7-9 June 2014

[Updated with pictures!]

I don’t know if you’ve looked at a map of our first part of the journey in Canada. We’ve gone about 90 miles on the water, but it’s only 50 miles by car back to Trenton. Or just 27 miles to the shore of Lake Ontario. It’s been lots of twists and turns along the river. Saturday (7 June) would be another of those days.

We left Hastings on Saturday morning and headed West. It’s just a short run to the eastern end of Rice Lake. We poked along the canal segment because of all the fishermen out on the water. This is really the second good weekend they’ve had this summer, so they are out making the most of it. Susan got into the swing by trolling along Morrow Point and into the lake.

Once on the lake it was throttles down and we were doing 10 kts on a very flat surface. While I did slow for fishing boats we made very good time. We passed a cruiser we had shared a dock with in Campbellford, they are working their way to the Georgian Bay.

After an 15 mile run, we took a right into the Otonabee River. The river is very, very narrow, with houses built up right to the waters edge. We took it slow for the remainder of the trip.

Susan tried trolling again, I put one engine in neutral and the other in idle and we moved along at 2.5 knots. A little fast, but about the best I could manage. She moved from the stern to the bow, that way she could cast off the front and her “bug lure” could sit a moment before moving on the water. We both saw big fish jump, but she didn’t have any takers.

20 Miles on the river we were at our first and only lock of the day. It was full with three other 18′ boats and the Quo Vadimus. We were soon locked through and nestled into our spot at Peterborough Marina. This is the first marina that we’ve been to that have braided the excess lines vs just dumping them on the dock!

There was a special present waiting for me, my wonder, awesome, amazing sister sent my hat to me!!! I had left it at her house and had missed it greatly.

We headed uptown to a hardware store, beverages, supplies and maybe some food. We stopped into the Only Boater’s World in Canada . It was small but very well stocked. I really miss the ones in the US, they were much nicer and less expensive than West Marine.

On our errand tour I found three used bookstores! I was able to pick up the two “new” Ian Ranking Inspector Rebus books.

Dinner was at Riley’s Old town Pub where we had plans to eat something and then go next door and shoot pool. But by the time we were done, the sun from the day had set in and we were ready to head back to the boat.

I hung out some with our new marina neighbors, but soon I was ready for bed and called it another very nice Canadian day.

Sunday started off great, I did a load of laundry and Susan and I had a great breakfast at Jack’s Chicken. (3 eggs, sausage, homefries, toast, coffee for $6.99!)

We then met up with Loopers here in Peterborough. She gave us a bag of local information and a jar of home made preserves. We talked about where we were going to make sure we didn’t miss anything.

We then set out on a great bike adventure to Lock 21, the highest hydraulic lift lock in the world. Opened on July 9, 1904, it’s been in use ever since. It’s very cool, there are two “pans” that you drive your boat into. The weight of the upper pan, pushes the lower pan up in the air. They add extra water to the upper pan so it weighs ~150 tons more than the lower. Gravity is then your friend.

We got to go in the control station and see the control panel. Very simple and everything is controlled by relays, no software involved. The pistons are driven by water pressure. They have a backup system of compressed air in case they need to move the pan up or down slightly.

After touring the lock and the visitor center we biked into town and ate at Gerti’s downtown. Traffic in downtown was very light, so I was not risking my life by riding around. I had steamed mussels in a broth, they were fabulous!

On Monday we hit Jack’s for breakfast and then headed over to the Canadian National Canoe Museum. I never realized that there were so many lakes, rivers and streams in Canada. Their canoe was their major mode of transportation in the 1700′s and 1800′s. We got to see very early 2-3 person canoes to a 30 foot long one that was used to transport goods.

Dinner was another attempt at Fish and Chips. The place in Trenton hadn’t met the mark and Susan wanted to try it again. So it was back to Jacks for F&C and they were very good. Highly recommended! Yes, we know that Jack’s is a chain, but even so, it has produced high quality food for us.

We are off to ride the Lift Lock on Tuesday!

26-30 May 2014

As we say “Caw-Caw-Caw” to our seagull friends in the Oswego Harbor, we swing out into Lake Ontario and head west to Rochester. Rochester is sort of on the loop, boats that have an “air draft” of more than 15 feet need to get off the Erie Canal and head into Lake Ontario. Choices are then to go West, past Rochester, exiting Lake Ontario via the Welland Canal into Lake Erie. Second choice is to go north from Oswego into Canada and take the Trent-Severn Canal into Huron. This is our plan.

But first a stop in Rochester to see my sister, and to pick up the packages we’ve sent to her house. They range from the small (needle valves to inflate the fenders) to the large (22″ ball fender for the locks). It was quite a pile waiting for us.

West across Lake Ontario was pretty dull, other than the amazing bright blue waters of Ontario. Our Chesapeake Bay is a green blue, the ocean along NJ is more green than blue, and due to the rains the Hudson and Erie Canal were brown. Lake Ontario is a bright sapphire blue, the color you see in all those tropical island commercials, but with a 35F temperature difference.

A little over 5 hours after departure we scooted down Irondequoit Bay to the far southern end. The bay was loaded with boaters enjoying (finally) the arrival of summer. We headed into Southpoint Marina under a pretty blustery wind that had picked up. With some adept help of the dock staff and our new boat neighbors, Quo Vadimus was secure in her berth.

My sister and family were heading back from their annual road trip to see the Indy 500. Lucky for us part of Southpoint Marina is Bazil’s Italian Restaurant. We had been here on prior Rochester jaunts, so we were sure to order the Artichokes French. Lightly battered artichoke hearts that are pan fried and then covered with a reduced sherry and lemon sauce. Very good.

Tuesday we got a delivery of the first set of packages and they left the RX-0 for us to drive. We spent the day unpacking our “spring Christmas” and doing more mundane tasks like laundry. We met up with the family to go to a Rochester institution Sticky Lips BBQ. The have been a multi year winner at the Rochester Rib Week contest. We were brave and tried the Atomic Meat Sauce. It has a good flavor, but it’s one of those sauces that the heat builds after awhile. Big hit of the evening was the fried green tomatoes.

Spa and errand day was the plan for Wednesday. Susan headed off to have a day of luxury away from Belle and I. I ran errands picking small things up that were not worth buying on-line and spending the cost of shipping. When I got done I had lunch at Jincs on Park Street. It is touted as a great breakfast spot, but having missed that I ordered and had a great lunch.

After Susan was all coifed, we then headed to the Old Toad. It’s a London Pub that’s been teleported to Rochester. Everything looks authentic. They import waiters and cooks in from England as help for a few years. One of their chef’s has since opened a very popular place in Downingtown called The Station Taproom that my son Dave works at. It is a very small world.

Truck Rodeo!!! Speeding trucks dueling it out to see who the best is. Well in Rochester it’s the Food Truck Rodeo with over 3 dozen food trucks from the area parked in the Farmers Market. You name it you could get it, and whatever you wanted came in a deep fried or batter dipped and deep fried version. With most of Rochester in attendance we did the divide and buy method. Cynette got Poutain, Susan grabbed some Vietnamese specialities and I got Mac&Cheese:Bacon, French Onion with Beef and Lobster. (I also spent $30 on Mac&Cheese, Mom would be appalled.) Susan had the big winners of the night. She had ordered me a Waffle Dog, a hot dog on a stick (I’ll eat anything served on a stick) dipped in Waffle batter and then grilled in a waffle iron. Interesting, but the too sweet batter made this more of a dessert than a dinner.

Thursday we were off to Niagara Falls for the day. It’s a Susan bucket list item, so she will tell you about the trip from PB&J donuts from Donuts Delite on.

Friday was another errand day. We did paper bills and sent postcards out and then some stores. I had a discussion about the “pistol type flare guns” with the nice people at West Marine. They were sure they were illegal in Canada. But it turns out not to be the case. So I dropped off the proof (RCMP web site and a flyer from Canadian tire) and picked up the flares I wanted.

At 2:30 we headed over to the Port of Rochester to fuel up 240 gallons (most expensive so far on our trip, it was a $1 / gallon more than we could have gotten in Brewerton ouch) and get pumped out. After dinner of leftover BBQ we took a short walk. Susan worked on her videos from Canada while I headed off to bed.

25 May 2014

We got late start from Ess-Kay Marine today. It was a sunny day with a forecast of 70F, a great day to go boating.

Soon after departure we cleared our last lock on the Erie Canal, Lock 23. It had been closed for a few days due to the high water levels and the speed of the flow. After clearing it, we took a starboard (right) turn and headed up the Oswego River that is part of the Oswego Canal System.

There are only a few locks and because we were later in the day there was little traffic. We only shared the lock with one other boat.

During the day we noticed the current picking up and the wind was also starting to blow. By the time we reached the last lock (Lock 5) about 2:30PM it was pretty gusty out. There is a power plant next to Lock 5 and you could see the extra water from the river being released over the dam wall. This made for some interesting currents once we left Lock 5 and got into the mainstream of the river again.

Docking at Wrights Marina in Oswego was very challenging. There was a strong wind from the west blowing us away from the dock. If it wasn’t for some help from one of the boaters there, we would still had been trying to dock. I’m pretty good with doing our own docking, but if you are going to charge me $95 to dock, you need to send a dock hand out.

There was very little to see or do in Oswego that was within walking distance other than the Maritime Musuem, but it was closed . Susan made a great dinner, it’s amazing what she does in 8 square feet. We spent the rest of our evening watching TV (yay Internet) and watching the 2.3 million sea gulls wheel around the sky. We did get a pretty interesting sunset on the edge of Lake Ontario.

We will be very happy to depart in the morning. “Caw-caw-caw!”

21 May 2014

We pushed away (well after all the Sundaes we waddled away) from the Ilion dock a little after 8 this morning. We headed west through water that still had trash and tree limbs floating along. In about an hour of picking our way along we arrived at Lock 19.

It’s a pretty low rise at only 20 feet. It’s a little tricky to get into since there is a train bridge just before it. But we slid in, got bubbled up to the top and we were then off to Lock 20.

The Canal system was doing repairs in a number of places so we needed to wait for the channel to clear. We also passed two barges with dredging equipment on them. I can imagine that dredging is a year round process for them.

Lock 20 turned out to be pretty easy, but Lock 21 was a new wrinkle. Rather than lifting us up, it lowered us down. Susan was able to scoop the forward line from the upper level and I got the stern line. We then lowered down the 25′. We both though it was easier to go down, the water drops out the bottom and does not create the turbulence that coming in does.

A mile later it was time for Lock 21, also going down. This one was a little more interesting since there was water pouring into the lock from the top of the gate and from the bottom two corners. I looked like an elaborate fountain at work.

That was it for locks for the day. We soon motored through Sylvan Beach and headed into the open waters of Oneida Lake. We were watching the weather, there was rain predicted earlier in the day, but that had fizzled out, along with the wind. There were no waves, just flat and calm as the eye could see. Setting the autopilot we headed west at 10.5 knots, making short work of the 25 mile crossing.

We were soon berthed at Ess-Kay Marina, we have an amazing view of up and down the canal. A feature of the docks are slats that run from the top down into the water. These slats collect all the sticks and debris from the canal and keep it from running into your boat. Very nice.

We walked into downtown (by the way Google rocks on car distances, seems to be overly optimistic on “walking”) and had a nice dinner of ribs and “salt potatoes”. They are potatoes that are boiled in salt water to season the potato as they cook. Mom did that for years, we just called them boiled potatoes.

On the way past the Public Library there was a sign for “Now Appearing the Brown Brothers“. We were reading the sign and two guys go, “We hear it’s going to be a great show.” So we followed them in to find out they are the Brown Brothers. They were pretty good playing my favorite Leonard Cohen song Hallelujah and a made up song called Star Wars, (Note: Never ask eight year old kids for song requests). It’s neat to see the Libray hold these kinds of concerts.

We walked back and watched a very pretty sunset, all settled for our next few days.

16 May 2014

Today had started off being a rest day. We had found a marina near a small town. It had all the facilities we would need and would be a great place to sit out the storm that was coming. 1-2 inches of all day rain, a great day to stay in, warm and dry.

Bernie, the dock master, called me out at 9AM to say that the Erie Canal people had called and they wanted everybody to move as far west as possible. So we got set to go and were off the bulkhead at 9:45.

Lucky for us the rain had not started yet, but there was lots of junk in the river. So we headed up towards Lock 16. It had a very short lift so we were through a little after 10AM and on our way to the famous lock 17.

It’s huge, it’s the largest lift on the Erie Canal. The lock lifts (or lowers) every boat an astounding 40 feet. It replaced four locks on the old canal by just one. It has two unique features, first the locking gate drops down from the top. When you enter the lock you go under the gate that is suspended above you. The second thing is it has a water saving side pool which allows about half of water from a locking to be reused on the next locking. It’s weird in the lock since you can feel the flows change.

It was also our first time at using the port (left) wall. It worked out well since the wind was pushing us to that wall. So we didn’t need to tug on the lines to stay in place. On the other hand it made it harder at the top to get off the wall, but we managed without any bumps.

Lock 18 at a little after noon was easy. It was also a small lift at 20 feet so it was an easy passage.

And then the rain started. We had already decided to call it a day shooting for the Ilion Marina. With the rain coming down it was a good move on our part. By the time we traveled the 5 miles, it was pouring. Docking along the wall was easy, but both Susan and I were soaked at the end.

Susan made a great hot lunch of tuna melts, and started cooking sausages and tomato sauce for dinner. The aroma’s wafting through the boat were great!

The Erie Canal rapidly turned into a muddy trash filled mess and the flow picked up. The Canal Authority closed the locks at 3PM and it’s clear that they then opened the dam gates alongside each lock to keep flooding from happening.

We both were exhausted from yesterday and the mad dash for today so we both got naps in.

We’ve been watching the Flood and Flash Flood Warnings and the water level rising. Since we got here at 1PM the water has risen about 18″ (now about 8PM). I’ve been adjusting the fenders down as we rise up the wall. I’ll keep an eye on it overnight. The National Weather Service predicts the crest to be about 6AM, so we should be fine with the 3′ of wall that we have remaining.

The sausages and sauce were wonderful! But then you knew that!

15 May 2014

Today looked like a great day, 67F, some light clouds, we were set to head west towards Amsterdam. A few locks an a few hours, we could stop and sight see. I had wanted to do the Schenectady Science Center, but we arrived too late. So hit Amsterdam about noon, rent a car, drive back 15 minutes and tada!

Which soon became Tadon’t. The dock master said a storm was coming and we should head farther west and make an attempt to get past Lock 14 (about 40 miles). So much for our easy day and getting some Science knowledge.

So I topped off the water tanks and at 9:30 headed west. In about an hour Lock 8 was in sight. We had a good experience yesterday, so we practiced what we learned. Pick out the line to go for and make sure we talked to each other. Slide into the lock, pick up the line and 14′ feet later we were off to the next lock. It’s not really that easy since we were told not to cleat off the lines, but to hang on to them. So staying next to the wall is some effort.

At this point the wind started picking up so it was going to be a little bumpier than we wanted. At 11:30 we approached Lock 9. It was a little harder with the wind, but we got our lines and were able to hang on to them. We remarked to each other that now was the time to take this trip, we couldn’t see either one of us doing this in 7 years.

At noon we pulled towards Lock 10. On the approach I was close to the wall when a gust of wind slammed us against the lock CRUNCH. Susan scrambles for the line, I try to keep us in position. We’ve now moved into the lock and the wind tunnel takes over and we move quickly to the port (left) side of the lock. Susan lets go and we nestle into the port wall. We both grab lines and hang on.

As we get to the top the lock master is waiting for us. He said “You can cleat the lines until you get into position” Wow. That will make a huge difference. Susan can use the boat hook to get the first line and cleat it down. I can then back against it to move the stern to the wall. We do the same maneuver when we dock. The lock master says “You should do that on Lock 11, it has the same wind issues”. We thanked him and headed off.

40 minutes later we apprehensively approach Lock 11 in Amsterdam. We move into the lock. Susan hooks the line, cleats it down and yells “Tied!” I nudge the shifter and we move back against the wall while Susan walks to the stern. “Got it”. Wow. That was easy. We both had pretty big smiles as we rode up the 15 feet to the next level.

The next locks (12,13,14 and 15) went just as well. But when we cleared lock 15 it was after 4PM and we were done for the day. So we headed for the St.Johnsville Marina. Bernie the dock master soon had us tied securely to the wall. There was laundry 100 feet away, town was a short walk across the bridge, we were good to stay for two days.

We headed into town and landed in Cosmo’s Bar and Grill, a family run place. We settled in and had a good meal of burgers and chicken tenders. After dinner we went on a search for Duck/Duct tape to tape some plastic over the fiberglass to keep it from getting soaked in the rains to come. We found some at Kinney Drugs we were good to go.

Soon we were settled in for the night happy knowing that Friday would be a rest day.