July 8 - From Kingston, we traveled about 42 miles with Tom and Vicki Blaser on Grand Baron to Shady Harbor Marina in New Baltimore, New York. It was a good place to get fuel (our first refueling since Annapolis) and a pump out, but there was not much there. The marina had nice docks and clean showers, always a plus!
July 9 - We cruised 22 miles to Waterford Visitor's Center and a free wall to dock for the night. Beyond the free wall is the start of the Erie Canal. In fact, from the wall, the first lock is visible. The wall quickly filled up with boaters who were planning on starting on the Erie Canal the next day.
Waterford Visitor's Center
A little history about the Erie Canal. This year is the 200th year of the Erie Canal. The Erie Canal was North America's most successful and influential public works project. Built between 1817 and 1825, this 363-mile-long canal was the first all-water link between the Atlantic Seaboard and Great Lakes. New York Gov. DeWitt Clinton relentlessly promoted its construction. Skeptics just as forcefully derided it as "Clinton's Ditch, but in the end Clinton would be vindicated. The canal advanced Euro-American settlement of the Northeast, Midwest, and Great Plains, sometimes at the expense of Native populations. It fostered national unity and economic power. It made New York the Empire State and New York City the nation's prime seaport and seat of world trade.
Originally 4 feet deep and 40 feet wide, the Erie Canal cut through fields, forests, rocky cliffs, and swamps; crossed rivers on aqueducts; and overcame hills with 83 lift locks. The project engineers and contractors had little experience building canals, so this massive project served as the nation's first practical school of civil engineering. Some laborers were Irish immigrants, but most were U.S.-born. For eight years of wet, heat, and cold, they felled trees and excavated, mostly by hand and animal power. They devised equipment to uproot trees and pull stumps and developed hydraulic cement that hardened under water. With hand drills and black powder, they blasted rocks. Their ingenuity and labor made the Erie Canal the engineering and construction triumph of its day.
Knowing all the history, we began our trip on the Erie Canal on July 10. The first 5 locks came one right after the other. The name for the first 5 locks is the Waterford Flight because they are close together. There was barely time to take a break after exiting one lock before another one was in front of us. Most of the locks were small - 7 to 10 feet up. On our first day, we traveled through 10 locks and planned to spend the night on a free wall just above Lock 10.
It takes approximately 30-40 minutes to go through each lock if there is no waiting. When we got to Lock 9, we did have to wait. We radioed the Lockmaster, but he said he was at Lock 8 (where we just left) and would be at Lock 9 as soon as he could complete a task on Lock 8 and drive to Lock 9. We probably waited 30-40 minutes for Lock 9 to be opened. Once the Lockmaster arrived and opened Lock 9 for us, he assured us that he had called ahead to Lock 10 to tell them we were coming and that they would wait for us. The locks close at 5 p.m. Because of our delay at Lock 9, we were running a little behind. We got through Lock 9 and hurried as fast as we could to Lock 10.
We arrived at Lock 10 about 5:10 p.m. and we were unable to get a response from the Lockmaster on the radio. He obviously did not wait for us. As we were trying to figure out what to do, another Lock employee showed up and he offered to open the Lock for us and lock us through. He said the daytime Lockmaster was gone for the day. There had been so much rain in the area for the last few weeks and the Erie Canal was actually closed part of that time because there was too much water to handle. When the lock is closed at 5 p.m., all of the flood gates over the adjoining dam are opened to let as much water through as possible. What we didn't realize when we started into the lock was that, because all the flood gates had been opened, there was a great deal of turbulence in the water in front of the lock. Grand Baron entered the lock first and at one point ended up cantilevered on a cement structure. Their fender saved them - but it gave up its life in the process (crushed). Most of their boat was ok but they did sustain some damage on their starboard side; largely to the engine room air vents.
Next was our turn to enter the lock. The water was like a whirlpool in front of the lock. The captain did all he could to keep the boat under control, but the force of water was too strong. We ended up smashing into the lock gate and only sustained damage to our port side rub rail, (and pride). Nancy was on the bow of the boat when this happened and the only thing she could do was hang on. Once we were inside the lock everything was calm, although we were still shaking by the time we finally exited the lock and tied up on a free wall for the night. The lock employee who opened up the lock for us had us file incident reports, but we are sure we will never hear any more about it.
Inside Of Lock Wall That We Hit While Entering The Lock
Damage to Tug LeeLoo's Rub Rail - Notice The Yellow Paint From The Lock Door
After our night on the wall after our experience with Lock 10, we did not encounter any more bad experiences. Most of the Erie Canal was remote and lovely. Along the way, we could see ruins of the original canal.
Mohawk River Portion Of The Erie Canal
We stopped at several small towns including Canajoharie, NY and Sylvan Beach, NY. Each town had a free wall for us to tie up to. (The captain is really happy about all the free walls!) Canajoharie is a little town where the Beech-Nut company was started! Sylvan Beach had an old-time amusement park. Each town had its own "flavor" for what it was known for.
Tug LeeLoo Waiting For Lock Doors To Open (Just Beyond The Bridge)
Work Boats Along The Erie Canal.
Waiting For The Lock Wall To Close
We spent five nights on the Erie Canal. We never worried about going aground - there is a lot of water on the Erie Canal right now!
From the Erie Canal, we went to the Oswego Canal. A much newer and cleaner canal. Our first night was on another free wall in Oswego, New York. There were many other Looper boats waiting on the free wall to cross Lake Ontario and go into Canada. The weather had been very windy and, similar to Lake Michigan, you have to have a good day to travel. In fact, because of the weather we spent a second night on the Oswego wall.
July 24 - We are now in Canada and will be entering the Trent-Severn Waterway tomorrow. There's too much to describe in one blog entry. Clayton, NY, touring Boldt Castle and Singer Castle, going through customs in Gananoque, anchoring out in Kerr Bay on Amhurst Island . . . there's much to talk about! We will try to catch up the next time we have internet!
When we turned east up the St. Lawrence River, I noticed something strange with the chart plotter. It seemed that there was chart data for the US side of the US/Canadian border, but no such data for the Canadian side of the border. This is not a good discovery to make when you are only one day away from crossing the border. See the left side of the chart plotter below. We are in the Bay of Quinte approaching the town of Trenton, ON, Canada, which is the starting point of the Trent-Severn Waterway.
Chart Plotter (Left Side) Showing No Data For Our
Location In Canada. Right Side Shows Bottom
Sounder, We Are In 17.9 Feet Of Water.
Two hundred and forty miles to the west, and after 45 locks, the Trent-Severn Waterway dumps you out in the Georgian Bay which is part of Lake Huron. After pondering this problem for a moment or two, it occurred to me that Tug LeeLoo was formerly a Florida / Bahamas boat. So the "chip" in the chart plotter covers the East Coast of the US plus the Bahamas.
No worries. I called the local West Marine store (about 30 miles away by rental car) and they informed me that they had chart chips including Canada that would work with my 2005 vintage Raymarine chart plotter. And it would cost us just $215. So off we went to the West Marine store.
As a quick aside, chart chips are sold in plastic boxes about the same size as a CD or DVD. And there are multiple warnings on the package that once the package is opened, you can't return it to the store where you purchased it. Like with CDs and DVDs, I think the concern is that someone will purchase the chart chip, copy its contents to a jump drive, and then attempt to return it to the store where it was purchased for a refund.
We returned to the boat and attempted to install the chip in the chart plotter and nothing happened. Nothing! A quick visit to the Navionics website seemed to suggest that the chip was compatible with my chart plotter. Of course there was a footnote that indicated that I needed the most recent software level in my chart plotter. I believe I do, but there is no way, well, no easy way to determine what the latest software level is. Recall, this is a 2005 piece of equipment and it's not likely that Raymarine continues to support it in any kind of affirmative way.
Thankfully, Nancy had the foresight to call the West Marine store to tell them that the chart chip would not work in our chart plotter and that we wanted our money refunded. Amazingly, the person at the West Marine store agreed to refund our money. Why? I don't know, given the warnings on the package. But they agreed to do this, so off we went the next morning to return the uncooperative chart chip.
So, what chart plotter will we use? It has always been our practice to, in addition to the chart plotter, have our iPad running a different marine charting program, one that has crowd-sourced information about marinas, anchorages, and warnings about different types of hazards that may be nearby. Typically we have this app running on two iPads, but our oldest iPad was recently brain dead (since resuscitated). So, in order to have a reliable backup for this critical app, we decided to stop by the local Best Buy and purchase a new (third) iPad. Now if iPad #1 dies again, we'll have two chart sources.
The screen below shows the location of the boat in the same place as on the chart plotter in the photo above. Much better information and detail. Wouldn't you agree?
Garmin Blue Chart Mobile App Running on an iPad
July 6 - We left Half-Moon Bay at 8:00 a.m. on a cloudy day and continued cruising north on the Hudson River. This time we passed by West Point from the river. West Point is quite an impressive sight!
View of West Point from the Hudson River
We really enjoyed the Hudson River! So lush and green along its banks. The landscape changed a bit as we went further north. The river narrowed but it was still beautiful. As the day grew longer, the sun came out.
Barge on the Hudson River Carrying . . ?
Beautiful Hudson River Scenery
Lighthouse on the Hudson River near Staatsburg, NY
We arrived in Kingston, NY by 2 p.m. Kingston is a quaint small town along Roundout Creek about a mile off the Hudson River. The historic section of town is right along the creek. There were many restaurants, a few shops and the Kingston Maritime Museum.
Tug LeeLoo Docked at the Kingston Municipal Marina
Beautiful Park Along Rondout Creek in Kingston
Love the Hudson River Lighthouses!
Barge on the Hudson River Near Albany, NY
Albany, NY
Saturday, July 22 - Today we are headed to Canadian waters for 5 or 6 weeks. We will catch up on the Erie Canal and 1000 Island portion of the blog if and when we have internet in Canada. Stay tuned . . .
Many of the boaters we have traveled with do not regularly check the oil in their engines or transmissions. I guess they think that nothing bad will happen and, if it does, they will catch the problem before anything catastrophic occurs. After all, that's what "idiot lights" are for.
Perhaps I am a bit anal (you think!) but I always check the engine oil, and most often check the transmission oil, every day before I start the engine. The log book I use pretty much forces you to do these checks. Otherwise there will be "to do" items in the daily checklist that are not done. I am glad I have the discipline to visit the engine room every evening after the engine has cooled down or in the morning before we leave.
We arrived in Kingston NY on Thursday July 6, 2017. Kingston is about 57 miles north of Half Moon Bay Marina on the Hudson River. We planned to stay two nights, in part to allow Tom and Vicki Blaser on Grand Baron to catch up with us. After we arrived, we smelled something funny; we thought that perhaps a bottle of cleaning solvent had tipped over. No big deal, or so we thought. That evening I went down into the engine room and discovered that the oil-absorbent pads under the engine were filled with a red substance. It wasn't oil, that's brown. It wasn't antifreeze, that's green. What's red? Diesel fuel. (Diesel fuel meant for off-road use such as in boats and farm tractors has no road tax in the price. So they dye it red to allow the authorities to see if off-road diesel is used in road vehicles.)
Honey, What's This Red Stuff?
That night we cleaned up the mess and washed the floor of the engine room to eliminate the smell. I then put clean absorbent pads down. Later in the evening I started the engine to try to catch the first drip as a way of identifying the source of the leak. Sure enough, there it was. One of the low-pressure fuel hoses that runs between the fuel filter on the starboard side of the engine and the fuel injection pump on the port side of the engine had chafed through. Not good. In addition to the leak itself and the mess it causes, there is the concern that air can get into fuel system and stop the engine. Tug LeeLoo was not going anywhere!
The next day (Friday) we called a local diesel mechanic (the authorized Cummins service centers were too far away). We fully expected him to say "See you Monday". But to our amazement, he said, "No worries, I'll send someone out by noon today." The technician actually arrived at 10:30 in the morning and almost immediately confirmed my diagnosis. He located the damaged fuel hose, removed both fuel hoses (a second hose in the system was undamaged but it seemed wise to replace both of them) and took them back to his shop to make up the replacement hoses. He returned at 12:30 and everything was done and working by 1:30 in the afternoon. In the world of boat repairs, this was amazing. Same day service. No special parts to order. Qualified technician.
The repair was not inexpensive but of course it was needed. And we were so fortunate to find a mechanic on short notice that could and did make the repair in short order. And I still visit the engine room every day we travel.
Monday, July 3 - The last we posted, we were anticipating an 11 hour cruise in the Atlantic Ocean north to New York City. We left Atlantic City at 5:30 a.m. with calm water and very little wind. Most of the way, we had 1-2 foot following seas with 6 second intervals. It was like gently rolling with the waves. We could see the New York City skyline in the distance from miles away.
5:30 a.m. Departure from Atlantic City
Hard to Believe - a Calm Atlantic Ocean!
Approaching New York City
As we neared New York City, the waves picked up a bit, but it was still easy cruising. By the time we entered Raritan Bay to navigate to our marina at the Great Kills Yacht Club, the water was stirred up due to lots of ferry and boat traffic. We also were cruising at low tide. When you start at 5:30 a.m. there are a couple of tide cycles to deal with! But, we made it to Great Kills Yacht Club on Staten Island, a very Looper friendly marina, in just under 12 hours (98 statute miles). We had help securing our lines and plenty of advice of how to commute into New York City. We even had the offer of a car if we wanted to re-provision supplies. After our long day on the water, we ate dinner at Coles Restaurant along the water. They have a price-fix dinner that includes a much needed bottle of wine. As we started walking towards the restaurant, someone stopped, asked if we were Loopers, and offered us a ride to the restaurant. The boaters go out of their way to be friendly.
Great Kills Yacht Club
The next morning, Tuesday, June 27, we accepted a ride from a Great Kills Yacht Club boater to the Staten Island Railroad Station where we traveled to the Staten Island Ferry. Interestingly, it costs money to ride the train, but the Staten Island Ferry is free. And there are thousands of people who use the ferry every day. Talk about a missed opportunity to make money. We had a great view of the Statue of Liberty. Seeing it for the first time was an awesome experience! We spent the day in lower Manhattan seeing the sights.
Staten Island Ferry
The Statue of Liberty
Corner of Wall Street and Broadway
The Bull of Wall Street
The Other End of the Bull on Wall Street
Of course, the best without question was a visit to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. A very emotional and moving experience. It was very crowded but we were glad we had the opportunity to see it.
The Freedom Tower
Flag Raised at Ground Zero on 9/11
After visiting the 9/11 Museum, we had lunch at a nearby pub as we began Carey's quest to find a good New York pastrami sandwich. He didn't find it at the pub, so the quest continued. When lunch was done, we walked on to Battery Park where we took ferry to the Ellis Island. It's a very interesting historical landmark, loaded with history. It was late in the afternoon before we made it back to the Staten Island Ferry and on to the Staten Island Railway to get back to our boat at Great Kills Yacht Club. It was our first day in New York City and we were tired from all the walking and the crowded streets!
Ellis Island National Park
The next day, Wednesday, June 28, we took the Express Bus into the city. It was a good way to get in to the city (about an hour). Once we got to Manhattan, most of the riders exited the bus so we had the chance to talk to the bus driver. He gave us lots of of good advice about where to go once we were off the bus and also where to get back on the bus at the end of the afternoon. Our goal was to visit Midtown and possibly see a Broadway musical! It was an awesome day because we saw so many places that we have only seen in pictures and movies! Rockefeller Center, Times Square, Radio City Music Hall, The Plaza Hotel, the theater building where the Tonight Show is filmed, you name it, we saw it! We also saw a 2 p.m. matinee of "On Your Feet" a Broadway musical that told the story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan (Miami Sound Machine). It was everything that a Broadway musical should be! And we had great seats in the mezzanine!
Times Square
Radio City Music Hall
The Plaza Hotel
Carey Found Fox News!
Rockefeller Center
After the matinee, we made it back to our bus stop and waited and waited for our bus. But, it finally came and we hopped on. Once we were on the bus, it took a full 2 hours to get back to the marina. We were very glad we didn't have to drive in all the New York City traffic!
A Beautiful Sunset at Great Kills Yacht Club Marina
Great Kills Yacht Club only had room for us for a couple of nights, so on Thursday, June 29 we left to cruise further north to Half Moon Bay Marina in Croton-on-Hudson, NY, about 30 miles up the Hudson River from the city. That meant we had to cruise through New York Harbor with all the ferries, barges, and other boat traffic. Our cruise was ok and we saw a lot of beautiful New York City skyline, a final look at the Statue of Liberty, and many other landmarks. As we cruised north on the Hudson River, the water settled down and we had mostly following seas which meant the waves were pushing us. The Hudson River is simply beautiful with lush green rolling hills on shore. We pulled in to Half Moon Bay Marina after a successful cruise.
Friday, June 30 - Our son Brian and 4-year-old grandson Peter from Las Vegas came for a visit! Their flight was delayed 2 hours so they didn't get to our boat until 2:30 a.m. We had spent the day cleaning the boat inside and out and walking to the Croton Harmon Train Station to figure out how to get into New York City the following day. Saturday morning, the four of us rode the train into Grand Central Station. Peter was very excited to ride the train. From there we walked to Central Park Zoo and met up with our sister-in-law Anne who lives in Manhattan. The visit to the zoo was fun even though the day was very hot and humid. Central Park is truly an oasis in a huge city! There is so much to see, but we saw only a small part of it. After a mid-afternoon rain, the temperature cooled a bit but the humidity was still there!
The next day Brian drove us into the city and we walked along the Highline Park, an elevated park made from an old railroad track in the Chelsea neighborhood. It was very interesting and the view along New York Harbor was beautiful. We were downtown until late afternoon and saw many more New York City landmarks - Greenwich Village, Carnagie Hall, the Empire State Building, Washington Park - just to name a few. It was a wonderful day!
Brian and Peter at Highline Park
Empire State Building
Double-Decker Parking in New York City
Pigeon Man in Washington Park
There was a fireworks display on the Hudson
River on Saturday night and we all went up to the upper deck and
watched them. Peter loved them! He had a lot of questions about the
fireworks and Grandpa "Grumbump" Carey was happy to explain it! Brian and Peter
flew home on Monday, July 3. We so enjoyed their visit!
Peter is Ready for His First Dinghy Ride!
Carey, Brian and Peter on Dinghy Ride
We rented a car and were able to drive to West Point to take a tour. The drive there was absolutely beautiful!! The Hudson River area is full of rolling hills and lush forests. The tour of West Point was completely different than the Naval Academy in Annapolis. It was a more controlled tour since we drove through the grounds on a school bus. We did get off in a couple of places to tour the chapel and then the grounds overlooking the Hudson River. We were allowed to wander the Naval Academy grounds by ourselves unescorted.
West Point Superintendent's Home
West Point Chapel
We leave tomorrow, Thursday, July 6 for Kingston, New York. It is time to continue north. With luck, we will be on the Eric Canal next week!
