Tuesday August 26: Pirate's Cove - Guppy's Home

So we are now sitting at Pirate's Cove Marina - home for Guppy for at least the winter - maybe longer. Not sure. One of those plans that is definitely written in the sand.

We arrived here yesterday after spending another rainy cool day at Winter Harbor on Saturday.

Who wants to travel in weather like that??

Saturday then turned into a work day. There was some rewiring needed for the new 110v fridge. The PO (previous owner in boat talk) had wired a couple of outlets using solid wire - like you would use in a house. Boats need to have stranded wire. So wire that's made up of many strands wound together into a single wire. Kind of like speaker wire only heavier.

We also needed to replace the circuit breaker with a heavier one. Fortunately the marina here had everything we needed so that really made it nice.

The projects were completed within a few hours - must be a record for sure! Of course the boat was ripped up again.

Any project means the boat is a wreck getting tools and other necessary items out from under the front bunk.

Sunday - now THIS is the weather we were looking for! Clear skies with a few puffy clouds. Low wind.

Time to go. Our time was going to be short though as we finally came up with a plan for the next few months.

Visit Ohio, visit Matt and Wendy in Newport, visit Becky in LA and then finally return to Yesterday's Dream in Jacksonville, FL.

Leave date: Wednesday 8/27. Yep - that would be tomorrow :-)


In the meantime we headed east on the Erie Canal: destination: Baldwinsville. We were here once four years ago as we had moved aboard the trawler and spent the summer traveling Lake Erie and the western end of the Erie Canal.

The town docks are very nice: free docking and $5 for power. Probably the busiest port we've seen for a while. The downtown has many empty store fronts so I don't know if there is a "new" area for shopping but it appears as though the town is not doing too great.

There are some really magnificent older homes along the side streets. Maybe the town is doing better than it seems.

We stayed only one night - time to head back and start getting the boat ready to be stored.

I loved the "Red Neck Yatch" that was tied near the lock wall. Pretty funny :-)

And compared to the boat on the left, the "Yatch" was doing quite well.

Sad to see a boat just left sunken like this. What it must have been like in its day.

Ok - so where are we really?? And I understand that sometimes cottage/home owners would like to take a shot or two at obnoxious boats (actually I would too for that matter!) but I have to say I have never seen a silhouette like this one before!

Kind of scary .....





Other interesting boats we saw along the way: left is a huge canal boat. It's designed to make it under the 15 1/2 foot fixed bridge that limits many boats from traveling the western end of the Erie Canal (no problem for us in either boat). It looked like it was close to 100 feet long.

The other was a small cruise ship that travels the Erie. Weird design but made for the height limitations of the eastern end of the Canal. We sort of met at the junction of the Oswego Canal - shocked me to see it as we came around the corner!

Great wildlife day with duck and turtles sharing the same log. Tons of turtles - so nice to see.

Also nice to see a family of swans.

The young are getting pretty big but are still very gray. Young swans start to turn white at about the age of six months. Weirdly the underneath of the young start turning white first!

There is lots of stuff to take to Ohio. Mostly left over food and canned goods.

But also coming with us is the windshield for Guppy. Sadly it was cracked over the winter due to the amount of snow in Ontario.

Easy solution to this happening: just unscrew the 8 screws holding it down. Next time we'll make sure the marina does that when the boat is shrink wrapped.

In the meantime, we'll see what the House of Plastics in Cleveland can do for us.

Tomorrow: last minute things to finish up, get the car, drive to Julie and Jim's place. It will be weird being off of the  boat for close to 6 weeks to do some car/plane traveling ....

Blog will continue in October when we are back to Yesterday's Dream :-)

Friday August 22: Brewerton - Where Does the Time Go?

The night was peaceful enough with just a bit of rippling of the water in the canal which runs next to the Oswego River. The last three of seven locks are within 2 mile of each other so it makes for an easy start upriver to the Erie Canal. We were alone on the lock wall.

Steve took advantage of the sunny afternoon yesterday to dry our bedding - the last rain when we were aft end to the wind really managed to find some way to get under the door and get the mattress wet.

After a quick trip to the post office to pick up our replacement phone (thanks Wendy for sending!!) we were on our way south - up the Oswego Canal.

This river/canal system connects the Erie Canal (which runs east-west) with Lake Ontario to the north. We'll be traveling south until we come to the Erie Canal.

It's still unseasonably cool - even the trees are beginning to think it's fall :-)

The locks on the NY State system are much larger than those of the Canadian lock systems - 328 feet long and 45 feet wide. It make it easy to maneuver even with the 6 boats with which we were locking through.

Some of the locks had lines so far apart that we could use only one cable - a center line only was the only way to hang on.

Mmmm... what a great idea. Steve could just get the center line and I could, well .... not do anything :-)

It was an uneventful trip through the 6 locks until we came to the junction of the Erie Canal. Turn east and head to Brewerton - a short 10 miles and 1 lock away.

Finally about 3 pm we arrived at Brewerton - and docked just in front of Peter and Cheryl on Deja Vu and Jim and Linda on Symmetry II!

Steve had called them last night to find out where they were. Last we saw of them was at Lakefield six weeks ago.

They were headed west on the Erie Canal and we were headed east - bound to cross paths! It was good to see them again - and weird. It's like we saw them just yesterday .....

The weather continues to be wet, cold, no sun and thunderstorms rolling around. Definitely not a day to travel. Instead? A road trip!!

Jim and Linda kindly loaned us their truck for a drive to Watkin Glen and the Finger Lakes region of NY.

The only comment I will make was that it involved a lot of walking (1 1/2 miles along the Gorge Trail at the state park). Fortunately, there was a shuttle that would for a mere $3 take you from the bottom of the gorge to the top so you can just walk down the 800 some odd steps down to the bottom.

I LOVED that shuttle :-)

Cheryl kindly came along with me as Steve and Peter walked UP the gorge trail and the 800 odd steps.

The waterfalls along the way were amazing. I lost count of how many we actually saw. And of course I took lot of pictures but it really is hard to capture the beauty. Click here if you would like to see pictures folks have posted on yelp.

Eventually we met Peter and Steve coming up as we were going down. They didn't seem any worse for the wear but for my money - give me the shuttle ANY day :-)





Were we done? Of course not. There were more falls to be seen! Buttermilk Falls in Ithaca. And then Taughannock Falls just north of Ithaca - nice that we were able to drive to see it. The rain by that time was just getting downright nasty.

All in all it was a great day and a nice chance to get caught up with Peter and Cheryl.

By 10 am the next day, they were off - headed down to Oswego, north across Lake Ontario, back north on the Trent - destination: home near Midland Ontario at the southern end of Georgian Bay.




Jim was pointing the way as they headed out of the marina :-)

After an enjoyable evening with Jim and Linda last night, it was time for them to head home.

Symmetry will be stored here for the winter. Haul out was completed by noon and they were on their way back home to Edisto.

Goodbye's again. We'll see them on the waterway down south :-)

Monday August 18: Oswego, NY

We have been watching the weather closely for the past week - checking in at various websites to see what the opportunities will be to cross Lake Ontario. It will be just a bit over 60 miles of open water so we really would like to enjoy the trip!

In all of the 18,500 miles we've traveled on Yesterday's Dream and Guppy, the worst crossing of a large body of water was not the over the gulf stream to the Bahamas or over any of the large sounds of the southern states nor the overnight 22 hour crossing of the Gulf of Mexico but the 11 hour crossing of Lake Ontario in 2010! We were positioning ourselves to be able to take advantage of the predicted zero foot waves due in over the next few days :-)

So it was early yesterday after another mostly rainy evening/night that we left Spicer Bay for a short 4 mile run to Clayton, NY.

There was supposed to be a great antique boat museum there - plus we would be well positioned if it looked like there was a good time to cross Lake Ontario.

The weather has still been crazy. We would loved to have spent more time in the Thousand Islands area but more not so great weather is due in again at the end of the week. Time to move on!

We stayed at the municipal docks in Clayton which are right downtown. It's a VERY rolly dock due mostly to the number of boats out and about on the river - especially the freighters going by the dock.

It was fun to see them though. It's a relatively narrow channel that they pass through on their way up the St. Lawrence to Lake Ontario. Fortunately we saw them only from the dock!

The bikes were off pretty quickly as we were in, tied up and power hooked up by 11:30 or so. Found an ok Chinese for lunch and a Dollar Store nearby so were able to pick up a few things like paper towel and trash bags.

We also rode through the VERY touristy downtown - complete with a giant anchor and chain in front of the recently opened Hilton on the waterfront. It blended in nicely - it's great to see the efforts made for a hotel like this to blend into the surrounding town structures that have been in place for such a long time.

Another "summer home" tower could be seen on the island off of Clayton. It really surprised me how many of these homes there could be in this region.

And they do like their power boats around here!

Steve did a nice job of capturing the old wooden speedboat of the past with the new fiberglass speedboats of now. Both just out for a ride in the river near our dock.

Finally!! A sunset worthy of a picture! Actually the sun just hasn't been out much in the evening to even qualify as a sunset :-)

Again, two plans: plan A was to travel 14 miles to Cape Vincent, spend the night then leave early Tuesday and scoot across the lake.

Plan B: go when it looked good!

Plan B won out and today looked good if we left by noon. So up early and off to the Antique Boat Museum. It opened at 9 - we were there by 9:10.


What a place! The picture above right was in the "Quest for Speed" building. All sorts of primarily wooden boats from the early days of racing. What really surprised me was the water speed record of 317 mph was set in 1978 and has stood since. For more info on water speed records, click here.

The boats on display were truly amazing. And the number of them was overwhelming!

There was an in-water display also with a cute little boat named "Rebecca" :-)

Time to go. It was 11:45 until we left the museum. After a quick lunch (great miso kale soup!) we were off.

The lake was looking as flat as predicted.

Even looking back the lake was flat!

But still cold. T-shirt, long sleeved shirt, windbreaker and jeans for driving from the flybridge. Even with the top canvas down and the sun shinning it wasn't like it was warm :-)




We arrived to Oswego about 4 pm but by the time we went through the first lock (staying below the lock can be pretty rough if the wind picks up) and were tied up it was almost 5.

Just glad to be in ....

Saturday August 16: Alexandria Bay and Boldt Castle

After spending two days at Batterman's Point on Hill Island sheltered from the strong west wind and rain, we moved on early in this morning. Breakfast on the run - or not sure when.

The idea was to take advantage of any sun that was coming our way today! Steve commented that this weather has saved us a bundle on sunscreen :-)

The plan was to land at Boldt Island, check in at US Customs, tour the castle and then head to Spicer Bay for the night. More rain due in at 2 pm.

The trip was only 8 miles - half of it downstream going east, then turn and head upstream going west - against a 2 mph current at the worst of it!

The Canadian Coast Guard Cutter was settled into a bay near the water borderline. We made our best effort to look like we were not a threat :-)



Rounding the turn (having crossed the water border to the US), it was quite easy so spot the Boldt Castle.

We've been here 3 times now. I was here with my family in 1959 (thanks to my brother Historian Pat for that knowledge :-) ), my parents, kids, Steve and I in 1984 and now in 2014.

For a very nice link to the history and renovations to the castle, click here. It's really quite an amazing story but really? No one person should have that much money!!


When my family saw this place in 1959, the castle was open for "tours" which meant you could kind of just wander through what was left as it had been left open to the elements for almost 50 years at that point.

It all looked like the picture right. Plaster falling from the walls, lots of graffiti. The most vivid memory for me was the woodwork that had not yet been installed - laying around the grounds and inside still bundled - as if a worker would be in the next day to put it up.

I looked for my name on the walls but apparently my parent were not of the mind that they would let their kids write on the walls :-)

Some of the names though were quite old - like in the 30's and forward.

When we returned in 1984, the Thousand Island Bridge Authority had acquired the property in 1977 and had begun to restore the castle to it's intended magnificence. Thirty years later they continue the work. The part finished is truly amazing! The web site above shows most of the restored room.

So we get to the castle about 8 or so, circle to find the dock for private boats only to discover there is no docking until 10 am! Seems we were a bit early in our eagerness to experience the little bit of sunshine expected for the day :-)

Plan B: go to Alexandria Bay town docks (less than a mile away), check in at US Customs using the conveniently located videophone at the end of the dock, find a place for breakfast, fuel up and head back to the castle.




Seemed like that should work just fine and it actually did. I just love it when a plan B comes together :-)

We spotted a fun pirate boat along with it's little dinghy as we left the town dock. It was Pirates Week in Abay (the local slang for Alexandria Bay) - ok by us that we weren't staying there but sorry that the town has such cool not so nice weather.








Off we went to Boldt Castle - now that it was open for the day.

An amazing number of tour boats either just circle the island and/or drop visitors off - to be picked up by the tour boat company's next boat through. Some of the largest come from Gananoque on the Canadian side of the St. Lawrence.

The view of the river was of course stunning and I can only imagine what it would have been like on a warm sunny day.

The castle is furnished by some of the original furniture owned by the Boldt family - much of it donated by the Boldt heirs. Work continues - much of the fourth floor still hasn't been touched. It would seem a lifetime job.

Here is Guppy at the dock for private boats - with the Boldt boathouse in the background.

George Boldt at one point owned more than 60 boats ..... crazy.

The rain showed up at 2:00 as promised. By then we were tucked nicely into a dock at a very small family run marina on Spicer Bay just an hour west on the river.

Tomorrow: only four miles farther east to Clayton, NY.