Day 49
We are back! Quite the trip…1225 miles traveled. 225 hours boat driving , 105 locks traversed. We really enjoyed ourselves over the past 7 weeks. Each day was an adventure with its own challenges. The challenges varied: mechanical issues, storms, wind, smoke, delays at locks and bridges, closed donu...
Day 48
Almost home! We started a little later in the morning so we would have the tide with us as we got to the Delaware Bay and wouldn’t have to fight the current. It worked and we gained a few knots going across the bay. Pretty much every time we’ve gone across the bay it’s been pretty miserable with 3-6...
Day 47
Cape May! Just 2 days away from our home port. We are ready to get back to our family and friends. We left Atlantic City at 8 am hoping to avoid the increasing chance of rain and winds. Our plan mostly worked but things did pick up as we neared Cape May. It is a rather monotonous trip just going alo...
Day 46
6.5 hours of traveling today. The day was slightly overcast and the winds and waves picked up as we traveled. The winds picked up to 20+ knots and waves went to 2-3 feet. The winds were again at our beam and that made it a rocky ride but not miserable. Going through the Atlantic City channel was a b...
Day 45
We are getting closer to home! We had a great travel day again today. There was a little smog over Manhattan but we had a much clearer view of the skyline and landmarks. Once out into the Atlantic seas were only about a foot and the winds hit us at our beam but it was a relatively easy trip. Once in...
Day 44
Today started off with a big disappointment. We went to the coffee /donut shop for breakfast and it was closed:( We went back to the boat and ate our usual -cereal for Kevin and a breakfast smoothie for me made of 8-9 ingredients. Eh. We got on our way about 8 am and had another glorious journey. Cl...
Day 43
A lovely day for a cruise, The only challenge was overtaking a barge and tug (which Kevin swore picked up their speed as we were overtaking it.) We did communicate with the captain of the tug but I guess he wanted to have some fun. Otherwise we had calm waters and clear skies. Once we got settled in...
Day 42
We closed the ends of our Triangle loop to Montreal today! Nature celebrated with us and gave us a beautiful, cool day to travel. We started the day traversing the last 4 locks in the Champlain canal. We contacted the lock master at Lock 4 and he said the fixed bridge between locks 3-4 had only 15.5...
Day 41
This morning we checked again with the nearest lock master and he checked the water levels, which were 17’ air clearance and we were good to go. We also checked the radar and saw a storm front coming through in the afternoon. We then made plans to tie-up to the lock wall at the base of lock 5 and be...
Day 40
We spent the morning and early afternoon at For Ticonderoga today. It is a great place to visit. Along with the fort are pretty gardens and a house that was built by the Pells, a couple who bought and restored the fort. We arrived back at the boat around 2pm and travelled to Whitehall, which is at t...
Day 39
Today was a 40 mile trip to Fort Ticonderoga. We meandered through the lake at a leisurely pace and enjoyed the scenery through light rain, must and cloudy skies. We dropped anchor a dingy ride away from the nearby ferry dock. We had a nice calm evening.
Day 38
Today we journeyed to Burlington VT. When we started out of our little cove, we got a little knocked about with 2-4’ waves. The sailboats were all on keel and buzzing about. As we got closer to the marina, the winds died down some. The beginning of our stay at the Burlington Marina was filled with t...
Days 36 & 37
Day 36 Today we passed into the US! Getting through Customs took about 1.5 hours. You arrive at an unmanned station and check in using an I-pad affixed to the wall of a 6x8’ ply-wood structure. The spiders had decided it was a nice home and webs festooned the shack and the only light was from a semi...
Days 35
We tried to be first in line for the rest of the Chambly locks (5) and failed to notify the lock master at lock 4 that we were on our way to him. We were reprimanded for not following protocol (all the other locks followed the first come - first served routine.) We were forgiven and we were let in f...
Day 34
A 9 hour day today going rather slowly on the Richelieu River. The River isn’t that wide and there are lots of houses/marinas/ferries along the way and we can’t really go over 6 knots, so as not to leave a big wake. The weather was rainy off and on but no downpours. The skies were quite dramatic. We...
Day 33
Weather wasn’t looking good today so we opted for a shorter day. We traveled 40 miles in 3.5 hours. We made good time because the Saint Lawrence River’s rapid current was with us. As we progressed along the way the coast guard was issuing squall warnings but we arrived at our marina about an hour be...
Days30-32
Day 30- started off rainy and then cleared up some but there was smoke in the air. After about 2 hours of travel we entered the Saint Lawrence Seaway and went through two locks. I had some trepidation about this part of the trip because of some videos I saw and hearing a horror story of boats being...
Day 29
Got an early start to be able to get through the 2 locks we needed to go through today. The first lock had a 65 foot drop but it was easy breezy because this lock and the following one had floating docks in them. You entered the lock and the lock tender took your lines and attached them to the cleat...
Day 28
Ottawa’s flight of 8 locks today. We got up early to be first in line to go down the locks. At 9am the lockmaster came and told us they were taking the boats up that were at the bottom of the lock first and we had to wait 2 hours. We went out in search of pastries for Kevin, saw a little more of the...
Days 25 -27
Day 25 Our trip to Ottawa was pretty uneventful. A little rain to start and we had to go slow a good part of the way because there was a lot of houses on either side of the banks and we couldn’t leave a wake. The houses also got bigger and closer together as we neared the city. We stayed at a lock t...
Day 24
It was a gorgeous day for a 8.5h/30mile/11 lock day. We still did well with our engine problems so hopefully it will be the same tomorrow. We had a fair amount of waiting at locks and for bridges to open but that’s all part of the experience. I was able to get off the boat and explore Merreckiville...
Day 23
We left hoping all of our technical issues were taken care of. They seem to be fine. The engine didn’t overheat and the batteries charged along the way. Fingers crossed that it stays the same. We traveled about 4.5h/24 miles/ 3 locks. We moored at Smith Falls at around 1pm. We tried to bike on a con...
Day 22
Spent a lot of time today ordering a replacement alternator as well as conferring with mechanics as to the possibility of running the engine without the alternator. We got conflicting advice about running the engine without the alternator. One mechanic said the water cooler wouldn’t work and the eng...
Days 19-21
Our second day was 7 locks/6.5 hours/21 miles. We did pretty good time wise because we had to wait an hour for a swing bridge to open and 40 min. For the fist locks, which was a flight of 4 locks. Our travels took us through some very pretty areas and narrow channels. The coast line and pine treed i...
Day 18
We began the Rideau Canal today. I’ve posted a few photos of its history in the photos. The canal is supposed to be one of the highlights of our trip, with lots of beauty and quaint towns. It is 125 miles and has 46 locks. Many of the locks are step locks, where you go from one chamber immediately t...
Days 16&17
We are in Canada! We had a delightful trip across Lake Ontario. Clear skies and calm seas throughout our voyage. We are settled into the Kingston Municipal Marina. Clearing customs was a breeze. It was just a short phone call. After clearing customs we spent a bit of time contacting the Canadian Par...
Day 15
Today we arrived at the shore of Lake Ontario! We started out the day getting fuel (400 gallons) and then proceeded to traverse 8 locks. It was pretty uneventful except for some pretty heavy rains at one point. We arrived around 5pm but needed to stretch our legs so we hopped on our bikes and went a...
Day 14
Today was a day. We left the lock, traversed Oneida Lake and entered the Erie Canal again. It was a short trip, uneventful and we docked in Brewerton at 11:30am. A storm was supposed to hit Brewerton at 1 pm but as of 7:20pm, only light rain has fallen. The big highlight of the day was taking an Ube...
Day 13
What started out to be a long day was curtailed because of storms coming through. We did accomplish going through 8 locks. It took longer than we estimated because there was a bit more traffic today and we had to wait about 25-40 minutes to get into locks. There were also a lot of “no wake” areas an...
Day 12
Today was a fun filled day with about 9 hours of travel. We saw rowers, eagles and went through 9 locks. While going through one of the locks we were joined by the same canoeists that we had in the locks with us the day before. There were 4 canoeists in 2 canoes. It turns out they are on a 700+mile...
Day 11
A new, yet old, adventure today. Locks! We left New Baltimore at 8 and proceeded to the Erie Canal. We have been having charting software difficulties lately and we’re using a work around to chart our course. It did the trick but we had to be super diligent looking at the chart to make sure we had e...
Day 10
Today was a good one. There was very little boat traffic. Aside from a few scullers and their launch, tugs with tows and one lone tug, we didn’t run into any other traffic. And up until 7 minutes before docking p, we had overcast or clear skies. Then the wind picked up and there was rain. We are in...
Day 9
Traveling in the Hudson is so relaxing as compared to being out in the Atlantic. Even with rainy weather the water is relatively calm. Today’s voyage was pretty much the same as far as what we’ve been experiencing as of late: overcast, rain, overcast rain. We got to see a few landmarks along the way...
Day 8
It was a wise decision to stay an extra day here. There were quite a few thunderstorms with high winds today. We were able to time our activities so that we mostly missed being caught in the rain. Our day went like this: Boat cleaning during the morning before and after T-storm, bike ride in the aft...
Day 7
Today was great. Sunshine, calm seas and gentle winds. Going through NYC is always an exciting experience. Boat traffic wasn’t bad today and there were new architectural additions to the shoreline:) As we traveled further up the Hudson, a thunderstorm skirted around us but we experienced only rain a...
Day 6
Fog was the theme of the day - until we reached Belmar NJ. Our 6 hour passage was relatively smooth with light wind and low waves but large swells that continually rocked the boat. With the continual rocking and fog bank all around us, it felt like we were in some type of hypnotic experiment. We enc...
Day 5
The morning started off with a bang. A storm front went through early morning with thunder and heavy rains. By 9 Am we saw blue skies and set sail. The voyage was pretty easy with 10-14 mph winds and 2-3 ft. waves. We did have a few highlights. We saw a shark, a jumping fish and a couple of dolphins...
Days 3 &4
The weather may have curtailed our progress but we had a fun time taking advantage of all there is to do in Cape May. We walked about 5 miles a day, visited the beaches, explored a lot of streets we hadn’t visited on previous trips, shopped, had a tour of an old mansion and despite windy and somewha...
Day 2
We had a bit of a challenging day today. The day started off overcast and a bit windy, while we were in the C&D Canal. Once we got into the Delaware Bay … the winds got up to 30mph, waves 3+ ft , our high water alarm went off about a half hour out of Cape May (everything OK) and it took 3 tries to g...
Day 1
Great start to our adventure! Weather was warm and seas were calm. Right off the bat we saw 2 dolphins and a few miles past the Bay Bridge, I saw about 6 sharks (a shiver) having a little feeding frenzy! Unfortunately, I was navigating and Kevin was below -so no photos:) As we traveled along the C&D...