Lake Ontario Crossing. Oswego to Henderson Bay to Cape Vincent

Dave started the blog last night and asked me to add my "creative" touch! Hah! Today is the big day- we travel into Canada.... and lose our data! Seriously though, we are very excited- so much so that I sat and stared at Canada all last evening- Wolf Island is directly across from the wall we are tied up to in Cape Vincent, NY.
Just an FYI- we will be able to receive unlimited texts on our phones but only have 100 texts to send/ share and get this- 100 mgb of data! I want to look for a burner phone for data when we get there- Dave isn't sold on the idea yet!
We left Oswego on Wednesday and not 30 minutes on Lake Ontario we were pulled along side by the Coast Guard wanting to come aboard and do an inspection. They were training new coasties and I thought of Drew Smialek who completed basic training in Cape May last October. They were extremely polite young men and managed to get my wool rug dirty with their boots and scratch the floor with the engine room hatch. No worries though- nothing we could have done about it!
We anchored out in beautiful Henderson Bay that evening and listened to the light rain all night. Thank heavens we no longer have to worry about the amount of rain that is falling as we are out of the Erie Canal. I hope we won't have problems with water height when traversing the Trent Severn Canal!
Now for full disclosure- the pictures below are always Dave's selections. He sets up the blog pictures and I just write the captions. Although last night he even wrote the captions! I think he is enjoying blogging as much as I do! I wish Jen Sturge could see/read me now!
We are meeting up with our friends Jimmy and Roz Kellum today in Gananoque and hopefully going to Boldt Castle and Singer Castle tomorrow. Gananoque is supposed to have a front go through this afternoon with heavy rains and high winds- so I will be grateful we are tied up safely at a dock. On Monday we leave for Picton, ON and then land in Trenton on Tuesday where we will pick up our great friends Jo Ann and Robbie to cruise with us for a week! Very excited to have cruising company- especially in the locks!
Well this is it until we get some data along the way! Take care and please do not hesitate to text us! :-)

Breakfast of champions! Another "cookie" experiment that was successful!

This was on a hotel in Oswego. We love the passage.
 
 Heading out onto Lake Ontario
  
Lots of big rocks on those barges. The train tracks ran right next to the docks.

 

We went through the last lock with a 42' Grand Banks MY. They promptly left us in the dust with there 15+ knot cruising speed.

Oswego Light House

  

  

The Nine Mile cooling tower can be seen from 30 miles across Lake Ontario.

Oh look honey, we have company. These guys didn't even hail us on the radio. They just came up, surprised us and talked to us from the side of the boat.

 

They told us to slow and we went to idle speed. They then came along side and ran with us to let the two Coasties board. The guy with his hand on the hand rail decided to be macho and come over the rail. The trainee was smart and used the swim platform.

Henderson Bay anchorage

Beautiful waterfront at Henderson Bay, NY

Lots of grass on the anchor at Henderson Bay. Bets is at the helm keeping us safe.

Light house into Cape Vincent- one of my favorites so far!

Ontario Hydro wind farm on Wolf Island. When we arrived the windmills were all stopped. They must not need the power. Later that afternoon they started back up.

NY Department of Environment Conservation. This building was built in the 1800. It is now the office for NY DEC. On  the first level is an aquarium. The building wall are three feet thick on the first floor and step in six inches for each floor. That fourth floor wall are still one foot think.

This ain't the Chesapeake Bay! Here at the dock the water is eight feet deep and crystal clear to the bottom.

I could so see myself living in this town. Quaint and very friendly people. However, it started snowing on Halloween this year and did not stop until end of April! They still had ice floes until May!

The sunset was so incredible last night. The reflection was so intense it looked like the windows were on fire!

A small car ferry running between Cape Vincent and Canada.

The little guy is a Mink. He was rolling around on the dock ramp preening himself having a good old time. In the second picture he sees a boat coming in. He then quickly scampered away.

Waterfront for sale! This house is beautiful! Too bad it comes with winter!

One of the tall ships that came in last evening as part of their War of 1812 reenactment. The village green is full of tents and "soldiers"!

Good bye for now- Dave and Betsy

6-24-2015 Lock E23 and Lock O1-O7 Brewerton to Oswego

So we have been at Ess Kay Yards in Brewerton for eight days. We came with the intention of repairing a bent prop that we whacked in Lock 9. The day we arrived they shut down the canal to Oswego due to high water and the need to reposition channel marker and remove debris.We took the opportunity to rent a car and drive home for fathers day. It was a fun diversion from the trip.  Well they re-opened the canal yesterday but the winds were 20 mph and we didn't want to attempt the locks in those conditions. Today we left at 0630 with a few other boats to hit the 0700 opening of Lock 23.We entered the first lock with five other power boats and a sail boat. On our exit all but one power boat left us in the dust. I guess they didn't get the memo that all traffic was to travel a 5 mph to reduce wakes and minimize debris from coming off the banks. So they hit the next lock and didn't wait for us. It was actually good for us. We ended up travelling with one other power boat and two sail boats. It made the locks easier. It was a good trip to Oswego. The locks were in good shape although locking down towards Lake Ontario isn't as easy as locking up. It really tuff getting the lock line and cables due to Fryedazes high free board. In Lock 7 we put the boat side ways in the lock due to wind. Luckily the guys in the sail boat got off their boat and saved our butts. We finally stopped at a nice park wall between Lock 7 and 8. We will head out tomorrow for Lock 8 and then cross lake Ontario for the Thousand Island.

Its 100 in Maryland but not so much in NY. Nanook has her warm cloths on.

The Oswego river is ripping through the down side of the dam. We are snug as a bug in the canal water above.

Park between Lock 7&8

Bets locking down with the boat sliding down a single cable

Here are our sail boat friends for the day. The guy on the left is by himself and is very good at managing the locks. He does better than the two of us. In the background you can see the lock doors don't always seal too well.

Door opening after lock down.

Phoenix Lock waiting for the Lock master to turn the lock around. Our original group raced through and beat us to the lock.

In Phoenix the lock master opens that yellow car bridge just prior to opening the lock doors to let us out.

Typical Lock and Dam arrangement.

Utica, Sylvan Beach and Ess Kay Yard Brewerton. Locks 18-22 ALL STOP! dlf

A lot has happened in the last week. We continue to enjoy the canal and the beautiful scenery as we head west. Our cruising speed is about 8 mph, which is about 1200 rpm due to the bent prop. We considered running on one engine between locks but decided that the vibration wasn't bad enough to tear things up. From Little Falls we headed Utica and tied up on a nice wall at the Aqua Vino restaurant. The power post was a challenge because the 50 amp receptacle only had on leg that worked. We had to run a 50 amp and a 30 amp cable to hot up both sides of the system. We got there early because we only ran 20 miles from Little Falls. Shortly after we arrived, Cindy and Randy on "I Think I Can" tied up. We hooked up with them and went to the Saranac Brewing company for a tour and a few barley pops. The cool thing was the hostess at the restaurant insisted that we use her car, now how nice was that! The tour was great and the beers were better. Bets and I ate at Aqua Vino for dinner. A little too pricey and average food.
  In the morning we headed for Sylvan Beach at the entrance to Lake Oneida. The trip went well and we locked through the locks with I Think I Can. There was a lot of debris in the canal due to the high water and it required a closer eye on the water to ensure we didn't whack any thing. When we hit Sylvan Beach we thought there was a boat parade. It had started to rain and all the boats were coming off the lake at once and heading into port. There must have been 50+ boats pass in 30 minutes. Sylvan beach is a cool lake front town with lots of free wall space for tie up and a neat old 1950s vintage amusement part. The place is old, worn and in need of updates but there were kids everywhere enjoying the place.
  The next morning we headed out early across Lake Oneida alone and anxious to see what the prop and shafts looked like. The lake is 20 miles long and 5 miles wide. No big deal for the seasoned Chesapeake Bay cruising Fryedaze team. We arrived at Ess Kay Yard before noon and filled up with 220 gal of fuel. Cheapest fuel around at $2.89/gal. With in an hour they had us up in the lift slings and the bent prop was visible. Before they even pulled us Bets headed to Enterprise for a car. When she got back the props were off and  we took the props to a prop shop 75 miles away in Canandaigua NY.
  On  Monday when we got to Ess Kay we received a Canal system alert email that the canal would be closed to Oswego for a week due to high water and debris. We decided we would head for Pa the next day. The next morning we were ready to go and Bets said she heard the bilge pump run. That did not make sense, we were out of the water. I looked in the bilge and saw fuel on top of the little bit of water. After some quick inspections and absorbents to abate the flow to the bilge I discovered that the fuel was leaking out the top of the port tank. It was in the drops per minute range and manageable for a while so Bets and I vacuumed out the bilge and I got the yard to level the boat so the fuel would no longer come out the top of the tank. The boat had been set on the blocks with the bow up about 5". This put fuel in the back side of the top of the tank. I figure the holes had been there for years and were just never challenged. The trip home was delayed a day. We spent the rest of the day determining the extent of the rust on the top of the tank, then degeasing, wire brushing and acetone cleaning in preps for a temporary fix. The next morning we were up early and applied about 1/2 quart of Marine Tex epoxy to an 8"x12" area of the tank at the fill and vent ports. It went well but was very messy and most of it was done by feel because the area has little accessibility.
 I'm pretty sure the repair will last a long time, but a tank replacement is in our future. After gooping up the tank we headed for PA at 1045 and arrive at 1630. Nice ride home and it was great to see the look on Mom and Dads face when we walked in and surprised them.
  Despite the fun challenges, we are still having a blast. We will return to the boat Saturday and pray it doesn't rain and result in more delays. You can tell I (Dave) made this post. It lacks all the social interactions and the names of the great people we met. I will get Betsy back on duty for the next posts:-)

More guard gates. They are used for maintenance and to protect the canal from flooding. Not sure if OSHA approves the transit under a suspended load. They are lifted with cable and chains.

We saw a few of these

The wall at Aqua Vino in Utica. We made sure we pulled up past the outside tables. It would be weird sitting on the boat in the evening looking down on the folks as they ate.

This was a neat perspective as we entered this lock. The train bridge is LOW and had a train on it passing slowly. The east side lock doors are open awaiting our arrival.

Saranac brew tour

We met Randy and Cindy in Chesapeake City Md when we anchored over night going up the C&D canal. We each got two tickets for beers after the tour. The bartenders ignored you when you tried to give them the tickets. The tour and ticket were $5 a person. Its a good thing we don't live in Utica!

Sylvan Beach boats coming off Lake Oneida

We saw three dredges on our way to Sylvan Beach. Check out the tiny canal system boat next to the dredge.

The rear doors on this lock leak pretty badly. You can see the size of the waterfall they create compared to I Think I Can.

Part of the old canal system. We have seen a few of these three point cranes along the way. They are generally back in the weeds decaying away. Thats a lock in front of it.

Up she goes.

And the answer is!!  Just a bent prop, big sigh of relief. The one shinny blade tip was bent like that with on whack and the engines at idle.

She is always making my job easy in the locks. With the head sets on she tells me what to do, were to go, how to get there, how fast to move, when to stop, when to go.....................WAIT A MINUTE, she does that all the time even when we are not on the boat:-)

Our new view, half way in the Ess Kay work shed.

 You can see the boat tilting toward the port side in this picture. You cant see the fact that the bow is up higher than the stern. If they would have brought us in level we would never have discovered the leak on the top of the tank. It didn't take much since we just filled up the tanks.

This is the top of the port fuel tank. The holes look pretty big in this picture but are not. The camera was 3-4" away from them. The vent pipe is 1/2". The rusted area is about 8"x12" with nice clean painted tank around it. You can only get eyeballs on one of those holes with your eyes due to the location. I stuck the camera in there and shot a bunch of angles and determined the xtent of damage. We have Tommy B shipping us our boro-scope inspection camera so we can check the other tank and do a good look around. If this would have been anything but the top of the tank I think it would have been game over for a while.