Hello to all - we hope you are having a good summer!
Wow! I can’t believe its been over a month since I did the
last update. We’ve done a lot of things and visited with many friends since
that time so here’s a quick summary as well as a few pictures.
We spent an extra day in Cape May, walking around and
enjoying this nice beach town. Its fun to see them in full operation. The next
day we had a good run with Docker’s Inn up to Atlantic City. We had planned to
anchor but the wind was building and we discovered the marina was not as pricey
as we thought so we went into the marina. We got in early and were able to
enjoy an afternoon at the pool.
The next morning, Larry and Sue met us. Jean rode back to
their house with Sue and Larry and I took the boat up to their friends Larry
and Sharon’s house. The trip through Barnegat Inlet was interesting to say the
least. There is a huge shoal in the middle and the channel snakes around for
several miles before joining the NJ ICW. The NJ ICW was as billed, lots of
shallow water. Larry had boated here for years and knew his way well however.
Docking at Larry and Sharon’s house was a bit of an
adventure, trying to fit Sun Cat and Docker’s Inn (a 47 ft Marine Trader) onto
the 80 foot dock. Fortunately one of the neighbors let us overhang his dock a
bit and it all worked out.
We spent the next 2 days playing tourist in Pt Pleasant NJ
and partying with Larry & Sue and their friends. Ken and Sharon (from
Dockers Inn) had grown up in that area so it was sort of a homecoming for them.
We really appreciated Larry and Sharon’s and Larry and Sue’s hospitality! This
was an unplanned detour but it was a fun time for all of us. The picture to the left is the boardwalk at Point Pleasant Beach.
The next day we set out under perfect conditions for the run
to NY City. The trip through the infamous Point Pleasant Canal and Manasquan
Inlet were uneventful and the run outside to Sandy Hook and up the bay and
under the Verazano Narrows Bridge was very pleasant. We anchored that evening
behind the Statue of Liberty next to a large park. It was a quiet night.
 |
| On the Hudson |
The following day was short but beautiful trip through the
Hudson Highlands (see picture to right) where we stopped at Newburg for the night. The stop there was
bittersweet however. I had spent some time there traveling with my Dad when I
was young and had fond memories of Newburg. The marina there and the park
around it were nice and there were good restaurants along the waterfront.
However, we were warned not to walk to the top of the hill behind the marina
(or past it) as it wasn’t safe to do so. We could see what looked like a
government housing project at the top of the hill and suspected we knew what
the problem started from.
Our trip the next morning started bad. Just as we left the
dock, we were hit with a large wake which threw us back into the dock. This
tore the rub rail off of the port side of the swim platform and cracked the
port exhaust pod. Once we were off the
dock, the rest of the trip was great. We stopped for the night in Catskill, a
pretty little creek with several marinas. We stayed at Catskill Marina where we
could walk to town and were able to take a (short) dip in their none too warm
pool.
Cooyman’s Landing was the next stop. This marina sits on the
river like Newburg but is protected by a breakwater. Our plan was to have the
boat hauled and leave it for a week while we visited son Steve and my mother
and brother’s family. I also wanted to assess the damage and hopefully get some
of it fixed. We had a surprise when they
tried to lift the boat however. The weight balance was all wrong with 35,000
lbs on the rear strap and 1,000 lbs on the front. They decided they did not want to risk
lifting it like this and I readily agreed since they were the experts. Therefore, the boat spent the next week in
the water and only one of the projects I wanted done (some maintenance on the
Starboard engine) was completed.
Our road trip to New England was quick and enjoyable. We had
dinner with my sister and her daughter and grandchildren on the way through
Connecticut and arrived at Steve’s about 9PM.
We were pleased to see the improvements he and Christine had made to the
house since last summer. The next day, while they were working we drove around
a little, had lunch at the yacht club, visited with our friend Dick and had
dinner with Steve & Christine at our friends, Larry and Cathy’s.
We had hoped to go out on Steve’s sailboat the following day
but it turned out very rainy so we drove down to Wells to the trolley museum
only to find it closed and then drove back along the shore route, stopping at
Ferry Beach for a short visit. The next day was cold and rainy also so we drove
up to Bath and went to the Maritime Museum, which is very interesting. The
museum is all about building large wooden ships in the 1800’s.
On Monday we drove to Cape Cod. We had a couple of days visiting with my
mother and a couple of evenings visiting with Ron & Brenda. It was a good
visit and we left Wednesday afternoon to drive back to the boat.
The next day we fueled up and headed up the Hudson, passing
through the Federal lock at Troy and stopping a Waterford for the evening. We
got there in time to walk around through both the town and the park.
 |
| The Mohawk River |
 |
| Sun Cat in a lock |
The trip up the Erie was good. Our first day’s run took us
to Amsterdam. We had planed on dinner on board but after several people asked
us if we were going to Russo’s we decided to try it. This restaurant is
apparently a well known landmark and it turned out to be both reasonable and
very good. Our next stop was Canajoharie which was a repeat from the last trip.
We walked up to the gorge and this time found the water flowing pretty well. A
number of people were bathing in it. We stopped at the local meat market and
bought some steaks that we barbequed that evening and found them to be
excellent. After another nice day and an evening at one of he locks we stopped
at Sylvan Beach on the east shore of Lake Oneida. We swam in the lake and
walked around a bit. It was Motorcycle night and over 200 cycles came for the
evening. We took a tour of the parked bikes. The good looks and variety are
amazing.
The next day we crossed the lake and went into Ess Kay yacht
yard where the boat would spend a week while we visited son Bill. We had a nice happy hour with our friends Ken
and Sharon that evening. The next day, they tried to take the boat out of the
water and were not comfortable doing so. It therefore spent the week in the
water again and I did not get to look at the props etc like I wanted to. We got
the rental car and headed south, stopping in Pennsylvania the first night and
South Carolina the second.
It was good to see son Bill. We took him out to several
restaurants and made sure his larder was stocked. We played some Mexican Train
dominos and generally caught up on his situation. We had a nice dinner with
Alan and Suzanne from Kaos and did get in the pool twice, although it rained
almost every day. South Florida had had drought conditions and it was good to
see some rain. The visit ended all too soon and we headed back north, stopping
in SC and Virginia on the way back.
We got back to Ess-Kay late Sunday afternoon 7/3 and
discovered that they were having their picnic for customers that evening with
hamburgs and hot dogs and lots of accompaniments. The town had fireworks that
night and we had a front row seat on the bow of our boat. We were pleased that
they had been able to fix the damage to the swim platform and they had had a
diver check under the boat. He replaced some of the zincs and determined that there
were some small dings in the starboard prop. We elected to leave this as is for
a while as we are headed into rock bottom country.
The next morning we turned in the rental car, did some
grocery shopping, topped off the fuel tanks and did a pump out before setting
off on a leisurely trip through one lock to the town of Phoenix where we tied
up to the free dock. It was hot so we
took a walk and found some ice cream.
The next day was another short run to Oswego. Oswego is
another town with a lot to see and do. We walked around quite a bit the day we
arrived. The next day we spent the morning at the maritime museum which also
provided a lot of information on the history of Oswego. After a good lunch with
boating friends we then spent the afternoon on a tour of the Richardson-Bates
house. This house was built in 1870 and expanded around 1890. Its owners were
significant entrepreneurs during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The house
was owned and used by the same family until it was donated to the historical
society in 1946. As a result it contained the original furniture, draperies etc
belonging to the house during that period. It was great insight into how a
wealthy family lived in that period. After supper we walked around fort Oswego
and saw a beautiful sunset over the water.
Sacket’s Harbor, NY was the next destination. We had a good
run across the lake and found the harbor very nice. We went to the visitor’s
center and saw a movie about the town and then walked to the other end of town
to see Madison Barracks, a former army post now largely converted to
residences. It looked a lot like Fort McKinley on Diamond Island, near
Portland. Sacket’s harbor was also the site of an important battle during the
war of 1812 and after supper we walked that battlefield, reading all of the explanations
of what happened as we went.
 |
| French Festival Parade |
We spent the rest of that day and part of the next partying
with Ed and Deb and their friends. It was further confirmation of our belief
the Canadians really know how to party.
The festival started off with French pastry for breakfast,
continued through a parade in the early afternoon. There were 5 or 6 bands in
the parade and they provided a concert later in the afternoon. After dark we
were treated to a very good fireworks show.
Tomorrow its off to Canada for several weeks.
Having a great time in the beautiful North Country!
Steve & Jean
