Friday May 29 - Trenton, Ontario!

Up at 6 am and into the last lock above Lake Ontario at 7. The weather forecast appears to have held true!!

The sailboat in front of us (which tied up behind us last night) left from Cuba only 7 weeks ago! Talk about really long days ....







It was a great crossing over Lake Ontario. So calm that we opted for Plan B: travel directly from Oswego, NY to the entrance of the Murray Canal. Distance: 75 miles rather than take the longer but more protected route on the east side of the lake - which was Plan A.




The water is still quite cold: 38 degrees. I'm thinking this is what produced the light fog throughout the 3 1/2 hour run across the lake. And it definitely made the trip colder (read: jacket, sweatshirt, long sleeved shirt, jeans and a hot pad for a glove - Steve's idea :-)  )

I'm very much a fan of cruising though even though it was cool - traveling 21 mph vs. traveling 8? Hands down give me the speed :-)

There were a number of flocks of swans along the way into the Murray Canal. I don't recall ever seeing them in this area though. Maybe something new ....

We arrived at Trenton a little after noon. Time to relax a bit! Or so we thought. The upper helm ignition switch wouldn't start the engine (turned it over but no starting) so it became a pain to start the engine from the cabin and then drive from the flybridge.

Not a big deal until you start going through 7 locks a day and the engine has to be stopped and restarted at every lock. So that was my job for the afternoon. Had to be fixed before tomorrow when we will again go through 7 locks in one day.

After cleaning all connections: still no go. My only other thought was it might be the kill switch - you know. Like on a jet ski or an outboard engine. If you fall overboard, the lanyard attached to you makes the kill switch stop the engine. So let's just bypass that .... never drove with it attached anyway - it just ran to the key. Big deal - so if the key fell overboard the engine would stop??? Dumb. Besides that was the problem so now it's not :-)

Steve thought the engine blower motor didn't sound right. Too noisy. Probably the bearings in the fan.

This blower takes care of removing any gasoline fumes that might have accumulated in the engine compartment due to a fuel leak.

Definitely a safety hazard to not be working. Must also be fixed before traveling slow through 7 locks tomorrow as the blower motor runs anytime we are not cruising at speed.

Found a marina a cab ride away that had one in stock. Replaced and done.

I'm thinking stuff like this happens when a boat sits without being used. At least I'm hoping that -- no more issues please :-)