Home Sweet Home

Cee Jem pulled into Port Credit on Sunday afternoon at 4.
Arriving home was a bit surreal. Everything was familiar, not much had changed. It was as if home had gone into hibernation with the winter cold, and was reemerging again with spring. Sure, our friends kids are bigger, some houses in the neighbourhood have been renovated, our car is a bit rustier than when we left. But overall, life at home is much the same.
That being said, just as it took some time to adjust to life on the boat, it will take us a while to settle in back home. Everybody is super-vigilant about turning lights off; I have many times tried to use the (non-existant) foot pump in our kitchen to pump fresh water for cooking; I wake up in the night, look out our bedroom window wondering why there are trees outside the porthole so close to our boat.
We don't yet know what this trip has meant for our family, how our girls are different because of it. In reality, we will never know. What we do know is that we wouldn't trade our experience for anything.

In the coming days we will post more pictures and thoughts on the adventure.
Plus, I plan to continue to update the blog from time to time, so that family as well as friends we met along the way can continue to follow our future adventures.

Port Credit in Sight!!

Less than five miles to go...
The wind has picked up a bit out of the east, a seldom seen treat for westbound sailors!

We have Port Credit in sight...not long now.

Emerging Toronto Skyline...

Continuing west this morning, we can now make out the Toronto skyline.

We can see the CN Tower, and are now just 24 miles from Port Credit!

Owing to the proximity, and the immense swarm of flies we have encountered on the water today, we contemplated heading straight home.
A unanimous decision by the captain and crew solidified our decision.

We should be arriving in Port Credit about 4 o'clock.

Canadian Soil

It was a perfect day for us to cross Lake Ontario.

By times there was enough wind to fill our sails, but generally the engine and autopilot took care of it all. Many sailors would disagree. They would say 'not enough wind'. That's fine with us. On all our major passages on this trip, we waited for calm weather. Though our comfort level grew, we were happiest to head out on big water knowing that there was no imminent front, no unsettled weather in the area. So far, it has worked.

We were only out of sight of land for about two hours. For the first five hours of the trip, the smoke stacks at the power plant in Oswego were visible on the horizon. It was not too long before we could make out the shoreline of Prince Edward County with the help of binoculars. The closer we got, the more details we could see. Trees, houses, and eventually the lighthouse on the pier at Cobourg.
Jessica was the first to step ashore. Greg stepped off, and laid on his back in the grass, arms outstretched, smiling!

After clearing in with Customs, we headed to the beach. As we walked along, I observed all the Canadian flags on the boats, I was astonished by how many Ontario license plates there were, all the people on the beach in bathing suits wading in the frigid water, how much it looked like .... home!!

It was the same beach we sat on last August, looking south, wondering what was in store for us. The girls called it their last beach of last year's endless summer, and the first beach of this summer.

We celebrated with dinner at a local pub, feeling almost like tourists. We had no Canadian cash, remarked about the spelling of words and the selection of beer available, and felt the chill a little sooner than the locals.

This morning we are out on the water early again. The lake is again perfect (for us).
We hope to pull into our last anchorage tonight, somewhere in Toronto Islands. There we will savour the last fleeting moments of this adventure, enjoy being just the four of us for one last night, raise a toast to King Neptune!

For those of you who have asked, we expect to be in Port Credit around noon tomorrow. We will update the blog in the morning, once we are out of Toronto Harbour.

Homeward Bound

The mast stepping went well yesterday, though we were reminded that as always, it takes longer to put something back together than it did to take it apart.

Cee Jem once again stands with tall, straight masts, rigged sails, and a much less cluttered deck.

Presently, we are and hour and a half out of Oswego with a gorgeous sunrise behind us.

We left at 4, owing to a sleepless captain, and the desire of all the crew to get home. When we left Memory Rock, it was after 6 am before the first hint of light backlit the sky. This morning, we could already see the outline of clouds when we pulled away. That's the difference 1000 miles due north, and 2 months closer to the summer solstice makes.

We are headed to Cobourg today.
Last night, we remarked that our concept of 'home' is very relative. It began when we could first see the continent again. Gradually, as we left the ocean at New York, then saltwater at Waterford, we began to feel closer to home. At Lock 21 on Wednesday afternoon, we began to lock down, which meant that we were in the same watershed as Lake Ontario. The sight of Lake Ontario was a big moment, and today we make a big leap. 263 days after leaving Canadian waters, we will return again.
Our schedule at this point has us arriving at our dock in Port Credit on Monday afternoon.


Here's the sun now .... Have a great day!

A Little Bird Told Me...

A little swallow sitting on our lifeline, singing away woke Greg at 5:00 this morning. That's how we came to be in Oswego tonight.

As per usual Cee Jem outcomes, it wasn't as planned.
We had hoped to get up around 6, see if Lake Oneida was calm enough to cross and get to Phoenix, a favourite stop on our way down, and stay for the night.
When Greg woke up at 5, he quickly checked the wind forecast. Before I had a chance to get out of bed, we were pulling away from the dock. Looking out the window, and seeing that we were underway, coaxed me awake on this chilly morning. Greg explained that the wind was expected to increase around 9, so hopefully our early departure would give us enough time to get across before the waves picked up. Waves are of particular concern at this point in the trip, as our mast is down. Stories of masts at the bottom of this lake, cause many a cruiser to carefully consider the weather before crossing the 18 mile length of Lake Oneida.
Sure enough, as predicted, the winds did increase. We were grateful that as they did, we approached the west shore, and though we saw whitecaps building, they never were a problem for us.
The remaining 8 miles to Phoenix went quickly, as we discussed what we might have for breakfast at the State Street Cafe.


While in Phoenix, we wanted to get in touch with Oswego Marina to see what the situation was there for mast stepping. The weather to cross Lake Ontario looks pretty good for this week-end and early next week, and we wanted to make sure we were ready to go. We knew we might have to leave Phoenix early in order to get to Oswego early enough for an afternoon stepping on Friday, or ideally on Saturday. Turns out they are pretty busy right now putting local boats in the water and stepping their masts. Bernie, the guy who runs the show, starts early and leaves at 3:30. Doesn't start any new work after 2, and won't be around this weekend, not back until Tuesday. Additionally, any boats who stay overnight at their marina are given priority for the next day.
So, a relaxing afternoon in Phoenix, turned into a quick and delicious stop for lunch, then back on the boat to try to get to Oswego. The limiting factor now became time: 22 miles, 7 locks ... and only 5 hours until the locks close. Would we make it??

Fortunately, we were now headed down to Lake Ontario, so the current was with us. Also, locking down is a lot faster than locking up, so we didn't spend very long in any of the locks. The Canal staff were great to have the locks ready for us when we arrived, doors open and ready to go.

All through the day, we thanked that little bird for singing his heart out...because of him, we were able to get across Lake Oneida, instead of waiting for the next calm day....because of him, we got underway in time to get to see Tammy, the owner, at the State Street Cafe in Phoenix....because of him, we had enough time to get to Oswego today, ensuring that our mast will go up tomorrow, and we can make use of the weather window to get across Lake Ontario this weekend.


At 4 o'clock, when the north doors of Lock 8 slowly opened, revealing the waters of Lake Ontario on the horizon, it was a pretty special moment for all of us. We felt like we were home.

Continuing on the Erie

Monday after breakfast, we said goodbye to my folks and carried on westbound. Initially headed for the little town of Amsterdam, 20 miles along, our plans were changed at the encouragement of the lock staff because of heavy rains expected. Amsterdam is just downstream of the Schoharie Creek, which sounds peaceful enough. Not so, they said 'keep going!'. They were adamant enough about their recommendation that they said they would keep a lock open past their normal operating hours to get us through. We had a look at our guidebooks and found that the Schoharie (kind of sounds like 'So Scary!') is known for it's strong currents and outflow of debris after rainstorms. It is just off the Erie Canal that a NY State Thruway collapsed over the Schoharie in 1987, taking 5 cars with it. No more encouragement needed! We carried on to the dock at Fonda (where the Henry Fonda clan is from). At lock 10, we encountered a crazy approach, with strong current from the dam overflows, and a maze of buoys that looked more like a slalom course!

We were glad to finally settle in at Fonda for the night, and even had power cords long enough that we could make use of their power! An added bonus on a chilly and damp night.

Tuesday was more canal, more locks. The highlight of the day was Lock 17. With an overall water level change of 40', it is the highest lock on the Erie Canal.
The other impressive feature is that instead of having doors that hinge open, the east gate lifts above the boats. This is only one of two locks in North America designed like this, the other being on the Ottawa River.

The walls sure look high when you're inside...

At the high water end of the lock, the doors only have to open to allow a depth of about 14' of water. That's why the doors don't go all the way down.

We thought Little Falls would be a good place to stop for the night. It was a bit of a frustrating arrival, as the first dock we tied up to wasn't securely attached to shore. Then we moved to a more secure wall and were all set to head into town when the dock master came out and said we had to move further from their pump-out station. So, we moved the boat forward to the spot she said (though not, in our opinion, enough to allow a boat that would be of sufficient size to require a pump-out to fit on the dock. And with only 30 minutes left until they closed, seemingly a silly request). By the time all this happened, the shops in town were due to close, and dark clouds were looming, so we settled in at the boat for the night.

Flight of Five

Hello friends and family,
We left Little Falls this morning and hope to go to Sylvan Beach tonight. On Sunday May 13 we went through the Flight of Five. The Flight of Five is five locks, each one is less than a mile apart. Yesterday while we were motoring along the canal about three thousand cormorants flew above us! They were all in formation and turned together. Yesterday we also went in to a lock that the water lifts so high the south door lifts instead of it swinging like all the other lock doors, there is only two locks like that in north America, the other one is in Ottawa!
Bye for now,
Jessica

187 miles to home as the crow fly's

Hello friends and family,
This morning we left little falls.
We didn't get to see the town of little falls because it was raining and we didn't want to get too wet.

At the marina we were staying at I found a little tune player that played tunes like 'I like to eat apples and bananas' and ' if you'r happy and you know it '
I left it were I found it but it was still very cool.

In Waterford when we were Geocaching I saw a chipmunk and a garder snake.
We actually saw the snake twice , it was black and yellow.

We have seen a lot of natural water falls here in the Erie canal, they are very pretty.

I miss my friends a lot but I will be glad to see them when we get home.

From: Madeline

Mother's Day!

Sunday we had decided that we would move another 10 miles, and meet my parents for the afternoon. Along the way, we passed lots of little waterfalls tumbling out of the rock ledges which the Mohawk River winds its way though.

Rounding the corner at the Schenectady Yacht Club, we were surprised to see lots of docks in the water, but no boats! Turns out we were their first customers of the season, and were waiting for the canal water levels to rise to put their members' boats in.

This area was devastated by Hurricane Irene last fall, and much work has been done to rebuild docks, houses and facilities to get them ready for this boating season. The dock master at SYC told us that their shoreline is almost a meter higher than it was last year, owing to the amount of silt that was flushed down from farmer's fields upstream! Other indications of Irene's wrath have been evident in this area, including this water level mark on a bridge abutment in Waterford. (The road is about 2 meters above the current water level.)

We enjoyed lunch, made by Madeline, with help from Jessica and then drove to the next few locks to see the reconstruction underway. The locks in this area were the hardest hit by Irene, and the main cause of the fall closure.

Check out her short-order sticky notes above the stove!!

Waterford Locks

Friday afternoon my parents arrived to visit for the weekend. Turned out to be great timing, because the town of Waterford was celebrating it's Canal Days, a community festival focusing on the waterfront. There was a band that played on a barge that went down the river and through the lock, local businesses, vendors of all sorts, and activities for the kids.
Saturday morning, we enjoyed breakfast, served by the local Boy Scouts, and then took my parents onboard to travel up the first few locks.The Waterford Flight of Locks consists of Locks E-2 through Lock E6. The flight of locks - bypassing Cohoes Falls just to the south - constitutes the largest lift in the shortest distance on any canal system in the world: This set of 5 locks lifts vessels 169 feet in about a half mile! The total trip took us just under 2 hours.
Pete, from the local Chamber of Commerce, even managed to snap a rare picture of all 4 of us on board going through the lock.

The rest of the day we spent visiting, hiking on an (unsuccessful) search for a geocache, kite flying and heading out for dinner.

De-Masting, and off to Waterford

Thursday morning we got rolling with the de-masting around 9. Sean and his crew were incredibly efficient and before 10, the mast was lying on the stands, ready to be secured.

By 11, Greg had lashed everything down, we lifted the booms onto the deck and were on our way. With the recent heavy rains, the current down the Hudson was swift, and slowed our progress all afternoon.
We did enjoy the light houses of the Hudson along the way.
In this case, truly a house, that would have been well lit to aid in navigation along the Hudson River.

By 6:30, we were approaching the Federal Lock at Troy, New York. This picture belies the significance of the current. Off to the left of the lockhouse, you can see the torrents of water falling off the dam. This, combined with the vagrants off on the right shore who were shoving huge logs into the water, so they drifted downstream at us, made for a very nerve-wracking approach to the lock.

Once inside we were able to secure our lines midship to the few cables that run down the inside of this lock, and were lifted 14' to a new water level of 15' above sea level. On our 150 mile trip up the Hudson, we had actually motored 'uphill' 1 foot already.

Soon after, we were securing our lines at the town dock at the Waterford Visitor's Center. A great free dock for cruisers in the area.

Croc socks

When we were packing last summer, Greg was hesitant to pack anything other than his crocs...he wanted to 'live a year in flip-flops'. With some convincing, he did pack some shoes, though said he wouldn't wear them.

True to his word, he didn't.

In January, in Georgetown, Bahamas, he gave them to a needy soul (sole?).
Though it has been suggested that he replace them once we returned to the land of shoe stores, he has refused.

Lately, he has found that his toes have been a bit chilly, especially in the cool, damp mornings.
Without even an 'I told you so', I knit up a solution to the problem...

Croc socks!

He admits he loves them!
His feet are warm, and he can keep 'living the dream' of a year in flip-flops.

Yeah!!

Good news today from the New York Canal System

"Mariners are advised that the Erie Canal from Lock E-2 in Waterford to Lock E-22 in New London has re-opened for navigation. Mariners may encounter high water levels and reduced bridge clearances, floating debris, and excessive currents associated with recent heavy rainfall."

We might make it home after all!

Preparing to Demast

Yesterday we motored from the quaint Poughkeepsie Yacht Club to Hop-O-Nose Marina in Catskill. Hop-O-Nose comes highly recommended as a place to drop the masts, which we will need to do to transit the Erie Canal.
Arriving around 4:30, we were quickly greeted by the very friendly and casual Sean, who showed us to the wood they had available to make the stands on which our masts will rest for the next 225 miles.
Greg quickly found appropriate lengths and we carried them back to the dock. As Greg got to work preparing the boat, the girls and I walked the 2 kilometers to grocery shop.

Funny story here: we called for a cab back with our purchases, and I was a bit surprised to see an old police cruiser pull up as our taxi. Dark windows, spotlights, the whole bit. The driver said she had one more customer to pick up and then would get us on our way. We go to the local dollar store and collect a pretty rough looking twenty-something girl who sits in the front seat. Now we drive back to the marina and Greg is walking toward the road looking to see if we are maybe walking back and he can help us. I say "oh look, there's Greg' of course, he can't see us in the back through the tinted windows, only the girl in the passenger seat. The taxi driver slows, rolls down her window and says 'you looking for your wife?' Greg pauses at the sight of the unmarked patrol car and cautiously says 'yes'. The taxi driver, fully aware of the comedy in the situation unfolding keeps a straight face and bluntly says 'she's in the back of my car.'. Greg has no response, just an unbelieving gaze. My eventual laughter from the back eases his concern only slightly, before I ease his concern by calling out 'it's ok, it's just a taxi.' Everybody involved had a good chuckle about the situation as we unloaded our groceries and continued with our day.

Back at the boat, Greg had been busy at work. Sails and booms off, stays undone, stands constructed. We had pulled in only 3 hours before, and by dusk, Cee Jem now is looking like this:

It's now 7:50, Jessica is out helping Greg move the stands onto the boat. Sean should be here around 8, and we'll be ready to take the mast down.
Once the mast is down, and secured on the stands with lots of rope, we'll be on our way northbound again. There is still a bit of tidal influence here, almost 90 miles from the mouth of the Hudson, but it is becoming diminished. Counter to that, the river current is weakening, as there is a Federal Lock 40 miles north of here.
What that means for us is that our days of checking tide and current tables to see how they will affect our day are pretty much over.

Poughkeepsie-Catskill.

Hello friends and family,
Today we left Poughkeepsie to Catskill, thirty miles.
On the way here I saw some birds, seagulls, robins, and a few sparrows.
This morning Madeline and I fed some goslings. We fed them some old pita mom made. I would guess that they were about one week old.
I am having a fun time. 'Hope you are too.
Listen for more updates,
Jessica

Ugh!!!

To quote the New York State Canals website:

"The Erie Canal from Lock E-2 to Lock E-22 is closed due to high water and flows from heavy rainfall."

They say this happens often in the spring.
They say it should only be a few days....we've heard that before!

Here's hoping the rain lets up, the water levels drop, and we can be on our way shortly.

New York City

Friday night we anchored at Sandy Hook at the south part of New York Harbour for some much-needed rest! The passage from Cape May had been long (110 miles total), though thankfully with great conditions.
We woke up Saturday morning, full of excitement to get to a marina in New Jersey, across the Hudson from Manhattan, looked out the windows and saw this:

Thick fog!

We put our faith in our chart plotter and radar, and off we went.
We passed a lot of day marks and buoys without actually seeing them, and one very large ship, who we exchanged fog signals with a few times before hearing him fade into the distance behind us. We knew he was big because of his radar image, and the 'big ship' sound of his fog horn. This was all confirmed by the size of his wake which we encountered a few minutes later.
We joked that NY Harbour wasn't so bad when you could only see a tiny part of it at a time.
By the time we reached the mouth of the Hudson, the fog was beginning to lift slightly, and we were passed by a few quick ferry's, including the Statten Island Ferry, and passed several big ships at anchor. All in all it wasn't as terrifying as we had imagined, and as we approached the marina, The Statue of Liberty came into view.

Checking in, breakfast, warm showers all took place before we considered our next move.
Shortly after noon, with a beautiful day emerging from the fog, we decided to take the ferry across and check out the city.

We took the subway downtown and went to Chinatown for a late lunch. Then we checked out Central Park, Broadway, and ended up at Times Square as the lights were coming on. A spectacular sight!
The favourites were definitely the Hershey store and the Toys'RUs with the indoor ferris wheel.

The weary crew then headed back for a nights rest.


Sunday morning we were on the first ferry across the river and started walking...
We began with a stop at a great bagel place for breakfast. Back to Times Square for more of the crowds and excitement. Then off to Lombardi's for lunch at the place where pizza began. More walking to check out Grand Central Station.

A hot dog is a New York must, so we stopped at Grey's Papaya, a local favourite to have a taste.
Finally, to Battery Park on the waterfront where the crowds were taking in a beautiful spring day. A quick stop at a produce stand at the corner and we were all ready to head back to the Jersey side once more. All in all we walked from downtown to midtown, across town and back, we figure covering about 10 miles. What a great way to see the city!

This morning we departed at 7:30, taking advantage of the flood tide up the Hudson. This is especially important at the southern end of the river where the ebb tide adds to the flow of the river to make a total current of up to 6 knots.
We watched New York City fade into the distance.

Going...

Going....

Gone.

The Big Apple!!

That folks, is what New York Harbor looks like tonight.
Details to follow ....

Delaware to Cape May

Tuesday night the bridge issue turned out OK, though not without it's own bit of excitement and drama. About 30 minutes after reporting the lowering of the train bridge, the bridge master reported that the bridge was opening...Yea! About 30 minutes after that, just as we got the bridge in sight, the bridge master reported that the bridge was closing for another train ... Oh no! We slowed a bit, the train went by, and all was well. We got to the end of the C&D Canal and saw a little shortcut into the planned anchorage, which was a bonus in the waning daylight. It was a narrow entrance, the current was strong, and we were right at high tide (which gives us the advantage of lots of water, but the disadvantage that if we went hard aground, it would be about 6 long hours of slowly laying over on our side followed by 6 hours of righting before we would be off the shoal). Well at this exact moment, our chart plotter (the computer program that uses GPS to put us on a digital map) appeared to fail! We were moving sideways in the channel instead of the direction we were pointing. I am now madly scrambling to restart it, as Greg begins to dead reckon and keeps a close eye on our depth to make sure that we don't get in water that is too shallow. By the time I got the plotter restarted, the excitement was over, we were back in decent water and our stress level slowly returned to normal as we continued the last 2 miles of our day to set the anchor down off a sleepy little town called Port Penn.

Wednesday morning we checked the weather again before heading out down the Delaware Bay. All seemed well, we knew we would be facing a bit of a headwind in the afternoon, but with speeds predicted at 5-10 knots, nothing that should be a problem. Not quite how it turned out. By 11:00, the headwind over opposing favourable current was making the bay quite choppy. We were also running down the side of a fairly big ship channel, and about 8 of these monstrosities passed us over the course of a couple of hours. A one point we lost all forward motion, being stopped by huge wake and unable to get forward speed again over the wave action. We increased our engine speed, and were oddly thankful when the current began to turn against us, as that calmed the sea state to something we were all more comfortable with. At 3:00, we had the beginning of the Cape May Channel in sight, but were suddenly alarmed at the radio chatter of a sailboat turning out of the canal, and having to go into the Atlantic around the tip of Cape May to get back into protected waters. We radioed ahead for local knowledge of the situation and were very relieved to hear that it was his mast height that made him unable to get under a bridge over the canal. We were thankful for our little 48' mast and motored though the canal without incident. We later talked to the captain of that boat, a native of New York who often sails the Atlantic, and he said he had never been in such terrible conditions. His wife got off the boat and took a bus home!

Cape May was the point at which we knew we would have to be prepared to wait for good weather to go up the New Jersey coast. These 3 day-hops up the coast had for Greg, been the boogie man in the closet. We had heard horror stories from many cruisers both before and during our trip of how nasty the sea conditions can be, how often forecasts are wrong, and how quickly the fog can roll in and limit visibility. We had 110 miles to go on the ocean before the protection of Sandy Hook, and then 18 miles across New York Harbor to the Hudson River, after which we would be in protected or familiar waters until our home port.

bye-bye Delaware

Hello friends and family,
We are at the bottom of the Delaware now. How cold is it at home? It is a little cold here. Tomorrow or Friday we hope to start the Jersey coast. Over the weekend we got to go to Washington DC! We even got to see the white house! I wish we could climb the Monument, we couldn't because in 2011 an earthquake hit and the Monument got a little crack in it.
Bye for now,
Jessica

So Far, So Good

We have made good time today, and are now approaching the beginning of the C&D Canal.

We have the benefit of the current, right now our speed is just above 7 knots, with slightly higher than idle power.
In true Cee Jem fashion, we have decided to push on. We always find it hard to stop before dark when we have the advantage of good current or wind. It is 12 miles to the end of the Canal, and we have almost 3 hours of light left.
The caveat to the situation is that we have just heard a radio call stating that a railway bridge halfway down the canal will be closing shortly and remain lowered until a train goes by. The closed bridge height is 45', our mast height is 48'...no good. The Canal controller was vague when we asked about the bridge opening, saying it would open when the train had passed, and there would be a call on the radio to let us know.

What to do???
We are going to carry on, and hope that the bridge opens in time for us to pass through tonight and get to the anchorage on the east side before dark. If not, we have to decide whether we will head into an unfamiliar anchorage after sunset or turn around and backtrack to Chesapeake City to anchor as originally planned.

New Territory

Monday morning, after returning the rental car we left the dock at Solomons headed north. The Chesapeake Bay narrows at the north end and it felt like a much smaller body of water than it had in the fall, before we had sailed "big" water.
Around 3, we passed the Thomas Point Light, fondly remembering our first sail south from Annapolis. Everything north of this light, until we reach Brewerton NY on the Erie Canal will be new cruising ground for us. We missed all of this area southbound when we trucked the boat, due to the damaged and closed Erie Canal. The Erie Canal was scheduled to open today, and we have heard that it in fact opened two days early.

Today our plan is to sail to the top of the Chesapeake Bay, and enter the first part of the C&D Canal. This canal, first proposed in 1661 and opened in 1829, links the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, shortening the water route between Baltimore and Philadelphia. The canal has since been enlarged considerably, and our guide book now states that the maximum allowable length for a self-propelled vessel transiting the canal is 886 feet! Though we hope not to pass a huge ship in the channel, their wakes can be tremendous and reverberate off the rock walls for quite some time, we know we will see many large vessels, and have found a website that shows commercial traffic in the area.
Though you won't be able to see us, you can check out who we might see by checking this website: marine traffic.com and zooming into the area between the top of the Chesapeake and the top of the Delaware.
Off we go.....