Mooring at Prinyers Cove

 Behind Kingston City Hall we saw a performance last night.

We had a marvelous time in Kingston, a city of 150,000.  The streets were full of cheery young people last night and this morning.  We saw a buskers' performance.  I do enjoy watching fire juggling on a unicycle.  We ate delicious seafood and took a walk before returning to the boat.  

                                                           The fresh veggies and fruit look like art.

This morning we went to the farmers market in front of city hall.  It was so fun to wander and buy.  I got another hat. We also bought strawberries, cheese, bread, and butter tarts.  We've heard from other loopers about the butter tarts, and now we can eat some for breakfast tomorrow.  At a nearby store George bought two new pairs of shorts.  I just discovered yesterday that he was down to two pairs.  That's not enough since he wears shorts every day, and we just wash once a week.  So I shamed him into shopping.  

                                                             Another pretty arrangement

We left Confederation Basin at 10:30 am with no trouble.  Two guys gave us a push off the dock.  We had a bumpy ride through Kingston Harbor.  Then we got behind Brothers Islands, and the waves settled.  

Now we are in Prinyers Cove.  It is a lovely, quiet spot.  We grabbed a mooring ball on the third attempt.  I had never used a mooring on Aunt Aggie, and it is not so easy to reach from a trawler.  We used the dinghy to come to the marina office and check in and use their wifi.  There was no signal in the office, so now we are sitting on the back porch of the owner's home next door.  This is a beautiful shady yard.  Such kind people to let us come over and sit on the porch and write.  

                                                            George says life is a basket of these.

Kingston, Ontario

Aunt Aggie heads to Ontario.

This morning we got a pump out and left the dock at Cape Vincent, NY, at 8:00 with help from Dave.  We had a lovely trip to Kingston, Ontario.  We were joined on the St. Lawrence River by two giant container ships.  We turned off behind Wolf Island and got out of their way. It was so peaceful and beautiful that we drove from the fly bridge.  

As we entered Kingston Harbor, we saw sailing schools in full swing.  There were different sizes of boats in large groups practicing their skills.  We went inside the breakwaters of Flora Macdonald Confederation Basin and asked for a slip.  We had a bit of trouble docking because there was some wind, and the slip was so short, the boat pivoted around it.  We made it on the second try.  This is a short slip, however, so we are climbing out under the railings.  

No matter.  Kingston is a vibrant city.  There is a park right beside the marina with a children's festival.  There is a Buskers Reunion this weekend, which means extra street performances.  

The historical part of downtown is right here for us to explore.  It is full of restaurants with colorful flower baskets.   

This guy jumped on a pogo stick over a car.  Of course, it was a remote

control car.   

Love the flower boxes in bloom.  This may be where we eat lobster rolls and chowder tonight.

After we arrived, George went to call customs and check in, and I cleaned up from the trip.  I was not allowed to leave the boat until our vessel had legally entered the country.  When he came back with the Report Number, we took down the yellow Quarantine flag and hung our Canadian flag. After lunch we walked to Staples to buy a new keyboard for George's old computer.  Somehow his keyboard got wet. (We suspect condensation from the air conditioner.) Then we went to the bank for Canadian money.  As we headed back toward the marina, we perused restaurant menus, looking for our Friday night supper.  We are having some work and rest time now.  

Watch towers stand on each side of Kingston Harbor.  These shutters are steel.

The marina has fast wifi, so we can email and blog in the comfort of the boat.  Tomorrow we are going to the farmers market and then head out to a mooring ball near Picton.  Happy Friday!

Our last night in New York - Cape Vincent.

Sunset at Oswego, NY, looking toward Lake Ontario.

I just happened to look up last night from my computer and see the pink sunset at Oswego.  I love my photo above.  The water was reflecting the sky.  We had a quiet night with calm wind.  

We left Oswego at 8:00 am and started across Lake Ontario.  The sky was grey all day.  The water thus seemed dark also.  It was a quiet day with no wind and no waves.  We motored for 5 1/2 hours and came into Cape Vincent, NY.  This is our last night in New York.  We have been here for five weeks, and we have had many adventures and enjoyed the state.  

Lots of trawlers left Oswego today to cross the lake.  

Our friends from Nearly Perfect hailed us as they passed on their way to Kingston.

We heard Coast Guard messages from the Buffalo station.  At one point we listened to an announcement and could not understand what the officer was saying.  Then he repeated the message in French.  That didn't help us, but we did laugh.

We had hoped to stay tonight on the free village dock.  When we came around the bend, we saw that the dock was full.  I called Anchor Marina next door and asked if we could stay there.  They agreed.  We said we also had friends behind us on Knot There.  Yes, they can come too.  We came into the marina and Raoul from a Canadian sailboat grabbed our lines.  We were grateful.  Then we handled the lines for Knot There.  

We all were settling and fixing our fenders when Raoul and his wife Karen took their boat around the dock for a pump out.  He did not pull close enough to the dock.  Karen grabbed the railing and tried to pull the boat in.  We watched as she was pulled into the water between her boat and the dock.  Her son was close by and ran over. I threw George our life ring and he ran over to help.  He and the son lifted Karen out of the river.  She was soaked, but she still was wearing her glasses.  No harm done.  It is so easy to have a mistake that does matter.  

Cape Vincent is a charming small town with a French festival this weekend.  We walked through the town and admired the houses.  We had a drink at the waterfront bar with Jean and Dave.  Now we are home, cooking supper.  We are playing cards on Knot There in a little while.  Tomorrow we go to Kingston, Ontario, and seek entry into Canada.  

The Anchor Marina office used to be the train station.

I want to write and publish the blog every day in Canada, but I have to find wifi to do that.  Our Verizon wifi for Canada won't support this amount of data.  So, I will be looking for marinas, libraries, and coffee shops where I can use free wifi.  Please check the site to see if I have posted.  If not, don't worry.  Silence here does not mean there is a problem.  It just means I can't find wifi.  Happy July!

A Wild Night at International Marina

We  are staying here for two nights, right on the shore of Lake Ontario.

When will we learn that wind speeds at the ocean are two or three times what is predicted for the nearest coastal town? Last night around 10:00 we heard the wind pick up.  We went outside and checked our lines, adding two stern lines.  Our fenders looked fine.  We went to bed.  I woke at 

3:50 am because the wind was howling, and the boat was moving in a new way.  I went outside and was surprised by the power.  Water was rushing by our boat.  I did not want to wake George because everything looked ok.  I sat up and read for a while.  Then I felt a bump and knew the wind had shifted.  Now it was more on our port side, pushing us onto the dock.  I looked out again and saw that one fender had popped out.  It was riding on top of the dock.  Time for the captain to get up.  

We put on clothes and went out for a fight with the wind.  We needed to get that fender back in place, but it was hard to move Aunt Aggie off the dock even 10 inches.  We pushed and pushed and finally got the fender wedged into place.  We added another fender. We were wet and tired.  We climbed back into bed but couldn't sleep because the wind and waves were loud.  

I suggested we move to the guest bedroom which is not in the bow.  That's where I had been reading, and it was quieter.  We did and fell into deep sleep until morning.  The sun was shining.  The air was 20 degrees cooler, and the water was quieter.  

We have had a great day doing laundry and research:  George - medicare coverage; Martha - Trent-Severn Waterway in Canada. Around 1:00 pm we went off to explore Oswego and see which boats are tied to the canal walls.  We found the Old City Hall, which is now a brewery and cafe, and had a tasty lunch. 

Here is the Old City Hall Building.

After lunch we walked across a bridge and ran into Jean and Dave from Knot There.  What a small town event!  Standing on the bridge, looking out at the lake and the canal, we had a good chat, comparing our travels yesterday and our night.  We both had uncomfortable, rocky nights. They recommended the Safe Haven Museum in town, and we told about our lunch spot.  We will travel together across the lake tomorrow. 

Safe Haven Museum tells the story of 982 European refugees who came to Oswego in 1944 as the guests of President Franklin Roosevelt.  They were living in camps in Italy and were discovered when Rome was liberated. They promised to return to Europe after the war.  They stayed for about 18 months in barracks at Ft. Oswego.  After a month long quarantine, life improved:  Eleanor Roosevelt visited. Children were allowed to go to school. Adults were given training for jobs.  Twenty-two babies were born in the camp here.  Once the war ended, most wanted to stay, so that was a big decision.  Finally, they were allowed to apply for citizenship, and they spread out across the country.

An architectural detail from the Old City Hall, which now houses a cafe.

Tomorrow the wind is listed as "calm."  We plan to leave around 8:00 am for the 48 mile trip across Lake Ontario.  We hope to stop for the night on the free wall at Cape Vincent, New York.  

Checking it off - We finished the New York Canals.

 Docktails at Ess-Kay Marina in Brewerton, NY, last night. There were 16 looper boats there.

Woohoo!  We are in Oswego, NY.  Today we finished both the Erie Canal and the Oswego.  We went through eight locks in all.  It was hard work and took seven hours.  We left Ess-Kay at 7:00 am with Island Office and Southern Comfort.  We found other boats waiting at Lock #23 (Erie Canal). We had found our traveling companions for the day.  We went through all the locks with this group.  As we moved from one lock to the next, we were a parade of trawlers; everyone stayed in line and filed into the next lock in order.  

Last night's photo of our newly pedicured toes.

The hard work came from being with the group.  The locks were full, and every line or cable was needed.  This differed mightily from our other days on the Erie Canal.  On those days we were alone or with one other boat in the locks.  We had our choice of positions and lines.  If we made a mistake, there was another line waiting to be grabbed.  Not so today.  

This giant tour boat came by our caravan of loopers in the Oswego Canal after Lock #1. 

We followed Speedy Delivery into the lock on the port side.  We snuggled in and grabbed the line right behind them.  I had to use the boat hook to hook the line under the float.  Then I grabbed it in my hand and walked to the stern.  George used the bow thruster to push us close to the wall.  Then he came out of the boat and grabbed a bow line using the boat hook.  Then we held on as the water emptied from the lock.  We worked to stay in place and close to the wall.  

The harder maneuver was on the two locks that had only cables and no lines.  Since we were entering full locks, the cables were lower than our boat.  I could not place my line around the cable.  The first time I held on for dear life with the boat hook, yelling at George for help.  Aunt Aggie was drifting away from the wall and into the center of the lock.  Finally, George came out.  I pulled us to the wall, and he got the line around the cable.  It was hard! I was scared and shaking by the time we were set.   We tried a different method in the next lock, but we still had lots of stress.   Only two locks were cable only, so we grabbed lines the rest of the time. 

After going through the locks, we were sweaty and dirty and a bit fussy.  After each lock we would say what we could do differently next time.  The locks were not too tall ( 10 - 20 feet), so the process was quick, and we didn't have to hold on for too long.  We were happy to see Oswego after Lock # 8.  We sped down the canal, turned left and entered Wright's Landing Marina or Oswego International. (It has two names, which is confusing.) We called them, Joe came out to grab our lines, and we got set quickly with no drama at 2:00 pm.  

I hosed off the boat, and George went to check in.  We both took glorious cold showers, read, and napped.  We are proud of this day. The bottom line is we did it: We did not hit any boats or the lock walls or get hurt.  So our day was successful.  It just was more like work than our other Erie Canal days, which were quieter.

We are sitting on the edge of Lake Ontario, the first Great Lake we have ever seen.  Rain is coming in tonight, so we will do laundry tomorrow and walk over to lock # 8 and look for our friends.  We can explore Oswego a bit.  On Thursday we plan to cross Lake Ontario.   

We passed this cheery flag on the Oswego Canal today.

Slow Monday in Brewerton, NY

We've pretty much done everything possible during our five days in Brewerton.  We will be leaving here tomorrow, and we are ready.  Kim and Ethan and Tammy have been kind and helpful hosts.  We need to pay up and move on.

This morning we bought a few more items in the ship store:  flag clips for our Canadian flag and Sunbrella treatment for the bimini.  I sprayed the chemicals on the underside of the bimini, and we hope that will keep out the rain.  Then I had to take a shower to get the poison off my arms and legs. We have the flag ready to fly if we ever actually see Canada.  A maintenance guy replaced the broken windshield wiper.  We are loaded with new (to us) books from the trading corner in the store.

After lunch we took the courtesy car for errands.  While Jean and I got pedicures, George bought a new inverter at Best Buy.  I broke the inverter last week by trying to use it with a hair dryer.  He also picked up a few groceries at Wegmans.  Somehow George came out of Wegmans with only the items on our list.  He showed amazing self control, for the Wegmans is full of fun food.

Now we are reading and biding our time until docktails with the other loopers here.  There will be a discussion about taking off tomorrow.  What time is everyone planning to exit?  The canals are open!
Lock #23 on the Erie, our last lock, opens at 7:00 am.  The Oswego Canal opens at 8:00 am.  We plan to leave at 6:30 am.  However, we don't know how many other boaters have that same plan.  We may find ourselves in a big group at the lock.  I think the start of tomorrow will require patience and good
manners.

We did not take any photos today, so here are the latest pictures of our grandchildren from this weekend.  (There are new photos on the Witty Boats page.)

Asa is happy about life at six months old. 

Big brother Louie is a cool dude at the San Francisco Zoo. 

Addie and Zoe celebrated July 4th in style in Atlanta.

Dinghy Sunday

 Here is Aunt Aggie on the Erie Canal. A friend took this photo as they passed us.

Today is a beautiful Sunday in New York.  We did some chores today, cleaning the dinghy and then taking it out for a spin. We have not used the dinghy as much as we expected.  So it sits on the swim platform and gets dirty and full of water.  Now it looks sharp. As we were working in the dinghy, 33 Canada Geese came by in a line.  They were in family groups with Mom in front, four or more young in the middle, and Dad bringing up the rear.   

Here is the line of 33 geese. 

 Here is a family of six.

We took a short trip out on the canal to see what's happening outside our marina and to run the dinghy engine.  We saw a funny pair of boats.  

Tonic N Time (on left) and Slice of Lime (on right)

Tonight we are going to a bar with friends to watch the USA vs Japan women's soccer match.

I hope we have a better outcome than the last time they met.  USA!