September 2008 - Erie Canal and Hudson River (Ongoing)

Leaving Canada from Kingston you must enter the USA, clear customs and immigration, get a cruising permit for your boat, unstep your mast, buy a lock permit and start down the Oswego canal system.

Fortunately you can do all the hard work from one spot - Oswego Marina.

Clearing Customs and Immigration

As you enter Oswego the marina fuel dock is on your Port side (west side). It is a little white building. Tie up at the fuel dock. Get the fax number from the staff at the office and go immediately to the Homeland Security video phone. Take your passport and your boat documentation. Know your radio station licence because they will ask for the call sign, at least they asked for Meredith's.

Homeland Security will fax your Cruising Permit to the office at Oswego Marina assuming you were clever enough to read the last paragraph and have it handy.

Then tie up on the south wall of the channel just at the Best Western hotel and get your rigging ready for unstepping.

What About Getting My Mast Down?

Oswego Marina will take your mast down. Well...they will provide a gin pole and a guy who knows how to use it. His name is Bernie and he is one heck of a guy. He knows what he is doing and he gets it done. But be prepared to held and even better have a clue about what you want done.

More to come - other things have arisen and I must tend to these.

The trip down the canal was acceptable. The weather alternated from Too Damn Hot to Too Damn Cold with little in between. Canal staff are in the midst of a job action by the lock keepers and some of the transit times were a bit extended. However you can see it has not been much of a trial:

Meredith Approaches a Lock on the Oswego Canal System.

I have no clue which Lock or why I took the picture.

A Dawn Departure somewhere on the Erie Canal.

We were seldom underway later than 7 a.m. which is also the start time for lock operations.

The Tug "Governor Roosevelt" Asks for Permission to Pass.

This tug was built in the depression and is kept in spectacular condition. The bronze gleams. When she passes she throws a wake and a half.

Purchases enroute:

• New Tohatsu 9.8 hp outboard for our new Walker Bay dinghy. The swamping of the Mule (our old dinghy) in Toronto harbour shook our confidence in the old Porta boat. We were not prepared to risk New York Harbour.
• New cell phone which is almost free by Canadian standards.
• Lots of beer which continues to amaze me. Best price yet is $17 for 24 Yeungling Lager, my favourite beer.

Looking from the deck of Meredith which is docked, or as they say here, "Moored" in Waterford.

Lock 2, actually the first lock in the system or the last lock when you are going our way, is about a 45 foot drop and is shown in the background.

Approaching Waterford boats run a flight of five locks dropping 160 feet in 5 lockings which take about an hour.

Arriving in Waterford everyone takes a breather and cleans up their boat in prep for restepping the mast.

Connie Avoids Cleaning the Head

Here are some of our travel mates in Waterford:

The owners of this vessel left minutes after we arrived. The shadow is their daughter walking the length of the mast as the boat heads toward the Hudson River.

Her family are circus acrobats ( No, Really, I mean what is odd about that?). When the mast is up she does the same routine. No nets.

Andre and Benoit from Gateneau Lead the Quebec Navy aboard "Douce Folie V". Andre does the navigating. Benoit's Nose is not really that long.

This couple travels light. One house battery at 100 ah and no equipment save a handheld gps. They even left their bimini at home to save storage room.

They are really fine people and we hope to become good friends over the upcoming weeks.

Benoit likes to insult lawyers and talk about his newly rebuilt diesel. He never mentions that he had to have it rebuilt twice when the first mechanic turned out not to actually know anything about diesels. Benoit refers to the second mechanic as a "total crank - but a damn good one".

Mike and Caja live aboard "Resolute". Mike built the boat himself from plans. It took him 20 months: one month a year for 20 years. Cajo was not even born when Mike started. When we say he built the boat we mean he cut every plank and mixed every drop of epoxy. He even laminated the tiller on his own.

And this guy was asking us for advice?

Here Mariel inspects some toerail repairs undertaken by partner Heinz. Their boat "La Buena Vida" is a fabulous steel sloop which lost a couple of chunks of teak toerail in a round with the rough concrete walls of one of the locks while downbound.

Mariel, although French, hails from Kingston and Heinz, of course, comes from the famous tomato fields of Germany.