both wishing we were already underway instead of crossing to-do items off our lists.  "Chomping at the bit" I believe is the correct expression!  I have a long list of items to bring onto the boat before we leave that I have not stowed due to the fact that I am still using them.  Soon though I will do the final trips to the boat including all the clothes that need to come along with us.  Trying to decide which clothes to bring has turned out to be the most difficult decision I have been facing.  I have the selected clothes lined up ready for boarding as soon as the rain stops.  Once I get it all on board, if it won't fit, I'll have to reconsider my choices.  We are expecting all temperatures from hot to freezing as we make our way around the loop.  In Canada in summer 2012 we had heat in the 90s.  Friends currently doing the loop hit temperatures in the 20s in Tennessee back in October / November time frame, so we have to be prepared for both extremes.  The solution of course is layering which of course is my plan.

I check my Google Keep lists almost daily to see what needs to be done, what still needs to be stowed on board, and what I might be able to carry down from the house.   If time allows, after we have everything we think we need, we want to do a "shake-down" / overnight stay on the boat before leaving on our voyage.  We did that for the triangle cruise and found it useful.  Our exact departure date is still TBD.  To make the best time and be efficient in fuel usage, we need to check the tides for the Hudson River to determine when we should leave so that we are pushed upstream by the tide instead of fighting current the whole way. 

Below is the AGLCA Great Loop map color-coded by season - red for summer travel, navy for fall / winter, and green for spring.   We will, as do most Loopers, travel counterclockwise to take advantage of downstream currents in the rivers.  New for my blog, I have included a link to a U.S. / Canada map roughly showing the outline of our planned route.  The points on my map indicate our basic plan, so follow our travels and share the experience of our Great Loop adventure with us.   You can subscribe on the blog site to have updates sent to you automatically by email whenever I publish a posting.

Seasonal Route Map Courtesy of AGLCA www.greatloop.org

Hudson River Southbound

Hudson River Southbound:  We fueled up before we left Kingston, NY with an undetermined destination - perhaps somewhere on the Hudson River, perhaps our cozy, ever-shrinking island at Sandy Hook, or perhaps home.  The weather was behaving itself - not too hot, not too cool, and no rain, so the Sandy Hook option looked like the likely choice.  However, as we approached the Tappan Zee bridge, the captain started talking about putting the canvas covers on the seats and getting prepared to drive from the lower helm.

I ignored him for a while as I was busy reading the conclusion of a great romance novel on my kindle.  However, at some point I decided that if he kept mentioning the weather, it was worth looking up to see what he was referring to.   The sky looked pretty ominous, so I pulled out the various canvas covers and started putting them on the bench seats and the table as well as partially on the captain's chair (as much as I could with him sitting in it).  I took any odd bits of things not currently needed down below - sunscreen, jackets, blanket I was using, my kindle, etc. and then perched on the small portion of the bench seat I had not covered prepared to cover everything as quickly as possible should we decide to run for the cabin.

I saw one flash of lightening and that was it - it was time to go.  The captain grabbed the binoculars, charts, and chart plotter and took off for the lower helm.  I covered the instruments and the remaining seats and followed as quickly as I could.  We rarely use our lower helm because visibility is not very good from down there.  When traveling on a plane, the bow of the boat is raised in front.  Even though it was now truly raining, the captain kept the boat on a plane taking advantage of the current going with us and traveling anywhere from 16 to 17 knots.  If you recall from my last post, that is fast for us. 

Besides the normal, "where's the next buoy?" visibility necessities, the Hudson River presented its very own challenge in having a large amount of wood either in the form of branches (some like small trees) and lumber (some the size of 4" x 4" x 4').  Really you don't want to hit any of this stuff at high speed (or low speed for that matter) as prop damage can be considerable on impact.  The captain told me to watch for debris on the port side, and he would watch on the starboard side.  Since I had been piloting the boat, I asked him who would be driving, and he said he would. 

When either of us is driving down below, we have to stand on tip toe.  The captain is about 3 inches taller than I am so he can see a bit more than I can.  The advantage on the starboard side is that the window on that side has a windshield wiper.  Our boat is designed such that it has 3 big windows across the front.  The center window and the starboard window have wipers.  The port side window does not.   Shortly after we starting piloting from the lower helm, we were reduced to a windshield wiper on only the starboard side window.

As we were looking out the windows we basically saw the windshield wiper mechanism for the center window disassemble itself before our very eyes.  A piece fell off and started rolling across the deck and other remaining pieces were dangling and flopping back and forth pretending that wiping the window was still an option in its sorry state.  I took over the wheel and the captain ran out to collect parts and see what could be done with the wiper.  He did something such that it stopped working which was an improvement over the flopping back and forth scenario, and then he came back in to take over steering.

So now my visibility has been further reduced.  Between the rain covered windows and my height restriction, I could not see well enough to be a proper lookout.  I have a step stool on board but ruled out that option as too dangerous because at the speed we were traveling plus the motion of the boat due to waves, etc. it was far too unstable to consider.  So, I decided that I would climb up and sit on the galley counter between the sink and the stove.  Unfortunately, sitting  on the counter provides an "excellent" seat for looking out the starboard side of the boat but not the front, so I had to position myself so that I was sitting in a somewhat twisted position to see out the front window. 

The counter is not a comfortable seat even without twisting sideways as it is certainly not cushioned.  My right foot was dangling since I was too high up for my leg to reach the floor, and my left leg was hitched up and almost in the sink.  But, hey, I was ready.  As I peered out the window between raindrops looking out for the dastardly wood, I kept practicing to myself what I would say should I see something.  "Wood on the port side captain!"  I was thinking of the old movies with the lookout in the crow's nest saying "Land ho!"  I was taking my job seriously and wanted to get it right.

And then it happened, I see this large piece of lumber dead ahead, and what do I yell?!  "To the right, to the right, move over!"  Now how ambiguous is that?  Is the lumber to the right or should the boat be moved to the right?  At the critical point I failed miserably in my use of nautical language.  The captain, however, did steer to the right and avoided hitting the wood.  I think it was the frantic hand signals indicating a need to move to the right that did the trick.  No further objects came our way that required warning announcements, so I don't know if given a second chance if I could have remembered to use proper terminology or at least less ambiguous language.

Besides the broken windshield wiper, I noticed that the screen on the starboard side salon window was off its track.  I guess the age of the window (13) and the motion of the boat was too much for it, so it broke along the way.  The list of items to fix from this trip just got larger by 2 more things.  At least nothing that broke on this trip caused us to be laid up or hauled out, so we really can't complain too loudly.  Two other boaters we talked to lost several days of their vacation as they required repairs that were more serious be made to their boats before they could continue on their way.

We repeatedly referred to the "Rainy Days" app on our smart phone for updates on the weather.  We could see that as we got near Staten Island, the rain would lessen or disappear altogether.    The app is pretty amazing because it was right on target.  By the time we went under the VZ bridge, the rain had stopped.  Now the question became "where do we go from here?"  We could either go home directly or we could stop at the island first. 

Even though we had fueled up in Kingston before leaving in the morning, the captain said that regardless of our ultimate destination, he wanted to stop and get fuel in Atlantic Highlands to replace the fuel used on the Hudson.  In the morning we paid $340 to fill up the tanks.  In the afternoon, we paid another $520, so that was almost $900 in one day for fuel.    I can't imagine what our MasterCard bill will be like after this trip.  I know it's going to be rather shocking.

Ultimately the captain offered a compromise as he wanted to go home and I wanted to stay on the water one more night.  The plan: go to the island to cook and eat dinner and after dinner pull up anchor and go home.  Besides the threat of more rain during the night, the captain heard a prediction of 92 degrees for the next day.  The combination of both rain and heat was less than appealing.  So we had a lovely dinner out on the water and then watched one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen.  It seemed like the perfect ending to our adventure.  Almost like in the movies but instead of riding off into the sunset, we sailed eastward as the sun set behind us. 

Waterford, NY

Waterford, NY:  OMG!!!!!  The bug infestation that hit the evening we arrived at Waterford was disgusting.  When we woke in the morning, we found the boat covered in dead bodies of winged insects.  Some online research revealed that the corpses were of the Mayfly species whose only purpose in life is to reproduce and die which is pretty much what happened on our boat and all the other boats docked at the Waterford lock dock.   Regardless of whether we planned on it or wanted to or not, all boats docked there overnight ended up having to clean their boats in the morning.  Since I was not interested in transporting Mayfly larvae to NJ, I was particularly careful to clean up all the larva which resembled crumbled pieces of uncooked spaghetti.  Unfortunately the bits and pieces stuck very well to the deck of the boat making it a devilish job to get done. 

After we finally got the boat cleaned up, we decided to go for a bike ride to Peebles Park before leaving Waterford for our next stop.  It was a pleasant ride with a cool breeze as long as we stayed near the Hudson River.  As soon as we started to get into wooded areas, the breeze was cut off and it got unpleasantly warm.  It is possible to bike around Van Shaick's Island but the bike trails appeared to be more suited to trail bikes which is not what our are designed for, so we aborted our bike tour and went back to the boat. 

When we got to the boat with the intention of an immediate departure, the captain said, "Where are my boat keys?" as he patted and emptied his pockets.  We knew he had them when we left the boat because he had locked the boat which requires the key.  I did not have my set with me, so here we are looking at the sliding glass door with no means to unlock it.  The captain asked if I had my set, and I said, "Yes, they are locked in the boat because I didn't bring my purse with me on the bike."   Clearly that was not the answer the captain was hoping for. 

Plan B ... get into the boat via a window / hatch.  We had closed the main hatch window but not latched / locked it down, so with rather appalling speed, the captain was able to "break into" our boat by dropping through the front hatch onto our master stateroom bed and then unlocking the slider from the inside.  Once he got the door open and gave me access to the boat, he took off on his bike to scour Peebles Park for his keys.  He retraced the route we had taken exactly and in so doing, he found his keys in the park near the edge of the Hudson River by a set of picnic tables he had biked around.  Phew!  Close call on that one!  He returned rather rapidly to the boat since without me tailing behind him, I am sure he was pretty much flying on that bike. 

As soon as he got back, it was now already going on for 1 o'clock, we started our engines and pulled out to head down the Hudson River to go as far south as we could today.    We ended up staying in Kingston, NY which is a place we have been to on prior Hudson River trips and enjoyed. We checked in at the Kingston City Marina and then went in search of dinner. We walked around town checking out the various restaurant options and then had a lovely dinner at the "Ship to Shore Bistro and New York steak" restaurant based on the recommendations of two different people - one person who was dining there when we strolled by and another random person working in an auto repair store. 

The auto mechanic said, "Your best choice is Ship to Shore, after that they go downhill from there."  Actually his first choice recommendation was the Armadillo Mexican restaurant, but since neither the captain nor I are huge fans of Mexican, we chose not to partake of that option. We did at least go to the restaurant to check out the menu, but the venue was "noisy bar", so that plus the food selection drove us back to the docks for our dining experience.  I'm very glad it did since dinner was excellent.  We still have Berry Berry Pie in the fridge from Essex, NY so we decided to have dessert on the boat instead of the restaurant.

We want to be back to Sandy Hook area by tomorrow night.  We may or may not anchor out there before heading home depending on weather, time, and our mood.  The forecast is for thunderstorms during the day - intermittent and appearing in 3 hour intervals, i.e. chance of storms at 1:00 p.m., 4:00, 7:00, and 10:00 p.m. and sunny in between times.  Should / could / might prove to be an interesting day on the water.  We'll check our forecasts again in the morning to see what the latest updates look like. 

Seems to me that we should try to get out of Kingston as early as possible due to weather predictions, but the captain says we'll be fighting the tide / current until early afternoon so leaving early won't give the payback one might expect.  Today, in the afternoon, we had the current with us and we were "flying along" at over 16 knots instead of our usual max of 14.  If, instead, we were going against the same current, we'd be going along at under 12 knots.  I know 16 knots (20 mph) doesn't sound like flying.  Our Mainship is a performance trawler thus the 14 knot capability. as compared to most trawlers that go no faster than 8 knots (10 mph).   Believe me, after traveling at 8 knots through all those canals, 16+ knots feels like we broke free and we're "flying".

Champlain Canal and Waterford, NY

Champlain Canal: We made our way down the Champlain Canal today.  We left the dock in Whitehall at 8:15 with the intent of trying to get all the way through the locks and stay the night in Waterford.  Other than the fact that I am rather tired of dealing with yet another lock, the trip was rather uneventful until we got to Lock 4 (remember we were counting down starting at Lock 12).  At Lock 4 all went well until we were exiting the lock. 

Just as we were almost out I heard some yelling and some scraping and looked up to see that the antenna on our boat was being dragged across a fixed bridge which was lower than expected.    We had a boat exiting close behind us which limited our options and before the captain could take any mitigating action to protect the radar tower, that too hit the bridge.  I didn’t realize there was any damage and in fact I thought that we had escaped unscathed; however, when I heard the lock attendant ask us, “do you fit?” and I heard the captain say in response, “by definition!”  I knew we had hit.  I took a closer look and saw our anchor light flopped over and hanging sideways. 

The captain lowered the radar tower which he would have done to begin with if he knew the bridge would be as low as it was – a little like closing the barn door after the horse has escaped – and we continued on our way to just below the lock.   Today we were traveling with our new friends on Dunwurkin and they have 2 dogs which needed to find a potty, so we pulled up to the wall after exiting the lock.  The dogs got a walk, and we got to assess the damage.   I was holding the boat to the wall so I was “held prisoner” in position, so I shouted up to the captain, “How’s it look?” and he responded, “It’s fixed!” 

As it turned out the anchor light is mounted on starboard (a plastic wood like substance used on boat instead of wooden lumber), and when force was applied to the anchor light, the mounting screws were pulled out of the “wood”.  The captain screwed them back in and said it was good enough for now and a permanent fix is no more than remounting with longer screws.  We were exceedingly lucky on that one!

The lock attendant at Lock 4  told us that the trestle bridge coming up was even lower.  As we approached the bridge it didn’t look like we would fit at all.  I mentioned to the captain that if we couldn’t go under, it was a long trip back home referring to reversing our route to get to this point which has taken over 3 weeks to accomplish.   We had the antenna down and the radar tower folded.  The next item that can be folded is the Bimini top. 

If the trestle bridge was truly 17 feet, we had no need to drop the Bimini top; otherwise, we were in trouble again.  I could have sworn there was no way we were going under that bridge, and at the last minute the captain stood up on the bench seat on the fly bridge to get the bird’s-eye view and announced, “No problem!”  Since I was driving the boat at this point, I couldn’t exactly close my eyes, so I just held my breath instead as we went under the bridge with mere inches to spare.   As soon as I realized we were in no danger of ripping off our Bimini top, I laughed like a little kid as we went under the bridge – clearly happy that we were able to squeeze under.

When he purchased the lock pass for our vessel, the captain asked the lock attendant how long it took to get through the canal.  The answer provided was 6 ½ hours.  Hah!  We started at the first lock at 8:20 or so.  Six and one-half hours later we were no where near Lock 1.  At 5:20, 9 hours later, we were finally approaching Lock 1.  The dog walk / anchor light stop took all of 10 minutes – maybe 15 if I stretch my imagination.  With the speed limit of 10 mph strictly enforced on the canal, there is no way on earth that anyone can get through there in 6 ½ hours.    The only reason it only took 9 1/2 hours was that at each lock, the lockmaster called ahead to the next lock to let them know we were coming so the lock was ready for us; otherwise, the trip could have been much longer.  Believe me – 9 1/2  hours in one day on a canal is more than enough!

Speaking of canals and hours, here are some stats that we were given by our Dunwurkin friends.  We have completed thus far 100 locks.  After tomorrow we will have completed exactly 101 as we still have one more to go through – the Troy Federal Lock.  From Waterford - the start of the Erie Canal, traveling the triangle cruise through Canada, and returning via Lake Champlain / Champlain Canal back to Waterford, we have traveled 718 nautical miles.  Add to that the trip from the NJ up the Hudson River to the Erie Canal and back again and we will have traveled well over 1000 nautical miles in this one vacation trip.

Tonight we walked into Waterford and ate dinner at a very nice restaurant called McGreivey’s.  Afterwards we walked to the Troy Price Chopper to pick up a few supplies.  While there we walked around back to check out their floating dock for boating customers visiting the supermarket.  I’m sure there must be others but this is the only supermarket I am aware of with a floating dock.  Instead of walking over tonight we could have stopped on the water and picked up our supplies in the morning.  At this point, however, the captain and I are both anxious to get ourselves back to NJ and want an early start in the morning.

When we got back to our boat after being out to dinner, we found the boat covered in swarms of some unidentifiable winged bugs, and I mean masses of them.  The captain went up to put the canvas covers on the top of the boat and was unable to avoid stepping on them due to the volume of bugs.  We’re hoping they will disappear in daylight, but when I look at them, they look like they are dead as there is no movement whatsoever.  We’re hoping that means they are sleeping and that they will leave on their own accord.  Anyway, I’m not going outside of the boat again tonight – it’s too gross to think about, and I don’t want them inviting themselves into the boat when I open the door.

We’re not sure of our next destination.   We expect to be somewhere on the Hudson River as far south as we can make it considering tides, currents, and weather.