Rain/wind delay

We spent the day in Castleton based on the weather forecast, hence no new SPOT location.  The forecast was for winds from 5 to 50 mph, blowing straight up the river, with  100% chance of rain.  Since the next stop was 40 to 50 miles we didn't really want to get caught in the river with the combined wind and waves.   We got the rain, starting at 7:00 this morning.  The wind never filled in until 6:00 this afternoon, so we could have moved.  Oh well...

We spent the day, knitting (well, not me), web browsing, reading, napping, listening to an audio book (I'll Mature when I'm Dead by Dave Barry),and exploring Castleton (20 minutes).  After supper (chili) we watched The Big Lebowski and split a half gallon of ice cream.  Just as we were turning in for the night the temperature was almost 80.  The next few days the highs will be arouind 60!

We're hoping to move south again tomorrow, and maybe have something intreresting to report.

Another milestone.

At Castleton-on-Hudson Boat Club

We got off to a bit of a rough start this morning.  Yesterday we docked with the stern of the boat facing the discharge area of the last lock.  Overnight grass and weeds collected around the rudder, prop shaft, and cooling water intake for the diesel.  It took a while to get the propellor spinning freely, and as soon as we pushed off from the dock we realized that we had no cooling water through the diesel.  We got back to a dock and eventually were able to blow through the water hose to get rid of the grass blockage.  It would have been so much easier if Sue had just jumped in the Hudson and pulled the grass away, but do you think I could convince her to go for an early morning swim?  A couple of people on the boat (who should remain nameless) think I didn't tell the whole story about the missing cooling water.  Said people thought that they could use the dinghy foot pump (for inflating our dinghy) to blow out the blockage in the water line.  (I think they were just stalling to avoid going for a swim.)  At any rate, after their attempt failed I used the direct approach to orally clear out the line.  There was some mention of the benefits of being a windbag - I have no idea what they were talking about!

At any rate we made it to Castleton-on-Hudson where Skip, Kris, Harold and Eileen helped us get the mast back up.  Skip and Kris then left, making room in the quarter berth for Harold and Eileen for the next couple of weeks. 

Of course just before we left this morning Eileen had done a great job making up the bunk in the quarter berth and stowing their gear.  And of course the water strainer which I thought might be plugged was under the quarter berth so I got to totally trash all her hard work!

Eileen was a good sport, and she and Harold spent the rest of the day helping us get the boat rigged, the sails on, the dinghy pumped up, and all the rest of the chores necessary to turn Passage into a sailboat again.

A couple of people have asked how to post comments.  I think if you go to the bottom of an entry you will see "Comment".  If you click I think it opens a text box for your comments.

Last locks, laundry, and a lay day.

9/14/10 to 9/17/10 We left North Cape Yacht Club about 7:30 AM with Skip and Kris McCullough. Several people were there to wish us well and it was hard to go. We basically motored the entire length of Lake Erie, only sailing about four hours when we had favorable winds in the mid 20‘s. On our first day a lamprey eel attached itself to the stern of the boat. It must have thought the boat was a giant fish to suck on! The cats wish they were still home. Fluff spends the days burrowed under a sleeping bag in the V-berth and Zimmie sleeps on a settee when he isn’t sea sick.

9/18/10 to 9/27/10 The 18^th was mast lowering day at Wardell’s. He has quite the reputation but he did a quick, professional job and we had the mast down and secured within about two hours. The next day Richard decided to change out the water pump on the diesel, as the old one had started to leak a bit. Then it was on to the Erie Canal. We decided to take it slow so that we could enjoy some of the sights and towns along the way. We visited or stopped in Lockport (two back-to-back locks dropped us about 75 feet), Medina (wonderful model railroad museum), Brockport, Albion, Fairport, Clyde (had to raft with a catamaran, Ragtime II, due to shallow depths), Baldwinsville (great 50's diner there), Brewerton (where we waited out the 25 knot winds before crossing Oneida Lake), Ilion (where we briefly lost steerage due to a large branch getting caught on the rudder), and Crescent (tied to the terminal wall in the pouring rain waiting to go through the Waterford Flight of Five locks). We’ve all been enjoying quiet entertainments in the evenings. Kris and Sue knit while Skip and Richard do computer stuff. We had a couple of movie nights (Capt. Ron and Taken) and baked brownies or had ice cream.

9/28/10 Now we are in Waterford, NY, where we will change crew.  We did two loads of laundry, filled the water tanks, and went shopping for groceries.  Harold and Eileen Hoffman will join us while Skip and Kris McCullough will go home for a short while. They will join us again in Annapolis for the boat show. Then the McCulloughs and Hoffmans will drive home together and it will be just Richard, Sue, Zimmie and Fluff who will continue on.

We're making much better progress than we thought - seen while still in the Erie Canal!

Second post, day 14

Today we're about a day away from the Hudson River.  Hopefully in a few more days we will go from this to looking and acting more like a sailboat.

Here is a typical view the last week from behind the wheel of an un-sailboat.

Can you spot the hot dog in Medina, NY?

Here is the first lock at Lockport, NY.

It looks like it's going to take me a few more tries to figure out how to add photos and text in the proper order.  Keep checking back, I might get it right.

Since you asked for, we'll give it a try.

For all of you who asked if we would be doing a Blog on this trip, we've finally set one up.  Since it's taken us 2 weeks to get around to figuring out how to actually start a blog, I think you will be safe in not expecting too much!

Most of our sailing friends know that we are on a Tartan 372 (a 37 foot sailboat) with our 2 cats, Zimmie and Fluff.  Right now, since we left North Cape Yacht Club on Lake Erie, we are travelling with two friends, Skip and Kris.  Skip and Kris actually helped us deliver this boat from the Chesapeake when we bought it two years ago.  They didn't do the Erie Canal portion of that trip then, so now they are seeing what they missed.  (All except the fog and frost on the decks in the mornings!)

Right now we are about two days from Waterford, New York on the Hudson River.   So in a few more days we will once again be on a sailboat.  Sue says she will fill in some of the trip details in the near future.  In the mean time, if you haven't already gotten this link:  http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0AKNRe4cVYivOrbeVu0cp1zBcthxdkh4K
you can check out our daily stops.  Be sure to click on the "Satellite" view, and zoom in.  It's scary how close the position is most of the time.