Friday, June 30, 2017

Left Oswego at 6:55 AM and arrived at Alexandria Bay at 3:00 PM. Our ride across the Lake was great for the first two thirds, but a storm caught up with us and we continued in rough seas, wind, rain, and poor visibility until we reached the St. Lawrence River. We moved down to the helm in the Salon when the storm hit so that I had access to the Chart plotter.

Brenda on the bow in Oswego Harbor

 

Oswego Harbor Lighthouse

 

 

Bill at the helm

 

 

A look at the Lake before the storm.

 

Lulu on lookout duty as we leave Oswego

 

There was no time to take any pictures after the storm caught up with us. Here is one that I did take showing the strength of the wind.

 

 

When we reached Cape Vincent we passed a ship coming out of the St. Lawrence heading to the lake.

 

 

We were able to make a reservation for the fish fry at the Thousand Island Country Club's Hackers restaurant on Friday night. Here is Brenda enjoying her corn bread with her fish fry'

 

 

 

There is also a great restaurant at the TI Club Marina where we will spend the summer on our boat. Here is a picture of a statue on the restaurant grounds.

Thursday, June 29, 2017

We arrived at the Oswego Harbor at 10:00 AM after leaving Minetto at 8:30. We were in no hurry, because the weather would prevent us from crossing the Lake today. Yesterday would have been a good day to go, but now we will wait until tomorrow which looks more promising. We tied up to the Best Western Dock. There was a lot of free wall space in the area, but no power. We elected to stay at the Best Western with power for $2 per foot. They also have two great restaurants and a cocktail lounge. Maybe we will have a few to celebrate the end of the Locks for Brenda!

The Oswego River was like glass this morning.

A couple of pictures from the dock at the Best Western in Oswego Harbor

Brenda's last Lock! Notice her new $2 locking gloves that she final wore for the last couple of locks.

 

 

A couple of pictures at sundown in Oswego Harbor. The sun actually came through the clouds for a moment.

 

 

We will be crossing Lake Ontario tomorrow and head up the St. Lawrence River. Lets hope it is calm!

 

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Left Winter Harbor at 2:10 PM with the intention to get as close to Oswego Harbor as possible.  I knew that there were a lot of boats ahead of us that would be stopping in the Oswego area. Two of the marinas in Oswego Harbor were having issues with the high water levels, so dock space would be tight.
When we were in Lock 3 in Fulton, we asked the lockmaster how far it was to the Minetto Lock. He informed us that the lock closed. It closed at 5:00 PM, yet the Fulton Locks were open at 6:00 PM when we went through. I didn't get a chance to ask him the reason for the early closure. This presented a problem, because the Minetto Lock had no wall to tie up on. However the town of Minetto maintains a free floating dock next to a small park that is available for transients. My concern was that it doesn't take too many boats to fill up the 150 ft dock. I really didn't think there would be room for us, but I was pleasantly surprised to find the dock empty. We pulled over, tied up and spent the night. 

 

A couple of pictures of EASTNOR at the Minetto Town Dock. The dock is free, but they do have a donation box 

 



 

Veterans Memorial in the well kept small park

 

Minetto Rest Rooms and Shower Building

 

Historic Home on the Oswego River

Brenda Manning her line. She can't wait to get this leg of our journey over with. The Oswego River will be her last 7 locks.

 

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

I returned to Brewerton last night from retrieving my car in NC. I flew down on Saturday , and Tony Mantini was kind enough to pick me up at the airport. After tending to some personal issues, I left early on Monday to make the 14 hour drive back.

Today, we brought my car up to Wellesley Island and drove the rental car back. We are now waiting for a weather opportunity to continue our trip on the Erie and Oswego River and across Lake Ontario. It looks like Saturday or Sunday will be the best weather window to cross the Lake. So we will leave on Friday to get up to Oswego and plan to cross on Saturday or Sunday.

The water level on Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence River is very high, and the Marinas in Oswego have limited dockage, so we need to time our trip to spend one night on the wall in Oswego and cross the Lake the next day.

When we arrived on Wellesley Island today to bring my car up, we were surprised at the high water level. Most of the docks at the Thousand Island Club are OK, but here are a few pictures of the lowest fixed dock and the water covering it.

 

We were able to take a ride through Cicero where we used to live. Here are a couple of pictures of the house we had built in Cicero:

 

 

Saturday, June 24, 2017

This will be the last post for a few days while I return to NC to retrieve my car. I'll resume posting when I return.
Here is a picture of Snoopy, oh I mean Lulu, sitting on top of her dog house!

 

She always finds the sunny spot on the boat.

Thursday, June 22, 2017

We have made a decision to stop our trip for this year, and continue next season. Next week we will continue on the Erie to the Oswego River, and cross Lake Ontario to Wellesley Island in the St Lawrence River, and stay there for the rest of this season, and resume our Great Loop Cruise next year.

Since we are close to Syracuse Airport now, I will be flying back to NC on Saturday to pick up my car (and golf clubs) and bring it up to the Thousand Island Club, return to Brewerton, and resume our trip up to the St Lawrence. That is a two or three day trip depending on the Lake Ontario weather.

EASTNOR is still at Winter Harbor Marina in Brewerton, N.Y. The Marina was close to full and more boats with reservations were expected to arrive today; so they asked us to move to a dock next to the Marina that they use for situations like this. Here we are in our new digs:

 

There are many boats doing the loop, and the weather has rubber banded them into groups spread out over several miles. It makes it difficult for the marinas to handle the boats which seem to come in waves. Winter Harbor is a popular stop especially if boats need work. They have the facility and staff to do just about anything a boat could require. 

After seeing Dave Taylor yesterday, we had another pleasant surprise when Bob and Penny Smith drove up from Binghamton to join us for lunch. After lunch they drove us to the airport so that we could pick up a rental car for Brenda to use while I fly home.

The Nuteak steps were finished, and they look great: (That's a Red Sox World Series Decal at the left of the steps - it looks great also)

Wednesday, June 21 , 2017

I spoke to Tony Mantini  the other day, and he commented that we were in rain gear in many of our pictures on the blog. I hadn't thought of that, but it is true. We have had a lot of rain.  Here is something Brenda read in the local Syracuse paper that says it all about the weather:

 

Here are a couple of pictures of the Paint Booth at Winter Harbor Marina. It is 80 ft deep, 20 ft wide, and 40 ft high.

 

 There is a beautifully restored 44 foot 1987 Viking on our dock that was painted and refinished by Winter Harbor and it looks like a new boat.

 

 

We also spotted a 40 Mainship in the boat yard, with a hailing port of Auckland, New Zealand, that has a Sidepower Stern Thruster installed.

 

 

Winter Harbor is a distributor of Nuteak. Which is a composite material that looks like teak. They had a display in the office, and to make a long story short: here are our new Nuteak steps leading up to the fly bridge. The tape will come off in the morning and the edges will be cleaned up.

 

 

We were surprised to get a call from Dave Taylor, who was in the area to pick up a new boat. Dave and a friend stopped by our Marina briefly to say hello.

We also heard from Bob and Penny Smith, who plan to drive up to Brewerton and join us for lunch tomorrow.  

 

 

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Our Bow Thruster is now working. The technician climbed down into the bowels of the bow to check it from the inside. There is a shear pin that could have sheared, but his inspection found that not to be the case, so the boat had to be lifted out of the water to inspect the tunnel and propellers. Guess what we found - thick plastic bag like material wrapped around the props:

EASTNOR in Travel Lift

 

Bow Thruster Tunnel with plastic wrapped around props

 

A handful of thick plastic material caused all of this problem

 

While the boat was out of the water, we had them remove the prop nuts and reposition and tighten them. The diver who installed the repaired prop put the nuts on in the wrong order. The smaller of the two nuts goes on first. We also replaced a missing zinc on the rudder.

The last time we used the generator it cut off after running for a half hour. I found weeds stuck in the through hull intake that I was able to remove by hand; I'll also clean out the strainer. Shouldn't have that problem again.

The end of a day on the Erie Canal in Brewerton, N.Y. Check out the price of diesel! $2.189

Monday, June 19, 2017

We crossed Lake Oneida in the rain this morning on our way to Brewerton, NY and Winter Harbor Marina where we will have our Chartplotter/GPS and bow thruster repaired. These are two very important pieces of equipment. Only took three pictures during our trip across the 30 mile Lake:

Oneida Lake from the stern. One of the few islands in the distance

 

Passing Sailboat on the Lake

 

 

We passed the Heckter's on Satori as we passed the Brewerton Boat Yard, we tooted and waved as we went by.

 

When we arrived at Winter Harbor Marina, there were several dockhands ready to assist at the fuel dock since I alerted them that I had limited maneuverability due to the broken Bow Thruster, They helped us in , and after refueling and a pumpout, they used lines to walk the boat around the corner of the fuel dock and tied us up inside the thruway in the marina.

 

Bill watching from Flybridge as they turn the corner. There is a large wheel mounted on the corner that they were using as a fulcrum. They obviously have done this before. There was another Larger Yacht at the front of the fuel dock with a broken Bow Thruster.

 

 

Made it around the corner.

 

Tied up securely

 

 

Winter Harbor is a Boat Storage and Repair Facility that also accepts transient boats. We stored our boat here in heated storage when we lived in Cicero, NY. They are also capable of doing most any repair on any size boat. They currently have an 83 footer that they are doing prop work on.

They also have a huge Paint Booth that can handle very Large Yachts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEWSFLASH:  At five o'clock, the sun came out!

 

We will be in Brewerton for several days while they complete the repairs, and we welcome the rest. I need a break from sitting at the helm every day,  and Brenda needs a break from handling lines in the locks and while docking. This requires hand and arm strength, particularly in the locks. She has an injured thumb that her doctor has been telling her needs to be operated on, but because she would be in a cast for three months, she has avoided the operation. The locks have been hard on her.

 

We have eight more locks before we reach Lake Ontario. We will stop in the Thousand Islands area before tackling the locks again in the Trent Severn Canal. We have considered pausing our trip, and staying in the Thousand Island and resuming next summer. We will make a decision when we reach the Thousand Islands.