Richard and Margaret have sailed off "into the blue".I will try and keep everyone apprised of their adventures when time permits. I will post pictures and the emails that I receive as well as any links they have sent me.
Fair Winds, my friends.
Wayne
Email #1
Hello, Everyone: I am sending a group e-mail since we have found a spot where we can pay for internet access, and I am not sure exactly when the next time will be (it could be soon, but how knows?). For those of you who do not yet know, we had to change plans somewhat since we missed the weather window we needed to do our Atlantic sailing safely, so we decided to spend some time on Lake Ontario before heading south via Oswego, the Erie Canal and the Hudson River. We plan to spend some time exploring the Chesapeake before heading to Florida for Christmas; we plan to hop across to the Azores (if you can call it hopping in a sailboat) next May, after spending time in the Bahamas and wherever else we get to before then. Here is where we have been: First we spent time on Lake Ontario, wandering east along the north shore in pretty easy hops. We visited Frenchmans Bay, where we met another cruiser on an Alberg - he is still in Lake Ontario, but will be heading this way in another couple of weeks or so. Then we headed to Cobourg, and from there to the Bay of Quinte, where we stopped off North Port, in Belleville, in Hallowell Mills Cove and a few other places before heading for Kingston. We paused in Kingston, in the Inner Harbour for a while - generally very nice, though we had one windy night where winds hit over 35 knots - not good for sleeping! Then we stopped off Amherst Island, before heading for Waupoos, our last stop before heading across the lake to Oswego. We could have had our mast taken down before going across, but decided that the days of motoring we would be doing once we got to the Oswego and Erie Canals earned us the days sail across the lake. We reached Oswego last Monday evening, and took the mast down and went through the first five locks on Tuesday, before we stopped in a very small marina in Fulton (first 2 days free, and a nearby area with restaurants and shopping, grocery store across the bridge). We waited out the remnants of hurricane Katrina there - rain which raised the level of the water a foot. Then we kept going to Brewerton, before Oneida Lake; slept there and left by 6:30 the next morning to get across before the wind rose and the lake got rough. We made it with about an hour to spare; it picked up while we paused at the other side on one of those free state docking walls - and met another cruiser passing by, who came to talk. T hen on to another state park with mooring in Rome, for the night. Tonight we are in Little Falls, at a harbour run by the Rotary, very inexpensive base rate, but water, power and internet access extra. We should be sending this from there tomorrow morning. >From here we are heading toward Troy and the Hudson River in 2 more hops, and looking forward to Waterford, where we are told there is free mooring, free showers and good shopping - as in food shopping, something which we constantly calculate now. We actually made the Hudson before we had a chance to send this Hope to have the mast back up in a couple days and be a sailboat again We have pictures which we are putting up on Yahoo, and will send the URL as soon as we have it. Till next time - Margaret and Richard
Installment #2 12/10/05
Hello, Everyone:
Our last letter was written in Little Falls, in the
evening before we found out the internet access
provided was by phone line to your own dial-up
provider. Since we don’t have a dial-up provider,
that was out of the question. The showers, however,
were wonder ful, and Little Fall proved to be an
interesting place. There were restaurants and shops
within walking distance - and most importantly for us,
a laundromat. Everyone was friendly, many clearly
proud of their town which is making an effort to
establish an attractive area close to the canal with a
park, galleries, antique and craft stores and spaces
for events.
Left Little Fall early, for a long day of travel, and
finally tied up more than 35 miles later on the wall
above Lock 11. For us, given the speed we travel at,
that felt like a long day of motoring. There we met
another couple heading south on their catamaran, April
First. We spent the day locking through with them,
and took their suggestion of docking with them for the
night at a small dock off the canal, in a town called
Scotia - which has a very good dollar store, almost
the only thing open late in the afternoon on Labour
Day. The sign at Jumping Jacks, obviously a
restaurant popular with boaters and young people, said
it was closed for the season...
The next day saw us going through the final set of
locks before one of those towns that cruisers on their
way up or down look forward to - Waterford. The locks
were amazing - five locks, one almost right after the
other, each with a drop/lift of more than 30 feet.
While we were in the series we had to tie up in one of
the few wide areas to let a tour boat go through -
you’ll see it in our pictures. Talk about a close fit
- almost as along and almost as wide as the locks it
had to go through.
Then Waterford - from which we finally sent our
pictures. A visitors centre full of welcoming
volunteers, free docking for the first two days,
minimal charge after that. Internet access using your
own laptop, via DSL cable, or you could use their
computers. One volunteer told me that all the tugboat
captains retire there, and we passed through just
before their annual Tugboat Roundup - when there is no
mooring for pleasure boats, as all docking facilities
are made available to the tugboats attending. A few
arrived while we were there; we passed others on the
way down to the Troy Lock (and the end of the canal).
Next stop was at Castleton-on-Hudson, since we were
impatient to put our mast back up. April First
stopped there as well, and we met other cruisers on
their way down or back up. Two of the boats were
being cruised by Canadian couples, one on their way
down for the first time, the other on their way back
up after visiting the wooden boat show in Rhode Island
with their self-built wooden boat. There was
discussion of stopping places and comparison of boats,
and of course food and drink, before most of us took
off to follow our separate ways. A note for those
passing through: there is an Italian restaurant in
Castleton where for a reasonable price you will be
served enough food to last you a couple of days - and
they pick you up from the Boat Club.
Castleton was the first place we could really see and
feel the effects of tides and currents. You could
tell the state of the tide by the steepness of the
ramp to the dock., and by the direction of swing of
the boats on moorings. If you have a tall mast, it is
probably better to put it on at low tide! Everyone
who happens to be there pitches in to raise or lower
masts, and while we were there the number of willing
hands and variety of experience made the job easier.
Since Castleton, we have been anchoring out: off
Rattlesnake Island, up Esopus Creek at Saugerties
(tiny, but very quiet), behind Pelopel Island
(interesting ruins, but not quiet - the trains run
right beside the river), and then off Nyack for four
days waiting for hurricane/tropical storm Ophelia to
pass. Behind Pelopel Island we got to feel what it
was like having the wind oppose the tide - the boat
went in circles around the anchor all night, pushed by
the wind and pulled by the tide. At Nyack we had some
of the same effects, as the weather and wind direction
changed. Makes you grateful for good anchors and a
chain rode with swivel.
We were fortunate enough to meet another cruiser based
in Nyack at the Boat Club, who was getting his boat
ready to head out in a couple of weeks. He invited us
to use a dock for our dinghy, and the showers,and
encouraged us to explore the town. Last count, two
good ice cream shops, one upscale (read expensive) and
one the regular, tubs behind the counter kind of
place. Nice stores, upscale cars, extremely expensive
houses, condos being built on the waterfront; on
weekends all kinds of people walking through historic
areas or on the main street with their families.
When we left, the Nyack Boat Club was in a state of
ferment as they prepared for the Ensign Nationals to
be held there the following week - forty or fifty
boats expected, all an older Pearson design, lines
looking very much as if Alberg had a hand in them.
>From Nyack we headed for New York City proper. There
was a rapid increase in the volume of traffic and the
size of boats and ships, and it felt rather like being
in a field with trucks and cars coming at you from all
directions - not to mention the helicopters overhead
and the constant chatter on the VHF. By the time we
found the anchorage off Liberty State Park, we were
very glad to be in a quiet place. And after they
cleared the park of people and vehicles at 10:00 p.m.,
it was truly quiet. We slept very well.
The rest of the trip through New York Harbour, on our
way to Sandy Hook, had us on our toes - boats, ships,
ferries and tugs and barges going in all kinds of
directions. The Staten Island Ferries, rushing past
us, will remain in our memories. We were glad to have
that part of the trip behind us when we dropped anchor
in Atlantic Highlands. A couple of nights there - we
followed what has become the usual routine: find the
laundromat, the grocery store and the hardware store,
and look for internet access. We did find the latter,
but just as we were getting ready to leave.
>From Sandy Hook we hoped to make the run down to Cape
May in one go. All went well, though we had a brisk
night, until we ran out of wind on our second day out,
and the engine decided that it could not run on fuel
mixed with water. We ended up sailing into the
anchorage behind Rum Point in Atlantic City, and
taking a day to sort out the fuel problem (read drain
the water out of filters and hoses). Then we waited a
day for the 20 to 30 knot winds to die down, joined
by another cruising sailboat which we will probably
see sometime further along, since they travel more
quickly than we do.
Bright and early the following day we set out for Cape
May, after stopping for fuel at one of the marinas
across the inlet - we almost had to sail up to the
fuel dock, but made it there under power. Then we
motored out the inlet, set the sails and enjoyed a day
of good sailing down to Cape May. We anchored outside
the Coast Guard station with a few other boats, in
preparation for an early start down Delaware Bay the
next morning.
We were on our way by 7:30, to try to make the most of
the tides and currents. With a strong wind behind us
we made very good time up the bay once we cleared the
Cape May Canal. The sailing was hard work, but we
covered 55 miles in about nine hours, and were able to
motor down the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal to
Chesapeake City (about 14 miles) the same day, getting
there at about 7:30 in the evening.
We spent a couple of nights in Chesapeake City, where
we met again a couple of boats we had been with
earlier. Then we set off for our first anchorage in
Chesapeake Bay proper - Worton Creek. Since the
channel in the upper part of the bay is narrow, and we
do not know the area, we motored most of the way.
When the alternator decided to detach itself from the
engine, we changed to sail while Richard created a
temporary fix, and then motored for the shortest time
possible to go into the creek. It is shallow, but the
tides and currents are much less than in the Bay.
The creek provides a very sheltered anchorage, and is
a good place to pass a bad weather day. We actually
anchored three times - once to put the alternator back
in place after the temporary fix did not last long
enough, once outside a marina which turned out to have
no services, and once to anchor outside Worton Creek
Marina, which turned out to have everything we were
looking for - bolts, showers, laundry facilities,
water - and friendly people. And we ran into the
people we had met in Atlantic City.
Into The Blue
Richard &
Margaret
Leaving good old TO
