It's Not Always Giggles and Laughs

Sometimes being a cruising boater can have its challenges, like when you need medical attention.  Shortly after we crossed Lake Ontario Jim developed a rash on his chest which got worse with each passing day.  Unfortunately we were in Cape Vincent, NY, a town with no doctor, no hospital, not even a pharmacy.  He called his doctor at the Cleveland Clinic and described the symptoms.  The doc was willing to call in a prescription but the nearest pharmacy was 13 nautical miles down river in Clayton, NY.  Not a problem, Clayton had a city dock only a mile from the pharmacy, so we boogied down river to Clayton.

But the rash got worse and the drugs didn't seem to be helping.  The Cleveland doc said "see a local doctor."  Jim had discovered that the next town down river, Alexandria Bay, had a walk-in community clinic.  So we went another 12 nautical miles on Sunday, planning to visit the clinic Monday morning.  But Monday morning the clinic said he couldn't be seen until "sometime later this week."  As we later found out, they were converting from paper to digital patient records that week and didn't have time to actually see patients.  There is one doctor (only one) in Alexandria Bay.  He sees same day patients on a time available basis (news the clinic didn't bother to share).  By the time we found out about him, his day was booked.

Fortunately, Alexandria Bay also has a small community hospital.  Neither of us was wild about taking a rash to an emergency room, but the local medical establishment didn't really leave us with many other choices.  The folks at the emergency room were wonderful, they were more focused on taking care of him than completing the paperwork, although they managed to do both very efficiently.  The doc took one look at it, diagnosed it immediately (shingles), and gave us a prescription (prednisone) that has worked wonders in clearing it up.  And we got six miles of exercise walking from the boat to the hospital, the hospital to the pharmacy and back to the boat.

Let's hope this is our only medical adventure this summer.

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.

The Summer of 99 Locks

The Erie Canal has finally opened.  The opening date, June 5, tied the latest date the Canal has ever opened.  We're off to an interesting year.

Ready to leave from Brewerton

This year we will be cruising from Brewerton, NY through Lake Ontario, the 1000 Islands in the St. Lawrence River, the Rideau Canal in Canada, Ottawa, Montreal,  the Richelieu Canal (also in Canada), and Lake Champlain before returning to Brewerton for another winter's storage.  As always, if any of that sounds interesting, guests are welcome.  Just give us a call.


There are lots of locks in that float plan.  Jim figures we will go through 99 locks during the course of this year, from very small ones with little lift to commercial docks designed for ocean-going ships that travel up the St. Lawrence seaway to the commercial ports on the Great Lakes.  We'll take pictures, time permitting, to give you a sense of what locking is like.  

View from inside a lock

The process of locking, in the US, involves calling the lock tender on the radio to let him know you want to go through.  When the lock is ready for your boat, he tells you to come in.  Jim drives the boat into the lock and I stand at the bow.  I reach out and grab a line hanging down the side of the lock, or loop one of our lines around a cable on the side of the lock wall, depending on the lock.  Then while I hold the boat near the wall, Jim leaves the engine in neutral and goes to the stern to grab another lock line.  We both hold the boat close to the wall, while making sure the fenders we carry on the side keep the boat off the wall (lock walls are filthy), pushing the boat away from the wall as necessary using boat hooks.  After the lock fills (or empties depending on if we're going up or down), Jim drops his line and goes back to the wheel.  Once he has control of the boat I drop the last line and we move out of the lock.


We understand the process in Canada is a little different because Canadian lock tenders don't have radios and they want you to turn off your engines in the lock itself.  I'll let you know once we start up the Rideau Canal.

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.

Erie Canal

We've been busy since my last post. From Kingston we went up to Catskill, NY for two nights, then on to the Albany Yacht Club for the weekend. We had to stop in Albany because Waterford, NY, the gateway to the Erie Canal, was closed for the weekend. They were hosting an antique tug festival. We actually saw the best part of the festival from our dock in Albany. The tugs met up Friday afternoon in the Albany harbor and then paraded up the Hudson to Waterford, right past our marina.

We hit the farmer's market in Troy, NY during our Albany weekend. I never realized how much farming is done in the Hudson Valley. The farmer's market was wonderful, we were able to load up on heirloom tomatoes and I treated myself to some of the first apples of the season, along with fabulous raspberries and blackberries. Too bad we can't store much fresh stuff aboard.

After the tug festival ended we moved to Waterford. Waterford is the eastern entrance to the Erie Canal. The first five locks in the canal follow one after the other, you have to do them all in a single day, you are not allowed to stop between them. It actually only takes about two hours to do them all, the lock tenders have this process down. This set of locks, called the Waterford Flight, lift your boat 150 feet. To get some perspective on that, the Panama Canal only lifts boats a total of 85 feet. The picture is of another boat coming out of lock 2. This boat is bigger than Down Time so you can judge the size of the lock. Lock 2 raises your boat about 35 feet. In the 17 locks we have been through so far, the lift has varied from 8 to 40 feet. In total, we are now 363 feet above the Hudson River. At our highest point we will be 420 feet above the Hudson.

To "lock through" you pull up to the outside of a lock and call the lock tender. If the lock is open in your direction, he gives you permission to enter. If not, he tells you about how long you will have to wait for the lock to open. If the lock is not open it is usually because there is a boat coming the other way. Once you enter the lock you look for cables, pipes or ropes down the side of the lock. With the cables and pipes, you wrap a line around the cable/pipe and tie it to your boat. With the ropes you pick one up and tie it to the boat. I do this part while Jim steers the boat close enough to me to lean over and do it, but not so close that the boat hits the concrete side of the lock. Then Jim puts the boat in neutral and goes to the back of the boat to grab one of the lines hanging down. Once the boat is secure, the lock tender closes the gates and begins to fill (or empty) the lock. We hold on to the lines to keep the boat from moving around in the turbulence caused by the incoming (or outgoing) water. Once the lock is filled or emptied completely, then the lock tender opens the other end and you motor out.

Most of the locks have places on either side where you can tie up and spend the night for free. Many of the little towns along the canal have free or low cost docks you can stay at over night. Most nights we hang out by a lock. Last night we stayed in the town marina in Little Falls and had dinner at a restaurant recommended by our friends Don and Ruth.

In addition to the locks, there are also gates on the canal. The gates are big guillotine structures used to regulate the flow of flood waters in the spring and to drain the canal in the winter. I'll bet you didn't know that the Erie Canal is drained every year, even the part that is actually the Mohawk River.

Great grocery store technology

Maybe you all will say "We've been doing that for years, why is she so excited?" but I have to gush about a new grocery store technology we have found here in the northeast.

In Stop and Shop stores up here, when you enter the store you can pick up a hand-held scanner to carry with you as you shop. They even have specially designed holders in the shopping cart to carry the scanners. Whenever you put an item in your cart you scan it first using the scanner. At the end of your shopping, you simply scan an End of Order tab at the cash register and pay. That is it -- you are done.

This means you can bag your groceries in the shopping cart as you go. You only have to touch them once, not three times (shelf to cart, cart to checkout scanner, then bagging). It saves an amazing amount of time, keeps a running total of how much you've spent, and even displays specials in the store on items you've purchased before, or items that go with other things you've already purchased. They also have an automated deli order machine near the scanners, so you can place your deli order online when you enter the store; they call your number after the order has been assembled and is ready for pick-up.

I want this in every grocery store I use!

Hurricane Earl and the middle Hudson River

We continue our trip up the Hudson River. This is a beautiful River Valley with high cliffs and trees lining both sides. You can see river side houses occasionally, but many of them are obscured by trees.

We've done quite a bit of site-seeing. We visited West Point and Washington Irving's house while we were in Croton-on-Hudson. Washington Irving was the first American to be able to live of the earnings of his writing. He built a charming house on the banks of the Hudson in 1835 and in 1850 a railroad track was built between his house and the water. A train runs by there at least 4 times an hour now, from 5:00 AM to 1:00 AM. I don't know how often they ran in the 19th century, but I'm betting nearly as frequently. How mad would you be!?!

West Point was interesting, but not as informative as our trip to Annapolis. The campus is much bigger and the tour shows you much less. We discovered that you really get the best view of West Point from the water. From there you can see the old fort as well as the newer buildings. On the tour you really never get much of a sense of the military installation, it mostly seems like a college with a strict dress code.

From Croton-on-Hudson we moved north and stopped in Hyde Park, in a marina that was within walking distance of the Culinary Institute of America. Taking advantage of the location, we ate all three meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) at the CIA. As you would expect, the meals were fantastic. We also took a tour of the campus and the classrooms. Imagine 4,440 students paying $35,000+ a year to learn to cook. The associates program is two years long and the bachelor program is four years. Granted that when you leave there you do know how to cook (they teach how to make chocolate starting with roasting cocoa beans), but food service doesn't pay very well. For every Thomas Keller the CIA creates there must be several hundred graduates working for Hilton hotels. Our guide told us that 90% of the students get financial aid; I hope it is scholarships and not loans.

We also visited another set of gilded age houses, more Roosevelts and Vanderbilts. In this case, it was FDR and Frederick Vanderbilt. [The top picture is FDR's place, the bottom is the Vanderbilt house.]

Turns out that Frederick was the only Vanderbilt who grew rather than spent his inheritance from old Cornelius. His home wasn't as ostentatious as the family places in Newport, RI, but it gaudy enough. It is unfortunate that they won't let you take pictures inside these places, the size of the rooms and the furnishings are quite something.

With both Hurrican Earl and the weekend approaching, we ducked into Kingston, NY for the weekend. Kingston was settled by the Dutch in the 1650s. The first plan for the town was laid out by Peter Stuyvesant. the British burned it in 1777, but it was rebuilt after the Revolutionary War and became the first capitol of New York. Nowdays, it has a mostly abandoned downtown because Wal-mart and the nearby mall have driven all of the local businesses out of business in the last 20 years. Across the river is Rhinebeck, lately of Chelsea Clinton wedding fame.

In Kingston we are only 15 miles from Woodstock, so we made the pilgramage up to see it. As I'm sure you all know, the Woodstock music festival didn't take place in Woodstock. It was on a farm about 43 miles from the town. But that hasn't kept the town from cashing in on the association. Jim described Woodstock as a "Groundhog Day" town, where every year they wake up and it is 1969 again. Every store reeks of patchouli and sells tie-dyed T-shirts. The locals dress like escapees from Haight-Ashbury in the '60s. It is all too deja vu for me. Maybe if you weren't around for the original experience it is kitschy; for me it is just creepy and weird.