Sylvan Beach, Oneida Lake and Oswego

Monday morning we left the city of Little Falls and headed for Sylvan Beach on the edge of Lake Oneida. There we had planned to rendezvous with fellow Gulf Harbour neighbors, Ed and Nancy Weise who were traveling in the area in their motor home. Much to our surprise, as AWEIGH passed under a bridge near Sylvan Beach, we looked up and there were Ed and Nancy waving to us. How they found us, we’re not sure, but it was impressive, since our arrival time was very tentative.

After docking at the marina, the four of us went for a dinghy ride around the lake. Amazingly even with the four of us (all lightweights) the dinghy still got up on plane and we flew. Returning to the boat and storing the dinghy, we cleaned up and headed to town for a good dinner. Since they were spending the night aboard, we had to have a game of Shanghai, (card game) for old times sake.

Tuesday morning Ed and Nancy joined us for the crossing of Lake Oneida (about a twenty three mile run) and for the eight remaining locks of the Oswego Canal. These last locks on our portion of the Erie Canal were a little different than the previous ones and we were very happy to have Ed and Nancy along to lend a hand. They stayed on the boat with us Tuesday night before picking up their rental truck this morning to return to their motor home back in Sylvan Beach. A little side story here for our St. Louis friends. Enterprise had told Nancy they had cars available but when they called for one, there were none available. We told Ed to tell them he was with St. Louis friends who knew Andy Taylor and Doug Albrecht. Ten minutes later they called back and asked Ed if a truck was ok. Of course he said yes, and they delivered a Dodge Ram Pickup. We had lots of chuckles over that and wish we had taken a picture of the four of us with our “pick-em” up truck!

Today, Ed took us to get our mail after breakfast which Julie and Todd had sent to Oswego for us to pick up. Then we went grocery shopping. This afternoon, Ned opened mail, paid bills and was grouchy. Meanwhile, I took a cab into town to get my hair cut! How boring can all of this get for you, our loyal readers, but there is a side of this whole trip that is mundane too. Boring things aside, it has been a great ride so far and we look forward to going into CANADA in a few days.

Judy



An additional Captain comment. The shot of the boat passing under the bridge was taken by Ed as they surprised us coming into Sylvan Beach.
Also, perhaps you remember last winter hearing the reports of the twelve feet of snow in three days here in Oswego . Well, the local folks confirmed it and said that was a "slight bit" more than normal. I wish we had taken a picture of the fire hydrants here. They all have a red pole sticking up in the air about eight feet so they can find them in the snow bank.

Ned

15 Miles on the Erie Canal

Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal….that sounds like a song I remember. Actually we did about 48 miles and passed through only six locks, but remember we were only traveling at the speed limit of about 8.5 knots or 10 miles per hour. It’s life in the slow lane.

The adjoining pictures. were taken our last lock today, Lock 17 which had a rise of forty feet. It’s kind of spooky pulling in and trying to grab a line hanging down from the top, as well as keep the boat from banging into the lock walls. In that picture, Judy is holding the forward line which she has around a cleat, while I hold a similar line on the aft end of the boat

The Erie Canal to this point was different than we expected. We all remember pictures of mules pulling small barges down the canal. Well it must have been that way originally, but around the turn of the century, in order to compete with the railroads, the canal was straightened and dramatically widened. We have been traveling up relatively wide cuts and portions of the Mohawk river as you can see by the picture. Interestingly, the town where we are tied up tonight is called Little Falls because there were originally waterfalls of about forty feet and that was the end of boat traffic on the Mohawk. That is until the Erie Canal was built and a forty foot high lock was constructed.

We are located at an almost new municipal dock and park right on the canal. It’s a beautiful setting with huge oak trees and the surrounding rather steep hillsides completely covered with lush green trees.

Ned

Life on the Erie Canal

We hit another couple of milestones yesterday as we traveled up the Hudson, past Albany which is pictured behind the several large ocean going ships. It’s amazing to see these huge ships traveling over a hundred miles up the Hudson River to deliver or pickup their cargo. When we reached Troy, AWEIGH turned left into the Erie Canal and started west for the first time. The other milestone was the fact that we now have left salt and tidal waters for the first time.

After passing through the first lock, we found a seawall and tied the boat up for the night, using our own power and water. The weather has been almost chilly at night and in the early morning or are we just getting further north.

We pushed away from the seawall and headed into a series of locks this morning. Locks one through six are all right together and each is a deep lock which raised us up about 34 ft. each, for a total of over two hundred feet. We struggled with the procedure and the slimy walls of the lock. Going into a lock about four stories high with turbulent water and wet stone or concrete walls and trying to grab a slime covered rope to hold the boat is a real challenge. Judy was not a happy camper and used rubber gloves, but it is hard to hold the boat and keep it from banging against the walls of the lock as the let the water in to flood the lock.

After a day of ten locks and 10 mile per hour speed limit, we landed in Amsterdam, New York, again against a seawall with no electric power or pump out facilities available. Oh well, it’s a quaint little town and we’re planning to clean up and walk to an Italian restaurant that was recommended. Judy didn’t like the pictures and didn’t want them published. Also, the lock picture is not typical since I couldn’t let go of the line at the bottom of the lock to take a picture. Had to wait until the lock was also full.
Ned

A Quick Addendum

When we were in New York, somehow we found an electronics store and were able to purchase a special cable to allow us to connect our small camera to the computer and then to the Internet. Here are several old pictures that were taken in Great Bridge, south of Norfolk, VA.

Just a word of explanation. Everyone was kidding me about waiting to take this trip when the price of fuel is hitting all time highs. Well it sure does hurt when you have to buy fuel in the hundreds of gallons but the price is usually quite a bit less than gasoline. The first is a shot of the price of fuel, which was $2.30 for diesel. This was fairly typical, except in big cities or very remote locations. You see, congress mandated that the marine industry does not have to pay any of the highway or road taxes that add so much to the price of gasoline.

The second shot is of Judy standing in front of a boat out of the water at the boat yard. This boat was slightly bigger than our boat, so you can see there is a lot of boat below the waterline. The last shot is the present day bridge at Great Bridge which was the site of a Revoluntary War battle. That's one of the ever present tug and tow which travel the Intercoastal Waterway.

Remember, you can double click any picture to enlarge it.

Ned

Enjoying the Hudson Valley

(Sorry, but the pictures are out of order. The first is the view of the Hudson from the overlook at West Point, the second is a light house in the river, the third is the main entrance to FRD's house, the fourth is a statue of FDR and Elanor and the last is a view of the dorm and chapel in the background at West Point.)



Wednesday and Thursday were most enjoyable days in the lovely Hudson Valley. We stayed at Rondout Marina in Kingston, NY. Early Wed. morning we picked up a rental car from Enterprise, ran a few errands, grocery shopped to provision the boat for the next leg of our trip and then we set off to Hyde Park to visit the Roosevelt home and presidential library. It was most interesting and we could have spent even longer there but it was closing time. We drove back to Kingston and had a wonderful lobster dinner at Mariners Harbour right on the Rondout River which is off the Hudson. This was in the very old waterfront section of town and the buildings dated way back.

Thursday morning we were up early and headed to West Point to visit the military academy. It too was very interesting and the area is gorgeous. We saw both Annapolis and West Point in about one weeks time but Annapolis gave us a much better tour so now we say go NAVY! That afternoon, we returned to Hyde Park to visit Val-Kill, Eleanor Roosevelt’s cottage where she enjoyed spending time away from her mother-in-law and where she lived after FDR died. Having always been interested in that period of history, it was a real treat for me to visit these two places.

The Culinary Institute of America is also located in Hyde Park but we ran out of time and so did not visit there. Other boaters we talked to who visited there gave it glowing reports.

Kingston was a charming old town that was burned to the ground by the British during the Revolutionary war. We really enjoyed visiting there.

Thanks to all for your kind notes. We are happy that you are enjoying our travels with us via the blog site.
Judy

Goodbye New York and up the river

(The pictures are of the Empire State Building, with the pointed top as we went up the Hudson from New York. The second picture is of the hilly section of the river and the last is a picture from the water 0f West Point)

Just to add to few comments to Judy’s blog of New York. Wow, were we tired last night. Because of our desire to reach New York during the early afternoon, we had left Atlantic City in the early hours (7 am ), and then walked and I mean walked all over New York in the afternoon and evening. In the city, we finally hailed a cab to get us back to the waterfront in the financial district in time to catch the last ferry, but the driver had no idea where to take us. Unfortunately, there is not an American or English speaking driver left in New York. After dinner in Jersey City, we again had another cab experience with a driver in an unmarked black car, and this is ten o’clock at night. He was O.K. and managed to get us fairly close to the marina, but only by backing about three blocks down a one way street. We got back to the boat about 11 pm. and were whipped, but had a great day.

Even though we had set up a service appointment beforehand to have our oil changed in the main engines, the fellow showed up this morning and said they didn’t have the type of oil I had requested and it would take another day or two. We decided to say goodbye and head up river.

The Hudson is a wide and deep river which allows large ocean going vessels to continue quite a distance up river. The bluffs and small towns are scenic and historical. For example, Tarrytown is also known as the site of the book, Sleepy Hollow. Yonkers was interesting, passing by West Point Military Academy was impressive and the shoreline became very hilly and steep further up river. We pulled into the small town to Kingston, which is quite old and historic. The town was originally laid out by Peter Stuyvesant in 1658 or almost three hundred and fifty years ago. The small marina is run by very pleasant and accommodating people.

We plan to pick up a rental car tomorrow and drive back to West Point and then to visit Roosevelt’s home at Hyde Park. Judy wants to have dinner in Hyde Park which is the home of the Culinary Institute of America and is the training ground of master chefs. Sounds good to me.
Ned

New York, New York

PROBLEMS WITH OUR INTERNET CONNECTION>>>PICTURES TAKE TOO LONG TO UPLOAD. We'll add them later......Ned

Monday morning we left Atlantic City early and headed for NY. Although we went outside in the Atlantic, the seas were calm –almost like a lake – and it was a very pleasant ride. Once we arrived at the Battery in New York Harbor, the current picked up and of course there was lots of traffic with big ships, ferries and pleasure boats going in every direction. It was a thrill passing right by the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Ned did a masterful job of guiding AWEIGH through all of this and right into Liberty Landing, the marina where we were staying which incidentally was right across from Manhattan in New Jersey.

After washing down the boat, we cleaned up and took the ferry across to Manhattan. We did a little shopping and lots and lots of walking. We saw the world Trade Center site which we had seen four years ago. After a stop in the late afternoon for a quick drink and a chance to rest our legs, we gathered our courage and decided to head uptown, ….via the subway during rush hour. Wow..the crowds of people. At Times Square, we tried, but to no avail to get tickets to see JERSEY BOYS or any other show. Unfortunately, Monday night was a down night for most shows.

We caught the last Liberty Landing ferry back at 8pm but got off at Jersey City and had a good dinner at a nice little Italian restaurant that had been recommended. We got back to the boat via taxi and we were very tired but it had been a fun day.
Judy

On the Broadwalk

HAPPY FATHERS DAY TO ALL!

We spent the first half of today catching up on things such as laundry and cleaning the boat. Household chores go on-- even on a boat.

At noon, we walked up to the jitney stop to catch a ride to the boardwalk. After three came by and all were full, we took a taxi. The boardwalk is something else---not quite the boardwalk I remember as a child when my grandparents brought me to Atlantic City. It is one casino after another and intermingled are hot dog stands, t-shirt shops and Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum. We had lunch at the Hard Rock Café and then went out on the Steel Pier which is filled with carnival type booths and rides. We took a ferris wheel ride so we could get the pictures which are posted .The one of me was shot on the ferris wheel and I did not want to use it but Ned included it anyway!

We enjoyed getting off the boat for the day. It was sunny and hot today and I think we have red NED tonight.

Judy

Good-bye to the Jones and to the Chesapeake Bay

Friday morning we left our anchorage in the East Wye River and went back to Annapolis where Herb and Mary left us. They had reserved a car and were headed to Williamsburg to enjoy a few days on terra firma! We were so happy they joined us for this part of our adventure.

Ned and I left the Annapolis Yacht Basin and headed North for the C&D Canal. We docked at a non-descript marina on the Delaware side of the canal and this morning continued on through the Delaware Bay and up to Atlantic City. We went offshore in the Atlantic because the Intercoastal Waterway in New Jersey is very shallow. The ocean was calm and we were only about three miles offshore. While in the Delaware Bay, we passed about ten huge freighters which was quite a change after seeing so many sailboats in the Chesapeake. Sharing the channel with ships like the one in the picture is not fun. The big guys always win.

Tonight we are at the Senator Frank Farley Marina, a public facility owned by the state of New Jersey but managed by Trump organization. There is a huge Trump hotel and casino right here, but the "Donald" was not here to greet us when we arrived. We plan to stay here tomorrow, clean the boat, do laundry, sightsee and leave Monday morning. Then its off to New York, the statue of Liberty, and the Hudson River.

Judy

Wye River

Thursday morning was very leisurely with a late breakfast and a noon departure from St. Michaels. We motored very slowly the eight or ten miles up the East Wye River on the Eastern shore of Maryland. Beautiful homes with lawns that run down to river.
We continued past our anchorage spot, continuing up the river until we reached almost the end and found a home with black sheep grazing in the front lawn. That’s the picture and those are black sheep. Stopping there and dropping a “lunch hook” anchor, we had lunch, before returning down river and into a little creek for our anchorage.

That afternoon, we launched the dinghy and later used it to ferry ourselves over to the lawn party and dinner at Rick and Linda Javlin’s home right on the river. Great setting with their pool in the front yard, his duck blind by the river and stories of bagging twenty three deer last winter. ( They have a surplus of deer on the Eastern shore). The catered meal was supurb, featuring Chesapeake crab cakes. We found that our dinghy can really fly going back to our anchored boat, especially with a 25 hp motor and few glasses of wine. Another great day.

Ah.....St. Michaels

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It’s been a day or so since we updated, so we’ll try and fill you in on our activities. Wednesday morning we left Annapolis, but not before getting up early and walking with Herb and Mary to a interesting breakfast place called Chick and Ruth’s Café. The place was packed and the breakfast was great, but the interesting thing was that at 8:30 am, the owner picked up a microphone and asked everyone in the café’ to rise and repeat the Pledge of Allegiance, which we did. It really was quite emotional.

We boarded AWEIGH after returning to the marina and headed out across the Chesapeake to the Eastern shore and the quaint and historic town of St. Michaels. Ed and Nancy Weise had joined us for breakfast and rode over on the boat. They were some of the land cruisers who joined our group, but staying in hotels. After docking in the early afternoon, we walked over to the waterfront restaurant and ate hard-shell crabs. As you can see from the picture, they cover the table with wrapping paper. They dump the crabs on the table and you break, cut or hammer them open with your hands. Good eating, but a lot of work. Herb Jones really got into the action as you can see in the picture. By the way, double click on the picture for a blow up that’s easier to see.

We wandered in to the town, and the ladies did some shopping in the gift and clothing shops. Herb even purchased a snappy hat for Coldwater. The town is really old and as you can see from the picture, several houses date back over three hundred years.

We had a group dinner at the Town Dock restaurant and the food was good, but the room was very noisy with all forty of us trying to talk at once.

The Academy and Annapolis

Today we spent exploring Annapolis and the Naval Academy. Two of our yacht club members, Don Tate and Bill Jackman conducted tours for us of the Academy and grounds. Don & Ann live in Annapolis and Bill, a retired Captain in the Navy had served a tour of duty here, both were very knowledgeable and informative. Although the new "plebes" have not arrived as yet and there were very few midshipmen on campus, the buildings and grounds are impressive.

The picture below is of the chapel showing the familiar dome from the outside. We spent almost two hours in the interesting tours and were very impressed with the United State Naval Academy.


After a lunch in one of the waterfront restaurants, the Jones headed to the mall in the newer part of town to secure a replacement lens for Herb's glasses which disappeared yesterday. I walked to a marine electronics store to secure a missing chip needed for a Canada portion of the trip.

Tonight we go to the semi-formal dinner at the Annapolis Yacht Club. It's now about four in the afternoon and Herb and Mary just returned with a new pair of glasses. Life is good again.

Ned

Off to Annapolis

Monday morning was get underway time and say goodbye to Baltimore. As we headed out through the harbor, we passed close to the special buoy, known as the Francis Scott Key marker, shown in the picture here. It marks the spot where he was being held aboard a British jail ship and watched as the Royal Navy bombarded Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. He jotted down the words of the Star Spangled Banner which later was adopted as our National Anthem.

Baltimore harbor is a busy place and we passed many large vessels similar to the one pictured here. The trip from Baltimore to Annapolis, only about thirty miles, took about two hours since we headed up the Severn River to sight see the large homes on the river bank, before returning to Annapolis and the Annapolis Yacht Basin Marina .

Last evening we all gathered aboard the large yacht in our group, the 110 foot Lady Nancy, for a wonderful cocktail party with special appetizers prepared by their chef. Jim and Nancy Hudson are the proud owners of the vessel and they hosted a very elegant party. The weather was perfect and we all gathered on the upper decks and enjoyed the scenery of the marina and the hospitality of the Hudson's.


Ned

Good Times in Baltimore

We apologize about the lack of news on this blog site for last several days. We’ve been having fun in Baltimore.

As a quick update, last Friday, AWEIGH left Solomans Island in the early morning and traveled about eighty miles up the Chesapeake to Baltimore. Because the weather was beautiful and the seas calm, we really moved along and made good time, arriving in Baltimore harbor in the early afternoon, about half an hour before Herb and Mary Jones arrived at the marina. They had flown into Baltimore to join us aboard for a week, although Herb’s luggage did not show up. No problem we thought since they’ll deliver it later that day. Wrong. It was two days later before the bag finally arrived and then, only after many phone calls. Poor Herb had to buy a partial wardrobe, at Brooks Brothers, the only clothing store in the area. He now sets the fashion standard for the cruising group.

The Gulf Harbour Yacht Club group arrived Saturday afternoon in their chartered boats, although several people had brought their own boats up from Ft. Myers. Several others were staying on a boat in Annapolis and drove over for the “docktail” party that evening. “Docktail” parties for you Midwesterners are happy hour gatherings with heavy appetizers and an excuse to stand around and swap sea stories. There are about forty of us in the Gulf Harbour group on about a dozen boats. After an hour or so, we all walked around the inner harbor of Baltimore to a great restaurant for a group dinner on the waterfront.

Baltimore has the most well developed inner harbor area, totally surrounded by restaurants and bars, and the crowds on a Saturday evening were unbelievable. It was packed with people enjoying the weather and strolling the waterfront.

Sunday morning we headed out to further explore Baltimore, visiting the Civil War Museum in the building that Lincoln traveled on his way to Washington after being elected President. Later that morning after coffee and pastry at a sidewalk café, we returned to meet the luggage delivery guy. It was kind of embarrassing to see Herb hugging his suitcase right there on the street.

Sunday afternoon, we boarded the water taxi and headed back to the inner harbor area and found the best cheeseburgers and fries at a spot called “Five Guys”. After all the good seafood we’ve had, a good dose of grease tasted good. We then spent time aboard the 1854 sailing vessel, USS Constellation, which has been saved and restored in Baltimore harbor. It was the last all sail warship built by the Navy and was an extremely interesting vessel. Over three hundred men lived under pretty rugged conditions.

We then took the water taxi down the harbor to an area call Fells Point, which was older than Baltimore and explored and ate dinner at an outdoor spot. Returning back to the boat, we played a quick game of Shanghai and turned in for a good night’s sleep. Fun day!

Goodbye Great Bridge, Virginia

Goodbye Great Bridge, Virginia. After spending three nights in Great Bridge, which is just south of Norfolk, at the Atlantic Yacht Basin shipyard, we finally got “AWEIGH”.
We had pulled in late Monday afternoon to have them look at our starter problem. We had been playing with the starboard engine starter for about a week, and had mastered starting even though the solenoid was balky and difficult. Tuesday, a very small framed mechanic, was able to wedge himself in and remove the starter which was then set out for rebuild. Of course it didn’t come back as soon as promised and it was Wednesday afternoon before it returned and was installed. By that time, it was too late to depart since there are about six or eight low bridges through Norfolk and several did not open during rush hour from 3 to 5:30pm. We waited until early this morning and again because of the bridges, we didn’t enter the Chesapeake until 11 am. Such is boating.

As part of the repair, we also had the shipyard rework our propellers that “touched” bottom down in Florida, as well as find a service man who still worked on our dishwasher, which had bounced out in some bumpy weather. Enough of our minor problems. Atlantic Yacht Basin is a great yard with very friendly and co-operative people and a large place also. It’s fascinating to watch them haul an eighty foot vessel out of the water and stand it up on dry land. They probably had twenty to thirty large boats out of the water for repairs or painting.

Judy and I went walking almost every day to a grocery store in a shopping center several blocks away. The only hassle is trying to carry plastic bags of groceries back to the boat. Of course, we found several eating places in the evening within walking distance.

Unfortunately, I used a different camera and took some interesting pictures of the Great Bridge area, ( It was the site of a Revolutionary War battle at the bridge), but am unable to transfer them to the computer for uploading since it uses a tiny special cable, that I forgot to bring.

In spite of the bridges and harbor congestion, Norfolk is a fascinating area with all the ocean going ships, the shipyards and all the Navy vessels. Because of Navy security you cannot get close to any warship, so the pictures of the aircraft carriers are from afar.

We came up the Chesapeake this afternoon, making good time and pulled into an area called Solomons Island, with dozens of marinas and a forest of sailboat masts. We plan a quiet evening on board and an early night, since we started before six this morning.

The one picture is of the aircraft carriers and that’s as close as we could get and the other shot is of the Wolf Trap Light house in the Chesapeake. Notice the outhouse hanging over the water. Actually the lighthouse is automated today and no one lives there any more.

Looking forward to reaching Baltimore tomorrow afternoon and having Herb and Mary Jones join us for a week of activities with our Gulf Harbour Yacht Club group.

Ned

Hunter visits AWEIGH

Tropical storm Barry blew through and we were able to travel to Norfolk today. We had a special guest visit us and as you can see he is a cutie. This is Hunter, grandson of Ed and Nancy Weise. They drove down from Richmond and we visited, played with Hunter and then went to dinner

Our trip here was uneventful but crossing Albemarle Sound was a bit bumpy.
We will stay here tomorrow at Atlantic Yacht Basin to have a few things checked out on the boat before heading north in the Chesapeake Bay on Wed.

Judy

By the way, remember that you can double click any picture to enlarge it.

Dodging Tropical Storm Barry

Today was an uneventful day traveling 120 miles from Morehead City, NC to our present location. We are holed up at the Alligator River Marina about 80 miles south of Norfolk VA. We had hoped to get to Norfolk tomorrow afternoon but tropical storm Barry is supposed to hit this area with heavy rains tonight and tomorrow so we may be here until Monday. We only have about 250 miles to Baltimore which is do-able so we are okay. Our friends, Herb and Mary Jones will be joining us in Baltimore on Friday.

Today one exciting thing happened as we were traveling in the Pamlico River. We came up behind and passed the 110 foot yacht, LADY NANCY. We talked to the captain and asked if that was the Hudson’s boat that was traveling to Annapolis to meet up with the Gulf Harbour Yacht club and he confirmed it was.

The picture posted today is the LADY NANCY. Remember that you can double click to enlarge any picture.

Charleston to Southport and the Thompsons

We haven’t posted in a few days so here’s an update on what has been a good week. Tuesday night was spent just south of Charleston. As we cruised through Charleston Harbor Wednesday in a rather foggy morning, we saw a tall ship arriving and also the houses along the Battery facing Fort Sumter. As we passed the fort, the Coast Guard stopped us and came aboard to conduct a safety inspection of AWEIGH. That means checking every fire extinguishers, rescue flare and life vest as well as inspecting each bilge! We passed!

Arriving at Georgetown, SC in mid afternoon, we showered and went into town to check out this quaint old seaport town –one of the oldest in the state. We bought a copy of the Georgetown News which has been published since 1796. Dinner was at the Rice Paddies Restaurant which was located in an old bank building. The wine cellar was in the vault. –Outstanding crab cakes!

Thursday morning, we went on the outside ( in the Atlantic about 15 miles offshore ) up to Southport, NC—it was a run of about 89 miles. We had a fun visit and lots of laughs with long time friends, Ron and Ann Thompson , former Kirkwood-ites who retired to a golf community in Southport. Golfers, Ron has four courses to play in this complex. Their picture is also posted.

Today, Friday, was a long day going from Southport to Morehead City but it was good weather and smooth boating. We are having a few long days to make up for last weekend when we didn’t move because of the engine problem.

The Captain and first mate are feeling better each day about their ability to dock this Clorox Bottle in swift currents and strong winds.

Judy