Last post of the season

Down Time's winter home

We have arrived at Ess-Kay Marina in Brewerton, NY.  This is where Down Time will be spending the winter.  You may remember that last winter we put the boat in a "boat garage" where she stayed in the water but was inside a building, protected on three sides with a roof.  This year she will be hauled completely out of the water and put inside a shed.





Lift slip



Getting her into the shed involves driving her into a special slip and then having her lifted from the water using a marine lift.  The lift is positioned on both sides of the slip and it lowers large straps into the water across the slip.  You then drive the boat into the slip, positioning the boat above the straps.  The lift operator then tightens up the straps and as they tighten up they lift the boat out of the water.  With the boat held by the straps, the lift operator then drives the lift away from the slip to wherever the boat is going.  A lift is like a special purpose truck, it has an engine and can be steered by turning any of the four wheels.  Maybe you can get a better sense of it from this picture of a boat in the lift.

Boat in the lift



Next spring we reverse the process and put her back in the water.  Our crusing plans for next year are to cruise Canada.  We'll leave here in late May or early June (the Erie Canal doesn't open until the middle of May).  We'll head up the Oswego Canal to Lake Ontario, travel east across NY, then visit the Thousand Island area of the St. Lawrence River.  From there, around the end of June, we'll travel west to Kingston, Ontario, Canada and enter the Rideau Canal.  We'll wander up the canal to Ottawa, drop back into the St. Lawrence River to visit Quebec, then come down the Richlieu Canal to Lake Champlain.  From there we'll come back into the Erie Canal and back to Ess-Kay to sotre the boat again for the winter of 2011/12.  If any of that sounds like something you'd like to do with us, get in touch.  Company is alway welcome.

Tomorrow we're hading back to Cleveland, so this is it fot this year.  Everyone have a wonderful holiday season and a safe winter.  We'll be positng again in June.