Blog Post #12 The Champlain Canal and into the Lake July 7 - July  15

It took some time to get back our “boat brains” which goes to show it can be dangerous to leave the boat. We set off up the Hudson from Albany, but before we got to Troy I remembered that I had bike covers sent to the marina while we were away, and had forgotten to pick them up from the office. So lunch in Troy and a cab ride back to Albany, so much for my economy in selecting covers. Of course we should have gotten covers long ago when we were in big waves and salt water, but now the hope is we will slow the deterioration and minimize the amount of grease that gets on our clothes, the deck and our lines. 

Interesting bridge at Troy

The next event was the Federal Lock just above Troy, the first of 12 in the Champlain Canal, 64 miles connecting the Hudson with Lake Champlain, of great strategic and economic import in days of yore. This was our first lock since the Dismal Swamp, where the locks were short and sweet. We were out of practice, not quite mentally prepared (see boat brain), and just as we were getting fenders and lines ready, not paying sufficient attention to the weather, a thundershower came through with heavy rain and sudden wind, but it was too late to turn back. Unlike any lock we have been in so far this one didn’t have lines hanging from the sides to grab on to, we needed to put our lines around a pole or ladder to hold the boat to the wall while the lock filled. While I was fumbling with this at the bow the stern swung out and Joel couldn’t reach the wall. With the wind pushing us away we never did get tied but went slowly down the lock sideways while the water rose. The lock keeper, undoubtedly  out of sorts because he had to come out in the middle of a rain storm, was not helpful. Fortunately we were the only ones in the lock. After that we got our act together and we were ready for anything.

By the time we got to Lock One (first of the NY Canal Corporation) it was getting late in the afternoon and it was iffy if we would make Lock Two before closing. The Lock Master very kindly offered to drive up to Lock Two and get us through so we could get the the Mechanicville City Dock for the night, and so we did. 

Approaching Lock #1

Sweet & helpful Lock Master, as most are

Nice facilities, and free!

All of the little towns along the canal are struggling, but they have put a lot of effort into creating attractive waterfronts and welcoming boaters.  Mechanicville has free docking, electricity, water and showers! We shared the space with some lively Canadians from Quebec and Ontario and had a fine time.

The next night’s stop was at the Schuylerville Marina, where the owners of 30 years were as pleasant as can be. Schuylerville has put its development hopes into a growing arts community. Being close to Saratoga and its Revolutionary War battlefield helps too. 

Remnants from busier canal days

Quiet & cozy Schuylerville Marina

Close, but enough

Our next challenge was the fixed bridge between Locks 3 & 4, with a only 17’ clearance. For this we were prepared, having measured the boat height innumerable times, but still not a 100% certain since the water level fluctuates. The lock master cautioned us, he could tell would be close, but slowly slowly we went, with me on top giving moment to moment updates, and in the end we had over a foot to spare.

On to Whitehall, just above the last lock, and its free dock with all the amenities, even free wifi thanks to the library. 

We were the only boat at the Whitehall free dock the first night

The volunteer fire department was training new recruits next to the boat

Here we were visited by Ginger Davis, our Maine neighbor and sailing companion in Croatia. She stopped by on her return trip from the family farm in upstate NY, bearing peaches and preserves, and doughnuts.

So great Ginger could stop by for a visit

In the evening we met up with fellow loopers, Robert & Linda aboard Errant. Actually they finished the loop a few months ago, but since they were a bit rushed through Canada last year, they decided to head north again and visit Quebec City. Linda was intrigued by the various reports about Whitehall being especially depressed economically. Being of a particularly entrepreneurial turn of mind, and looking for a retirement “project” she was asking the question “what would it take to turn this town around?” We ended up accompanying them as they toured a run down, downtown, water view massive building, with a realtor, and having many conversations with various locals about the town’s prospects. Nat, the owner of a very nice restaurant, Historic Grounds, gave us the keys to his car so we could toodle about. Stay tuned to Whitehall's turn around, (although I don’t think Robert was as enthusiastic ).

Robert, a Whitehall realtor, and Linda, on the lookout for opportunity

After two nights of Whitehall’s hospitality, including the hospital chicken barbecue on the water front, we were ready to move on. The canal, lovely though it be, was beginning to feel slightly claustrophobic, and Lake Champlain beckoned.

Lake Champlain, at the narrow south end

Snow Goose, from Fort Ticonderoga

The Fort from our kayak below

Fort Ti sunset from the boat

The Kings Garden, at the Fort. Not part of the original fort, but of the people who restored it.

Fife & drum soldiers at the fort

Lovely dinghy ride up La Chute River to the Town of Ticonderoga. La Chute connects Lake George and Lake Champlain. Lake George connects with the Hudson, so before the canal this was a very important piece of real estate, see French & Indian War, Revolutionary War etc.

We had two quiet nights at anchor under the guns of Fort Ticondaroga  and then up to Fort Henry Marina, the NY side, where we spent one day cleaning the hull from the tannins south of the Chesapeake, and Joel’s numerous other projects. 

The Crown Point Bridge

 We have had hot sunny weather and light winds from the south since leaving Whitehall, but early this morning we woke up with a wind shift from the north and much racket from nearby halyards and wave action. Today is bright, cool and sunny, and winds steady at about 24 mph, so a great day to enjoy the view and get caught up on the blog.

Too windy to travel today, but what a view!

Cheers to all,
Sarah & Joel

Blog Post #11 June 25 - July 6. Off the boat, and family, new and old.

From the Albany Yacht Club we set off by automobile to East Aurora NY, my hometown, and our first night off the boat in 13 weeks. The East Aurora crew has family get togethers several times a year, but for some reason the organizing women seemed particularly insistent that I come to this one, and the timing worked well with our location, so we came.

This was Joel’s first time to the ancestral home, something about which he has taken a great deal of grief about for years, so Mary McCutcheon (niece but one year older ) greeted him with a banner, an EA tee shirt and hat, and several books about the area’s illustrious past and present.

Downtown EA, near the famous Vidlers 5&10, Joel's kind of store. Note Vidlers suspenders, one of numerous pairs

Joel having a moment with Elbert Hubbard, Hubbard, EA's most famous son. Philosopher and founder of the Roycroft community which published books journals and Mission furniture among other things. He described himself as an anarchist and a socialist, although for some reason we missed that part of his resume as kids. The community was a haven for radicals, free thinkers, reformers, and suffragists. He and his wife went down on the Lusitania in1915. 

L. Sister Jane, Sara Buckley, mother of the indomitable Eloise. R. Mary McCutcheon, me, Joel

 at The Bakery

Eloise, at Vidlers. where a dime gets you a horse ride. Eloise took to the horse with joy and amazement until a moment of almost terror, at which point she would leap into Grandma Rita's arms, for 5 seconds, and then back to the horse for another 10 seconds. Repeat sequence for probably 30 cents worth. We all got our money's worth watching this one.

It was great to see and hang with various relatives over the weekend, but the reason for the urgency was revealed at the official gathering on Sunday.

Three nieces and my childhood companions, Rita, Barb, Mary & me

Just as the eating was getting underway, a passel of people I had never seen before came in, and Barbara Carr (another one year older niece) took the stage to introduce us to heretofore unknown family. When Barbara was 16 she gave birth to a baby daughter, and here at last was her daughter,  and her daughters children, and their children! They had both tried to find each other for many years, and finally, just a few months ago, it happened. It was a total surprise to most of us in the room, and amazing, emotional moment.

Family!

Barbara and I were very close at the time she got pregnant, and yet she was forbidden to tell me what was going on. She suddenly went to live with her grandmother for the school year. Why I thought this was plausible at the time is a mystery. I would get letters, very bland ones, with a return address from Cape Cod where her grandmother lived. Shame, secrecy, and lies were all pervasive. The acute betrayal by adults  was compounded by their refusal to let me visit her when I finally discovered what was going on.  To my mother’s credit, she had wanted to tell me from the beginning, but the other adults prevailed upon her to lie, until circumstances compelled her tell the truth. Of course my trauma was nothing compared to what Barb went through.

So here is Diane, brought up in a nearby town with a great family of her own. Nice, nice people, it all felt very relaxed and right. Not all reunion stories are happy, but this one was. I am so glad I was there, thank you Mary for the nudges!

Suddenly four generations!

Back to Maine for dentists, doctors, and taxes… and gardens. one week, in and out. It was lovely see friends and family dinners with  Cathie and Mike and Margy and Steve, and Nat and Julie. All well with the house, yard, gardens and cat, thank you Bria, Ernie, and Debs’!

Dinner with Nat & Julie at the River Side Farm Market & Cafe. We can't seem to leave the water.

Pot luck Fourth of July at Nat & Julies, where we shared what the Declaration of Independence meant to us.

And here is another beautiful river...the Kennebec, at Hallowell, Maine.

Post # 10 Hudson-on-Croton to Albany June 15-25, 2015

Blog Post #10
Croton-on-Hudson to Albany,  June 15-25, 2015

Leaving NYC under the GW bridge in the foggy morning. The flag is our America's Great Loop Cruisers Association burgee. Handy for spotting other Loopers

“In river travel today, perhaps nothing is finer than arrival in the center a town without having go those purgatorial miles of vile sprawl, hideous billboards, and reiterated franchises where we we become fugitives of the ganged chains and endless surround of noplaceness, where the shabbiest of of architectural detritus washes up against the center of a town. To come in by canal or river is to see a genuine demarcation between country and city and to fetch up in the historic heart of things the way travelers once did when they had entered or departed a place.
William Least Heat-Moon, River Horse; A Voyage Across America

Couldn’t have said it better myself :) This entertaining book is about a six month trip from New York to Oregon by boat, He begins in New York, and up the Hudson on a 25 ft C-Dory. We happen to have one, its for sale, if you are interested.

We spent a week in Croton-on-Hudson at Half Moon Bay Marina. We started by visiting Joel’s cousin Sandy and her husband Allen Goldstein who live close by in Yorktown, and ended up staying  a few extra days when we learned that the Clearwater Music Festival was happening a mere mile away.

View from West Point with Allen and Sandy Goldstein

The Hudson from above

Cold Springs

Above Croton, on the Hudson

 Sandy and Allen were most excellent hosts.  Dinners at their lovely home (with laundry privileges ), a chance to catch up with cousin Jack Appel, a trip to West Marine (always) and a drive through West Point. The next day we did a tour up to Hyde Park and Eleanor’s cottage with a stop in Cold Spring.

Eleanor's cottage, Val-Kill. The only real home of her own and much loved by her.

Chatting with the Roosevelts

They lent us a car so I could visit my dear friend and Sangha sister, Doris Balant, who has moved from Maine to her daughter’s house in Carmel NY. Doris and I had a lovely lunch and I got to meet her engaging grandson Eli, and her lovely, although initially barky, dog Rosy, in a delightful old house at the end of a road, in the woods, by a lake. Of course she had just finished a book I am reading, Oliver Sack’s memoir, On the Move; A Life. Doris has continued to be part of our Kennebec River Zen sangha since she moved, via Skype, what else.

Doris Balant & Rosie

We also finally met up with Jon and Lynn on Zendo, our flesh and blood dopplegangers, also doing the Loop, They have same boat we have, but 2 years newer. Joel met them in Indiantown, FL but I never had, so it was great. The name Zendo comes from a combination their two last names, but of course its perfect on another level. I really hope we can catch up to them again, or they to us. The six of us had a fabulous dinner out at Tagine- Moroccan fare in Croton.

The Clearwater Festival was great fun, despite the rainy first day the crowds were big and lively, and on Sunday the sun came out. It's a lot like the Common Ground Fair in Maine except with lots of music and not so many farmers.  Among the many performers; The Blind Boys of Alabama (who really know how to put on a show), David Crosby (biggest disappointment), Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn, Mike and Ruthie (who we we first saw at Sweet Charity in Maine), Ani de Franco, Tom Paxton, Neko Case, and best new dance band for me, Delhi 2 Dublin, a Vancouver Bollywood Irish fiddle fusion band. The spirit of Pete Seegar was everywhere. His work to clean the Hudson continues through the Clearwater Foundation, and it is swimmable today.

Clear Water Music Festival, still going strong for over 30 years

One of 5 music stages. The sloop is the Clearwater, giving rides

Sandy and Allen joined us for a day trip up the river. And then they can just hop on the train home!

This is the Clearwater as we passed her going to Albany as she returned from the festival

Saying good bye to Sandy and Allen at the Poughkeepsie train station.

My book for this area has been T.C.Boyle’s World’s End which spans the history from 1600’s through the 60’s, One of the pivotal scenes in the book is the 1949 Peekskill riots, when the locals violently protested a Paul Robeson, (most well known Negro in the country at the time) concert in Peekskill. This was just the beginning of the communist witch hunts, and it combined nicely with the racist and anti-semitic fervor of the time. Many were injured, police turned a blind eye. There was a successful rescheduling if the concert, but when those concert goers left the venue they were attacked, including Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie who had their car stoned with Pete's infant children inside.

Westchester County locals raging against a Paul Robeson concert 1949

Pete Seegar and the Clearwater, lightly fictionalized, also appear in World's End.

Off to visit the home town, East Aurora NY, by car, and a family reunion, then a quick trip to Maine before re-boating.

The Catskills come into view. Good to see mountains once more.

Cheers
Sarah & Joel

Post # 9 Chesapeake Bay to NYC

Blog Post #9 The Eastern Shore to NYC
June 5 to June 15
 
Up the Choptank River, to the Tred Avon to Trippe Creek to visit our friends Sarah and Ken Sadler in Easton.

Ken & Sarah Sadler in Easton MD

We met them in Maine at the Sweet Chariot Festival on Swan’s Island a number of years ago, they used to regularly sail to  Maine for the summer. Back when they still had kids at home they chucked the corporate life and took off in a 51 ft sailboat with three out of five kids, two dogs and two cats for two years, and they haven’t stopped adventuring since.

From Sadler's backyard, their "Skedaddle" and our "Snow Goose"

This is the area of the Chesapeake where most of the action in James Michener’s “Chesapeake“ takes place, a massive sprawling novel that begins in the 1600’s and goes through Watergate in the mid 1970’s. Great read for history if you are in the area, but I am relieved to have reached the last page.

Nice (and narrow) passage through Tilghman Island,where they still have the classic skipjacks and lots of other working boats.

Classic skipjack at Tilghman Island Canal

In Annapolis, another very beautiful city, we meet Sarah and Ken again for adventures at the Apple Store, Home Depot and a dinner at wonderful Indian restaurant.

Alex Haley brings along the younger generation. Annapolis is where he did his research for "Roots"

Up to Worten Creek, back again on the Eastern Shore, a quiet spot for kayak and rowing and an after dark swim.

Worton Creek , a quiet anchorage on the Eastern Shore. Working fish weir on right

Farewell to Chesapeake Bay as we head down the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. We spent the night anchored in the in the basin at Chesapeake City, which is actually a very cute 19th century town. 

Chesapeake City street garden

Our longest travel day so far, 65 miles,  down the Delware River Bay to Cape May NJ.

Sunrise on the C&D Canal. Up extra early to catch the tide.

The beach at Cape May

Cape May, NJ. I’ll wager there are more quaint Victorian B& B’s per sq mile than any other spot in the country.

Cape May, long a summer resort, still quaint

Now we begin the dreaded New Jersey passage. The ICW does go through NJ, but there is much shoaling and many warnings about going aground. The other choice is to go “outside” as in open ocean.  I’m not too keen on this, but it does seem the better option provided the weather is good, and it is, so we go.
First stop, Atlantic City, a place we would have avoided if possible. But our little marina, Kammerman’s, was quite leafy and laid-back, far enough from the casino life, and in an interesting neighborhood- in transition.

Our marina in the other Atlantic City.

There aren’t that many places to safely pull in along the Jersey coast, so we we didn’t have a lot of choice about coming into Manasquan  River for the next night. According to our trusty Skipper Bob, “The Great Circle Route” a particularly narrow rail road bridge plus a swift current and a very busy waterway make this spot "one of the most dangerous parts of the ICW on the East Coast”, and there are lots of warnings in Active Captain about going in only at slack tide to avoid the current. Of course we arrived when the current was full strength. Thankfully  Hoffman’s Marina is just before the bridge, but all the other conditions applied. It took four dock hands a good while to get us into the slip, and they were working hard. Snow Goose is a single engine boat, and while that has a number of advantages, one of the distinct disadvantages is in maneuverability  in docking situations.  The help was competent and cheerful, they kept assuring us that this happened all the time.  One of them made a point to tell me later that my husband had done an amazing job holding the boat so they could get it in, given the single screw, he was impressed. There was another trawler coming right after us, and for this one the marina folks asked them come along side the fuel dock  (much easier than a slip) and they put three deck hands on the boat, one of whom took the helm, and another on the dock. Even so it took them two tries to get in.  Wish we had been the second boat.

Next day all the way to New York Harbor which is thrilling to approach by water.

NYC!

What is it? If any one knows let me know. We watched this appear over the Hudson, line by line, with no visible casual agent.

New World Trade Center

We stayed on the Jersey side and took a short water taxi ride across to the World Trade Center to see the new building and the 9 11 memorial. It works, it is very moving. There are two of these tower footprints. Water flows over the sides into the center opening. From no point can you see the bottom of that hole.

9 11 Memorial

Chris Gardner, who's name appears above, was the previous owner of our sailboat Evening Star. We never met, but we inherited his log along with the boat, and he and Joel chatted on line in the Freedom boat forum. It was amazing that Joel found his name among the 3000 inscribed.

Double Check by Seward Johnson, ©1982 The Sculpture Foundation. After 9 11

On a lighter note, Joel visited Double Check, in Zuccotti Park no less (Occupy Wall Street), now in happier days. Resiliency in action

More advice imparted

On the 15th we left early in the foggy morning and rode the considerable
tide up the river to Croton - on - Hudson, to Half Moon Bay Marina.