Erie PA to Huron OH

The marina in Erie was inside this walkway between
 the hotel & convention center. Even sailboats
made it under.

After retrieving (“I before E, except after C”) our “stuff” from Waterford NY, we took a couple “down days” where we did basically nothing.  All this cruising can be fun, and seeing the different places can be exciting, but at some point, it can also be exhausting.

Sue thought the seagulls on the pilings were
all statues!  I gotta keep her out of that hot sun!

While in Erie, we did drive around to find a couple beer pubs, so the Admiral could sample the local brews.  We also learned a bit of local history, especially as it relates to the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812, and Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry (what kind of mother names her son Ollie Hazard?!?).  He built most of his fleet at Erie, and used it as his base after the battle.  The state of PA has constructed a full-scale replica of his second flagship “Niagara”, which sails regularly around the lakes.  We went aboard for a tour & also visited the museum associated with the ship.

We're sitting at a waterside bar when the "Niagara"
passes by on her way out into the lake.  Not every day
you see an old sailing ship sailing by!

OK Mouseketeers, your history trivia for today is the fact that during the Battle of Lake Erie on Sept 13, 1813, Commodore Ollie had his little brother on the ship with him.  His little brother Matthew would eventually create his own place in history when he becomes Commodore of a fleet of ships in 1853-1854 to sail to Japan to open the country to US trade, ending Japan’s 200+ years of isolation.  You’ll have to read the “fine print” in the history books to learn about all this.

Our maintenance on the boat included hiring a diver to inspect the hull and water inlet strainers.  One of my “girls” had been running hot since Kingston.  (My engines are my “girls”, so when we’re cruising, I tell Sue that I’m going below to see my girls, because they get me all hot & sweaty).  It turns out that the external hull strainer was plugged with weeds that we “inhaled” during our anchorages in the 1000 Islands.  I also had to remove the hose from the internal sea cock & flush the system to remove the rest of the weeds.  So, all this clear clean fresh water seems refreshing (how’s that for a play on words?), but it can create new maintenance problems.

And did I tell you that the spiders thrive around this fresh water?  They have taken over our boat!  At least in the salt water, only the very hardy spiders can survive.  Now, we have a floating hotel full of spiders!

We departed Erie for the 160 mile trip to Huron OH.  The weather looked good (doesn’t it always when you leave port?), but this time the Lake actually obeyed the weather forecast.  We made it a two-day trip, rather than three, but they were 8+ hour days (it takes a while when you crawl along at 10 mph).  Water was calm enough that we let “Otto the Pilot” a.k.a. autopilot, drive most of the day.  Huron has a nice small municipal marina that can just barely handle a 48’ boat, and charges only $25/night during the week.  And the first of all our relatives lives only 4 miles from the marina.



This is Perry's Monument in Erie PA.  All you folks
at Put-In-Bay should be jealous!

We’ll keep the boat here for about 10 days while we visit all the relatives, and drive to Mansfield OH to visit Sue’s uncle, and then to Chattanooga to care for Sue’s mother.  Yes, there are mornings when we wake up & can’t remember what town we’re in!

Three Days at Hard Labor

 

The first half hours on Lake Ontario looked pretty

Sounds like a jail sentence uttered by a judge, and that’s exactly what it felt like.

After only one night in Cobourg, it looked like we had a weather window the next day to make the 8-1/2 hour crossing of Lake Ontario.  As it turned out, the Lake didn’t read the same forecast that we did.

We got up at zero dark thirty so we could be underway at 0600, and initially enjoyed the crystal-clear blue-green water.  But within an hour, the winds kicked up to 15-20 knots and the waves went to 2-3’ with a very short period.  The Great Lakes are notorious for quickly changing their nature, and making the waves more uncomfortable by having a very short period (2-3 seconds).  By comparison, the ocean can have 9-10 second periods when it’s calm, and 3-5 seconds when it gets rough.  On the lake today, we definitely had to change course, and for one of the few times we’ve been boating, we considered turning around to go back to the marina.  Fortunately, after another ½ hour, the winds died enough that we decided to continue the trip.  But after 8-1/2 hours of a very rough ride, we felt tired and beat up.  And then there was the Welland.

Heading to the first lock, a surprise comes around
the corner!  Oh, all right, we'll let him have
the right of way!

We had planned to tie up at a free wall below the first lock of the Welland Canal, but found out that it was full. So we anchored for the night around the corner of the canal so we could join the other boats at 0630 the next morning.  We started our trek up the Welland just after 0700 with two other boats, one of which rafted up next to us in each lock to avoid the water turbulence when filling the lock.

The lock walls were massive, especially
where 3 locks are right next to each other.
The lower gate of one is the upper gate
of the next lock

Most of the locks were relatively easy, and we handled them better than some on the Erie Canal.  But then #7 lock got us.  The turbulence was so bad that it pushed our 22-ton boat against the concrete wall so hard that we burst one of our fenders.  It was a real cowboy ride, and our boat now has the battle scars to prove it.  We finally got through the 8^th and final lock, having spent 7 hours fighting the lines and fenders, and went right to a marina around the corner.  We were exhausted after two hard long days.

A casualty of the Welland Canal

At Lock 8 we tied up for an hour to let 2 ships lock down bound.

But the weather looked good enough (at least it was marginally-good) the next day to try to cross Lake Erie.  And again, the weather guessers didn’t send a copy of their marine forecast to the wind & waves of Lake Weary.  The seas were not dangerous, but we had an extremely uncomfortable ride, having to hang on to something the entire trip.  This ain’t my definition of “pleasure” boating.  And after 7 hours of this, we finally arrived at Erie PA again feeling exhausted and beat up.

But there is no rest for the weary.  That afternoon at Erie, we rented a car so that during the next 2 days we could make the 8-hour drive right back east to Waterford NY, where we had been just a mere 4 weeks ago.  We had to retrieve our plants and personal items that we could not take into Canada.  As the interstate highway crossed the Erie Canal at various places, we said “I’ve been there!”

Outside Presque Isle, a replica of O. H. Perry's second
flagship "Niagara".  Click on the photo to see the
man on the main top gallant sail.

So now we’re spending a couple days in Erie PA doing nothing but enjoying some R & R.  We’ll do a little sightseeing, since this is where Commodore Perry built his fleet for the Battle of Lake Erie in September 1813.  And next week, we’ll be close to Put-in-Bay Ohio where the battle was actually fought.

North Shore Lake Ontario

We departed Kingston on Friday July 17 into windy conditions.  We had planned to take the “inside route” through the Bay of Quinte, rather than going out onto Lake Ontario, where the winds were 15-20 knots & seas 2-3’ and full of white caps.  It was kind of like taking the Intracoastal Waterway along the east coast of the US.

We need a dock for our boat and a dock for our
seaplane!

As we departed Kingston, I noted on the navigation chart “Magnetic Anomaly. Variation of the compass may range from 27 degrees west to 3 degrees east.”  For all you boaters, imagine trying your dead reckoning skills along these waters!  But until the days of LORAN & GPS, that’s all we had!

It seems that for the days we want to cruise, the weather doesn’t cooperate.  And the days we plan to be in port, the weather is great for cruising.  So we’ve had to adjust our dates and destinations, having to skip some towns or anchorages that we really wanted to see.  Like they say, “Our cruising plans are written in the sand at low tide.”

At anchor, planning our next day, with the charts
and a glass of wine

Leaving the Bay of Quinte back into Lake Ontario, we pass through a man-made canal called Murray Canal.  No locks, but 2 swing bridges, and they are toll bridges.  In our cruising guide, we learned how they collect the $5 CDN toll – as you pass through the last bridge opening, you go close to the south shore while the bridge operator holds out a cup on a pole.  We put our money into the cup as we passed slowly by, kinda like putting your money in the plate at church.  Those crazy Canadians!

After a two-day trip, we made it to Cobourg Ontario and a nice marina next to a huge swimming beach.  We got there early enough to tour the town & learn its history, and then eat at a fabulous restaurant. From what we’ve seen of Kingston & Cobourg, the towns in Ontario are really nice, clean, friendly to boaters, and because of their British history, filled with beer taverns.

And then we got ready to cross Lake Ontario….

In a Foreign Country

Well, not really, but we can get the radio stations and weather reports in either French or English.

Our anchorage one night amid the 1000 Islands

On Monday we departed the marina in Morristown NY (which was nothing to write home about) without our boating friends aboard Irish Lady, since they had inverter problems & we waiting for a replacement unit.  We made our way up the Brockville Narrows, this time AGAINST the 2 mph current, and took the Canadian Small Craft Channel near the Canadian mainland.  It wound around and through the islands, sometimes passing so close to them that you could hit the shore with a stone (heck, even I could hit it with a stone).  Many of the islands are so tiny that a one-bedroom cottage takes up the whole island.  I just hope the owner doesn’t sleep walk!

We stopped at Rockport Ontario to officially go through Customs.  After reading and hearing about how picky and onerous the agents can be, I had a surprisingly easy go of it (see how I’m beginning to learn the sayings around here!).  When we enter a foreign port, only the “Master” of the ship is allowed ashore to contact customs. After clearing customs, we can proceed normally.  In foreign ports other than Canada, while we await clearance, the ship is to fly the yellow “Q” flag (quarantine), which is a lingering procedure from the old sailing days.  After clearance, the visiting ship then flies the country’s flag as a courtesy flag.  All these rules & procedures sounds too much like a J-O-B.

We took 3 days going west to Kingston ON, anchoring in two different gorgeous anchorages.  The second night, we stopped among the “Admiralty Islands” inside a ring of about a dozen small islands, offering 360 degree wind protection, in an absolutely beautiful setting.  Apparently we were not the only ones who found this place, because we were joined by 11 sailboats & one other trawler.

We're not the only ones who found this anchorage!

Pulling the weeds from the anchor rode.
Note the sailing ship in the channel behind the trawler.

The cold front came through in the middle of the night (don’t they always?) and the winds went north at 25 mph.  Our anchor held well in the weedy bottom, but we were up half the night watching 2 sailboats drag anchor.  Which brings me to another point; the rocky bottoms in this fresh water are covered in long weeds, which foul the anchor horribly.  It takes 30-45 minutes to weigh anchor, and the anchor weighs about 100 pounds more with the weight of all the weeds.  We needed to pull them all off, one small bit at a time, with our boathook.  Ahhhhhh….the boating life!

We spent 2 nites in Kingston, which is a nice vibrant town.  We ran into some old boating  buddies, one being Irish Lady who came in the night before we left, and the other being a boater we traveled with thru New York City Harbor.  Photos & details of our visit to Kingston will have to wait, since our “international plan” with AT & T limits our email.

A street sign in Kingston.  Apparently the rock group
"Tragically Hip" is from Kingston, but who knew?

So tomorrow we head farther west, watching the weather closely to pick the day to cross back south over Lake Ontario.  We’re also planning our adventure up the Welland Canal.  Since we’re locking upbound in the canal, we need to hire a third person to traverse the locks with us.  I’ve arranged for a Looper who lives in the area, and used to work for the canal corporation, to be our third hand.  And then right after that trip, we watch the weather on Lake Erie to make the trip across to Erie PA.  Gotta keep moving to stay ahead of our mistakes!

Sue got some flowers in Kingston from a secret admirer

1000 Islands (actually 1864 islands, but I didn’t count all of them)

We’re in the 1000 Islands area, and it is drop-dead gorgeous!

In the rush to leave the Erie Canal, 6 boats lock
through at a time.  Makes for tight maneuvering.

We finally departed Brewerton NY (it was beginning to feel like we were back in Demopolis AL, where we spent a month one week back in 2009.  John & Susan will know what I’m talking about) on July 8 and went through 7 more locks.  It is very tiring & a lot of work going thru that many locks one right after another, not to mention how dirty the boat gets from the lock walls and slimy dock lines.  We stopped just before the last lock along a free wall, because Lake Ontario was rough with a north wind, which blew right up the Oswego River to the final lock.

 

Follow the leader to the next lock

We are traveling with “Irish Lady Too”, a 42’ Grand Banks with Kurt & Susan aboard, so we got together to grill salmon for dinner.  And, of course, we had to start drinking all our “adult beverages” because when we go into Canada, we’ll pay extra duty if we bring too much.

 

 

 

 

 

Approaching Ontario Canada.  Where's Don Quixote
when you need him?!?

From our anchorage, we are close to the ocean freighters

The next day was absolutely beautiful, so we made the first opening of the last lock, and were extremely relieved to be finished with the Erie/Oswego Canals.  The lake was absolutely flat with no wind waves, (very unusual for the Great Lakes) and we played follow the leader across to the mouth of the St Lawrence River. For the most part, we let “Otto the Pilot” drive the boat.  We knew we were getting closer to Canada when the radio stations reported the air temperature as 27 degrees, and the USCG gave their VHF radio broadcasts in both English and French.  The lake & river water was a pretty blue-green, very clear, and sparkled in the wake of the boats.  The total opposite of what we saw along the Erie Canal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our anchor pulled up half the weeds off the bottom!

 

Then we entered the St Lawrence River and the 1000 Islands area.  Without boring you with all the details, here’s the “Executive Summary”:

          The water is crystal clear.  We can see at least 10’ into the water.  This is probably the prettiest place we’ve cruised so far in 7 years.

          We anchored for 2 nights and the bottoms are full of weeds.  We anchored first; then the other boat tied up to us.  Having 2 large boats rafted together must have been quite a sight!

          Hundreds of other boats around.  We’re close to Clayton NY and the Wooden Boat Museum, so we see lots of antique wooden boats.  The ship channel goes right thru the islands, so the ocean freighters are all around, and numerous.  And, of course, the locals are absolutely crazy on the weekends.

          The islands are beautiful, most have houses on them.  Some houses are castles (wait till I post all the photos), and some are mostly shacks built on a tiny island.

 

Some of the homes on the islands

 

I think this guy has more money than he needs.  We need to redistribute some of it!

Our buddy boat passing Boldt Castle on Heart Island, on our way to their dock.

In front of Boldt Castle.  You need to look it up.  Amazing story.

The power house & boiler room of Boldt Castle.  Note tour boat in background.

The boat house of Boldt Castle was on the next island.

The next castle the next day.  This time, Singer Castle built by the president of Singer Sewing Machine Co.

 

We’re now at a marina for 2 nights to do laundry, refill fresh water tanks, and finish drinking our liquor before we leave tomorrow to go through customs to enter Canada.  We’ll spend about 7 days in Canada first visiting the Canadian side of 1000 Islands, and then going west along the northern shore of Lake Ontario, and finishing by locking through the Welland Canal.  The fun ain’t over yet!

This house takes the entire island, but it's one of the 1000!

 

Our boat at anchor behind another island.  We left our boat at anchor while we took
our friend's boat to see one of the castles & tie up at their dock.

Happy Days are Here Again !!!

We just received our “Get Out of Jail Free” card, a.k.a. Canal Reopening Notice, effective tomorrow at 8 AM!  Since it’s been a week since the canal closed, I’ll bet there will be a mass migration of boats heading for the first lock tomorrow morning!  Rather than follow all those lemmings, we’ll wait until Wednesday to leave our humble surroundings.  Besides, the weather will be better Thursday and Friday for crossing Lake Ontario.

We had some enjoyment at this marina, where we were crowded in with some other boats which we originally met 100 miles ago in Waterford at the beginning of the Erie Canal.  We somehow got together each evening for some “adult beverages”  and told each other of our woes and successes.  And now, one of those boats decided to travel with us for the upcoming week or so as we go through the 1000 Islands area of the St Lawrence Seaway & Canada.

We’re planning to be in Canada by the end of this week, where wifi and phone contact is very expensive.  So the blog may take a hiatus for 7-10 days while we travel into the Canadian side of the 1000 Islands, then across the northern shore of Lake Ontario, concluding with passage through the Welland Canal (a series of 8 locks bypassing Niagara Falls).  We’ll re-enter the good ol’ US of A in Erie PA & go through customs.  Then we’ll update the blog before our next adventure!

Beautiful Downtown Brewerton NY

Or, as most of us have said, “wherethehellisbrewerton?”

We all got the dreaded email on July 1, after a week of heavy rains throughout Central New York, “Mariners are advised that the following sections of the Canal System have closed to all vessel traffic, effective immediately, due to high water levels and excessive currents caused by heavy rainfall overnight…”  We were just one more day away from getting out of the Erie Canal System into Lake Ontario when the bad news hit.



We’re at a marina in Brewerton NY, just north of Syracuse, which is jam packed with boaters who are stranded by the canal closure.  We’re tied next to 3 Grand Banks trawlers, whom we docked next to way back in Waterford NY, and whom we’ve traveled with all along the Erie Canal.  Most of us are Loopers, heading to various routes through or around Canada, eventually ending up in Chicago to head south in the inland river system.

One of our many Looper dock parties!



So, when a bunch of Loopers all end up at the same marina for a while, the only thing to do is to have dock parties every evening & tell sea stories.  If we’re together long enough, we all will run out of sea “stories” and have to start telling stories that are actually true!

 

 

 

One of the gorgeous wooden boats in Clayton

Since we’re spending the 4^th of July here (and probably several days more), we rented a car to visit the places we had planned to visit once we got out of the canal system.  In addition to seeing Fort Ontario in Oswego NY, we drove to Clayton NY to visit the Antique Boat Museum, which has the largest collection of wooden boats in the country. 



Interesting mermaid bow ornament

 

 

 

We were told by our friends Bob & Gail, about this museum several years ago when we lived in Chattanooga, so it’s been on our bucket list for a while.  And we weren’t disappointed.  Most boats are from the early 1900’s, and have so much varnish on them that the varnish factory must be working overtime.  I got a special kick out of the wooden boats built by Lyman of Sandusky Ohio.  When I spent summers with my grandmother on the Lake Erie islands in the early 1960’s (yes I’m that old), I saw many Lymans all around.  And now they’re in a museum!  (Reminds me of the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola.  When we toured that place, they had one of the helicopters that I had actually flown in 1972-1973 on display!  How old does that make you feel?)



Port & starboard (red & green) running lights made into the owl's eyes

A familiar ol friend!  The rake of the bow allowed them
to take the waves of the lakes easily.

 

Antique racing boats

 

Our other excitement this week was my having surgery on the back of my hand to remove a questionable growth.  It had been festering for 2 months & I had had enough.  We luckily got an appointment with a surgeon right away, so now I’m in “sick bay”.  It’s a pain in the buttola to have some of our doctors in New Orleans, some others in Chattanooga, have our legal residence in Florida, and be in New York when we need medical attention.  Ahhhhh, the life of a full time cruiser!  During the upcoming weeks while my hand heals, Sue might have to become the Deck Ape Apprentice.

Visiting Clayton with Canal captive boating friends
Curt & Susan from Baltimore

And then last night, I get a phone call from a boater friend from New Orleans whom we haven’t talked to in several years.  We initially met her & her husband just before we bought our boat in 2008, and we ended up buying the same kind of boat that they had.  They had lost their previous boat in 2005 when the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed right over their marina.  It was really a surprising and welcomed phone call.

 

 

For now, the best way to make us happy is for the NY Canal Corporation to get rid of all that water & open the canal so we can GO CRUISING!