Moving Right Along

Saturday, September, 6th - Sodus Bay

It's 8 p.m. and dark. We have happened upon an outdoor wedding reception at the Sodus Bay Yacht club so when our there's a lull in our Andrew Lloyd Webber CD, we can hear a mix of rousing dance music. It's likely we'll be listening to the beat of whatever the DJ thinks will keep the crowd going until later than we'd like.

Yesterday we were wondering if we were going to make it away from the dock at Olcott. Our newly installed rebuilt starter motor didn't start. After repeated tries - Bob would go down into the cabin, lift the stairs to have a look at the engine - clank at something and then come up to try again. Following several rounds of this, the engine finally started - but we were afraid to turn it off again even when the winds came up and we could have made good time without it. Actually, we've never gone so fast. The winds were strong and with the engine running at low revs, to our great surprise, we were at times doing more than 8 knots (our hull speed is 7.3 knots).

Bob phoned ahead to a marina in Rochester and was able to book a mechanic for this morning to replace the current starter with our spare starting engine. The mechanic arrived promptly and after an hour of work, I am thankful to report that the engine now starts with one press of the button. At about noon, we set out for Sodus Bay where we are now - listening to loud wedding music.

Photo - Sunday Morning at Sodus Bay Yacht Club

Sunday, September 7th - Oswego

After a half day of motor sailing over bumpy seas (I was green by noon) we are here at Oswego Marina. The sails are off of the boat , the radar has been dismounted and we will soon walk over to John and Eileen's trawler, Somewhere in Time for a "celebratory dinner". Bob has the stand for the mast partially built - he'll finish it tomorrow morning and then in the early afternoon the mast comes down, will be laid across our deck and secured and then we will go through the first lock of the New York State Canal system.

Laying the mast across the "cradle".

Here's Sea Change at Winter Harbor on the Oneida River - part of the Erie Canal system.

We went through 8 locks today - 22 more locks to go. This was our initiation day - it was pouring rain on and off all day and we started through the first 3 locks with strong winds coming from behind us. It was quite something. I won't go through the gory details but it didn't go well. After the first 2 locks, we considered throwing in the towel for the day but since there was no place to tie up on that part of the canal, that wasn't an option. Eventually the wind began to drop and we got better at grabbing the ropes or cables running down the lock walls. Still we were glad to tie up at the end of today and to join Eileen and John for an "after action review" debrief and drink.


Tomorrow is supposed to be a beautiful day which should be great since this is a picturesque area - and we will be crossing Lake Oneida and then going on to more locks - 2 more with the water "going down" (as the locks so far have been) and all the rest "going up" adding a new dimension to our lock management learning. Onward and upward!