Manhatten

Hudson River to New York City

Going down the Hudson River was quite an experience. We past by very large estate homes high on the cliff's and West Point.

Here are some photo's we took during the week stay in New York City.

Radio City Music Hall, New York Cabbies, Central Park, Broadway

Lock E6 to E2 and the Troy Lock

Sept. 12, 2006 Troy, New York.Today we traveled through the last of the Erie Canal from Lock E6 to E2 then the Troy Lock.(7locks) Each of these locks dropped us approx. 34 feet each, to allow us to reach the level of the Hudson River. Here are photo's of E2 lock. At the present time we are at the Troy Town Dock. It was recommended that we find floating docks from now on because the tide can drop five feet at a time. The dock has a pipe for a tie up so that we are able to slip up or down as the tide moves. The water has been extremely high in the canal system and also on the Hudson River this summer. The LockMaster at Troy showed us photos of the flooding. Last night we were tied at the FloodGate that helps to protect the lock system.

Our next journey will take us southward down the Hudson River past Albany.....

Erie Canal-Lock E23 to Lock E6

On September 10 and 11, the weather was still great as we left Lock 23 and traveled across Oneida Lake to the next set of Locks on the Erie Canal . It is very interesting to see signs of the old aqua ducts of the original Erie Canal built in the early 1800's. We referred often to the book we purchased in Oswego called "The Erie Canal" written by Skipper Bob. It is full of colourful discriptions of the area.

We had a misadventure on Sunday, Sept. 10. Every where we looked we were dodging dead heads. We actually hit one which was about 2 or 3 feet under the water. We had no power in the port engine. We were in the middle of no where, but made our way to Lock 19. The lockmaster was kind enough to lend us his car to go to the nearest town, where we found Advanced Auto Parts. We picked up two 3 inch bolts and Gary was able to make a makeshift repair. We were anxious to test it out the next morning and are happy to say that we found it worked beautifully.

As we traveled from lock to lock we found the water to be very dirty. We seemed to be the only ones traveling east, all others were going west. We found one lock where only one door was opened and we had to pull ourselves through. At Lock E10 the Lock Master welcomed us with a "Thank you for locking through Lock 10" greeting. This is the lock that had been the site of the accident which caused to system to be down earlier!

Winter Harbour Marina-Brewerton N.Y.

Sept. 6, 2006. The days spent at the Winter Harbour Marina where maintenance days. Jeanie cleaned the boat inside and out while Gary spent most of the time in the engine room. But in the late afternoon, we enjoyed the calm, warm summer like day riding around the area on a two-hour bike ride.

The people who run the marina are extremely helpful. It is interesting to know that they use to to run a funeral home! At the marina are huge heated buildings in which they store large motor yachts. There is a 40-foot trawler covered in grudge that is being cleaned up. It has a huge two-foot hole in the hull. Apparently this was the boat that went over Lock E10 in June. There was a big rainfall, which floated the lock and washed the boat over. This accident caused the shutdown of the Erie Canal for five weeks because of the damaged E10 Lock.

Day One: Oswego, New York to the Erie Canal

On Wednesday, September 6, 2006, we traveled from Oswego New York, a small town on the south shore of Lake Ontario to Brewerton New York. The speed limit along this stretch is 10 miles an hour and it took for 5 1/2 hours. We locked through 7 locks on the Oswego Canal system before entering lock E23, the first lock on the Erie Canal System. We saw where the old lock had been originally build in 1750. It was a beautiful warm day and it reminded us of the early part of the Trent Canal System in Ontario, as we passed along country side overgrown with trees. Trenton is right across from Oswego, on the north side of Lake Ontario and is where we entered the Trent Canal system on June 29th for our northern adventure.

Today we found these locks to be a piece of cake especially compared to the Welland Canal (which bypasses Niagara Falls) with it's large freighters and turbulent waters. The Erie Canal will eventually take us to Albany where we turn south on the Hudson River.

Tonight we will stay in Winter Harbour Marina where the folks gave us their car keys to go for supplies and supper. We enjoyed sharing supper with an Oakville couple who have been done this trip a number of times. They gave us some charts and much appreciated advice about the trip ahead of us. They had decided to leave their 53 foot Canoe Cove boat at Winter Harbour this year. Tomorrow we will be out and about on our bikes and possibly crossing Lake Oneda.

From Squirrel Island, Ont. to Oswego, N.Y.

After a weeks stay at Squirrel Island, on the St. Mary’s River (near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario) it was time to travel on.

On Sunday August 6 at 10am “At last” left the dock. Terry was invited to assist with the navigation as far as Mackinac Island Michigan. It is located in Lake Huron where Lake Michigan meet. Eileen drove down through Michigan the next day to pick Terry up. Gary and Jeanie stayed one more day sampling the famous brunch at the Mackinac Island Hotel and spent more time exploring this wonderful little island on their bikes.

On Wednesday, August 9, they once again left the dock for open water. The next few ports were Rogers City Michigan, Harbor Beach Michigan, Port Huron, Michigan (across from Sarnia Ontario), then Harson Island Marina on Lake St. Clair, then down the Detroit River to Lake Erie. They stayed at Put-In-Bay, Ohio on Lake Erie,(just south of Pelee Island, Ontario). Once again they found this a fun place and stayed two days exploring by bike. Then on to Cleveland Ohio, Ashtabula, Ohio, Erie, Pennsylvania, then Port Colborne (at the beginning of the Welland Canal the by pass for Niagara Falls. Here they bought bails of hay to protect the boat during the 300 foot drop and the large freighters that they shared the locks with). Port Dalhousie was the next stop.

On August 24 they arrived at the Toronto Island Marina. Here they visited with Gary’s family, meet with some friends and did some business.

Once again it was time to leave and on September 4th they traveled across Lake Ontario to Point Breeze, New York. Then on September 5, they past by Rochester to arrived in Oswego, New York and the start of the trip south.

Oshawa, Ontario to Squirrel Island, Ontario

Our Great Adventure began on June 27, 2006 when we left Whitby Marina to travel east along the north shore of Lake Ontario to Kingston Ontario. After a short visit with friends we turned west to retrace our path along Lake Ontario from Kingston, past Belleville to Trenton where on June 30, 2006, we entered the Trent Severn Canal System which is a variety of lock systems that carries boats from the water of Lake Ontario to the upper waters of Georgian Bay in the Great Lakes. We entered locks at Peterborough. Bobcaygeon and Fenelon Falls to name just a few. The next area was Lake Simcoe where we rested for a few days to once again visit with friends.

From Lake Simcoe we past by Orillia, Port Severn and Honey Harbour where we entered Georgian Bay taking us to the famous North Shore area of Ontario. We traveled up the East Side of Georgian Bay to Perry Sound, Byng Inlet to Killarney. This was the roughest weather encounter so far. The sun was shining but the winds created waves, which reached over five feet crashing over their upper deck, forcing us to use the lower helm.

From Killarney we past Little Currant on Manitoulin Island and entered the area called the North Channel where we arrived in the marina at Spanish Ontario to pick up Terry and Eileen, Jeanie's parents who would stay on board for a few days.

This area is loaded with islands but the most famous is called The Benjamin Islands. It has been compared to the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean and everyone who has been there has raved about it. This is where we headed for the first night on board. We traveled very carefully using the buoy marker system to avoid submerged rocks, which were everywhere. We went through passages with names like Boston Bar. The islands were made of granite and quarts. The Benjamin’s were unique because of the pink quartz rock from which they were formed. We entered into a lovely inlet, which was protected, from the weather. This anchorage could hold up to 40 boats, but today there were only 5. We had no problem anchoring then dropped the dinghy to explore.

At the back of the cruiser is an inflatable, hard-bottomed boat with oars that will hold four people comfortably and a 15hp motor to power the dingy. We spent an hour exploring this beautiful island in the dinghy. We went through narrow passages, around outcrops of rock and found another mooring where over 30 boats lay at anchor. We were happy with the spot we had chosen, as it was quiet and peaceful. We swam and laughed and swam some more. We had a wonderful meal prepared by Gary from the aft BBQ. This was the life.

The next morning we rowed to the island to explore. Climbing over the rocks we found many blueberries just ripe for the picking, great for blueberry pancakes. We climbed some of the small hills, then had a swim and huge breakfast. Then back to the island to explore once again. We spend a few hours climbing to the highest peak all the while stopping to pick blueberries along the way.

Our second night took us to another Anchorage called BearDrop Inlet. It had come highly recommended. Once again we had a lovely cruise through the islands and by using the buoy marker system found this peaceful out of the way anchorage which we shared with a few other cruisers and sailboats. We once again explored with the dinghy and took many photos, which looked to us like the painting done by the Group of Seven. This is the area that some of these famous Canadian artists stayed during their early days.

The next day we reluctantly left this beautiful inlet to travel westward through one area more beautiful than the next. Our destination was the marina at Blind River Ontario on the north mainland side of the North Channel. Here we fueled the boat and bought provisions. The marina supplied bikes with large carriers. Town was just 10 minutes away. Eileen found the old Anglican Church where her mother and father had been married 70 years ago that very day.

The next day we left Blind River to a warm sun but a bit more wind than there had been the last few days. The waves were 3 feet high and at times splashed over the fly bridge. The temperature was in the 80’s. For most of that day, everyone remained at the upper helm, where the view was terrific.

Our destination this time was the Wharf Restaurant on the water front at Richards Landing on St. Joseph Island. On our way through St. Joseph channel we past many light houses, small islands with swaying pines and quaint cottages. It was the most beautiful so far. Just before our stop for lunch, we pulled into Whiskey Rock for a swim in the clean waters at the north end of the North Channel.

After our lunch on the outdoor patio, we headed north towards Lake George. This was the narrowest part of the trip with the red and green markers very close together.
About an hour later we spotted Squirrel Island with the rock face of our mountain across from it. After traveling this distance we had a great welcome at the cottage with all of the islanders standing and waving to us from the shore. We arrived on August 1, 2006.