Monday Aug 31: Newark, NY

As you can see, we are continuing to make our way east on the canal. One more night on the canal and we will cut south to spend a few days on the finger lakes of New York. The canal continues to change form as the straight cuts of several days ago have changed to more of a river-like setting. Trees line both sides except when we come close to the towns. Many backyards line parts of the canal.

Newark is very close to the original Erie Canal - Steve is standing in what was lock 59! Very narrow and only a boat with a draft of less than 4 feet could pass through the locks and canal. Good thing the harbor is deeper now as our boat draws close to 4 feet! Found an interesting clock museum here in the public library. It was primarily the collection of one person and had some really nice grandfather clocks. One of the clocks from the 1800's kept both the time and date and could account for leap years. It had a gear the turned only 1 time every 8 years - truly amazing :-)

Overall a great day - sweatshirt and shorts - my favorite weather ....

Sunday, August 30: Fairport, NY

Again a very short travel to Fairport, NY. The lift bridge here is listed in Ripley's Believe It or Not for two reasons: it is the only lift bridge that runs at an angle and because no two angles on the bridge itself are the same. Seemed a bit of a stretch to us but whatever! The town was once again just a quaint canal town - lots of small stores and a very nice waterfront.

The rainy day was well spent watching the final round of the golf tournament that was played outside of New York City. Although Tiger Woods didn't come through with the birdie putt on the 18th and tie for win at the end, the shots of New York City were well worth the time and fun to see. Reminded me of our trip there this spring with Becky.

The weather today was very unsettled. It would be nice and then rain and then nice again. The front rolling through the area was spectacular! One thing the rain does is give Steve a chance to wipe down the boat as we move along the canal. The boat is finally looking nice on the outside with all of the teak finished. Next stop: Newark, NY!

Saturday, Aug 29: Pittsford, NY

We've discovered Pittsford is quite an amazing little place! Turns out it's a very upscale little burg outside of Rochester. Definitely on the yuppie side as is evidenced by the types of shops right on the canal (Berkenstock, leather goods store, Simply Crepes - great for breakfast - and a very nice resaurant overlooking the canal). The old flour mill is now redone into either apartments or office space - it was hard to tell which. Very similar to Quaker Square in Akron with it's round rooms. It was raining this morning and as we had decided to stay another day anyway before moving on today was declared a work day! One of the last somewhat messy jobs we had to do before leaving the boat for the winter was to change the antifreeze in the engine (it should be done every 3 years as the antifreeze becomes caustic over time) as well as changing all of the hoses on the engine. Having read nightmare tales of burst engine hoses in various posts and knowing the hoses were most likely over 10 years old prompted this to be #1 on the job list. So once again the job is done having taken way more time that we thought! The biggest challenge was to catch the old antifreeze so it didn't end up in the canal. The rain moved out and it ended up being a really nice day with temperatures in the low 70's. Very pleasant!

The really best news is that we put the rabbit ears on top of the flybridge canvas and we get EVERY major channel!!! That means I get to watch the football game tonight - I am very happy. Hopefully we'll be able to get one of the Browns games before preseason is over!

Friday Aug 28: Pittsford, NY

We spent last night at Spencerport. Another small town with a nice dock and free tie-ups. The most we have spent on dockage on the canal was $8 at Brockport - all other places have been free and provide electricity and water at no charge also. Quite amazing to us considering the pass to travel the Erie Canal system for the season was only $75. The needlepoints are now hung in what has become Steve's bathroom (the forward one). We still have some work to do around the porthole but the pictures look great! The weather has definitely changed. I actually have jeans on and have taken to reading in the forward cabin. Steve says it's my nest - he might be right! It's very cozy on a cool day and I have my brown's blanket (thank you, Wendy!) as a light cover.

The canal around Rochester was once again very different. Many bridges and traveling next to I-480 was very strange. I'm sure we have driven on this road and never realized the canal was right next door!

Tonight we'll stay in Pittsford - and possibly tomorrow (Sat) night as well. The next town (Fairport) is one of the most popular on the system (so we are told). This plus the fact they are having a festival means we stay put until Sunday night when docking will open up.

Wednesday 8/26: Brockport, NY

We've traveled a total of 14 miles in the last two days - what a far cry from the 30-50 mile days on Lake Erie! Spent Tuesday night in Holley, NY. So far it has our vote as the 'most like the Trent' stop. And more boats than we've seen the entire stay on the canal so far! The docks were actually filled for the night.

Biked to a fun waterfall - Steve wanted to climb up it but in the end decided to just ride around and look at it from the top. The bike trail continues to follow the canal (it has been with us since we left Tonawanda) and apparently follows the canal for more than 100 miles. We have seen may people using the path but haven't seen anyone that appears to be camping along it.

Steve caught two more fish: this giant carp and then later in the evening a large catfish. The catfish was an accident (my term) as we were actually just sitting around visiting with the couple in the boat in front of us when one of the guys we met yesterday on a canalboat came over and told Steve he had a fish on his line!

We're waiting around this morning for the two fish needlepoints (one mine, one Wendy's) to be framed. Will post pictures of them tomorrow!

The closer to Rochester we get the more TV stations we get also. We were able to watch the programs about Ted Kennedy - it reminded me of the trip to Washington DC last year when we actually saw him on the Senate floor.

Monday Aug 24: Albion, NY

We moved a short 11 miles east on the canal to Albion - county seat for Orleans county. Lots of Medina sandstone buildings (from the town we just left). The Brooklyn Bridge also has sandstone from Medina so that was fun to know.

On the way, we crossed over the road that is listed in Ripley's Believe it or Not as being the only road that crosses under the canal. We would have missed it if not for the guide book as it was very non-descript.

Work continues on the flybridge teak with the first coat of finish. Two or three more coats over the next few days should finish it off. Finally after 4 years of owning this boat, all of the outside teak will be finished!!

The rental canal boats arrived today. They are out of Rochester and apparently the rentals start on Monday - it very much like the arrival of the Happy Days houseboats into Bobcaygeon on Friday nights. Not nearly as much fun though as these boats are much narrower and have a bow thruster to assist in getting the boat to the dock. Cute things though.

Tried to take a timed picture of the neat mural next to the dock - I couldn't get to it in time :-)

Sunday August 23: Still in Medina, NY

Today is the first really off and on all day rain that we have had since leaving Cleveland in July - I think we have been following the good weather around as most of the rain has been at night. So we made the most of the breaks inbetween the rain. Steve sanded and scrubbed the teak around the flybridge and I washed the screen/sunshades. It's amazing how many spiders and other assorted bugs call our boat their home! Not for long: we found the secret inside is to put dryer softener sheets around (like behind the blinds, pictures, etc) where spiders would normally be found. Amazingly enough it works like a charm. For the outside we found a product called Spider Kilz that is supposed to also be great. We used to have a rule that as long as a spider stayed outside the cabin, it was ok. Only the rule-breakers got squashed. Now they are all fair game! Steve finally purchased a New York State fishing license (on line of course) and had his pole in the water only a few minutes before catching a catfish! Fun to catch but back it went. Supposedly there are lots of different kinds of fish that would be worth catching - we'll see. Off tomorrow rain or shine (it's actually supposed to be nice) and eastward to the next little town along the canal - although it looks like there may be a kayaking opportunity about 3 miles down the canal. Just before sunset last night we saw a double rainbow (the outside one was very faint) - nice ending to the day :-)

Saturday August 22: Medina, NY

The short 16 mile trip to the small town of Medina was a very peaceful drive through mostly farmlands with a couple of small towns inbetween. Corn, soybeans and orchards lined the canal on this stretch. I'm still in wonder at the difference in traveling the canal rather than the lake!

We found a train museum here with a huge HO model train. Truly amazing that anyone would spend the amount of time it must have taken to put it all together. Of course it was pouring down rain when we came out so off in the rain we rode! It was only about 5 minutes back to the boat and we didn't melt so all was well :-)

As always we were able to find the local breakfast place and then did some riding around town. We heard a waterfall yesterday and found today that it is the large creek just to the east of us that passes UNDER the canal. Because the creek ran in a gorge about 70 feet deep, the canal we are currently sitting in is actually a very large concrete dam that is 50 feet wide and takes the Erie Canal over this creek - thus creating the waterfall we were hearing. Quite the engineering feat.

We'll spend the night here (Sunday) - it's very quiet and peaceful. Steve wants to get the teak railings around the flybridge done (sanded, cleaned and finished). This is a multi-day process but the weather looks like it going to be cool enough to complete at least part of the job.

Friday, August 21: Lockport, NY

After an enjoyable 2 nights at Tonawanda, we were ready to move on. A tremendous storm rolled through on last night at Tonawanda - we were very happy to be tied securely (with extra lines) to the dock as wind gust of up to 70 mph were expected.

Anyway, off we went headed east on the Erie Canal. To be traveling on a canal 125 feet wide and an average depth of 11 feet is quite a different experience that the last six weeks spend traveling Lake Erie! Even if we sank, we could still stand on the top of the boat and be out of the water..... Lockport is the first of the locks we will go through. Very similar to the Trent-Severn locks except much larger. Nice museum right by the lock which had many old photo's of the these particular locks being built. Originally there were two sets of flight locks of 5 locks. One for upbound traffic and one for downbound. The south flight was replaced with 2 very large electrically operated. The north locks are still there and now serve as the overflow for the locks. Ho hum day - nothing broke or needed attention :-) Tomorrow: on to Medina, NY

Wed August 19th: Tonawanda, NY

WE MADE IT AND DIDN'T GO OVER THE FALLS!!! My recurring nightmare lately has been that we miss the opening to the canal that runs alongside the Niagara River - and over the Falls we go :( The current in the Niagara River runs 15-17 mph flowing north. Our boat goes a max speed of 10 mph so if we missed the turn and had to turn around and go against the current to get where we needed to be ....... do the math :-) The Peace Bridge is the one we usually took when going into Canada. It was very strange to be going under it instead.

Once around Buffalo (so we are going North - the direction the Niagara River flows) we found the Tonawanda Creek and the entrance to the Erie Canal. Only problem was that we still had the mast up and couldn't fit under either of the two bridges that we had to go under! Not the plan but we ended up quickly dropping the mast as we sat in the middle of a small open area outside the Creek. Quickly is relative of course as dropping the mast means removing the boom, undoing two of the four cables holding it up, pulling the pin that holds the mast to the deck and finally laying it down (Steve slowly lowering it down by holding the ropes and me holding the end until we can move it to the flybridge deck). Once we were docked, Steve packed it up and it is now cozily laying on the flybridge and out of the way.

We found a carrousel museum in town. Very fun - learned all about the making of the figures as well as the music that is played and how it all works. Amazing technology for the 1920's. Adults were warned not to waste their $.02 on the ride and besides it was "evil" to ride on these things!

The price of admission included a ride on the #1 carrousel made by this company in 1916! (My horse won by the way :-))

Monday, Aug 16: Port Colborne, Ontario

After having spent 2 days at Port Dover, it was time to move on. The next port of interest was Port Colborne - the southern end of the Welland Canal (to bypass Niagara Falls). 23 miles and 8 locks so having traveled through the canal in 1999 with our 32' Trojan, we had no desire to do that again! Fun once but not twice :-). The locks are large enough to accommodate the large lake freighters so like 750 feel long and 90 feet wide!

Saw several large freight carriers go through the locks - there was a very nice bike path along the canal. Steve did get somewhat carried away riding though. His rear wheel bearing on the bike bit the dust. Seems you have to take these apart every once in a while and grease them! Who knew! So off he went on my bike with his wheel tied to his backpack to the bike store where he was able to purchase a new wheel. The person at the store was nice enough to do this as he waited.

Of course we had other issues: our computer died and couldn't fix itself. Again we lucked out and found a guy that saved most of what was on the hard drive and restored Windows Vista. Lost a few files but nothing major. Think it may be time for a new computer??

And a disaster avoided: we were leaving about 1 pm headed for Buffalo when the engine just didn't sound right (after listening to it for days on end you can just kind of tell). No water coming out of the exhaust! This is a bad thing as the engine is a closed cooling system just like a car (complete with antifreeze). Water from the lake circulates around the engine to keep the antifreeze at the appropriate temperature and is then exhausted back into the lake. So without water from the lake - the engine overheats, etc. We quickly went back to the nearest dock to investigate.

Upon checking the water intake (located on the bottom of the boat but accessible in the engine compartment), Steve found a very nice assortment of seaweed which had gotten sucked up into the intake as we left our dock in the morning. After about 15 minutes of digging with screwdrivers, copper wire and running the engine, we were able to clear it and head on out. We were very happy to have found the problem prior to getting out on the lake and then trying to deal with an overheated engine!

Saturday, Aug 15: Port Dover, Ontario

As we left Barcelonia and were traveling east along the south shore of Lake Erie, we decided to divert north to Ontario. Port Dover was the goal. The Port Dover Yacht had room for us so over we went. The 7 hour trip took us over the deepest part of Lake Erie(200 feet) and out of sight of shore for a good part of the trip. Good thing the lake was nice and calm! It's a weird feeling to look around and see nothing but water!

Turns out that Port Dover is the tug boat capitol of the world (not really but it seemed that way!). There is a boat maker there that makes tugs as regular boating vessels but the cutest little tug was tucked in between a couple of the larger ones. It made a trip past our boat but we weren't fast enough with the camera.

The dock at the yacht club was not wide enough (13 foot beam) so after a few tense moments of current, wind and being in a relatively small channel with lots of other boats around, we were able to get docked. Whew!!

Port Dover is the gathering place on the weekend for what seemed like all of southern Ontario - it was kind of like a coney island/street fair. We share a picnic table with a lady from Hamilton (near Toronto) who used to live in Euclid and whose sister currently lives in Feneleon Falls overlooking the canal we travel on every year. Small world :-) Every Friday th 13th, 30,000 motorcyclists decend on the place - doesn't seem like a time I would like to be there!

Friday, Aug 14: Barcelona, New York

After a late start due to fixing one more hydraulic line for the steering we decided to move on to Barcelona, New York. Steve has been trying to get some fishing in but it seems we are never in the same state for more than a day or two! We don't very often travel so late in the day (the goal is to be settled by 1 pm to give the engine time to cool down so the cabin is cool - otherwise we need to run the air conditioner on the really warm days) so the view behind us with the sun on the water was an awesome sight - like thousands of sparkles in the water. Met the owner Duff at the marina in Barcelona. Quite a character - late 80's if he's a day! He had us dock at the ramp - much to the consternation of the local fisherman who intended to put his boat in at 5:30 am the next morning! So we worked it out and all was well. Another wonderful sunset as well as a 2 person band at the bar/restaurant next to the marina. How enjoyable to be able to sit by the shore and enjoy the music!

Thursday 8/13: Erie, Pennsylvania

So it's Thursday and we are still in Erie, PA. Spend one night at a dock downtown - which was really nice. Bike paths were excellent so Steve replenished the freezer and found an Italian breakfast place that had a Sicilian omlet - can't say we had ever heard of that before but he claims it was excellent! Visited the maritime museum which was well worth the time. We've learned more about the war of 1812 than we ever knew! Seems Perry's fleet was built here in Erie because of the protection of Preque Isle which is Lake Erie's only natural harbor. Saw a replica of the Niagara (the brig that Perry was on when the British fleet surrendered) as she was headed back to Erie on Tuesday so we were able to go on a tour. Yesterday we moved over to the marina at the Presque Isle State Park so we could take advantage of the bike trails all around the peninsula. Great day - until we discovered the slight leak in the hydraulic steering system. So today turned out to be a work day instead of moving on. We've learned that when taking thing apart, you should be near a source of parts to fix things that may need replaced or fixed. But things went well and as of 7 pm tonight we should again have our steering totally back. Tomorrow we plan on continuing along the southern shore of Lake Erie - not sure where we are going to stop yet ....

Monday, August 10: Geneva State Park

The weather Sunday was great - 1 - 2 ft waves from directly behind us so it was an easy ride to the Grand River (about 3 hours east of Cleveland). SO HOT though. We spend most of the afternoon at anchor inside the breakwall - took the dingy to shore and walked down to the lighthouse. (Note Steve's steadying sail - amazingly enough it really helped!) Going to the lighhouse was one of those ideas that sounds much better than it was! Farther away than it looked, part of the walk on sand and the rest on uneven though large sandstone blocks. Did I mention that it was HOT? The first 90 degree weather since June. We considered just staying at anchor but decided we definitely needed to be at a marina so we could turn on the air conditioner. So we made our way to the Grand River Marina for the night. Left this morning after breakfast at Sammy's in Fairport Harbor and headed for Geneva State Park. Really nice place.

Passed the Perry nuclear power plant on the way - amazing how large these things are. Geneva-on-the-lake is a small town and a throwback to the 5o's. Kind of like a street fair complete with funnel cakes! Sidewalk root beer stands, tatoo parlors - the works. Made it back to the boat (it was only a 2 mile bike ride away) when we saw the predicted storm approaching. Mostly high winds, little rain and wild waves breaking over the marina entrance. When we rode into town the waves were non-existent. Tomorrow will be a long ride to Erie, Pa. It's 50+ miles which translates to about 7 hours running time. I hear there is a casino there .......

August 8: Still in Cleveland!

We are still in Cleveland - scheduled to leave today but it just an all day rain so we'll stay put and head out tomorrow as it is supposed to be a nice day. Most likely we'll go to the Grand River - about a 4 hour run.

In the meantime, work continued on the decks with the next-to-last finish added in the last couple of days. The leaks have stopped so one more project almost finished

So how do 3 grown men attach a small pulley to the top of the mast? By putting the tallest on on the boom and the other two holding him up! Ryan Pendleton (tallest of the three) being steadied by Steve and Paul. The end result is a steadying sail - Steve is now very happy and we can travel broadside to the wind with much less rolling from side to side (in theory - we'll see it really works!).

Tomorrow we'll decide where to head next: either up the south shore of Lake Erie to Buffalo and the Erie Canal or maybe across the northern shore. Perhaps the wind direction will decide and we'll just sail there .....

Friday 7/31: Cleveland

Arrived at Cleveland after spending Thursday night at Vermillion. Ironically I had just copied some of my dad's slides including pictures of a trip to Vermillon in 1955! I'm sure some of the houses along the waterway are still there. Cedar point was very visible on our way out of Sandusky. One of our other "jobs done" was the addition of "Yesterday's Dream" to each side of the flybridge. With the transom covered by the dingy we really needed some way to have the boat identifiable. We'll spend up to a week here - finishing up some canvas for the flybridge, gathering materials to finish the 'ceiling' above my head now that we believe we have the leaks fixed :-) A celebration of Mom's 87th birthday is planned in Ashland Sunday and a fishing expedition with Uncle Leo and Uncle Ron is on the calendar for Tuesday - weather permitting. Breakfast at Shay's was of course the first thing this morning - a quick 15 minute bike ride away. To be continued when we leave at the end of next week .... on to the Erie Canal!