Etiquette Lessons

We took an extra day in Amsterdam and used it to take a bike ride, and Chrisy tacked on a yoga session.  The ride was along a bike path that runs from Buffalo to Albany. We're not exactly in our normal mid-summer biking condition, and our bikes on Egret are not exactly the same as our road bikes so we were happy with a 16-mile ride.

With 35 miles and seven locks, Memorial Day was a big moving day so we tried to get away from the dock early, but alas we were the last boat on the dock when we left.  Egret never does anything early.  After several days of a cold front, the weather was perfect.  Mid to upper seventies, no wind, and clear skies - perfect for a motorboat. Roger is starting to get used to the concept of motorboat weather.  

There's a certain etiquette to boating along the canal - one slows down to a crawl when you're passing a marina or a small fishing boat in the canal so as to minimize your wake. Your wake can leave a mess for those who have docked a short distance from your wake.  You learn the etiquette quickly and you stick to it.  Roger feels free to be the "wake police" and jump on the VHF to alert any violators and let them know about the carnage that they've left behind.   The funny thing about the canal in the spring is that - it's a canal - and everyone is going in the same direction and pretty much staying in the same marinas - so we're all going to see each other - hang out - have drinks and realize that the guy who waked you in the morning in the first 200 yards of their trip is actually a pretty funny and pretty nice guy.  Ironically, he's on a boat named Redemption.

It's always good etiquette to leave a beer for the lockmaster. Rumor has it that, miraculously, the next lock tends to be open if you follow this.

Lock 17 is one of two locks in North America that has a door that slides down - guillotine fashion. The white section at the top is a concrete block that is attached by a pulley and massive chains to the door.  The forty-foot rise is the largest on the canal. 

A Few Firsts

Ok - Ok - we know we haven't posted in a few days.  We've been told many times that we need to post frequently - sometimes life just gets in the way.  

We left Kingston for Shady Harbor Marina (New Baltimore, NY on western side of the Hudson) on Thursday and did our first laundry and had our first pump-out. If you don't know what a pump-out is - ask someone who does. When one is cruising there are lots of little things that need to be planned out or at least given some thought.  Where are we getting our next fuel, pump-out, water, and groceries? They aren't constant worries - just things that need to be factored into the plans.  It's a nice feeling when we can pull away from the dock and know that we have a "zero state" boat - one that is pretty much the way it was on the day we left.  

Shady Harbor was also the first time we were in pretty much of a black hole of communication.  Our Verizon hotspot didn't want to work and our cell phones on T-Mobile plans were also dark.  To top it off the marina WIFI was down.  We did manage to get out a few texts, but that was it.  

The weather was pretty foul for the last few days.  The cold front that passed over the Eastern US created lots of wind but fortunately not too much rain.  We had a bumpy night on the docks at Shady Harbor at a pretty exposed slip.

We were up early Friday - well at least by Egret standards.  We left the dock at 8 AM on Friday on our way to the Albany Yacht Club to pick up Chrisy's uncle Edgar.  What fun it was to have Edgar onboard to help us through our first ten locks over 2 days and provide us with some good companionship and history of the area.  

We currently are in Amsterdam, New York, having another "Chrisy Day". We are getting our bikes off the boat and hitting the Erie Canal bike trail this afternoon! It is a gorgeous Sunday of Memorial Day weekend!

Our first and last freighter encounter on the Hudson

Millie's first encounter with a rooster - Millie is just in front of Chrisy's right leg - it was a little tough to get Millie and the roosters in the same frame.  For some reason, the roosters didn't want to cooperate. 

Our first lock - in at the bottom

Out at the top

For those who may not know how a lock works - traveling upstream - you enter a chamber at the bottom and the doors close behind you.  The chamber is probably 300 feet long and 40 feet wide.  Once the doors are closed, the lockmaster opens a valve that allows water to flow from the upstream river into the chamber raising the water in the chamber and fortunately lifting the boat.  Once the water level is equal to the upstream water level the doors are opened. The whole process takes about 20 minutes from the time the doors close until the time you are released out the top side.  As the water is flooding into the chamber the boat tends to get pushed around a bit so we hold onto ropes that are suspended from the side of the chamber.  Each lift is about 30 feet.  On our first day, we went through seven locks which was a lot easier than it sounds. Most of them were pretty close together and the chamber was open when we arrived. 

Chrisy and co-pilot Uncle Edgar

Here's what a sailboat looks like on the canal. Mast down to clear through all of the low fixed bridges and lots of fenders.

 

Here's a map of the Erie Canal.  Just before Syracuse we take a right and head up to Lake Ontario.

Quick friends!

Here's our current location.

Our First "Chrisy Day"

Previously scheduled Chrisy Days were interrupted with Millie's little run-in with a pit bull so yesterday was truly a Chrisy Day - one where the boat doesn't move and we're able to take in the town.  Shockingly, Chrisy elected to spend some of her special day visiting a museum.  For those who don't know, museums are not high on Chrisy's to-do list when she visits a new area - or an old area for that matter.  They tend to put her to sleep, and she's literally yawning within minutes of entry.  

We visited the Hudson River Maritime Museum which wasn't too much of an endeavor as we are on their docks and as a further inducement they grant free admission to those who are on the docks.  The exhibits don't actually open to the public until the weekend, but we were granted permission to go on a self-guided tour.  The museum sits at the terminus of the Delaware and Hudson Canal in Kingston, NY.  The canal was built to transport coal from Pennsylvania to the Hudson River.  Not only did the museum do a nice job of explaining the history of the canal, but it also gave a nice history of the region.  The irony of our visit was that Roger was actually yawning before Chrisy.

Captain Chrisy at the helm

For dinner, we were able to catch up with good friends Kim and Brian Mauch. The Mauchs also happen to be the parents of Eric's good friend Devin.  The dinner was wonderful, but we had to leave the golfing and brewery tours for another visit.

 

Quick visit from Courtney

I don't want to get too far ahead of myself but we've had a couple of very good days in a row now - must be the Dinty Moore or we are falling into a nice rythm.   

Courtney jumped on for a quick overnight and we had a short trip up the Hudson to Poughkeepsie.  We had a relaxing dinner with a nice view of Egret and the western shore. The scenery was spectacular.

Half Moon Bay looking north.

Egret from the porch of Half Moon Bay Marina

The girls enjoying some time in the cockpit at 20 kts.

No comments about the captain's hair - you don't always get to shower every day when you're cruising.

Happy girls at Shadows Marina in Poughkeepsie 

Egret from the porch of the restaurant looking north

After dropping Courtney at the Poughkeepsie train station we headed to Kingston, NY where we will stay for two nights which means that tomorrow is a "Chrisy day" - the boat doesn't move - very imprortant for everyone's spirits.  

Millie Update:

There's a good chance that the only reason you're reading this blog is to get an update on Millie.  She's doing great!!  She has pretty much recovered her personality as well as healed her wounds.  Her spunky spirit - bark at anything that moves - has returned.  After the initial "introductions," she's basically a lap dog. She is a little anxious on the leash - pulling a lot more that usual. We attribute that to the attack, so hopefully that will calm down with time.

Millie Update/Our Loop officially starts/ and Dinty Moore stew

 Our four-legged family member is an absolute champ.  The morning after the attack (Saturday)we got a  call from the Vet that Millie was eating and that her wounds had already made significant progress.  No sutures for any of them - they would be able to heal open to the air.  There were no signs of infections, no oozing, and no temperature.  She does have a slight limp but also no nerve damage.  The dock manager for The Great Kills Yacht Club allowed us to use his car to pick up Millie on Saturday afternoon.  After lots of training from the vet tech, we brought her back to the boat.  

The girls are happy!

Staying an extra night at Great Kills didn't throw off our schedule too much as we had a two-night stay at Half Moon Bay that we shortened to one night.    

We made arrangements with another Looper to take pictures of each other's boats in front of the Statue of Liberty - kind of a Looper tradition. 

Photo Credit Brian on "Seasons"

On Sunday morning we started to head up the Hudson where we officially started our Loop.  When we return here in about a year we will "cross our wake" which is Looper's talk for finishing the Loop.  

So we've had a little bit of bad luck.  "Bad luck" may be a bit generous.  Actually, some of it was just plain bad boating.  I don't actually think we're bad boaters, but there is a rhythm to boating that involves checking the weather in a very detailed manner, checking tides, and doing lots of planning - refueling, pumpouts, freshwater, groceries, laundry -  you get the picture.  At the beginning of the trip, we weren't in our stride - our rhythm. So I told you about the bad start of getting away from Jamestown where we ran into six-foot rollers off of Castle Hill - bad rhythm - we checked the weather and checked the tides but we were much more interested in getting started than in pausing to marry the two up to realize that max ebb was probably not the best time to leave.  

Then there was the little issue that we encountered when we were heading down the Niantic River. I've been too upset about this to share it in the blog - but we got out of the channel and had what is known in the business as a soft grounding.   Roger rounded a marker - headed to the next but wandered out of the channel.  We got ourselves off, but it wasn't without a little stress - no bad words - just a little stress. Ok - now I've said it - we're done, but that was bad thing #2 to which Chrisy said ok - look out - "bad things happen in threes."  Then Millie had her little run-in with a pit bull. Great! We're done!

Another possible explanation - other than the rhythm explanation - is the fact that we didn't have any Dinty Moore stew on board.  It's kind of family lore that a cruiser should have a couple of cans of Dinty Moore stew on board - sort of an emergency ration - that the well-seasoned crew would have on board. The cruising gods look favorably on those who carry Dinty Moore on board.  Well, you guessed it, we didn't have any Dinty Moore on board when we started.  Why would we have emergency rations when we are almost always within walking distance of a market?  When we picked up Millie we stopped to grab a few groceries AND some Dinty Moore - Chrisy threw in the Spam just for good measure.  I'm afraid that I might offend the cruising gods if I share Chrisy's opinion of Dinty Moore Stew.

We have settled in at the Halfmoon Bay Marina in Croton on the Hudson for the night and are eagerly awaiting Courtney's arrival tomorrow who will be cruising with us for the next 2 days! Best medicine ever for Millie - and for us!

Sad day for Millie

We started off Friday as we start off most days with a nice long walk for Millie.  She loves prancing around and visiting new towns.  

Starting off our walk I was greeted by this sign - you may need to zoom in on that sign a bit:

  

As a former Geometry teacher - my poor brain was hurting.  Reminds me of the draft pick who famously told the press that he looked forward to being a part of a big transformation of his new team and "changing its direction 360 degrees." Sometimes finding material for the blog is hard to find - sometimes it just jumps out and grabs you. 

Sadly, the walk that started with a bit of levity quickly turned sour.  Chrisy and I were walking Millie in a neighborhood when out of nowhere Millie was attacked by a pit bull.  The dog grabbed Millie on two separate occasions creating rather large lacerations on her back and chest. Chrisy was thrown on her back injuring her bum, elbow, and calf - hopefully no whiplash, but we will see. I dove into the mess and banged up my shoulder and hip but not too badly.  

Just at the height of the chaos, we were greeted by a guardian angel who rushed home to get his car and take us across the island to an emergency vet hospital where we were met by several other angels who took exceptional care of Mille.  We've got plenty of pictures but there's no need to share them.  As I type, Millie is resting comfortably at the Vet, and we will hopefully pick her up in the morning, or we might delay our departure for a day or more. We've also had a very nice call from the doctor, and we feel great that she's in such good hands.   

Our location

 You can find our location here:

https://trackme.nebo.global/?link=ZWRKN612TWDMI1FSF7431PJ4I35

LI Sound and NYC

Leaving the Niantic River we had every intention of staying in Mamaroneck, NY at one of a couple of different marinas, but the marinas had a different idea and were all sold out.  After surveying the anchorages on the CT side of the Sound, Chrisy's research turned up Port Washington on the NY side where the town offers moorings free for one night - perfect.  We also used the opportunity to refuel and had our first taste of the new prices. Sticker shock!!  Lots of rain but our stay was otherwise uneventful.

Thursday 5/19 was our trip down the East River through NYC.  The current in the river can run over 4 kts so it's generally a good thing to have it either with you or at least not quite at full strength against.  We opted to have a late departure and allow the flood tide to run out.  The day was not the best for visiting the Big Apple - lite rain and overcast - but traveling down the East River never gets old.  The ferries and barges running all over require pretty focused attention.  We managed to not get honked at the entire trip.  As Stevie Wonder would say, "skyscrapers and everything."

Ellis Island

                                                                        

United Nations  

Needs no caption

View of NYC heading south

Heading down to The Great Kills Yacht Club, we were greeted by a pod of dolphins.  Sadly, they're a little camera shy and did not photograph too well.   

...and we're off

And....we are off! Pushing off from the docks in Jamestown, Rhode Island was a great feeling after all the months of planning, to-do lists, trips to marine stores, Home Depot, etc!

We managed to make tons of mistakes yesterday and still have a really good time.  Our first mistake was taking off so late - more about that later.  Understandably, we had two carloads of last-minute "stuff" to load on the boat.  For a more complete definition of "stuff" please see let George Carlin explain, but you'll need to wait until the six-minute mark.  Ok - so we needed to add on the exercise weights because those couldn't go on the day before. We needed to add on the clothes from the laundry, our toothbrushes, and obviously the food - you get the point.  

We did manage to get almost everything stowed away and after a very nice sendoff from Jim Wharton,  who managed to elbow through the throng of well-wishers, we pulled away from the dock at about 11:30.

                                                        Photo credit: Jim
That's our white America's Great Loop Cruising Association burgee - signifying that we are rookies.  

Leaving late meant that we were headed into some pretty serious seas.  There was plenty of wind from the south leftover from a nice thunderstorm the night before, and when it married up with the full ebb tide around Castle Hill we were looking at some 6-8 foot waves with a very short period.  That's not a lot of fun in almost any cruising boat, and Egret is a semi-displacement hull designed to plane on top of the water not plow through it.  At any rate, the first couple of hours were "a bit rocky."  Another mistake - we didn't put the covers on the clean cushions in the stern which meant that they were soaked with saltwater in the first ten minutes of the trip. We didn't put Chrisy's shoes away - one fell into Millie's water bowl and spilled water all over.  After rounding Point Judith the seas moderated "a bit" and we were able to bump up to 10-12 knots, but not without some discussion - Chrisy obviously wanted to stay in the 9-10 knot range. Violating another maxim, "Happy wife happy life," Roger kept on charging at the 10-12 knot range. Once we got in the lea of Fisher's Island - after a brief discussion - we were able to bump it up to 15.

We pulled into the Niantic River around 3:30 and were greeted by our good friends Steve and Margot at their wonderful house.  

Millie Update: maybe we should have given Millie a melatonin because she was not a fan of the rough beginning, but she was a champ and settled in pretty well.  

We are off in our tiny home, and our adventure has begun. Thanks to Steve and Margot for hosting us on our first night and maybe we'll see you in a year on our last night.

Heading for the Hudson

 "Chrisy, where are my blue jeans?" Oh, that's right - they are on Egret.  It must be time to leave because we don't have anything left in the house.   

We are ready to head off on the Loop. At least we better be ready because we leave tomorrow.  Our to-do list has turned into a to-done list.  Our laptops, phones, iPads, earbuds, drone, and toothbrush have been charged and are ready to go.  The refrigerator and freezer will be filled tomorrow, and then we are off.  

Our last project was to install an awning over the cockpit area.  We are really happy with how it came out.  It is like having an extra room on the boat.

A few of our other projects were to install new reading lights in the master cabin and to install new carpet throughout the interior.

The engine got a complete check-up which included new coolant, new transmission oil and filter, new engine oil and filter, new fuel filter, and a new raw water impeller.  The generator got a similar once over.  We've loaded up on spare parts.  We have enough fuel and oil filters for the first four changes and we even brought the oil for the first change. I'm not too sure how fast we will burn through the zincs so we have a bunch of those.  Fuses, impellers, and random parts recommended by the dealer fill out the list.  It may be a dream, but the goal is to be "unstoppable."

We also have plenty of food, but one of the nice things about the Loop is that there are plenty of places along the way to reprovision.

Our first leg takes us down Long Island Sound to the Niantic River where our friends, Steve and Margot, have a dock that can handle Egret.  Tough to beat free.  But more importantly, a chance for us to spend an evening with good friends! Thanks, Steve and Margot!!

After Niantic, we will continue down the Sound and into the East River and NYC.  We built in an extra day on our schedule so we are not too sure where that will be.  

We are violating the cruising maxim that "the most dangerous thing to have onboard is a schedule" and we made reservations at several marinas going up the Hudson River.  There's a ton of cruising traffic headed up the Hudson at this time of year.  It's pretty much of a funnel point for those who are on the Great Loop.  There are also rumors of some striper fishing contests.  So we didn't want to test our luck and show up at the only marina in 30 miles at 3pm and have them tell us that they're sold out.  Anchoring in the Hudson is not a terribly desirable backup plan.  The current actually reverses almost all the way to Albany - who knew? Reversing current is not fun to anchor in.  

Two years of planning and talking turn into action tomorrow.