North Coast - New York

We have made it as far as the village of Cape Vincent on the north coast of New York.  Cape Vincent is where the eastern end of Lake Ontario meets the western end of the St. Lawrence River.  For those who don't know (I didn't) the St. Lawrence River is the border between the U.S. and Canada.  The westernmost end of the river is an area called the 1000 Islands (although there are actually more than 1,800).  After the War of 1812, the British and the Americans drew the border down the river, zigzagging through the islands.  Each island is either Canadian or American, none are shared.  Because you have to clear in through Customs and Immigration each time you sail from one side of the line to the other, the recommended boating strategy for cruisers like us is see the U.S. side first, heading down river.  Then cross over and see the Canadian side, heading back up river.

The St. Lawrence River is actually the St. Lawrence Seaway, so called because Canada decided in 1950 to adjust the river so that ocean-going vessels could come up it to the Great Lakes.  Adjusting the river meant building locks, changing the flow of the water in some locations, flooding some areas, and deepening it in spots.  All the kinds of things that would never survive an environmental impact analysis in today's world.  It took three years after Canada started the work, but the U.S. ultimately decided it needed to be in on the commercial opportunities the Seaway represented, so when the Seaway opened in 1959, a couple of the locks had been built by the U.S.

Esskay Marina

We left two weeks ago from the boat's winter home, Esskay Marina, in Brewerton.  Of course, as with everything boating, we didn't leave when we thought we would.  We had to wait an extra day because one new fender and our Canadian courtesy flag were shipped late.  But it worked out well.  Had we left as planned we would have been traveling in grey, drizzly weather.  Waiting a day gave us a beautiful sunny day to enjoy the Erie Canal.  We only went 12 miles the first day, through one lock to the Oswego Canal.  We spent the night in Phoenix, NY, a town that averages 200 inches of snow a year.  Even for someone from Cleveland, that is an awesome number!  Phoenix (and many of the other towns) has a free municipal dock.  These towns have realized that boaters spend money, so they encourage us to stop by.  It is quite a refreshing change from Florida where the towns seem to do their best to discourage boaters.  We always try to return the favor by spending some money on a restaurant meal or grocery shopping.

From Phoenix we continued on to Oswego, arriving in time for the weekly farmer's market where we bought some of the best strawberries I have ever had.  Then east on Lake Ontario to Sackett's Harbor.  Like most of the waterfront towns up here, Sackett's Harbor is small in the winter (fewer than 2,000) and much larger in the summer (nearer to 15,000).  Sackett's Harbor has figured out that tourists come for cute and good food.  Main Street is a combination of good restaurants, a yuppie coffee cafe, an ice cream store, art galleries, antiques, and a boutique or two.  Nothing a local really needs, but all very attractive to summer visitors.  Since we were having annual maintenance done on the engines (which, as usual, took a day longer than it was supposed to), we spent several days here and enjoyed them thoroughly.  We also enjoyed doing business with reasonably priced, competent boat mechanics so we'll probably be back in Sackett's Harbor next summer before we set off on the adventure.

Jim working on the head

While spending our extra day in day in Sackett's Harbor we decided to re-live a task we last undertook more than five years ago -- rebuilding the head.  Last time we did this we ended up doing it three times in a single year.  It isn't a terribly pleasant job to begin with, add to that the fact that Jim has to get on his knees and hug the head to work on it (see picture), and you can see why we don't do it unless absolutely necessary.  Let's hope this rebuild lasts another five years.

From Cape Vincent, we'll continue on through two more New York towns, Clayton and Alexandria Bay.  Then we'll cross over to Canada.  We should be in Kingston, Ontario ready to head up the Richelieu Canal to Ottawa by July 1.