August 25, 2012 - New York City

Fountain where one of the fallen Trade Centre was situated.

Took the train into NYC to take a prearranged sight seeing tour. Saw the World Trade Centre site and memorial. Around the fountains are the names of the people who perished in those buildings. Security to enter this site was surprisingly tight, just like going through an airport with all the x-rays, etc. We couldn't believe how many police officers they had on duty.

We started the tour at Time Square, then onto Wall St., Battery Park, the Dakota where John Lennon lived, Central Park, and took a tour boat to see Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. It was all beautiful, but Carole would have liked to do more shopping, of course!

John Lennon's memorial in Central Park



August 24, 2012 - Croton on Hudson, NY

We had no idea how beautiful the Hudson river is. We went by Westpoint Military Academy as well as numerous multi-million dollar mansions.

Dad on the Hudson

 

West Point Military Academy
 

Stayed at the Half Moon Bay marina for 3 nights. We planned to dock at this marina because of its proximity to the train station that would take us into a 45 minute ride to New York city. One day while on our sundeck at the marina, Carole heard a boat coming into the marina from a nearby beach that was making quite a bit of noise. I turned and saw the captain with a look of frustration yell, " I can't get this boat moving, I think something is wrapped around my prop"!  I laughed and told him that it could be because he forgot to bring up his anchor. He looked embarrassed and laughed it off by saying, "I guess I failed boating 101". I think he had a few to many "pops" at the beach!

August 23, 2012 Kingston, NY

Docked and dined at the Steele House Restaurant. Huge restaurant/bar which originally was a small steele work boat factory. Nice place, good food and party place in the evenings. Docking was free for the night as we had supper there. Took a walk into town and noticed for such a small town, it had an unusually numerous amount of restaurants.

August 21, 2012 Waterford, NY



High water levels from hurricane Irene
 

Present day water level



Water level during Irene was at the top of the white line on the bridge abutment to the right



Dad was a great help! All these locks were very tiresome

Long day, after going through 15 locks, we were beat. Stopped for the night at the Waterford town dock. Again a free dock and $10 for 50 amp power. This town's waterfront was severely damaged last year by hurricane Irene (see picture of high water levels). The same Irene that postponed our trip until this year. Our 2 night stay was very pleasant.

August 17, 2012 Phoenix, NY

                                                  Bridge House Brats, Taylor and Tyler

Phoenix famous Breadbowl Salad

 

 

After going through 7 locks, we stopped for the night at the Phoenix town dock. This town dock is run by an organization of kids called "Bridge House Brats". Just to give a little history, the town of Phoenix with its population of 2000 could not afford to run the town docks any longer. Someone had the great idea to organize the towns young people to beautify the city and rebuild the docks and clean up adjacent park. This was all accomplished by donations from boaters and tourists travelling through the area. A network of parents help the kids perform these tasks. To our amazement these youths were very eager to help the boaters out in any way such as handling dock lines, wash boat if you'd like and the best part of all, they would come onto our boat to deliver menus from the nearby restaurants and serve us! They cheerfully took our orders then ran over to the restaurants to place the orders. Afterwards they delivered our meals to our boat. All these services were provided to us free, including the docking, electrical, and water hook-up. The "brats" gratefully accepted tips and we also left a donation to the organization. On the friday night stay, they had a band playing in the park right next to us. The towns people would gather there and enjoy the music, a meal or just a homemade piece of pie for $1 baked from the kids parents. We enjoyed their famous breadbowl salad and peanut butter pie! It was an excellent 2 night stay.

Arrived in Oswego, NY Aug. 16, 2012.

Uncomfortable 5 3/4 hour crossing from Rochester as there were 3+ ft waves on the stern quarter. Lock 8 of the Oswego canal was our 1st bridge and lock that we came to. Busy getting prepared for the lock we neglected to lower the VHF and WIFI antennas as passed under the bridge....broke both of them. Had to have new WIFI antenna shipped from Florida to a marina down stream. Stayed overnight at the free wall dock between lock 8 and 7. Nice lock master told us to pick some fresh tomatoes from their garden.

Finally, after years of dreaming, preparation, and lots of hard work, we have started our travels south on the Rol & C's. We left Port Dalhousie today, August 15, and reached Rochester, NY. I won't be writing everyday but thought that I should at least commemorate the first day of our voyage with a few lines. The day went well, we pulled into the Youngstown Yatch Club to report to US customs around 9 am and then we're off to Rochester with all the legalities taken care of. Lake Ontario cooperated allowing only 1 to 2 foot waves from the north west. Our blinding speed of 9.5 mph got us to our destination in 11 hours. Of course we had about a 1 hour delay for our customs stop.
Tomorrow we are heading for Oswego, NY. That will be our last day on the great lakes for the foreseeable future. Once we enter the Oswego Canal, it will take us to the NY State Barge Canal and then the Hudson River to New York city.
After all the rushing to get ready for this adventure, it's time to slow down. At these speeds we have no choice but we plan on travelling shorter distances each day and some days not at all. It's time to wind down and relax.
We have a passenger with us for the leg to the Big Apple, Carole's father Doug . He decided to take us up on our invitation to come along for part of the ride. I hope he can put up with all this excitement!