Day 299: Sunday, June 30, 2013

Port to Port: Kingston, NY

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

Mile to Mile: Can you guess where we went today? Ron generously offered to drop us off in Woodstock to wander for a few hours while he visited his grandchild nearby. The famous Woodstock concert in the summer of 1969 was originally supposed to held in Woodstock but too many people were expected so they moved the venue to a farm field miles away. The original name stuck though and is now part of history. Woodstock is now a successful tourist trap/art community surrounded by expensive Catskill Mountain real estate. Kind of interesting how things work out.

We enjoyed our walking tour of all the little shops and restaurants lining the main downtown area. I didn’t realize how scenic this part of NY state was with the haze shrouded green hills of the Catskill Mountains in the background. We saw plenty of tie dye t-shirts, old vinyl records, incense burners and reproduction concert posters. Linda took the Spirit Award for her tie-dye t-shirt, long necklace and bandana. We enjoyed a nice lunch at a little bistro and sat watching a rushing waterfall hidden down a side street. Woodstock is not very big – Ron got done early and found us after wandering only a few minutes. Thanks again Ron for adding another wonderful memory to our stay in Kingston.

After hitting an ice cream shop on the way home we got back to the marina just as dark clouds started aiming right for us (again). (Not surprising, though since my phone had beeped a warning at me about a flash flood warning for this area). While we were gone, we got a half inch of rain and some nice wind gusts (pulled out a grommet on our sun shade and knocked over chairs on the deck by the marina). I decided to chance it and get some more steps in but I bet wrong and, before I got out of lowertown, it started to pour. I just sat on some steps under an awning for about 45 minutes watching the rain fall and rivers of water rush down the steep hill toward the river. I made it to the overhang on the boat barn at the marina during a short lull but then it started to pour again. After a while, Cindy came out with the big umbrella and we walked to the next marina to get ice and go back to the boat. At the rate we are going, we may not get into Canada until mid July.

Tomorrow is a huge milestone – Day 300 on the Great Loop! We will have to do something fun to celebrate. Peace out. ☮

Day 298: Saturday, June 28, 2013

Port to Port: Kingston, NY

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

Mile to Mile: One trait important on the Loop is flexibility. We have been in Kingston for two weeks today. Eddy and Linda have been here for almost 3 weeks. We could go up the Champlain Canal and down the Rideau to Lake Ontario and then on the Trent Severn. This would add 250 miles to the trip and we would have to travel against the current for a good chunk – not fun. And right now the Champlain is flowing fast with flood waters. The current forecast is that the Erie Canal may not open for another week. Yikes. At least we aren’t stuck in a lock.

After catching up on the blog, a long walk, lunch, minor boat projects, a quiet break to read, docktails (always a blast), breakfast (ebleskivers) for dinner, a movie (Sherlock Holmes) we were exhausted and asleep in minutes. That was our day. We aren’t complaining though. We don’t need anything. We are with friends. And we are making the most of everyday.

Tomorrow is another day.

Day 297: Friday, June 27, 2013

Port to Port: Kingston, NY

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

Mile to Mile: The good news is that the repairs are done to the locks and dams on the Erie Canal. The bad news is too much rain is causing flooding and keeping the system closed for who knows how long. The boats that were trapped in the locks for the last couple of weeks are still there – they were hours away from escaping but then this new weather system moved in and kept the system closed. All the boats that were waiting on the docks at Waterford had to move up the Hudson past a couple of locks to the Waterford Flight to avoid the flood waters expected today and tomorrow at the City docks. At least they got to move somewhere. That had to be an interesting adventure. We are resigned to the fact that we won’t be able to leave until after the Fourth of July most likely so we just need to make the most of our stay here.

We used our time efficiently this morning – we combined a trip to the Laundromat with another visit to our favorite restaurant – the Rainbow Café – for their breakfast- special – two eggs, hashbrowns, bacon, toast and coffee. What a deal. Eddy and Linda even squeezed in a quick dance by the jukebox in the Laundromat.

  We had no plans for the afternoon other than a walk but we spontaneously decided to the movies and see Eddy’s girlfriend Sandra Bullock in The Heat. Ron ran us up their again and we made it with time to spare. I have never been to a theatre that runs almost a half hour of trailers before the scheduled feature. We could have been 20 minutes late and still made the movie with time to spare.

After a long hot walk home, it was almost time for docktails (again). We had a great turnout and were having so much fun, we all extended the party over to the Irish pub for dinner. Who wants to cook on a hot, humid day. Cindy and I enjoyed chatting with Timmy, the Irishman we met the last time. He basically lives at the pub when he isn’t working so it was not surprising we would cross paths again. He has more stories that I will ever have in my lifetime. His life is the story of Ireland over the past 40 years. He loves Ireland and hopes to return there in a few years. Ireland is on our bucket list too. (This is another list that seems to keep getting longer the more people we meet on the Loop). Hmmm… I wonder how the boating is in Europe?

Day 296: Thursday, June 26, 2013

Port to Port: Kingston, NY

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

First Things First: First time enjoying a shot of homemade apple pie moonshine (it was smooth….).

Mile to Mile: Well, we were hopeful for almost 24 hours. The news today was fruststrating but not surprising. The National Weather Service has forecast the potential for flooding rains over a large area of the Erie Canal watershed. To play it safe, they are lowering the water level to reduce the potential for damage to the locks and avoid having boaters trapped in the locks. We understand the reasoning but it still is a challenge to live with the uncertainty and be in a kind of suspended animation.

Several boats left this morning (I’m sure they didn’t like this new news) and a couple boats came in. It is getting hard to say goodbye to our new friends every day. Cindy, Linda and I walked up to the Walgreens to print some pics and mail a couple letters (Eddie may or may not have napped). Without any big project, I topped off our water tank, folded and stored the jib and cleaned out the main cockpit locker (just because I could).

After lunch, Ron took us up to the grocery store to get a few things and drove us back to the marina. This is above and beyond – it definitely makes our stay here much more enjoyable. After docktails, where we shared a quart of homemade apple pie moonshine Eddy and Linda got as a gift from a friend, we enjoyed a dinner of leftover pork tenderloin and rice on Spiritus. We ended the evening with a movie (the Tourist) in the barn topped off with angel food cake, strawberries and whipped cream. This being stranded is a tough life. I may need to get new pants if we don’t get moving soon.

Day 295: Wednesday, June 26 , 2013

Port to Port: Kingston, NY

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

Mile to Mile: We finally got some updated information. The good news is the lock system is opening to traffic on Friday. The bad news is the weather forecast is calling for a lot of rain over the next week. To be on the safe side, they are lowering the water levels in the Erie Canal to be ready for any additional water flowing through the system. We have commented every day over the past week here how perfect the weather has been for travel and now we might be traveling and the forecast is all wet. Hopefully it will just be afternoon rain so we can travel in the morning and be done early everyday. We shall see.

Everyone is now in planning mode. When should we leave? Where should we stop? Should we hurry or relax and take our time? Where do we want to be for the Fourth of July? Our “plan” right now is to leave Sunday and anchor out and then go to Waterford for a couple of days to stay at their free dock and explore before heading towards the Erie Canal. This will allow some time for all the boats ahead of us to get through the locks and let things get back to normal.

  One of the boats that was been trapped in the locks for this whole time is Help Me Rhonda. They have posted about their experience on their website – it is worth checking out (http://www.wrmcmanus.blogspot.com/). This will probably be one of the most memorable experiences of their trip.

We got an early start today to try to beat the heat. Ron dropped Eddy, Linda, Cindy and me off at Eddyville about 3.5 miles up river by a manmade waterfall. We enjoyed a leisurely walk enjoying the scenery, taking pictures of Eddy in front of the Eddyville sign, checking out the architecture and exploring some of the ruins leftover from this areas heyday. We detoured over the bridge to the Sunshine Café to get a little lunch (and/or ice cream) before getting back to the marina in time for naps (I wish). With lots of time available and nothing to do before our potluck at 5:30 pm, I decided it was a perfect time to figure out how to build a bipod to support our mast when we take it down for the locks. Luckily, I was able to get a long 2×4 right here at the marina and, with the loan of a jigsaw from Carried Away, soon had a custom made mast support all assembled and stored on Aurora’s bow ready for use in a few days.

We ended the day with another successful potluck – this time celebrating the news about the locks opening soon – and we watched the dvd “Hyde Park” in the barn on the computer. We are definitely ready to move on but it is going to be sad to say goodbye to our friends here – we will hopefully meet again but you never know.

Day 294: Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Port to Port: Kingston, NY

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

Mile to Mile: When there is an information vacuum, rumors tend to quickly fill the space. The general consensus now is that the locks will open by Friday although a separate rumor is that there is still a lot of work to be done to finish. Who knows. We also found out that the Trent Severn may have to close too due to high water although it hasn’t had to yet. It would not be fun to be stranded twice.

It feels like the dog days of summer already – hot and humid – although we had a welcome breeze today. After breakfast, we took advantage of the cooler morning weather to scrub the boat and wipe down some of our storage bags to get rid of a small amount of mildew. After our boat projects, we joined up with Spiritus and Adagio to walk up the hill to get some Sami’s Pizza. It was worth the walk. It was a little weird though when we noticed that we have been here so long that we are starting to dress alike. Weird things happen on the Loop I guess

After our long pizza walk, naps sounded good but we had a few more projects to do first. I changed the spark plugs (they really needed it although the motor has been purring along nicely lately) and I checked and cleaned out the thermostat. All looks good. Cindy put the V-berth back together after taking out all her storage bags to clean. It looks like someone had a party onboard and trashed the place.

After docktails, we enjoyed pork roast on the grill, couscous, salad and bread with Eddy and Linda on Spiritus. We chatted so long we didn’t have time to watch a movie. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

PS: The rumor now is that commercial traffic will be allowed through the Erie Canal on Thursday and everyone else will be able to start Friday. That is an encouraging rumor.

Day 293: Monday, June 24, 2013

Port to Port: Guess Where, NY

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

First Things First: First really noisy thunderstorm in a long time.

Mile to Mile: Everyone who is stranded here is finishing up different boat projects like varnishing their brightwork, stowing water and food for the trip north, sealing leaks in their dinghys, etc. These projects tend to sit on the To Do List for a long time because impromtu dinner parties, docktails and restaurant runs take priority. All the Loopers heading north should be well prepared for the trip through the canals after, for some people, weeks parked and waiting.

Eddy whipped up some scrambled egg breakfast burritos with Spam for breakfast. Our schedule today is mostly wide open so we stretched breakfast out for a couple hours before we headed off to finish a couple projects before hitching a ride with Bruce (Miss Darlin II) up to Walmart. We were his second trip up there today and he is taking another couple of cruisers up there this afternoon (there should be some kind of Looper Award for generosity – thanks Bruce).

With nothing pressing to do in the afternoon, Cindy and I finally had time to explore the Hudson River Maritime Museum – what a wonderful place. There are displays on everything from the history of the Roundout to the discovery and commercialization of the Hudson to ice boating on the river. We spent a few hours reading and watching our way through history. It reminds me a lot of the history of Lake Minnetonka. One thing that stood out is how much the Hudson we have experienced is very similar to the Hudson of 100 years ago. The types of boats we have seen haven’t changed much in all that time – ferry’s, tugs, fireboats, pleasure craft, barges, cruise liners and even kayaks were common then as now. We are lucky to experience history from these historic waterways.

Just as we finished the museum, the skies darkened, lightning flashed brightly and the thunder made the ground shake. Torrential rains followed close behind (just what we need is more rain). It is kind of refreshing – we haven’t have many rip roaring storms since we left Minnesota. Thankfully these are localized afternoon thunderstorms – not huge multistate all day rain events. At least the temperature dropped about 10˚. We went back into the museum after sitting out under the picnic table tents when it got a little windy. We are lucky to be “stranded” here. Some cruisers were stuck between locks on the Erie with no services and nothing much to do. It will be interesting to hear their stories.

We lucked out with the rain – just a few miles away they got lots of wind that damaged some homes, blew down some trees and knocked out power. Ron, one of the volunteers here, was right in the middle of it at his house.

After a easy to make dinner of beef tips, rice and sweet corn, we set up the computer on Spiritus’ fly bridge and enjoyed a movie on Netflix as we watched a fog shrouded moon rise over the hills across the river. It is going to be hard to get back into our normal travel routine after staying in one place for so long. It looks like Friday is the most likely day for the locks to open but we probably won’t know until Friday. Que sara, sara……

Day 292: Sunday, June 23, 2013

Port to Port: Kingston, NY

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

Mile to Mile: It was hot today. It’s hard to get inspired to go on long walks or work on boat projects when the sweat pours off your forehead. I spent a lot of time working on the computer sitting at the picnic table in the shade enjoying a nice breeze. I backed up our photos, wrote the blog, fixed a couple internet problems and everything I did was invisible.

We are starting to go a little stir crazy waiting for information on the Erie Canal. The word now is that Lock 13 is the main problem and it may be back in operation by Thursday or Friday. The Erie Canal will be a very busy place those first few days once it opens. We won’t leave here until a day or two after it opens to give them time to clear out some of the backlog.

We joined Spiritus in the afternoon and walked over the bridge to the Rainbow Café where we enjoyed a wonderful late lunch and dawdled in the air conditioned confort. After ice cream on the way home and docktails after we got there, we tried movie night again. Adagio – the boat parked in front of us – happened to have “When Harry Met Sally” on dvd so we all met in the boat building barn, hooked up a DVD player to the TV and finished our movie from last night.

Everyday is a surprise. Tomorrow, we know we are going to have breakfast burritos with Eddy and Linda at 8:30 am and, at 11:00 am, Bruce on Miss Darlin II is going to give us a ride to Walmart (thanks Bruce). And it’s going to be hot again. And we will try again to find a pizza place that is open at the same time we are hungry. We are  just taking each day one at a time.

Day 291: Saturday, June 22, 2013

Port to Port: Kingston, NY

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

Mile to Mile: It’s usually quiet and peaceful when I work on the blog sitting at one of the picnic tables up by the museum but it was a busy place this morning. Mimi got underway early as she slowly slid away from the dock leaving us all alone for a little while. The rowing club started showing up early too. They are taking some newbies out in the rowing sculls for their first time on the river. The four person boats are longer than most of the cruisers who dock here. I’m jealous when I see them almost silently gliding down the river as the sun is coming up.

Linda, the Museum Director, generously offered to give us a ride to Uptown so we met at 9 am and headed to the farmers market. We wandered around the market, took in a little history in the Stockade area of Uptown and surprise, surprise, found a classic bakery we couldn’t pass up. After some shopping for boat stuff and groceries, we tried to find a bus back to the marina. No bus for us so we hopped in a cab and dragged our heavy bags back home the easy way.

Docktails is at 5:00 pm (again) but we had enough time to try to squeeze in the Trolley Museum so we wandered a couple blocks over there only to find that not enough volunteers showed up to staff the museum (again) – only the trolley was running. I guess it wasn’t meant to be. Time for a nap, I guess.

Even though the number of cruisers has dwindled, new boats show up all the time so docktails is a great way to meet and greet our new neighbors. We broke up a little early so everyone could get their potluck dish ready for our little BBQ tonight – Eddy and Linda are cooking brats on the grill and everyone else is bringing something to share – it always seems to work out perfect and tonight was no exception. We had brats, hot dogs, fruit, potato skins, beans, O’Henry Bars and other goodies. Being stranded is fattening.

Tonight is movie night – Kingston is sponsoring movies in the park this summer and tonight is the first one at a park along the river just a few minutes away. Our new New Zealand friends on Kiwi II are parked stern-in at the marina there and they have a perfect view of the inflatable screen – that’s a first. We were all excited and enjoying the movie When Harry Met Sally but it was not to be. The movie started skipping and then a little while later it stopped altogether and they decided to start over with The Breakfast Club. By this time, half the movie was done and it was past cruisers midnight (10:00 pm), so the party broke up and we’ll have to try again. It was a bust but fun together time. Hopefully, we won’t be here for the next movie.

Day 290: Friday, June 21, 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 figured out what I want to do when I grow up today. I want to volunteer at a maritime museum that also happens to have a small marina attached to it. I want to be like Ron. He is an amazing volunteer here that used to work at the Museum of Natural History in NYC and now contributes much of his free time here. He gets to use his creativity helping to design and build displays in the museum and meet all the different people who arrive here by boat everyday (thanks Ron for everything that you do – we appreciate it immensely). I wonder how many of these there are in the country?

Today we played musical boats. A 120’ luxury motor yacht was arriving today so, after several boats left this morning, Spiritus moved back to the next dock down river and we moved Aurora up to where Spiritus had been. It was an interesting juxtaposition when Mimi, came up river, turned around and slid sideways onto the dock right in front of us. There used to be four other cruisers in that space. Amazing. Mimi has a Minnesota connection. She is owned by Stanley Hubbard of Hubbard Broadcasting (KSTP) in Minnesota. She is headed to Chicago and also waiting for the locks to open. Coincidently, we met the Captain and First Mate running Stanley Hubbard’s 57’ motoryacht when we were going south by Pebble Isle along the rivers last fall. It is a small world.

I don’t know where the day went. We had a short, emotional ceremony where Tom passed the key to the restroom on to Eddy. It was very moving. I finished painting the rubber paint on the dinghy. Now I just have to reseal the front tube that has started leaking too fast. Ron took Cindy and I up to a nearby gas station and post office where we got gas and sent home about 15 pounds of books and guides we don’t need anymore (thanks again Ron). Before we knew it, it was time for docktails. Our group is getting smaller but, as long as we have two boats or more, its enough for a party.  A group of us wandered through town trying to find a place to eat dinner. Pizza sounded good but the nearest one seemed closed and we found out the other one we were heading towards was also closed. Weird. So we ended up at a sketchy Chinese place – we were starving. We sat and chatted with Eddy and Linda as we watched the supermoon rise over the river and said goodnight to another interesting day on the Loop.

Day 289: Thursday, June 20, 2013

Port to Port: Kingston, NY

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

First Things First: First Laundromat with a jukebox in it.

Mile to Mile: Some of the locks are still closed which is pretty much the same thing as all the locks being closed. Everyone is still stuck. Some people are getting antsy, though, and have decided to move farther north even though most of the marinas are full or more expensive. The rumor is that the last locks won’t open until next week – maybe Tuesday. That is going to screw up a lot of schedules. We aren’t suffering any and plan to wait until the locks are completely open to move on. It will take us two days to get to Waterford and we want to spend a couple days there before entering the Erie Canal. Hopefully, the crowds will thin out over this time and we will have a peaceful passage up to the Trent Severn.

Today was laundry day so we joined Spiritus and walked over the bridge to the nearest Laundromat and discovered the nice little hamlet of Port Ewe in the process. We got the loads started and wandered back to an inviting ice cream shop/ restaurant for a snack and Eddy and I headed back to the boats to work on projects while the girls went back to flip the loads into the dryer. I spent several hours cleaning the dinghy – barnacle residue is really hard to get off the bottom. We also have something sticky on top of the dinghy and I tried everything with no success until Eddy rescued me with some magic cleaning solution that took it off instantly. Tomorrow I will spray a couple coats of rubber paint on the stern to try to seal a couple leaks and we will be ready for the rest of the journey.

After our projects were done, we celebrated with an excellent late lunch at Mole Mole, a nearby Mexican restaurant – $10 for a drink and entrée. We finished in time to mix some new refreshments and join our fellow strandees for docktails at 5:00 pm. Several of our new friends are leaving tomorrow morning so it was nice to chat one more time. It will get pretty quiet here but we are glad Eddy and Linda are planning to stick around a little longer.

  We finished the night with a movie (Young At Heart) on Spiritus’ fly bridge as the sun slowly set. A perfect ending to another “busy” day.

Day 288: Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Port to Port: Kingston

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

First Things First: First time making ableskivers for 20+ people – a new record. (And we cooked them on our cookstove for the first time – worked perfectly).

Mile to Mile: Our only scheduled activity today was brunch at 11:00 am. On a Wednesday. Cindy is making ableskivers. We can’t miss that.

I got up early (the sun is a very reliable natural alarm), again (sorry Cindy). The blog didn’t magically appear but it wrote itself fairly easily. I need some more chemicals before I can finish cleaning the dinghy so that project is on hold. Cindy started early prepping all the ingredients and equipment needed to make ableskivers for 20+ people (yikes).

The locks are starting to open so several boats from the two marinas here left this morning including Slow Churn (bye guys, see you in Brewerton). No brunch for you. Ron and Linda at the museum helped us get everything ready – they put table cloths on the picnic tables, provided coffee and rolls (thanks for the gift boxes of cookies too) and helped set everything up. We got Cindy set up early to be sure everything was working good before everyone arrived. Luckily, every batch turned out perfect and they were a huge hit. The other boaters soon started arriving with egg bakes, cinnamon streusel cake, bisquits, oyster gravy, fruit bowls, pastries, grits and a dozen other brunch treats. What a feast. We love brunch so we are in heaven. And even here we get to meet and hear stories from new people from Australia or Wisconsin or who knows where. What a life.

Brunch was a huge success (and we even had a few ableskivers left over for breakfast tomorrow for Spiritus and us) and it was time to get some other projects done. While Eddy and I took a circuitous 1.5 hour bus tour of Kingston while trying to get to the mall to get some essentials, the girls walked around lower town getting their errands done. Eddy and I were successful and decided to walk back to the marina – it was faster and we needed to burn off brunch and make room for a few extra calories from boat-tails.

We whipped up a few snacks and drinks and sat on Spiritus’ fly bridge enjoying the warm sunshine and great company as the sun slowly set over the canal. What a wonderful day. We all headed over to the workshop and joined a large group of locals listening to a presentation and slide show by a local professor on the history of Roundout which is the name of the area we are staying in by the water. It reminded me of the history of Lake Minnetonka and many other places we have visited along the waterways of the Great Loop. Tomorrow is another day.