Saturday, May 31, 2008
We're Baaaack!
Just a quick note to say...well I just said it! We're home in kingston and already having a good time. We cleared in with customs, went for a walk in the old 'hood and discovered a neighborhood bar that sells icy-cold, crunchy, delicious Steam Whistle! Such simple pleasures...
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Oswego
I confess, I am using old photos for this story! The weather has just started to get sunny, but is still cold. Frost warnings have been all over the weather stations and our duvet has been well-appreciated! So if you were to see a photo taken yesterday, you would see two people bundles up with just their eyes peeking out from under wooley caps while handing the dock-lines going through the canal! Actually, it is not that bad, I just want sympathy!
So Osgego is a pretty good place to stay waiting for the right weather to cross Lake Ontario to get to Cape Vincent, then to Kingston. We went to see a movie last night, Indiana Jones and the Crystal skull. It was a charming and entertaining way to remember the first IJ movie, but not a brilliant film in itself. Glad we had the cheap seats! While we were in Hampton, we went to see the Rolling Stones Shine a Light movie. Imax. Imagine Mick Jagger and Keith Richards on a screen the size of a large barn. I have got Mick's wrinkled face etched on my retinas! Mr. Richard's leer permanently squashed into my memory cells! I quote Side-Show Bob: Eeeaahhgg!
Anyhow, I am trying to make plans for the summer, lots we want to do.
Toodles!
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Fultonville NY on the Oswego Canal, The Home Stretch
Wow!
I can't believe we're almost back where we started! Kingston is only two long running days away! What a year! What weather! What great people we met! What a $H!#load of stuff we learned! And I am only starting to get excited now.
I have had lots of time, (too much, actually) to think about how this year really went, and I still find it hard to write about...divulge my feelings.
Maybe I can digress for a bit and tell you that the fellow that owned Chelonidae 25 years ago found us? He seems like an affable fellow, lives in Nelson BC in the summer (Antigua in the winter). He sent us some pictures along with a pretty good explanation of the name Chelonidae (Latin for green sea turtle)...it means to carry your home with you. My home. And I thought I could never own my own home!
Anyhow, we have had a couple of nibbles on her being for sale. Oh, yes, the asking price has been reduced to 16,992. (Only an accountant could come up with that figure!)
Well, that digression just didn't work! I'm still tongue tied. Suffice it to say I hope our great Whatever Comes Next offers as much freedom as cruising, but maybe a bit more social life, especially family. Go visiting more. See some of the plays and stage productions my siblings (and father-in-law!)are in/stage-managing.
So as our cruising days are numbered for now, especially if the boat sells, this blog will slowly come to an end. Maybe I will then blog about what is then going on in my life?
Stay tuned for at least a couple more postings...
I can't believe we're almost back where we started! Kingston is only two long running days away! What a year! What weather! What great people we met! What a $H!#load of stuff we learned! And I am only starting to get excited now.
I have had lots of time, (too much, actually) to think about how this year really went, and I still find it hard to write about...divulge my feelings.
Maybe I can digress for a bit and tell you that the fellow that owned Chelonidae 25 years ago found us? He seems like an affable fellow, lives in Nelson BC in the summer (Antigua in the winter). He sent us some pictures along with a pretty good explanation of the name Chelonidae (Latin for green sea turtle)...it means to carry your home with you. My home. And I thought I could never own my own home!
Anyhow, we have had a couple of nibbles on her being for sale. Oh, yes, the asking price has been reduced to 16,992. (Only an accountant could come up with that figure!)
Well, that digression just didn't work! I'm still tongue tied. Suffice it to say I hope our great Whatever Comes Next offers as much freedom as cruising, but maybe a bit more social life, especially family. Go visiting more. See some of the plays and stage productions my siblings (and father-in-law!)are in/stage-managing.
So as our cruising days are numbered for now, especially if the boat sells, this blog will slowly come to an end. Maybe I will then blog about what is then going on in my life?
Stay tuned for at least a couple more postings...
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
(Edited) Back At the Erie Canal (Everybody Down!)
Talk about your "whirlwind tour"! We are moving much faster now that the daylight hours are longer, and we find ourselves in Waterford already! All in four days we visited Manhatten, ran up past Storm King Park (just as the winds got going...again!), visited Kingston NY, unstepped the mast in Castleton and landed on the free wall here in Waterford. Whew!
We have hardly seen a bump on a log these past six months, let alone any hills, so it was a real treat to see the beautiful Hudson Valley again, with its tall trees and Catskill mountains. Deer and Canada geese with thier young families flitting about. I must offer the same excuse as last time for not taking any more photos, it was raining. (God, was it raining!) So the wee hill in this last shot will have to do.
On with the show! The first shot is of Manhatten at 5:30 am. *Yawn* Most New Yorkers will never see this aspect of thier city! Next is one of the girls, a homely tug all dolled up, tied off at the harbour entrance to Kingston NY. Then there is The Healing Arbour, an installation by a group in Kingston, Gelpaint on plexi. Click on it to see more detail. Last is the lighthouse at kingston, on the Hudson itself.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Cape May, NJ
OK, here is a pretty town! I am sorry I didn't even try to take pictures, as it was raining, so I can't show you all the over-the-top gingerbreaded wild paint beach homes mansions inns and stuff. When we pulled through here on the way down, there were so many fast fishing boats buzzing by, around, cutting us off, sending up wakes that knocked things around that were just fine at sea. Yeah, welcome to Jersy, Shmuck!
Anyhow, there was some woo-ey weather to tell about! We listened to the NOAA weather forcast, heard 20 knot winds were coming, so delayed our run to New York city. We met up with some nice folks, also heading to NY, so I jthought it would be fun to have a potluck dinner chez nous. After a day of strolling these rather pretty streets, we returned to the boat to prepare for our dinner guests, and found the seas in the anchorage! The wind was piping up! We radioed over to see if everyone was still coming, yes, they said these waves were no problem for rowing over. Closer to The Time, one boat radioed back to say the winds were even stronger now, and they didn't feel like performing a heroe's row back, especially after having drink. And right off the biggest coast guard station I have ever seen! But the single-hander, Marten, showed up, rowing his very capable sea-kayak.
During dinner, it started getting a bit bumpy, but not too much for us salty old goofs. But then it got bumpier. Then a channel marker went by. What? Yeah, we were dragging our anchor. So the three of us got our jackets on to get things back under control, and went ut on deck. Just in time for the first big gust. Sucked the air right out of my lungs!
Jim and Marten got re-anchored while I got tea ready to go with he carrot cake I made for dessert. It dragged again. They then put on The Storm Anchor, specially designed for soft mud bottoms we find around here. We moved up the anchorage, almost on the Coastiesdock, and held with no problem ths time. I was worried about Marten geting home, but off he went, even delivering some carrot cake to the shut-ins.
Meanwhile, Ji m picked up another forcast. A gale far out to sea was upgraded to a storm and plotted much closer to here. A gale brings about 30-35 kt of wind. A storm brings 50! Oh, joy!
But the storm anchor, a 50 lb danforth type, held and held. The harder Chelonidae pulled, the more it held. We sat in comfy smuggness, holding. Watching our other capable friends holding as well.
And the wind blew.
And the seas grew.
And our beautiful anchor held.
But Achates II started dragging, slowly into the shallow area. We watched Joel and Kalin try to pick up their anchor so they could re-set it, but the boat couldn't hold station. Joel then tied a buoy to the rode and (horribly) cut the anchor free. The boat regained her helm, and they headed straight for the coast guard dock. We later learned the Coasties told them they couldn't stay there, but Joel explained they had no choice, AchadesII could barely make it there, let alone try to get to some marina.
An hour or two later, we realized the wind was peaking, and were looking forward for this to over. We were very glad to be safe in an anchorage and not at sea, like during The Beaufort Leg. After going over our plan of attack in case our anchor dragged again, a plan that included Sue & Corkey's method of dealing with scary anchor situations, a method that never fails, it includes Corkey's famous command that night in Annapolis...Start the f%$*g engine, we settled into good books, lunch and so on.
Then the Big Gust gusted us with such gust-o that we got dis-gust-ed! And our anchor rode chaffed through! Bang! And it was like being launched from a rocket, but onto a muddy bank, not the nice, pretty stars. In my slippers and polar fleece, I started Mr. Perkins, the ever faithful deisel, jumped into the cockpit to drive us off the shallows while Jim put on his foul-weather gear, The rain was coming down sideways, the spray was blowing up and off the waves. (my poor hair, quie long now, is still unbrushable with dried salt). But we got off and headed, where, else, to the Coast Guard dock. It was our turn to radio in and tell them to meet us at the dock. They said thheir obligatory "No way! There is a marina across the harbour!" I replied, "gentlemen, we're comming onto your dock, I can see you there, please guide us to where we will be the most out-of-way."
To make a long story short, we remained there, tied off and being set out from the dock, not onto it, thankfully. The stories on the VHF involved other folks chaffing through anchor rodes, one poor power-catamaran lost his anchor and didn't have another and couldn't risk travelling across the harbour to get to the Coasties dock...so he drove around all night!
But today, the sun is shining, birds are singing (also wondering what the hell just happened) and there is yarn shop here to investigate. We tried to trawl the anchorage to find our anchor, but had no luck. Need another storm anchor.
Off to The Big Apple, Tah-tah for now!
Anyhow, there was some woo-ey weather to tell about! We listened to the NOAA weather forcast, heard 20 knot winds were coming, so delayed our run to New York city. We met up with some nice folks, also heading to NY, so I jthought it would be fun to have a potluck dinner chez nous. After a day of strolling these rather pretty streets, we returned to the boat to prepare for our dinner guests, and found the seas in the anchorage! The wind was piping up! We radioed over to see if everyone was still coming, yes, they said these waves were no problem for rowing over. Closer to The Time, one boat radioed back to say the winds were even stronger now, and they didn't feel like performing a heroe's row back, especially after having drink. And right off the biggest coast guard station I have ever seen! But the single-hander, Marten, showed up, rowing his very capable sea-kayak.
During dinner, it started getting a bit bumpy, but not too much for us salty old goofs. But then it got bumpier. Then a channel marker went by. What? Yeah, we were dragging our anchor. So the three of us got our jackets on to get things back under control, and went ut on deck. Just in time for the first big gust. Sucked the air right out of my lungs!
Jim and Marten got re-anchored while I got tea ready to go with he carrot cake I made for dessert. It dragged again. They then put on The Storm Anchor, specially designed for soft mud bottoms we find around here. We moved up the anchorage, almost on the Coastiesdock, and held with no problem ths time. I was worried about Marten geting home, but off he went, even delivering some carrot cake to the shut-ins.
Meanwhile, Ji m picked up another forcast. A gale far out to sea was upgraded to a storm and plotted much closer to here. A gale brings about 30-35 kt of wind. A storm brings 50! Oh, joy!
But the storm anchor, a 50 lb danforth type, held and held. The harder Chelonidae pulled, the more it held. We sat in comfy smuggness, holding. Watching our other capable friends holding as well.
And the wind blew.
And the seas grew.
And our beautiful anchor held.
But Achates II started dragging, slowly into the shallow area. We watched Joel and Kalin try to pick up their anchor so they could re-set it, but the boat couldn't hold station. Joel then tied a buoy to the rode and (horribly) cut the anchor free. The boat regained her helm, and they headed straight for the coast guard dock. We later learned the Coasties told them they couldn't stay there, but Joel explained they had no choice, AchadesII could barely make it there, let alone try to get to some marina.
An hour or two later, we realized the wind was peaking, and were looking forward for this to over. We were very glad to be safe in an anchorage and not at sea, like during The Beaufort Leg. After going over our plan of attack in case our anchor dragged again, a plan that included Sue & Corkey's method of dealing with scary anchor situations, a method that never fails, it includes Corkey's famous command that night in Annapolis...Start the f%$*g engine, we settled into good books, lunch and so on.
Then the Big Gust gusted us with such gust-o that we got dis-gust-ed! And our anchor rode chaffed through! Bang! And it was like being launched from a rocket, but onto a muddy bank, not the nice, pretty stars. In my slippers and polar fleece, I started Mr. Perkins, the ever faithful deisel, jumped into the cockpit to drive us off the shallows while Jim put on his foul-weather gear, The rain was coming down sideways, the spray was blowing up and off the waves. (my poor hair, quie long now, is still unbrushable with dried salt). But we got off and headed, where, else, to the Coast Guard dock. It was our turn to radio in and tell them to meet us at the dock. They said thheir obligatory "No way! There is a marina across the harbour!" I replied, "gentlemen, we're comming onto your dock, I can see you there, please guide us to where we will be the most out-of-way."
To make a long story short, we remained there, tied off and being set out from the dock, not onto it, thankfully. The stories on the VHF involved other folks chaffing through anchor rodes, one poor power-catamaran lost his anchor and didn't have another and couldn't risk travelling across the harbour to get to the Coasties dock...so he drove around all night!
But today, the sun is shining, birds are singing (also wondering what the hell just happened) and there is yarn shop here to investigate. We tried to trawl the anchorage to find our anchor, but had no luck. Need another storm anchor.
Off to The Big Apple, Tah-tah for now!
Monday, May 5, 2008
Back in Annapolis, MD
It's kinda cool to return to a familiar port, even more cool to see fabulous changes to an already-good thing. The city has just put finishing touches on City Dock, downtown, and hoo-ey! What a great job! The day we pulled in was the Maritime festival here, there where literally hundreds of boats on the water. It was a hazey day, so I didn't take any pictures, sorry Doug! The most fun to see was what seemed to be a dingy race, from shore to shore across the Chesapeake, there must have been two hundred dingies sailing, bobbing and cavorting, a wee white forest scuttling across the water!
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