Annapolis

Saturday Oct 5

We motored back to the west shore of the Chesapeake, south of Annapolis, from St Michaels to Quiet Waters Park off South River on the southern side of Annapolis. Another warm sunny day, mid 80's. I was told later the temperatures were in the low 90's on shore. Quiet Waters is a popular county park, on Harness Creek and the creek it very popular and crowded in the summer with boaters. They have docks with all sort of water toys for rent. Well, since we are having summer temperatures without the bugs there is a fairly good crowd of boats. Most of the power boats left by dark and the cruisers had the place to themselves. In the evening I rowed up the creek and talked with one of the local homeowners on the creek who told me it was a popular Hurricane hole which I suspected.

Sunday Oct 6

We hiked through the park to West Marine and Fawsetts Marine (Kind of like Defender, much better prices than Worst Marine). I bought a part at West and then found it for 30 percent less at Fawsetts and found West was charging way over the list price. So I bought it and made the return to West. Ran into a Montreal couple who had walked from their boat in Spa Creek in Annapolis. We were in McDonalds and Linda noticed they had a folding cart like ours and of course they were catching up on the WiFi at McDonalds, obviously sailors. Their boat is called Lea-Lou.

Monday Oct 7

Rain is forecast for most of the day, looking forward to getting the salt washed off the boat. Checking the weather radar it looks like we have until about noontime, before it hits. We go for a morning walk and get back just before it lets loose. Tomorrow we plan to motor and/or sail around to Spa Creek in Annapolis to see if we can get lucky and pick up a mooring in Spa Creek by the draw bridge. Even though the mooring field is limited to 35 foot boats I hope our official length of 35' 8” will get rounded down.

Tuesday Oct 8

With all this great weather, I got a little complacent on the marine forecast, glossing over the potential small craft warnings and decided to continue towing the dinghy with the outboard on it.

Big mistake. As we left the protection of the South River we were exposed to 15-20 knots winds from the north with 2-3 foot waves. Our motoring speed greatly slowed down. The dinghy got some protection, being behind us as we plowed through the waves, but once we changed our angle to the waves on the last leg to Annapolis it was nearly leaping off the tops of some of the biggest waves. Finally we arrive at Spa Creek, just missing the every half hour opening of the bridge. Once through, we pickup a mooring at the St Marys mooring field next to the bridge. Soon after the harbor patrol stops by to collect for the mooring. They need our Coast Guard documentation number, we mistakenly hand him a copy of the Coast Guard registration. I had not notice before, but the previous owner had put the boat down at 36' 6” for length, can't round that down. We get kicked off the mooring, but find another further up the creek in a more protected area for over 35 foot boats away from the bridge and traffic noise. A lucky upgrade, much nicer spot. Once we get settled down the holding tank nearly full light comes on. We get on the radio and call the Annapolis pump out boat, they come to you, what a deal for only five dollars.

Wed Oct 9

We head for one of the many Annapolis dinghy docks. Many of the streets near downtown Annapolis that dead end on the water have dinghy docks for cruising boats to use. Our mission today is our first laundry since leaving Vermont and breakfast at “Chick and Ruth's” a local icon. Normally trying to walk through this place is quite entertaining since everything is so tightly packed in. Doing that trailing a cart with laundry was next to impossible. Upon leaving I had to ask a couple people to back out onto the side walk to let me and my bag of laundry out so they could reach a table. After breakfast we head for the laundry-mat. It is full of cruisers, not one local. An overcast dreary day, we had back to the boat, before it starts to rain.

Thursday Oct 10

Rained most of the night. The gas tank in the dinghy is nearly floating. Took quite a while to bail out the dinghy. Put on our foul weather jackets and met up with Vermont friends George and Deb Molla.

We have lunch at Chick and Ruth's and walk around town in the rain. That evening we go the Salty Dog Rally Party in Eastport for cruisers sailing From Norfolk, Virginia to Virgin Gorda in the BVI's around November 1. We finally meet up with Rock and Diane, who left Malletts Bay two weeks before us and are planning to do the Salty Dog Rally. After we walk back into town and get coffee and a donut at Chick and Ruths. Bail out the dinghy again and motor back out the boat. After 24 hours of rain we are starting to find a couple ports that are leaking for the first time in a couple years. Rains all night.

Friday Oct 11

Wake up and it is still raining. We get ready to head to the boat show. Thinking about taking the water taxis, so I don't have to bail the dinghy again, this is getting old fast. I called the Water Taxi, but half an hour later, no water taxi, so I bail the dinghy again. I was thinking to call the pump out boat to come pump out our dinghy. We finally get to shore wearing our foul weather gear. I wore sandals, so I didn't have to care about getting my feet wet, since there were puddles everywhere. The rain did keep the crowds way down at the boat show. We met up with John and Genie at our usual Boat Show lunch spot, but usually have a hard time finding seats. No problem today, the place is empty and rather soggy in places. After the boat show we met up with Deb and George and head to the Rams Head for what we were told was a great happy hour. On the way there we run into Rock and Diane who had recommended the Rams Head and were on their way there also. One of the best happy hours I have been to. Beers on tap for $2.75 and with each beer you get two coupons each for a plate of wings. No need for dinner after that. They had a Caribbean themed band playing on the outside patio. Just as some of our group starts dancing the rain lets loose again, party over. Of course on the way back to the boat we stop in for coffee and desert (donuts) at Chick and Ruths, with George and Deb. And then one more time I bail the dinghy to get back to our mooring in the dark.

Saturday Oct 12

Get up in the morning and bail the dinghy again so we can meet John and Genie at the head of Spa creek. They have kindly offer to drive us around to do some shopping. Then after lunch we check out boats at Annapolis Marina in Back Creek. That evening we are invited to dinner at Richard and Lynne's home, who live in Annapolis and are long time friends of Bruce and Pam Foshay, Bob and Judy Chase, John and Genie, who are all there. Had a wonderful dinner of crab cakes. Of course it rains most of the evening. John and Genie take us back to the dock where our dinghy is, for more bailing before we motor back to the boat. Fortunately, there is just a light rain and the next down pour does not commence until we are back on the boat. It could not possibly get any damper in our boat, even notebook paper is limp and nearly impossible to write on. Wood is starting to swell so cabinet sliding doors stop working. Hang up a towel dry in the morning and it is damper when we return at night. Many other boaters are complaining about leaks they never had before.

Sunday Oct 13

Rained all night, this is getting real old. Bail the dinghy again, are we having fun yet! Head in for another day at the boat show. Rain stops early and we have a fairly dry day. Met up with John, Genie and Judy Chase for lunch. Bob is to busy buying stuff to stop for lunch. We walk over to Eastport to the Boatyard Restaurant for dinner with John and Genie. And then one last bailing of the dinghy before heading back to the boat for the night.

Monday Oct 14

Get up late, then meet John and Genie to check out a couple more boatyards. I am always looking for good ideas to use. We talk with a Catalina 32 owner who made a couple unique modifications to his boat that we could use. It is a nice sunny day. Late in the afternoon we head to the Fleet Reserves (Bar) by the Boat Show to watch the break down of the boat show after closing at 5:00 o'clock, which is signaled by the firing of a cannon. Amazing how fast they can move the docks and the boats out of there. Head back to Eastport to another unique neighborhood eatery, “ Davis'”, found by George and Deb. Cream of crab soup, excellent ! John and Genie drop us off at a dry dinghy, things are looking up.

Linda and friends

 

 

Tuesday Oct 15
 

Met George and Deb for breakfast at another unique place they discovered in Eastport, Leeward Market. Great breakfast and very fast WiFi. Paid for “Annapolis Wifi” when we first arrived, but it was so slow that it was useless. We head to a local Yacht club to use their shower facilities, I try not to drain their hot water tank. After showering with finite quantities of hot water on our boat this is a luxury. Linda and I head back to do some more laundry and I later take the bus to one of the local malls to buy some equipment. The plan was to meet Deb and George back at Rams Head for Tuesday Happy hour, free raw oysters with your $2.75 beer. I get back too late and George has eaten all the oysters, by the time we get there, although I do get a couple $2.75 beers even though we get there after the 7:00 PM witching hour.

Wednesday Oct 16

Back to Leeward Market for another breakfast with George and Deb before they leave for New York City to visit with their son. Linda and I finally walk to the super market to buy grocery’s and also stop by ACE Hardware for a few items. Linda and I make one last trip to Rams Head for our last Happy Hour, roast beef sandwiches with our beer. It's a good thing we don't live in Annapolis, I would be on the Rams Head Happy Hour Meal Plan. We walk back to Ego Ally site of the Boat Show, now totally cleared of docks and new boats. We have never seem this creek in it's normal state after years of only being in Annapolis during the boat show. End the evening with a dry dinghy ride back to the boat.

Thursday Oct 17

We get up early and prepare the boat to leave early to catch the 9:00 AM bridge opening. Three other boats have the same idea and we have a boat parade. We stop to fuel up, water up and start heading to Cambridge on the eastern shore.

 

 



Leaving Annapolis

St. Michaels

Tuesday (Oct 1)

Motored over to St Micheals on the east shore. Very little wind. Had full sail up for about an hour, but wind faded. Arrived mid-afternoon and headed into town for a walking tour. We walked by the Blackthorn Irish pub and they were having their Tuesday happy hour, 25 cent oysters on the half shelf and three dollar beers. We quickly turned around and took an outside table. Obviously this is an off season special, hardly anyone was there. Unfortunately after my first 8 oysters they ran out. Linda reminded me that she told me I should of ordered more, oh well. Linda got one of their ½ price appetizers. I forgot what they called it, but it was basically an over size German Egg Roll, a Rubin, with a wonton wrap, fried. Very good. Didn't need much for dinner that night when we got back to the boat after sundown.

A local fellow sitting next to us told us this is the best time of year to sail on the Chesapeake. Summer is hot in the 90's, crowded anchorages, no wind, and lots of biting bugs and further more, added even the butterflies bite. I can't say much about the wind or lack off, but there have been no bugs, have not even bothered with the screens.

We have been wondering when we will have our first night on the boat with the front hatch open all night. Well, this was the night, temperatures got down to only 68 F.

Wednesday (Oct 2)

We spent a good part of the day at St Michaels Maritime Museum. We first headed to breakfast at Carpenters Saloon, by name, not the place you would think of for breakfast. Excellent breakfast, but strangely they don't open until 8:00 AM. Not a problem for us arriving around 9:30. Then we headed for the Museum. Enjoyed watching volunteers finishing up the rebuilding of an old Skipjack. Excellent view on the history of the Chesapeake, not as big as Mystic Sea Port, but you can still spend most of the day there.

Note the fine woodworking tool

 

 After a long day at the museum we hit one of the local ice cream parlors, definitely not Ben & Jerrys, apparently they don't like a lot of stuff in their ice cream down here. Then we did some provisioning at the local supermarket, before heading home. Fortunately, I had previously bought a folding wheeled cart to get everything back to the dock. Thanks to John Soboslai, I re-read their blog on their first time to the Bahamas to see what items they picked up along to way that they wished they started with.

 

Wednesday evening races

Thursday (Oct 3)

Slept in late and planned on working on a few things on the boat and then heading into St. Micheals for lunch. Nothing ever goes as planed. Head clogged, so I had a new morning project, fun. We then headed into the “Town Dock” for lunch. There was only about 6 people in this large restaurant on the water. After lunch we walked through town on many of the side streets admiring the many beautiful old homes.

Each day here keeps getting warmer. Water temperature is 70 degrees, would love to jump in for a swim, but the bay is full of nettles (jelly fish to us New Englanders) which sting.

Friday (Oct 4)

Hung out on the boat for the day, working on various projects. Temperatures in the mid-80s. After a couple two blanket nights on the Hudson we now are sleeping under just a sheet. Temperatures will be back to the high 60's next week. Washed the boat. The port side was especially dirty from our transit through the locks.

Saturday (Oct 5)

 

Another sunny morning, was up for the sunrise. Our daily early morning visitor, again came by. A local crabber lays down his crab line around 6:00 AM. His ¼ mile long line has a buoy on both ends and a series of baits hanging off the main line. Every ½ hour he comes by and runs the line up over a roller of the side of his boat and nets any crabs hanging on to the bait. He services a couple other lines in the area and he usually quits around noon time.

Later today we plan to head north to South River, south of Annapolis to anchor off Quiet Waters State Park for a couple days.

 

 

Crabber sunrise

 

 

New Jersey, Delaware, Chesapeake

Monday & Tuesday (Sept 23 & 24)

We left our mooring at the 79 street Marina around 10:00 AM, after putting up the dinghy and outboard during slack tide. Motored down to Liberty Marina on the New Jersey side to fuel up before our overnight sail to Cape May. Liberty does not cater to fueling dinky sail boats. The large diameter nozzle at the fuel dock is intended for quickly filling large yachts, not 25 gallon fuel tanks. I had to first fill one of our five gallon cans then siphon it into our fuel tank. Apparently, a common practice at Liberty.

Listening on channel 16 there was talk about the East River begin shutdown to river traffic for a hour or so. Not long after, we saw why. The Prez helicopter was fly north from the DC direction, with a Ospray escort, heading to the UN. After the drop off, the Ospray came back out over the ocean at full speed with the rotors tilted down banking over Long Island. 

Heading south we had a northwest wind 15-20 knots, so we made good progress with just the jib.

Off Sandy Hook the wind slacked off and we went with full sail. Around sunset the wind slowed and we motored sailed with just the jib. Later in the evening after dark the wind picked backup and I throttled the engine back to near idle and we were sailing 6-7 knots on the jib, 2-3 foot seas.

Linda tried to sleep from 9-12, but had a hard time falling a sleep. She finally got to sleep so I didn't want to wake her up, she came up around 1:00 AM. By that time we could see the distance lights of Atlantic City. Except from that distance you can't tell what you are looking at. We must have had the lit up buildings visible for almost 6 hours going down the coast. I came up around 3:00 PM and we both stayed in the cockpit for the remainder of the trip. It was interesting listening to some of the VHF channel 16 conversations among other boats doing the over night sail south. One sailboat had multiple conversations with a trawler. The fellow in the sailboat said he was envious that the trawler owner must be sitting in his pajamas in a warm pilot house. He said, yes he was warm, but only his wife was wearing pajamas.

Linda warmed up breakfast around 7:00 AM and we dropped anchor in Cape May around 9:30 AM, next to the Coast Guard Station. A lot of boats at anchor that looked like they had anchored a couple hours ahead of us and were getting some much needed sleep. Luna was there, later found out that they arrived around dawn, had to slow down to arrive in daylight. We set the alarm to get up at 3:00 PM. Had a relaxing evening and went to bed early.

 

Coast Guard training, Hey can't you guys see there are

people trying to sleep over here ?

Wednesday (Sept 25)

We left by 7:00AM leaving via the Cape May Canal to catch the incoming tide up the Delaware Bay.

 "Sea Angel" Catalina 34 from Minnesota, nervous about going under the Cape May Bridge.

It was fairly rough starting out, but after a couple hours moving up the Bay the water started to calm down. With good wind, current in our favor we moved up the Bay at 7-8 knots. We followed the incoming tide all the way up to the C&O canal.

 The stream column from the Salem Nuclear power plant was our guide all the way up the bay from Cape May. 

Just before the C&O canal we again saw the Prez Helicopters, but heading back towards DC. He didn't wave this time either.

Once we turned into the C&O canal our speed switch from 7.5 to 5.5 knots, the free ride was over. But we had another surprise as the tide started to quickly ebb and we were back on another current aided speed boost. Gee, down hill in both directions, what a deal.

We were mulling over staying on the free town dock at the town of Chesapeake at the, but really wanted to go further into the Bay. The decision was made for us as three very large 50 foot plus boats had the dock tied up. We anchored in the Bohemia River, not far from the main channel. Here it is mostly fresh water, so I hosed the boat down to get off the salt spray. We had a “deep” spot 8-9 feet deep, have to get use to that.

Thursday (Sept 26)

In the morning I did appreciate the wash down pump that the previous owner had installed. Lots of mud. This boat had spent its summers at Rock Hall, so it was fairly well set up to deal with the Chesapeake. When we woke up I found as series of crab buoys laid out in front of our bow. Well at least the crabber did not wake us when he dropped them in earlier. We got under way around 7:00, with the goal of making it to the Rhode River for the Seven Seas Association GAM, which starts on Friday, ending Sunday.

Now I was trying to avoid having to see if the other item that the PO had added really worked, Spurs. No, nothing to do with horseback riding for you non-sailors. Spurs are a series of cutting blades in front of the prop that are suppose to cut any crab or lobster pot lines that try to wrap themselves around your prop. I reconditioned them this spring, before launching the boat, not having any use for them the last four years on Lake Champlain.

Fortunately, I did not have to test them, but I did have some near hits. More than once I saw a crab buoy pass by the helm within a few feet of the boat, oops ! 

Thomas Point Lighthouse, south of Annapolis

We made it to the anchorage on the Rhode River in front of Camp Letts around 3:00 PM. I was able to attend the dinghy raft up for a discussion of cruising in the Bahamas.

Friday (Sept 27)

Registration and a couple sessions started in the afternoon, but Linda and I got up and went in at 9:00 AM and volunteered to help with the set up.

Saturday (Sept 28)

Again we headed in early, not for volunteering, but for the showers. Ah . . . endless hotwater, I was surprised I got out of there before lunchtime. Various sessions were held all day. Linda and I split to attend some different talks. Lots of good information. Had breakfast, lunch and dinner ashore.

Met a lot of people who are heading south. I had counted over 90 boats in the anchorage. I assume we will be crossing paths many times with a lot of these folks.

Sunday (Sept 29)

They had a nautical flea market in the morning. Tried hard not to add any junk to our boat. Did buy another solar shower as our old one seems to have sprung a leak. Headed back to the boat early afternoon. Finally after two weeks we did not have anything that we had to be doing, could finally just putter and/or veg-out. Finally got that afternoon siesta. Later, we headed over to a local marina, that we refueled at on Thursday, to help empty out the remaining end of season ice cream from their freezer. Cheap birthday celebration for our birthdays which are a few days apart. One of us remembered them both and the other forgot them both, guess who, again oops. Starting to sound like the governor of Texas.

Monday (Sept  30)

First day in two weeks with no alarm, got up when we felt like. The anchorage is emptying out. We are staying for another day to work on a couple little projects and to relax. Then we head over to St. Micheals for a couple days.

Down The Hudson

Monday

Left from the Whitehall town dock around 8:00AM. Cloudy. There was a trawler on the wall overnight with us, but we never saw the owners. Just as after we left another south bound sailboat appeared behind us in the distance, then followed by the trawler. We slowed down our arrival to Lock 11, since we would all be locking through at the same time Another easy lock up at Lock 11, although rather crowded by Champlain Canal standards, never had to share a lock before. Still rather cool and overcast, forecast was for sun in the afternoon after a front came through. We did so well at Lock 11 we decided to skip right over Lock 10. Actually the canal planners discovered after establishing the lock numbers they did not need a Lock 10 after construction commenced.

A couple miles before Lock 9 the cold Front came through. Winds were clocking 30 miles per hour. The wind chill made it very cold, had on my fleece jacket and foul weather jacket, although the temperature was probably in the mid 50's. Coming up on Lock 9, which has a long open fetch to the north wind, we started to get some wave action. The lock was not ready for us so we tried to slow down as much as possible. Had the engine in reverse numerous times to slow down our wind driven speed. Would have to put it back in forward to maintain steerage as the wind driven backend of the boat was pushing us off course. After the lock open we had the same problem going in. How to slow down without slamming into the exit doors ? I managed to slow the boat down and keep near the wall, but once I put the engine in neutral, the wind was driving us fast forward again. I quickly grabbed one of the hand lines, but could not hang on, because of the force of the wind. So I put a couple wraps on the rear cleat to bring us to a stop. Normally a no-no, but it did save our ass. The sailboat behind us went through the same drill. The trawler came in third on the right wall, it was then we found out the owner was by himself. He did not have a stern line, but he did have a bow line. He tossed the bow line to the lock tender. Of course once the lock keeper tied it off the trawler spun around and was now facing in the opposite direction, but at least safe from hitting us, our first thought. Once the lock doors closed the wind abated somewhat. Unfortunately as we rose in the lock we were becoming more exposed again to the north wind. And with the rising water the cleated hand line could not hold us as tight to the wall and there was no way to pull it in tighter. As we rose the stern started to pivot away from the wall and there was too much force for Linda to push the bow off the wall. Fortunately the front end of our mast was over six feet off our deck, so at this point it cleared the wall, but our bow anchor did scrape the wall, no damage to either.

Going wrong way

 

Boy were we happy when the lock door open to let us out. We were even more happy when we managed to clear the lock walls without any further contact. The port side of the boat was a mess. The lock hand lines which spend much of their time under water are more like slimecycles, which we managed to get wrung out all over our decks. Our fellow sailboat behind us had the same problem. We suddenly looked like we had been at sea for a year without a mop.

Fortunately by the last up lock at Fort Edwards the wind had died down to a reasonable level. Our Trawler friend had enough and called it a day and tied up to the town wall at Fort Edward. Gee, it wasn't even noontime yet !

The rest of the day by comparison was rather uneventful. Unfortunately, we were getting down into the GE PCB dredging area of the canal. When we brought out boat up four years ago they were just starting phase 1. Now they are well into Phase Two and the dredging operations are vastly expanded. Well, guess who has rightaway in the locks, not us, so we had to tie up and wait a number of times for our turn. Greatly slowed our progress for the day. During one of our tie ups, as we waited we got to meet our fellow sailors, Bunky Bernstien and Carol Hanley in their C&C “Luna” also heading for the Bahamas.

Both boats spent the night on the wall at Lock 5, since it was closed before we arrived.

Tuesday

Woke up early to be ready for the lock opening at 7:00 AM. Was very foggy, both boats locked through then tied up and we waited 45 minutes or so for the fog to lift.

 

 

 

Since we were beyond barge land we made it through the rest of the NY State locks quickly. The Federal lock was having electrical problems so we had to tie up for 30 minutes before they let us in. Then it took them another 15 minutes or so to fix another issue to let us down. Made it to Catskills just before sunset. We went to Hop-in-Nos and Luna went to Riverside Marina.

Wednesday

Sean was there at 8:00 AM and the mast was up by 9:00AM. Since he had no one else scheduled for the day, we took off to Lowes and Walmart pick up a couple items. Late afternoon Sean came back to hang me up in the bosun chair to install the radar. By the end of the day we were finished.

Mast going up

 

Had a couple good dinners at the Creek Side restaurant at Hop-in-Nos.

During Sandy they were completely flooded out. Boats they pulled for the Hurricane floated off their jackstands. The water was one foot below the roof gutters. All the parked cars were totaled.

Thursday

Started backdown the Hudson as a sailboat. It was so nice to have room again down below. It was like having a whole new boat. We stopped for the night at Mariners Restaurant in Highland NY, just north of Poughkeepsie. Free dock with dinner, but our real goal was to hike up and do the “Walk Way Over the Hudson”, http://www.walkway.org/, an old railroad bridge turned into a walk way. Pretty cool.

Mariners Restaurant from Bridge

 

Food was OK at Mariners, nothing special. The view from our outside table was impressive as the full moon was rising.

Moonlight over Hudson

 

The dock we tied up is where all the local seagulls hang out, it was a mess. Cleat to Cleat S**T. Had to wash off the bottoms of our shoes.

Friday

Another nice sunny day. We spent the night in Haverstraw Bay, by Croton Point Park.

Saturday

Headed down to NYC and picked up a mooring at the 79^th Street Marina. Now we had to pay for that full moon. The currents from the full moon high tide were ripping and with an opposing wind gusting to 30 knots it was somewhat chaotic, especially when the southerly winds started sending 2-3 foot swells up the Hudson early in the evening, when the out going current had our stern to the incoming waves. I was prepared for a wave to climb into our walk-off stern. Fortunately that did not happen. It was to chaotic to even consider lowering the dinghy. Linda had to resort to her back up drugs to combat all the motion.

Sunday

Things calmed down somewhat overnight. Ran into “Luna”, Bunky and Carol, they were also staying at 79^th Street. We headed into NYC to do some sightseeing and food shopping. Came across a street fair along 20 blocks of closed to traffic Columbus Ave. Munched our way up the street on our way to pick up some parts at ACE Hardware. Tomorrow we plan to head overnight to Cape May after a fuel stop. North or Northwest winds should allow us to sail most the way.

On the mooring

Off the Lake at last

Friday evening we finally finish packing the boat and getting things set up at the house for our house sitter. Put the cars away for 9 months, last two tank fulls have been non-ethanol, batteries on trickle charge, etc.

Saturday morning we were up by 6:30 AM and had a series of parts and items to pick up at ACE and Bayside automotive to finish a couple other projects. We then left at the Crack of Noon. Witnessed by Steve and Joan Peyea, they were more than happy to push us away from the dock, hogs that we were.

The winds were light to moderate out of the north, so no problems with a horizontal mast over head.

Passing by Northshore in Burlington called Carol Nelson to prove we were finally leaving.  Glad I had my clothes on.

 Picture by Carol.

Got a phone call as we passed the Brother Four Islands from Kathy Manning and Keith Kennedy who were sailing by.

Saturday evening we dropped anchor at West Port, us a few hundred geese. Woke up to a cool morning 50 degrees. Boat was covered with bugs who apparently thought it was too cold to be flying around.

We did better this morning and were on our way by 8:00 AM. Poor by John and Genie Soboslai's standards, but good enough for us. Winds built up to 15 – 20 knots out of the south, so we had a high wind chill taking it on the nose. The deck and dodger was wet all the way to Ticonderoga. Finally became pleasant in the narrows all the way to Whitehall.

Reached the first lock, #12 around 4 o'clock. Lifted up.

Were informed that all the locks now close at 5:00 so we tied up on the public docks in Whitehall, hey free power and I could pick up WiFi from the local Library, what more could I ask for.

Sunday night is not the night to find an open restaurant in Whitehall after labor day. After a long walk we wound up at a Howe's Bar and Grill, the only place that was open. Long on the bar, short on the grill. Food was good prepared by Howie who was also the bartender and waiter. Felt like we were at “Cheers” in some alternate reality, everyone seemed to be friends.

Plans are to be up are 5:30 AM and leave at 6:15 for the next lock opening at 7:00

Party

Friends had a Bon Voyage Party on Sunday afternoon at MBBC.  I think they wanted to make sure we are really leaving.

 

I'm the little guy standing, wearing the diaper, apparently.  Well, at least I'm standing. 

Check out the letters in the sand.

Artwork by Priscilla

.

Mast is down

Mast came down today. Linda talking with Ed Bombard, owner of the beautiful Chris Craft in the foreground. Sorry for the lousy photo, camera battery was out of juice, took the picture on an iPad, but didn't realize I was taking video in the bright sunlight, dork that I was today.