I've Got A Mule Her Name Is Sal

Day 22, Wednesday, May 18th, 2016

Another day of locks-locks-locks.  You have to take a patience pill and just go with the flow.  It took us a few years to learn that.  The water dictates and you obey.  I thought we left the rudest boaters there are behind us in Florida.  Silly me.  Out of no where in one of the locks a pretty new boat appeared.  It locked next to us and I read their transom.  It was from Ft. Lauderdale.  When the locks doors opened they zoomed outa there and down the river at warp speed leaving a huge, rude wake and tearing into the fragile shoreline.  It was a race to the next lock.  We locked through a couple of locks with them and then they were off into the sunset.  Obviously they were more important than the other boaters and no need to respect the fragile banks of the canal.  Jerks.

Other than that it was a good day.

With the locks closing at 5:00 we went as far as we could and tied up to a nice wall in Rome. After some wine and cheese on the back deck we walked into town and had a wonderful dinner at the Savoy.  Highly recommend.   Quite full; we waddled back to the boat.  This has been the high carb cruise for sure.

Dave was pretty exhausted and turned in.  The rest of us were right behind him.


Day 23, 2016 - May 19th, 2016

The Long Run & the end of the Magical Mystery Tour

Of course we were waiting at the next lock when it opened at 7:00a.m. anxious to get it on.  It was a beautiful crisp morning and Ray and Lisa helped us get through the remaining locks until we were to meet John at the lock in Phoenix and change crew.  It has been a real pleasure having the Tangents along the last few days and we come out of this with new friends! 

While we were waiting for John at the Phoenix lock we noticed a restaurant, a deli and a barber shop that were in walking distance.  Dave said "should I get my haircut while we are waiting?"  We all decided that he might have a better shot at being acceptable haircut material at the little barber shop in Phoenix (Po-Dunk) NY that he was in Westchester County, NY.  We told him to go for it.  He did and came back in a few minutes sporting a new "do".  The haircut was $5.00 bucks!  Such a deal!

John came aboard and the Tangents took this pic of us shoving off.

 

 

Locking through the last remaining locks put us in Oswego where the canal meets Lake Ontario.  We passed through lock #109 since we left home almost three years ago. 

 

We assumed we would tie up in Oswego for the night and head out early in the morning for the final run of this 3 year odyssey to Pt. Breeze.  But when we saw how placid Lake Ontario was we couldn't resist. The East end of the lake can be a real bitch and usually is.  Today; however, she is in a good mood so we are going for it.  I had previously alerted Kristy and Bobby that one of them might have to pick me up in Oswego if the lake was bad.  I was not willing to have another ass kicking on a large body of water.  It's about an 8 hour run and will involve night boating under a full moon.  Hopefully we will arrive home around midnight.

 

It's a strange feeling to think that this trip is within hours away of being over.  It has been all consuming for so long. Thanks to the Krauses, Browns, Staskos and Tangents for coming along with us. We had a amazing adventure and I loved the time spent doing this with Dave.  When we are in the old folks home someday we can read this silly blog and smile.



Blowin' In The Wind

Day 19, May 15, 2016, Sunday

Yesterday we spent the whole day taking care of little things on Blue Moon that have been ignored because we were too busy traveling.  By the end of the day she was detailed and polished.  It was a challenge because the winds picked up and averaged 20-30 mph plus all day.  Never have I been tied to a dock and on the verge of being seasick.  It was like dealing with 4 footers while tied to the floating docks.  Good thing they were floating in the lurching water or we could have had a real issue.

It was quite uncomfortable and lasted all night into today.  I have been manically checking the weather every ten minutes hoping it would end soon.  It was supposed to end sometime during the night. 

You had to time it just right to get off the boat between it lurching up and down to get on the dock.  We made it and walked the half mile into the little plaza where there was a "salon".  That's all it said on the sign.  Dave (and I) badly need haircuts and are looking pretty scruffy.  He had on his usual dressed down boat attire complete with back pack.  I think he was going for the homeless look.  He walked into the "salon" and asked the cute little fashionista girl behind the counter if they did haircuts there.  You could see her backing away from him and she gave a curt "no".  You could tell she wanted him to go away and go back under what ever bridge he might be living under.  Dave and I had a good laugh at ourselves.  We do get quite caught up in what ever we are doing and often let "fashion" fall by the wayside.  Hey, that's us. 

Ray and Lisa Tangent were due to arrive around 5:20 via Amtract but they texted and said their train was delayed.  Ahhh...mass transit.  They made it there around 7:00 and we helped them onto the still bouncy boat and had some pizza for dinner.  They had a long day of travel and we all turned in rather early.  That happens a lot on the boat.

Day 20, Monday, May 16, 2016

I worried through the night about leaving the dock in high winds and getting onto the Hudson at it's widest, most unprotected area.  The winds did calm down to a manageable level and once we got out into the river it was more level and calm than back at the dock.  Crazy.  Blue Moon is so heavy  and the way she's built she cut right through the light chop and wind and gave us a nice ride.  It wasn't long before we passed West Point.

 

 

It's amazing that Lee and Grant were class mates there and then went onto fight each other on opposite sides in the Civil War.  Eisenhaurer, the great architect of D-Day and my favorite World War 2 rogue General Patton were also graduates of this prestigious American military school.

 

We had a nice, scenic ride up to the Waterford Town Wall that is right before the first lock on the Erie Canal.

 

 

 

We tied up and walked into town for a great meal at pub.  Thanks Ray and Lisa.  We had to walk through old residential streets of houses built when the canal was built.  No driveways (built before cars) and they were very small and almost touching each other they were so close.  I love these old towns.

 

Lisa met a young girl, early 20 something, who was pitching a tent on the town park near us.  She was to meet her mother the next day in Schenectady and they are riding their bikes to Seattle!  I was worried about her sleeping in a public park all night by her self but she seemed cool with it.  Not to be unkind, but she was quite large.  Maybe by the time she pedals to the west coast that will not be the case.

 

 

Day 21, Tuesday, May 17, 2016

 

You Can't Always Get What You Want

 

We arouse around 6:00a.m. to get ready for the first lock opening right in front of us, at 7:00a.m.  There were 3-4 other boats doing the same thing and to our

dismay, a couple of them were slow boating trawlers.  That meant we would make it to the next lock and have to wait for them to show up to lock through.  We are on a mission to get home as soon as possible and they, lucky them, are probably not in a hurry.  So we poked along until we found a big open stretch and Captain Speed put her up on plane and we ditched them at the next lock.

 

 

The locks are only open until 5:00 this early in the season so we wanted to make it to lock 12 and call it a day.  But first we had to get through lock 11.  That proved to be quite the adventure.  We were headed into lock, past the pre-lock walls ready to grab the slimy ropes to secure us in the lock.  Routine?  No.

The dam next to this particular lock is really close by and the current caught us and just about slammed us into the wall.  Dave quickly pulled her back but the current swirled us into the opposite direction.  There were a few pretty hairy minutes of Dave getting control of the boat back and getting us into the lock safely.  That was completely unexpected and has never happened in all the hundreds of locks we have gone through.  When it was over I asked Ray if he ever thought he was going to go white water rafting on this trip!

 

We tied up to a canal terminal wall for the evening.  It was out in the wilderness and turned out to be a good, quiet place to be.  We made a nice dinner and tried to sit outside but it was still a bit chilly so we dined inside the galley.

 

The day's excitement made us tired so again, early to bed.

 

 

 

 

 



Goin' Up The Country

Day 1,862--Friday, May 13, 2016

Leaving a hazy NYC around 9:00a.m., we played chicken with the ferry boats on our way up to the Hudson River.  We tried to time our departure so the 4 ft. tidal swing was in our favor but failed to for some reason.  The tide and current was against our bow and that took about 4 1/2 m.p.h. off our usual 10 1/2 m.p.h. cruising speed.  That plus the wakes from all the ferry boats made for a bumpy ride.  Still we trudged on past 5th Avenue under the George Washington Bridge and the Upper East Side.

Upper East Side = old money

Lower East Side = new money

Harlem = No money

The frantic ferry chaos thinned out the farther north we went.

Dave wants me to mention how well Blue Moon has performed on this multi year odyssey.  When we first got her I had about zero faith in her and wanted to name her "The Dumb Blonde" because I though the boat, while very beautiful was somewhat stupid because there were many worrisome (to me anyway) details about this unique boat to clear up.  Dave persevered, as he always does, and got them all rectified and then some.  I must say that I am happily amazed with this oddball of a boat and so glad we chose her to do the Loop.

Dave has been diligent about maintenance such as oil changes, filter changes, ya-da-ya-da, but it has paid off.  There have been zero issues with the boat to date.  I hope I am not jinxing us by writing this because we aren't home yet and it seems things go awry on boats for no particular reason.  Enough kudos about this boat.  She's been a very good girl and a good choice for us.

We arrived at Half Moon Bay on Croton on the Hudson around 1:00p.m.  One of our shortest travel days.  It's a marina at the base of condos and all the docks are privately owned.  Steve, the dock master, rents slips out to transients for the owners.  He helped us into our dock in a very windy situation.  Blue Moon does not like to bend around corners to get into a dock and since we always stern in, it is a challenge.  Not, however, for Captain Dave, the docking legend that he is.  He slipped this boat into that slip with the wind blowing against us just like Prince Charming sliding the tiny glass slipper onto Cindarella's foot.
Steve is a bit hyper.  I think he needs to cut out the espresso.  He has a three year old and newborn twin girls so I guess he is a bit sleep deprived.  Super nice guy.

A few other transients pulled in behind us.  Not a lovely day on the Hudson and worse weather predicted.  I am glad, as always to be tied securely to a dock and not on the hook when the winds blow.

Dave had some boating fun this afternoon.  The hinge on the head (toilet) seat has been coming loose and since we have free time he thought he would take it off, clean it out and epoxy the hinge back on. No big deal huh? Big Deal after all  when the hinge dropped into the toilet and got so stuck he couldn't reach it or pry it out with needle nose pliers.  Sooo, Steve drove Dave to Tiffany's Hardware store.  Not the real name but they call it that because we are in wealthy Westchester County (an hour's commute to NYC) and everything costs more here.  He picked up a flexible magnetic retriever tool but that didn't work.  He had to remove the whole toilet (head) and put it on the back deck and do surgery to get the hinge out.  So a 1/2 hour job turned into a half day job.

                                                    Fun times.

The Lopper boat next to us is a couple from San Diego.  They bought their boat in Mackinaw Island and have been doing the loop with it.  The are now heading up the Hudson to the Canal and onto the Trent-Severn and Georgian Bay.  They fly home for weeks at a time and come back to their boat.  Fellow crazies.

Tomorrow will be maintenance and cleaning day on Blue Moon.  She needs a good cleaning from all the salt pounding we took last week.  It will be nice to get up and not have to rush outa-here for a change.

New York State of Mind

Rainy Day/Dream Away

Day 14-Tuesday, May 10th, 2016

Casting the lines off at Rock Hall a little before 6:00 a.m., we traveled up the last part of the Chesepeake  into the C & D Canal.  The skies were overcast and there was a light rain washing the salt off Blue Moon.  Delaware Bay is without charm to say the least.  There are no waterfront homes and the shores are void of humanity.  Strictly a shipping waterway.  I was pleased that it was only a light chop as anything with the word "Bay" in it seems to be my nemesis lately.

After six hours on the bay we arrived at Utsch's Marina in Cape May.  A no frills but very friendly marina.  They gave us a welcome gift bag.  Always a nice touch.  We found the Lobster House and overindulged again.


A Hard Day's Night

Day 15 - Wednesday, May 11, 2016

The day of my dreaded ocean run up to NYC.  With our track record of late I was sure it was going to be a bad trip.  Nope!  The weather and wave gods were smiling down on us.  There was virtually no wind and the ocean was flat as a pancake!  There was a slight, very slight swell but that was fine.  We traveled 113 miles (that is a lot in one day for us) up to NYC. 

We passed this girl along the way.

 

Call me a dork ,but I get a lump in my throat every time I see the Statue of Liberty.

 

We planned on anchoring behind Ellis Island for the night but when we went there we realized the wake from the many ferry boats passing nearby would make it very uncomfortable.  So we went right around the corner to Liberty Landing Marina on the Jersey side.  Glad we did.  This is the view from our slip.

It is spectacular at night.

 



 

 

We settled in for the evening as it was a very long day--12 hours or so of boating.  A real Hard Day's Night.

 

 

Day 16, Thursday, May 12th, 2016

 

With some time to kill before we meet our friends Ray and Lisa Tangent on the Hudson River (they are going up the Hudson and part of the Erie Canal with us), we decided to take a ferry over to Ellis Island.  I have always wanted to go there and just absorb the place and try and think of what my ancestors on my Dad's side felt when the came through there on their way from Sicily and Spain.  My Mom's side came much earlier--before Ellis Island. 

 

 

What a special place.  It feels almost haunted.  The National Park Service has done a wonderful job restoring the main building that had fallen into shameful disrepair years ago.  I was glad to see bus loads of middle schoolers there on a field trip and hope that a little of the magnitude of the history of this place sunk into their little brains.   I must say, almost each one of them was holding an iPhone and most were dressed like little slobs.  That is the new normal I guess. 

 

We then took the ferry over to Manhattan and disembarked at Battery Park.  From there we walked the short walk to the new Freedom Tower and the 9/11 Memorial.

 

 

 

Each person who died that day has their name engraved in bronze around the memorial.  There are two; one for each tower.  It was as striking as the Vietnam Wall Memorial in DC.  Kinda' sneaks up on you when you start reading the names.  Words can't even express....

 

Dave wanted to go to either China Town or Little Italy for lunch.  We were going to walk but decided it was too far since neither of us had really brought concrete hiking shoes--just our boat shoes.  Chinese food won and it was great.  On the streets, hawkers kept trying to sell me a new purse or a massage or anything you can think of.  Love the brazen salesmen!  Didn't buy anything though.

 

Since it was still early and a gorgeous 70 degree and sunny day, we took a taxi up to Central Park South and then a carriage ride around the stunning green space.  Wow.  Just Wow!!  That someone had the foresight so many years ago to do this for the people of New York is amazing.  Our driver pointed out the usual places of interest including Strawberry Fields which is across from the apartment building (the Dakota) where John Lennon was shot, where Woody Allen (one of my favs) lives and also we passed by an apartment in the Plaza where there were about 100 people out on the sidewalk looking up.  Seems Lady Gaga lives there and she was home today.  They were trying to get a glimpse of her.  She rents the apartment for a mere $22,000 a month.  We saw the building where Ghostbusters was shot and the penthouse apartment where Michael Douglas lives among other celebrity nonsense. 

 

We walked along the riverside to catch a water taxi back across to our boat on Liberty Island.  So many people ferry across and back to NY from Jersey every day to commute to work.  Nuts.

 

I enjoyed our unexpected trip today but every time I visit NYC I am always reaffirmed in my feeling that no fricking way could I handle that confusion all the time.  Now that I'm old I like calm, organized order!  Borrrring.

 

We had a wonderful meal at a restaurant at the marina.  We really must get back to eating meals on the boat though.  It's just so hard to pass up all these great fooderies.

 

Tomorrow we are leaving New York City and heading 30 miles up the Hudson to a place called Half Moon Bay Marina at Croton-on the Hudson.  Looks like a easy trip and the BIG water is behind us now--at least until we get to Lake Ontario next week. 

 

On Sunday, Ray and Lisa are taking a train there to jump aboard the Blue Moon.  We are so glad they are coming!  Then they are getting off in Brewerton and John is joining us for the final leg of this mission to get Blue Moon back to Pt. Breeze.  We left July 18th, 2013.  How the time has flown since that day that we pulled out of our dock with Jim and Lin Krause heading for the Trent-Severn and on up into Georgian Bay!  Time to think of a new adventure!   

 

 

 

 

 

 



Crosstown Traffic

Day 11 - Saturday, May 7th, 2016

After a couple of busy weeks at home and work we picked up a one way car rental at the Rochester airport to return to Norfolk.  We left at 6:00 a.m. on a Saturday knowing that the dreadful DC Beltway was waiting between us and the boat.  We figured that Saturday traffic would be civilized.  Wrong again.  I happened to be driving that section of the journey and the expletives were flowing from my mouth like rain.  These people who put up with this daily are true road warriors.  Call me a bumpkin but I like living where traffic and even rush hour is no big deal and you do not have to pass an Offensive Driving Class to get your license.  Enough road rage rant.

We arrived at the marina around 4:30 p.m. and were amazed at how clean the boat was on the outside, unpacked the trunk load of stuff that we had brought, found a Food Lion to provision up with (oh, how I miss my Wegmans on these trips!).  Lugged the groceries back to the boat, changed all the bedding with the fresh laundry I had taken home and brought back with us.  Went out for dinner, took the rental car back to the airport and got an Uber lift back to the boat.  Anyone who calls this a "vacation", I will smack you!


GIMMEE SHELTER

Day 12- Sunday, May 8th, 2016 -- Happy Mother's Day

My sweetie had breakfast all ready for me since it was Mother's Day after all.  Hmmm, I have spent my birthday and Mother's day on this boat journey this year; I will put that in my book that all us women keep. 

I heard from all our kids telling me  to have a Happy Mother's Day and that made me happy. 

Our silly granddaughters......

Lili lost her tooth at school!

 

 

Carmen likes to play in the mud!

 

We left Norfolk, actually Portsmouth, at 7:00 a.m. amidst all the heavy commercial and military shipping stuff.  Being a history fenatic, I get a charge out of passing by the battle ships and aircraft carriers.  I was taking pix but  military gunboat guy started giving me the stink eye so I put the camera away.
The last time we passed thru here was the spring after 9/11 and I remember a lot more military presence out on the water.  Hope we haven't become too complacent again.  I'm sure there were eyes watching our every move.

After the Pamlico Sound beating that we took a few weeks ago, I was really dreading the big Chesepeake Bay journey.  We entered the bay and to my relief, it was only putting up a 1-2 footer fuss and the sun was bright and the sky and water was a pretty blue.   We headed for the famous Chesepeake-Bay-Bridge Tunnel. 

This amazing structure was built in 1964 and is 23 miles long.  It saves motorists 95 miles on a trip between VA Beach/Norfolk and points north and east of Delaware valley missing the Baltimore-Washington metro nightmare.  It has 2 (1) mile long each tunnels as well as the bridge that takes you so far out to sea it is hard to see land.  I took my gnarly little VW rabbit across this back in the 70's and I remember feeling the car being pushed by the wind on the huge bridge span.  Freaky.  It costs $13.00 to cross but is worth avoiding the lousy traffic.

We passed over one of the tunnels and our goal was to reach Solomons Island, MD before dark.  Mother nature, that bitch, had OTHER plans for us.  The beautiful conditions went almost instantly to hell.  The water turned black, the winds and waves picked up to where unsecured things were flying around the boat including out newish flat screen tv that was tied down but popped loose.  The bilge alarm kept going on and off, just  to add to the chaos.  

Dave told me to get on the Garmin and find a safe anchorage to get off the bay.  That Garmin app, once again, saved our butts.  We had to turn the boat and have the waves crash into us on the sides (a beam sea) and that was really the worst part.  We found a little cove among some cottages, dropped anchor and I waited for my heart rate to get back to normal once again.  I must give Dave credit here.  The old Dave would have pushed on--no matter what the conditions .  The revised Dave has my comfort more in mind.  He's still nuts but I love him.

While I had some wine Dave made a great Mother's day dinner for me.  He really likes to cook on the boat.  Cool. 

We were both pretty rung out from all the earlier excitement.  Dave went to sleep quickly but I've gotten into this bad habit of having to have my audio books put me to sleep--"Mommy, read me a story?".  It works though and has cured my insomnia.  About fifteen minutes into a book I am out.

I woke up a few times during the night dreading the continuation of the Chesepeake Bay journey in the morning.

Carry On
Day 13-Monday, May 9, 2016.

We woke up to this!  Happy us!  How quickly conditions can change on the water.  We eased our way through the crab pots.  I swear all the crab pot guys got together and had a meeting and decided they would all place the crab pots in the boating channel--just for laughs!

Goal for the day--Rock Hall, Maryland.  That's where we bought Blue Moon and a cute little waterfront town.

There with no issues getting to Rock Hall but had to negotiate the shallow waters into the quaint old marina that is also has an adorable, historic, B&B where we stayed a few years ago while they were getting the boat ready for us.

We called Jack Hefner, the broker who sold us the boat and asked if he and his wife Linda were free for dinner.  They were and picked us up.  We went to Waterman's Crab House and had a great meal and exchanged boating stories.  Jack is a pretty cool guy and looks like Jimmy Buffett.  He's been selling Island Packet sailboats and Menorquins (our boat) among others for years and will sell Blue Moon for us when the time comes.  He also owns a cool tropical Margaritaville style clothing store in Rock Hall.

6:00 a.m. shove off comes fast so we skipped trying to watch a movie and went to bed.  Tomorrow is the C & D Canal into the large Delaware Bay onto Cape May, New Jersey, and then the Atlantic Ocean coast run to New York City.

Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me

Day 10-Tuesday April 19, 2016

George Washington once owned the land the Great Dismal Swamp Canal was built on.  Opening in 1850, this is the oldest continually operating man made waterway in the country.  Between 1810-1860 this was an important route on the Underground Railroad and played a part in  Civil War transportation.  But to get the Blue Moon to this magnificent example of human engineering in time for the all important bridge opening to get to the first lock (there are only 3 specific lock openings daily--no exceptions) we had to put the boat up on plane in a very tight, and of course very shallow path to the bridge.  I did not know the boat could go that fast!  We were out in the wilderness flying around twists and turns reminiscent of a scene from Apocolypse Now  where the GI gunboat was whipping thru the jungles of Vietnam looking for VC. 

Around one turn we barley slowed down in time to keep from swamping two very fat guys in a very small fishing boat.  The look on their faces was hysterical.  If I saw Blue Moon screaming towards me I'd have to change my underwear.

We made the lift bridge just in time.  The bridge operator let us through then got in his car and drove to first lock to open it for us.  This was at 3:30 p.m. on the dot.  We entered the Dismal Swamp Canal along with a little sailing ketch with two old hippies.  Dave said to ask them if they had any Maui Wowie and I was amazed that he knew what that was! ha

The canal is about 20 miles long and there was no rush to get to the other end because the next opening was the next morning at 8:30. The scenery is gorgeous and it may have been extremely dismal for the guys who dug the canal but it is not dismal for us pleasure boaters all these years later.

 

I was really glad there wasn't a boat coming at us from the other direction--no room to pass.

 

The water was brown from all the organic material ?

 

We went up top to the flybridge for a very scenic ride down the canal listening to some blues on Pandora while enjoying some wine.  We had to make sure to stay dead center in the channel for enough depth and leave no wake to destroy the fragile shoreline.  We looked for eagles, deer and bears but only saw some ducks.  Oh well.

Around 7:00 p.m. we came upon an idyllic spot to tie up to for the night.  It was a nice wall built next to a bike path.  We grilled a nice pork tenderloin, ate dinner on the back deck and watched the NBC Nightly News on the IPad.  I was thinking maybe the smell of the cooking meat would attract bears or raccoons but none showed up.  The raccoons on the boat while back on the Mississippi was enough wildlife for me.  It was a quiet peaceful night and that's a real good thing on a boat--or anywhere.

This is what we woke up to...

We had breakfast then locked through the second lock.

 

 

This threw us right into the heavy commercial and military area of the Norfolk/Portsmouth shipyards.  Not pretty.  We only had 5 miles to get to the marina where we were to leave the boat for a few weeks but first we had to wait for a railroad bridge to open--about 45 minutes. Then we were home free to the marina.  Dave washed the salt crystals off the boat while I packed up to go home. We Ubered a ride to the airport and picked up our one way rental car.  We wanted to make sure to time our departure so we would hit the DC Beltway traffic right a rush hour--and we did.  I realize this part of the country is a highly desirable place to live but the traffic is a deal breaker.  Just nuts.

 

We got home around 1:00 a.m. and crashed. 

 

Part 2 and the final trip home to continue in May.