More than 15 Miles on the Erie Canal - Troy to Brewerton

Wednesday, May 25

We arrived at the Troy city docks late in the day and found lots of other boats there, all waiting for the Champlain and the Erie Canals to open.  The canals have been closed due to very high water and debris.  We heard that the Erie was now open but not the Champlain...lucky for us and unlucky for lots of the others waiting, like this one parked ahead of us.

Unusual name but the boat did look like a Dr.Who baddie

We stayed over an extra day here to unstep our radar mast for the lower bridge clearances ahead.  We also stocked up on our supply of engine oil and bought two big round orange bumpers for the upcoming locks.  Our others were pretty wimpy and we didn't want to have to worry every moment. We look like real 'loopers' now...the Belle even has the distinctive looper 'mustache' which is a yellowish discoloration on the bow where the muddy waters of the ICW stain the paint.

Our mustache doesn't show up very well

NOT our boat but an example of a well developed mustache

We walked around a bit and found an Italian bakery with good bread and biscotti.  I made some spaghetti sauce and we had a good meal.


Friday, May 27

A year ago today we lost Dave O'Donnell and I dedicated my boating day to him.  He would have loved this trip except for the lack of doggies aboard and I'm not sure we could have stocked enough beer for both he and Kerm...

Departed Troy docks at 7:09 and were a little nervous because we'd heard Lock #1 on the Erie was a difficult one in terms of controlling your boat, etc.  Turned out we had no trouble at all.  At Lock #2 we purchased our ten day pass for $37.50 (not bad for so much water being pushed around all over the place). The rest of the day was busy going from lock to lock and by 4:30 we had reached the top of Lock #11.  We had traveled 36.8 n miles in ten hours...so this locking stuff kills your average speed!!!

One of the nice things about these canals is that you can spend the night tied up to the walls above the locks for free.  Here's where we spent our first night...

Lock #11 looking very calm

After we got all tied up, I went across the road looking for a convenience store so I could buy some ice.  Instead, I found a cute little tavern complete with fellow boaters.  Swapped stories for a while, had a Jameson for Dave and then asked the bartender if I could have some ice...he said sure and turned around to fill a cup for me...I whipped out my insulated backpack and said  No, no could you fill this up??  Everyone laughed and I left with my ice...I tipped the bartender, don't worry.


Saturday, May 28

Sunny and humid today and we left early.  At Lock #12 we were held up for an hour and a half because the lockmaster had to drive some other lockmasters to their appointed spots.  We're in no hurry, so no worries.   


We called it a day early because our Waterway Guide said St.Johnsville had a hardware store.  Kerm is concerned about a possible fuel injector leak.  Landed at the town dock at 2:10 after traveling 26.1 nautical miles.  We walked into town and there was the hardware store...closed and looking decidedly decrepit.  Oh, well.

Here's where we stayed...

Bernie, the dockmaster, was kind of crippled up so I didn't have the heart to ask him to come outside for a photo op

We were the only boat here but the campground had lots of RV occupants

Hey, Linda.  Can you launch a boat on the St Croix for two bucks on a holiday weekend????

 I did a load of laundry for entertainment and picked up a new book at the laundry/library.
Went to  bed early...no nightlife in St.Johnsville.


Sunday May 29

Departed at 9:50, very late for us...lazy Sunday morning.

Cute little decorative lighthouse on the way out of the marina

We cleared Lock #16 at 10:25 and went through Little Falls.  It was the cutest town.  I forgot to take any pictures because I was so busy looking around.  Kerm and I wished we had spent the night there rather than with Bernie but ....

We pressed ahead and at Lock #17 there was a big debris field floating in front of the lock gates.  Now, we had been dodging logs and junk for days but this was a huge pile of crud. There wasn't much we could do so we powered up and then coasted through it.  After we were committed, I saw a monstrous log in our path but it was too late to do anything about it.  There was banging and some scraping and then the dang thing popped out behind the back of the boat...horrible.  No damage, thank God, but it sounded awful.  No pictures of this either since I was too busy gulping and praying.

Further on we ran into another looper we'd met at Isle of Hope, Bob on Dreamquest.  We followed him and dodged debris together for the rest of the day.  At 6:30 we pulled up to a landing in Rome that was supposed to have shore power and water...it had neither and all the trash barrels were overflowing.  There were people all over fishing and drinking and I will admit to a little trepidation about our surroundings but it was too late to move elsewhere.  Sometimes you just have to adapt...and lock the doors when you go to bed at night.  There are no pictures of this place because neither Warren not I disembarked.  Use your imagination.

It was humid and hard to get to sleep but big thunderstorms woke me up in the middle of the night and cooled things off.

By the way, I figured out why we may be getting some bum information from the Waterway Guide...Edition 2007....DUH.

Lehman paranoia

The fuel leak or mist or what have you has got me a bit paranoid.  We probably should have gone all the way to Lake Ontario today but # 4 fuel pipe is still misting when I'm not looking.  I think.  If I move the hard tube in the ferrule it seems to, well, move.  And that ain't right. 

So perfect weather on Ontario and here we sit at the west end of Oneida at a marina where I have to figure out what to do next.  And, and we have got a perfect weather window for Lake Ontario tomorrow which will not open again until Friday.

I'm going to order parts tomorrow (probably) and hope that they will be here Thursday and then off to Canada, eh. If not, I will have them sent to my sister Mary who will be up here in the next week or two.  Soooo,  do I roll the dice or play the sure thing... 

Here in lies the problem.  All the books said that I should have carried a set of injector pipes for the Lehman diesel on a long trip.  So, what do I do,  I look for leaks every day at the injector pipes.  And of course,  being the cheap bugger I am,  I don't buy the pipes and instead drive my self  NUTS LOOKING FOR LEAKS EVERY DAY.  My brother Greg would say that if I didn't look there wouldn't be leaks.  Ignorance is bliss.  Sometimes Kermit, can't you just leave it alone... and have some fun.

Kerm






Nice marina tho,  cheapest yet,  our city car at no cost is a Mercedes.  Fancy. 

2K yea

I forgot.  We passed the 2000 statute mile mark a couple of days ago.  2072 to be precise. 
Kerm and Chris

Saint Jamesville, NY

 Kerm here,

The Hudson and Mohawk rivers and the Erie Canal are beautiful beyond description . It's just too bad that most city and town areas on the river a so depressed.  100's of millions of square feet +++ are vacant with broken windows and obvious signs that they have been abandoned for quite awhile.   The towns we stopped in are equally depressed with most stores boarded or just plain abandoned.  We in the mid-west have NO idea of how broken things are in many parts of the country.  I have my opinions but this blog ain't about that.  I just thought it's a situation that we all might think about...

I can drive for hours and hours and seldom get bored as I'm always curious about what's around the next bend . But I'm not sure I would like to do the trip several times as many of the people we have met have done.  There are other adventures, plus the same adventure over and over are not adventures.

We miss Linda.  She was a great crew, helmsMAN and guest. 

Sister Mary and Cecil are coming next for the Trent / Severn.  We are looking forward to it. 

The boat is running well but there is a new oil leak in one of the oil cooler hoses.  It's a JIC swivel with an internal o-ring and apparently the ring is going bad.  At some point we are going to have to sit still long enough to have some new hoses made up by a hydraulics shop.  I never liked this type of fitting although #88 (my old race car) has at least 6 of them that I always worried about.  Sorry Greg, it's your problem now.  If we ever put the 'Belle' on the hard for any length of time there will be a lot of refitting with updated hardware.  When I go to bed at night I think about a new modern diesel with all new hoses, electronics, etc. 

15 locks over the last 2 days and we're doing better and better.  We seem to have the process down but tomorrow will be the big test as we will have a port tie for the first time.  Belle does not like port ties as regardless of where the rudder is it will not pull the back to the left when you hit reverse.  Also, I can't see spit from my starboard steering location plus I'll have to run half way around the boat to grab the stern line when we are near the wall.  We did this routine once before on Lake Okeechobee and it was a disaster as we left some teak splinters on the incoming lock door.  Chris was going to try to push off and I said with a loud,  no very loud voice something like don't touch the xxxxxxxx wall.  No I screamed it.  Anyway, hopefully tomorrow will go better.

So here we are for 4 hours at the small town marina on the beautiful Mowhawk and the only boat we have seen was a mondo SeaRay in for diesel.  The St. Croix it ain't.  By the way, the SeaRay had twins plus bow and stern thrusters and still had a difficult time getting into the easy peasy gas dock.  We did nail the most difficult spot in the marina when we came in I might add.  Yes, yes sometimes you get lucky.  Where is everybody?

Kerm

Newburgh to Troy

Wednesday, May 25
Time to leave Newburgh.  Linda is back in Minnesota.  Back to Kerm, me and Warren on the Southern Belle.  Any other takers for an adventure??  Qualifications = ability to share a very small space with two nutty people and one plastic parrot,  willingness to respond to whimsical changes in plans, immunity to missed meals, crumby weather and very early morning wake up calls...also HUGE amounts of fun.

Riverfront Marina in Newburgh

Warren ready to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the Hudson River

This is a rare "log fish" that washed up on the dock.

Warren and the 'Log Fish" got along famously

We left the marina at 6:25am,  hoping to make Albany or Troy.  The weather is what Dan calls 'severe clear', not a cloud in the sky.  By 8:07am  we were passing by Poughkeepsie, with the campus of Vassar College looking very lush.  The Catskill Mountains, around Kingston, were beautiful, reminding me of the Scottish Highlands.

Much to our amazement we spotted a PIRATE ship coming towards us at about noon.  Pictures show I'm not making this up...

'Thar be pirates!!'

By 1:30pm, we had passed under the Rip Van Winkle Bridge.

This part of the Hudson has some of the most wonderful lighthouses...

Our Favorite!!!

After a long but enjoyable day we pulled into Troy City Dock.  When I called the dockmaster earlier in the day to see if there was room for us he asked when we would arrive...I said I wasn't sure since the tide was against us...he said "I know trawlers are crawlers".  Kerm and I were thoroughly amused...That's our new motto!!

We plan to spend a day in Troy taking down our little mast and gearing up for the Erie Canal.

New adventures in the upcoming miles...locks and free mooring??!!  Very cool.

New York, New York

Monday, May 23

Linda and I went across the river to Beacon and caught a train to New York City, leaving Kerm to do maintenance chores.  The train went directly to Grand Central so it was very convenient.  We planned to sightsee, stay overnight and then get Linda to the airport on Tuesday and I would take the train back up to Beacon/Newburgh.
In the train I noticed this funny sight...

Linda was sitting below a poster about the End of the World...which was supposed to happen the day before...too silly

(Warren is a little deflated, to facilitate travel) but he wanted in on this picture...oh, the irony.

Linda and I walked all over New York and used the subway to see so much;  Grand Central, Carnegie Hall, Central Park, Ground Zero, Little Italy, Chinatown, The Bowery, Empire State Building, Times Square.  We were exhausted but glad to have crammed so much in so short a time.

The next morning I waved goodbye as Linda's bus took off to LaGuardia Airport.  Linda... we said it before but will repeat...you are welcome on the Belle anytime!!

I had some time before my train back north so I wandered around some more...

Warren in Times Square

Times Square  You can see the ball that drops on New Year's Eve if you look carefully

New York Public Library Lion

I also sat in Bryant Park and had a coffee, walked around Park Ave up by Museum Mile and had a hot dog from a street vendor by Grand Central before I jumped on the train.  Soooo much fun. 

On the way back I had great views of Sing Sing Prison, West Point and the Hudson Valley...the train ride is awesome.  Then I took a little ferry from Beacon across to Newburgh.   I saw my captain waxing the Belle from afar...a beautiful sight! 

From Cape May to Newburgh, NY on the Hudson River

Chris here

We have to back up a bit...

Friday, May 20   Cape May, NJ

After a week waiting for decent weather we left Utsch's Marina on Friday at 5:18am in the company of five other craft heading north.  Before we leave, however we must share a picture of Wayne, the friendly dockmaster.

Wayne was a good sport

 
Cape May Inlet had about 4-6 foot swell  but we were expecting it to be a little bumpy as leftovers from the earlier bad weather.   We were bundled up so no one got cold.  Linda and I gave our new jackets a good test out.  As we left the inlet we were wished fair seas by several dolphins...always a good sign.

The Belle was not making wonderful time due to the waves and the weather was starting to deteriorate so we decided to split our trip up to Sandy Hook into two legs.   We ducked into Absecon Inlet at 11:01 and arrived at Sen Farley State Marina in front of the old Trump Casino at 12:00. 

No good signs at this marina because Trump has sold it and it's under refurbishment.

  Linda and Kerm took a nap but I crossed the street to the casino and quickly lost $20 on the slot machines...napping would have been much more productive.   We all went to Harrah's a little later and Linda won on the Roulette wheel!  Rain, thunder and lightning came along and we were glad we had made the decision to call it a day.


Saturday, May 21

We woke up early to get a good start and were back on the North Atlantic by 5:30am.  The weather was much better and we sighted lots of dolphins so we knew it would be a good day.

Linda enjoying the North Atlantic

Kerm enjoying the North Atlantic

We were all impressed with the miles and miles of sandy beaches we observed as we skirted the New Jersey coast line.  Now we understand why people vacation on the 'Jersey Shore'.  Linda drove for lots of the day but once when I was at the wheel I think I saw a shark.  Black fin and a grizzly looking mouth.  

We put on 85.6 miles in a 13.7 hour day so we were glad to see Old Orchard Shoal Lighthouse off Staten Island at 6:02. We docked at Nichols Great Kills Marina at 6:33pm, happy to have made it through the inlet at Sandy Hook which was pretty rough.. 

Old Orchard Shoal Lighthouse

Warren watching a pretty sunset on Staten Island

Linda treated us to a Pizza delivered from "Big Al's " and it was piled high with good veggies and meats...the whole works except for fruit and fishies.  We wondered if the guy would ever get to us...we were starving and called several times to make sure he had not forgotten us.

The engine was running a little hotter than normal so Linda and I thought we were going to stay over for a little maintenance but...

Sunday, May 22

Linda and I woke up to the sound of Frank Sinatra singing "New York, New York" via Kerm's computer.  The captain threw us a curve ball and said we were leaving right away...Linda said from her berth..."I wish I'd known that before three drinks last night".   I agreed but figured a first mate should just hush up and get dressed.

Linda and Warren greeting the day

Warren proving we actually were in Staten Island, this marina was pretty ghetto so no signs

The anxious captain...New York or Bust

  By 8:00 am we had cleared the Old Orchard Lighthouse again and entered New York's Lower Harbor.  Unfortunately, the weather was drizzle and a light mist, the seas were rough and we were dodging big container ships.  A little hairy!!!!

Warren looking at the rear end of a tanker we had just ducked behind

We also saw a tall ship  called "Gazela", complete with sailors in the yardarms.

Verrazano Narrows Bridge  cleared at 9:14

Misty Manhattan Skyline

Linda and Lady Liberty

The Statue of Liberty and the Staten Island Ferry

We waved at her for all of you

George Washington Bridge cleared at 11:53

We kept on going north into the Hudson River and went past Sing Sing Penitentiary and West Point. By this time, the river was calm and we picked up a good push from the tides so we made it all the way to Newburgh by 5.20 and landed at the RiverFront Marina with a minimum of fuss.  What an exciting day for all of us.  We celebrated at Billy Jo's Ribworks Restaurant which was right next to the marina.

The Hudson River

 Kerm here,

We're at Newburgh, NY on the Hudson and headed for Troy.  NY is beautiful on the Hudson and every mid-westerner should come here at least once in a lifetime.  Chris and Linda went to NYC yesterday and Linda took off for MSP sometime today.  We, I, will miss her as she is a very good helmsman.  Ya, ya, perhaps a helmsperson.  Jeez, I'm a 50's guy and mailman,  garbageman,  and stewardess all make sense to me.  God help us all when a captain is called a cap-person.  I give up...
We are headed north tomorrow and my personal goal is Troy but we'll see what happens. 
Worked on the boat yesterday and today and the list seems to be getting smaller unlike the head gasket oil leak.  I'm keeping an eye on it and hope that it's just one of those Lehman things. 

Chris here,

Here's what Kerm was talking about...the Hudson is beautiful.

I am worn out from two days of touring NYC on foot, first with Linda and then by myself after she had to go to the airport.

It was wonderful to have Linda with us, she was great crew and good-natured company.  She's welcome back and wants to know when more "really good stuff "is coming up.  Kerm says "It's all good".

I'm too pooped to cover the last couple of days so I'll close now and blog more thoroughly tomorrow.

Until then, Southren Bell Crew signing off...

Last night in Cape May (we hope)

 Chris here.  7:00pm Thursday

All is set for an early morning departure.  Kerm installed a new windshield wiper, Linda and I cleaned and polished...the bike is folded and stowed, provisions are all put away in their proper place. We are all anxious to get going. There will be a lot of boats leaving tomorrow...we hope to be one of the first.

Here are some pictures from our last day here at Utsch's Marina....

Linda and Warren on the front deck

Bubba, the marina cat, was not initially very fond of Warren

 

 

 

Warren's winning ways overcame Bubba's trepidation

Many marina's have little lending libraries .  Warren is looking over the titles

In the nice clean bathrooms at Utsch's 

Warren is enjoying the women's lounge area....WARREN, git outta there!!!

Will turn on the SPOT tomorrow so you can follow our progress.

Love to all....
Christie