Day 300: Monday, July 1, 2013

Port to Port: Kingston, NY

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Marina

Mile to Mile: I wish I could have gotten a picture of the tree going by this afternoon. It was at least 50’ long and still had branches sticking out. It was traveling at about 3-4 mph with the current and headed to the Hudson. Somehow it got washed off the shore of this little creek and started its journey towards New York City and the Atlantic Ocean. This was just a tiny example of the kind of debris that has been flushed into the river systems around here and creating a challenge to navigation. We got another 2+ inches of rain this morning to add to the 5+ we have gotten over the last week. This has been the rainiest June on record in many places in New York. I think I like drought better.

I got a haircut today, bought some garlic knots for dinner and started considering a huge change in our plans. The outlook for the Erie Canal is bleak at the moment. There is a lot of debris in the system and this most recent rain has caused more damage to the locks and canal. Our best guess is that it will be 10+ days at a minimum before it will reopen and that is assuming more torrential rains don’t cause more problems. We are starting to get to the point where we need to start moving or we won’t be able to get off Lake Michigan before September storms start. Some people are considering turning back south and quitting the Loop for this year. We are now considering going straight north toward Montreal and then west and south back to Lake Ontario along a series of canals and river systems in Ontario. This adds a minimum of 10 days to our trip and 300 miles – it is beautiful countryside but we don’t know if we can do it yet because of strong opposing currents along some sections of the route. We don’t know yet how all this rain has been affecting this part of Canada either. We have a lot of planning to do.

The highlight for today was docktails and our impromptu sing-a-long. Jan on Adagio wrote some original lyrics to the tune” I’ll Fly Away”  - now renamed “Can’t Sail Away” – capturing perfectly our stay here in Kingston and even accompanied us on her dulcimer. It’s amazing how everyone makes the best of a frustrating situation and, many times, our best experiences are the result of hardship or challenges. This is one of those times.