2011-09-24 - to New York City, NY

 

We pulled out of the anchorage and headed to NYC.  The trip only took us 4 hours with the tide going with us (we were going over 9 knots).  We approached the 79th Street Basin and grabbed one of the mooring balls just for the moment, until we had further instruction from the dockmaster.  He was quick to come on the radio to inform us that multihulls were not allowed in the mooring area.  This was news to us.  Apparently, a catamaran or two had damaged their mooring ball lines and now we are not allowed on the balls.  Oh well, we were offered the dock and took that instead.  We headed to town on our bikes.  79th Street Boat Basin is located close to Riverside Park, which heads north to south.  It was a great ride on the bike paths.  We saw the large carrier, Intrepid - it was very impressive.  Connor was really anxious about going to Toys-R-Us in Times Square so we cut in and headed towards the square.  He bought a new Nerf gun that he was saving up for and was just over the moon about it.  We ended the ride home by going for a bike ride in Central Park.  We covered a lot of ground today and had such a nice time together.   The one exciting thing that happened in the city was later in the day motorcades with sirens were travelling several of the streets.  You could hear their sirens coming from several groups.  As one went by us you could see the men in matching suits pointing out the car, talking into their headsets and then, all of a sudden, they burst out of their cars and went charging down the street. Several people ran to see what the commotion was all about.  I noticed that one of the cars had 'Turkey' written on it and then it occurred to me that the United Nations were having their general assembly this week. Perhaps, these cars were transporting representatives from the United Nations?   It was a site out of the movies, for sure.

2011-09-23 - to Haverstraw Bay, NY (Anchorage)

It was another 'log-dodging' day on the Hudson.  Kerry was out there for all of it again.  Connor was in and out helping with the navigation and  log spotting.  It is really beautiful on this stretch of the Hudson.  There are a lot of Mansion-museums on this stretch - beautiful, large homes on the hills.  We went by West Point as well, which got Connor snapping numerous pics with his camera. 

2011-09-22 - to Kingston, NY

We now have our mast on and are back in business.  We were the first in line to get our mast on this morning.  We worked busily re-attaching all the lines and finished off with a deck scrub.  After going through all of the locks, Hi-5 was ready for a ‘bath’. It felt great to be put back together.   There is another family here with 3 children and I think that they are planning of being out for 5 years!?  Connor was thrilled when we arrived, as we haven’t met any other boats on our trip so far.  When we arrived, however, the children all spoke French only.  Connor really wanted to try to play, but couldn’t get past the fact that his French couldn’t pull him through.  The good thing is that it gave him the understanding of the importance of learning the other language.  I hope that it sparks some more enthusiasm.  It was interesting this morning, is I could hear a recorded English lesson coming from their boat.  I think it would have been great to switch kids for a while...I teach their kids, English and they teach Connor, French.   I think it would have been a great opportunity.

We had lunch at the marina restaurant.  The waitress was glad to have guests as, she explained, some people are staying away because of the flooding.  Their whole restaurant was filled with water but they worked tirelessly, to dry things out and get things running again.  Evidence of the flooding was apparent.  The wooden floor was warped or boards were missing but, we had a wonderful lunch and headed out for a 4-hour motor down the Hudson River.  There was a lot of debris still on the river.  Nothing large, like floating boats, see  http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=UCN9f6bcpO0  but odd things such as propane tanks, hats, barrels, etc.  The vegetation (logs and grasses) were also prevalent.  We had to stop every 30 minutes or so to clear the propellers even though Kerry was doing his best to steer around!   As we turned up the creek into Kingston harbour, we saw this bald eagle sitting at the waters edge. We landed in Kingston, NY at 6:30pm, and enjoyed a quick dinner and Connor stayed for over an hour on the harness out front. 

2011-09-21 - to Catskills, NY

the first of many little lighthouses along the way

We arrived in the Catskills to get our mast back on later in the day.  We had heard that they had suffered a lot of damage during Hurricane Irene.  It became apparent as we pulled off the Hudson and headed up the river towards the marina.  There were several marinas along this strip.  All marinas looked as is they sustained a lot of damage during the flooding.  Here is a quick youtube video of the boats 'leaving ' the entrance way to the river  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmXIT_3m8Ag.  When we arrived at Hop-O-Nose marina it was apparent that they had been busy during the last few weeks repairing docks, etc.   They told us the whole story.  They had removed most of the boats in the marina and placed they up on their stands well away from the waters edge.  When they came back all of the boats were off of their stands and tossed around the yard.  Apparently the water had come up so high that the boats lifted off of their stands and were floating around.  Some were recovered, but some were not even found.  I just cannot imagine so much water and what that must have been like for the people.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9qxybMAca8&feature=related

2011-09-20 - to Waterford, NY

Well, we finally made it to lock 1 of the Champlain Canal. It has been a very long 'detour' but it was worth seeing the sites that we saw along the way. Our celebrations were short-lived, however. As we arrived, we were greeted by a couple of local boaters who just happened to be walking our way. We landed at the Waterford Visitors Centre. We were here 5 years ago and it was a vibrant little hub, with lots of boats coming and going.  Now, it is deserted. The men on the dock explained that this whole area was under over 20 feet of water during Hurricane Irene. The whole first floor of the vistors building (just at the arched doorways) was submerged. The pics of Hi-5 at dock from a distance shows the height of the arches in comparison to our boat.  Our boat would have been completely engulfed in water.  They continued to explain that several of the houses surrounding the lock and the visitors centre actually floated up and off of their foundations. It was apparent as we went for a walk that there was a lot of moving water carrying debris and mud. Even tonight a small refrigerator floated behind one of the other boats.  Here is a short youtube video that shows the water level on the visitors centre.  Note the top part of the building that is only visable.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O-D5pxXr0Y&feature=related



2011-09-19 - to Ft. Edward, NY

We woke up this morning in a blanket of fog. It was so dense that you couldn’t make anything out beyond the safety rails. Through the fog, we enjoyed again the phenomenon of the ‘echo’ (well Connor did) and, as the fog lifted, we headed on our way...a little late (8:30am). It was another scenic day through the beginning of the Champlain canal. There are rock faces that come straight into the water and bursting with trees. We even saw a deer having a drink at the waters edge. We came upon lock 12 (the very beginning of the canal system at 11:30am). We docked at the lock wall and made our way to the lock masters house. For these locks, it is only $15 for 2 days of lockage (11 locks). This is quite different to the other lock fees. ($25/lock on the St. Lawrence, $36 for one lock on the Richelieu River, $60 for ~8 locks on the Chambly Canal). We did half of the locks today and expect to be finished with the Champlain canal tomorrow evening a Troy! It is such a straight run, you can't go wrong (see pic with gps in the foreground)

The big treat tonight was stopping on the free dock at Ft. Edward. Here they have power and water and a nice wall to tie up for the night. Power means heat for us! It has been so chilly at anchor. When we wake up the boat is about 10’C. We are all fine in our beds, but it is the getting up that is the hardest. We do have the Honda Generator that we start up in the morning. This gives us enough power for the heater and to make breakie. We stopped here at Ft. Edward really to do laundry. It has been several days, and it was getting to the point that we had to! So, I loaded up the bike trailer and headed in the direction that one of the locals guided me to. ‘Just around the corner and up the hill’, they said…’not too far’. Well, here I go with, probably, 100lbs of laundry. I head to the corner and round it and, ‘what do I see in front of me’, was a mountainous slope. (Probably a slight exaggeration again...but, any steeper and I would need a climbing harness and a hoist!) So, fit me (cough, sputter) make my way up the ‘little hill’ and eventually (and much redder in the face) find the coin op. So, I haul my mountainous sac into the facility and scope out the correct machines to use. I saw one that was 3 loads worth…perfect. I manage to stuff what I could in that and got it going. The next one, I loaded, what felt like, 100 quarters into again – loaded up the laundry – and closed the door. The price display changed back to the default setting of $3,50. Oh darn…I paid, loaded and pressed the ‘on’ button. Not, loaded, paid and pressed the ‘on’ button. Someone saw me pressing buttons and came over to tell me that I can call the ‘assistance number’ posted. I looked at it – paused - and they looked at me and said, “do you not have a cell phone”? They looked at me with such pity and said, ‘Here, borrow mine” I could see it in their eyes that they must thought – what poor person…she doesn’t have a cell phone! So, I called – sorted it out and all was well…well, except for my dignity. So, it was all going well….when, I noticed that the super 3-loader was just spinning and spinning….without finishing up (by this time, I was already folding the other dry stuff). I asked a man, who happened to be there, if those machines took longer to complete. He said they didn’t and, again, directed me to the laundry help line posted on the wall. I paused for a moment and he said, “..do you not have a cell phone?” with that same look of pity….I got to use his! The problem was fixed over the phone. I finally finished my loads and loaded up the bike trailer again. Downhill was a breeze! I woohoo’ed all of the way back, tucked the kids into bed….and, called it a night!

2011-09-18 - in Lake Champlain, VT

So, where are we anyway? This is a great little diagram of the canal system that we took yesterday in the museum. If you follow the Erie Canal (this is the bottom part of the triangle from Oswego to Troy, NY. ) you will see our intended route that we were going to take. This total distance is about 186 statute miles. Because of the severe damage from hurricane Irene, this canal was closed. So, we headed north from Oswego and followed the eastern part of the lake to Kingston, Cornwall, Montreal and then to the top of the 'triangle', Sorel. From there we have been heading south (finally). We just left Burlington, VT (see diagram) and are heading for the more southerly/narrow part of Lake Champlain today for an achorage. From there we start the Champlain canal system. This new distance will be about 670 statute miles.....a little difference of 484 statute miles.

...a little later...

It was another lovely day. Dylan was again at the wheel. (on autopilot...with us there...of course.) He loves to sit there for hours some time. We stopped early at Fort Ticonderoga, just off of the channel. We all climbed in the dinghy and headed for shore. Unfortunately, this for was unpenetrable from the sea. there was no where to land our dingy and it was very swampy. Connor was a little upset as he was so excited about seeing another fort. We promised another fort of some sort along the way. We decided to haul our anchor up and put a few extra miles on since it was such a lovely calm day. We ended up in a beautiful little spot just off of the channel at the very end of Lake Champlain.

It was so quiet and the stars were so dense and bright. We discovered that the anchorage was a great spot to play with echos. I did an owl sound that echoed over and over again since there were so many rock faces around us. Kerry did a few, as did I again, but Connor was a little reluctant to do one. Finally he did a quick 'Whoo Whoo' and what came back was a very cross, "Quack Quack". Connor was cracking himself up on that one. I guess a duck had enough of us! He thought that was hilarious. (you really just had to be there!)