We found Sal…on the Erie Canal

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9/18/2014
Brockport, NY; Location: 43 12.9N, 77 56.4W
Posted by Bill

Today was the first full day on the Erie Canal. We got started around 8:30 with decent weather, but it deteriorated rapidly into rain and drizzle with 15 knot winds and 52 degree temps…booshit! Fortunately, several years ago we purchased quality Gill foul weather gear, complete with pants, coats and West Marine boots. It was a miserable day to hand steer the boat for 8 hours. We were trying to make it to the “award winning welcome center” at Brockport, NY to enjoy nice facilities and the town of Brockport.

After several hours of motoring, we came to our first set of locks. Each took us down approximately 25 feet. The Erie Canal system has a total of 34 locks, runs 338 miles and drops a total of 572 feet from Lake Erie to sea level. The lock process goes like this: When you get a green light, motor in to the lock and grab the lines on the lock wall. One person grabs at the bow (front of the boat) and the other grabs at the stern (back of the boat). Some locks have fixed lines or cables that you wrap your lines around, and most of them have dangling lines that you just grab on to. Then the water goes up or down depending on which direction you are headed.

Descending in the lock.
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Doors opening…get the HELL OUT!
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Then we encountered a series of lift bridges. You have to contact the lift operator on the marine radio and request a lift. Then they stop traffic, lift the bridge and you can go under. If you don’t wait until the bridge is completely up and a green light comes on, you get yelled at…don’t ask how I know.

Lift bridge.
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Look…we made it to the big apple!!!
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After we made it to the big apple we saw apple orchards for at least 15 miles along the canal. Wish I could have picked some.

After 8.5 hours of motoring, we made it to Brockport. Unfortunately, this time of year the lift bridges close at 5 PM. Because the bridges made us wait for a slower power boat at each bridge (can you believe a power boat slowing down a sail boat…for the love of god…what is the world coming to?), we didn’t make the bridge at Brockport; and instead of luxury accommodations with electric and restrooms, we are tied to a rough concrete wall with no amenities…Booooo, Hisssss! Ahhhh, but no dock fees.

And look…we found Sal (the mule from the Erie Canal song – Google it if you are too young to know what I am talking about, people)
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We are now a motor boat.

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9/17/14
Erie Canal, Tonawanda NY, Latitude/Longitude: 43 01.3N, 78 52.3W
Posted by Bill

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Yesterday after we landed at Rich Marine we had to get ready to have the mast taken down so we could transit the Erie Canal. The lowest bridge heights are 13 feet and we have a 54 foot mast. So we busted ass and took down the sails (not an easy task for a boat our size). We finished up around 8 PM and went to find a place to eat. Now Rich Marine is not in a very good part of town, and we walked around for at least an hour trying to find a place to eat. Plenty of places…none open. WTF? The best place in the area was open but closed at 7:30. Again…WTF? So we go back to the boat and Tricia makes a home made pizza…yum! Of course I made cocktails. And a good time was had by all.

This morning we moved the boat over to the crane area and the yard crew took the mast down and built a support structure to hold it while we transit to the Hudson River. The crew was really good and a very colorful lot, which I always appreciate.

Here is them taking the mast off with a crane.
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Here is the final result.
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We are officially a motor boat.

We left Rich a little after 4 PM and motored down the Niagara River. We had a downstream current between 2.5 to 3.5 knots, which is pretty strong. At one point the boat’s speed transducer said we were moving 5.5 knots and the GPS on the chart plotter showed Course Over Ground of 8.7! When we hit Tonawanda Creek we made a right and went into the Erie Canal. It was really cool. The Niagra had some really varied scenery, from interstate 90 running along side, to factories, to riverside homes with sprawling lawns and boat docks.

Tonawanda and North Tonawanda are really nice towns. We stopped there for the night and walked into both towns which are on opposite sides of the Canal. We stopped at JP Dwyers Irish pub and had some downright awesome wings. Then walked over to the other side of the canal and went to Smoke on the Water, and had awesome pork bar-b-que. Highly recommend both places if you ever get this way.

We saw some weird shit walking around as well. There was some guy parked along the canal in his car with the trunk lid open. Inside the trunk he had a small AV system and he was facing the trunk singing into a mic. He had a nice voice but no audience. He was literally singing into the trunk of his car with no one around. An hour later we passed him again…same deal…singing away. We also saw this car/grill/oven contraption. If the food it makes is even close to Smoke on the Water, I am good with it.
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Island Bound docked in the Erie Canal at Tonawanda
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Bridges and Canals and Locks….Oh my!

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9/16/14
Buffalo, NY: Latitude/Longitude 42 56.2N, 78 54.4W
Posted by Bill

Beautiful motor sail to Buffalo today. It took around 4 and 1/2 hours to sail from Dunkirk and it was a day of firsts. First place to sail into with a city skyline…
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First passage under a lift bridge (I wasn’t sure it was high enough)…
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…and swing bridge
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First passage through a lock (pretty uneventful)…
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We docked at Rich Marine and will have them take our mast down tomorrow so we can go through the Erie Canal. Sad to see these towns in western New York as they are having troubles in today’s economy. Not good to see them struggle. As we talked to locals we came to feel their plight as manufacturing and jobs in general have left the area for overseas competition.

Sorry for the late posts but every day has been full of activity and work and I have not been able to keep up! It should slow down from here on out so I can keep you up to date!

We finally left

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9/15/14
Dunkirk, NY : Latitude/Longitude 42 29.28N, 79 20.41W
Posted by Bill

The last week has been so crazy trying to ready the boat and house for departure and we did not get everything loaded onto the boat until Sunday, missing our intended departure on Saturday. Not really a problem because just as sailflow.com predicted the winds blew 30+ knots most of the morning and early afternoon.
We finished loading around 9:00 AM Sunday (2 hours behind!!) and left our dock at 9:15, headed for the fuel dock to pump out the holding tank (toilet waste for you non-boaters) and fill up with diesel. As we pull up to the fuel dock the alternator light goes on….crap! We haven’t gone 100 yards and we are already fixing something! This is usually a sign that the alternator belt needs tightened, so before departing the fuel dock I dig the tools out of storage and make the adjustment, start the engine and the light is out. We head out into the West Harbor channel and 200 yards later the light comes on again…crap! We head back to our dock and I make more adjustments. Finally at 10:15 we leave the dock for the second time.

Earlier the marine forecast said “possible morning showers and waterspouts”…sheesh! Great way to start a voyage. Actually the weather was good until about 2 AM Monday and the wind kicked up a typical Lake Erie washing machine effect that threw us around like a cork, forcing me to hand steer until around 6 AM (“Otto”, our autopilot, isn’t good at steering in confusing waves). Then we got swarmed by thousands of little bugs that stuck around for the duration of the trip, still swarming as I type, so it was a typical Lake Erie experience. After 25 hours of passage we arrive at Dunkirk, NY, tired and bug laden.

Dunkirk Yacht Club turned out to be a real hidden gem. The people were so hospitable that I thought we were in a time warp…back 50 years or so. After talking to them on the phone about possible dockage they called me repeatedly to ensure I got the “local knowledge” about how to navigate the harbor entrance. Upon arrival they helped with the docking, gave us the lowdown about the club and the surrounding area, and invited us to all of the amenities that their club had to offer. The facilities were clean and very adequate and the people were exceptional.

This is the Dunkirk Yacht Club:
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Here is a pic of the bugs we got swarmed by:
Bugs on boardThey literally covered the whole boat. We had no idea how many there were.

When we docked in Dunkirk I had to wash the boat because the bugs were so bad, but all in all a good passage, and a first destination on our journey.

Here we are at departure:
Departure 2014Pic courtesy of our friend and dock neighbor Brian Leonard! Thanks Brian.

Great stop Dunkirk. We had dinner at Dimitri’s and it was very good, and at Jenna’s for breakfast…also outstanding!

The boat is sinking!

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9/12/2014
Catawba Island Ohio
Posted by Bill

We have been working non-stop (and I mean it!) for almost a month now. Frantic pace to get the house sold, frantic pace to move, and frantic pace to get the boat ready and leave. Trust me…that’s a lot of frantic pace. For the last week we have been dis-positioning stuff at the house and hauling it to the boat, and stuffing it away in what ever hidey-hole we can find on the boat. Every day I look at the waterline (how low in the water the boat sits a dock) and it keeps getting lower and lower. We haven’t even loaded the really heavy stuff yet, which is fresh water and fuel. Our Island Packet holds 170 gallons of water and 90 gallons of fuel. Right now we have 1/4 tank of water and 2/3 tank of fuel. When we load it up it will probably sink another inch, which is a lot for a 42′ boat!

That is really not a big deal except that the water line is demarcated by the top of the antifouling paint on the hull. You need anti-fouling paint so that the marine growth doesn’t stick to the hull, build up and slow you down. In the tropics it looks like a beard around your boat and it needs to be scraped off on a regular basis. We use Petitt Trinidad SR bottom paint and it is pretty good a keeping the growth at bay for at least 2 years. But, if the water line rises above the anti-foul you are going to have more of a mess to attend to than you want.

So….we are loading and watching the weather. Right now sailflow.com is showing gusts up to 30 knots out of the north from 10 AM to 2 PM. That will mean 5 foot waves of significant steepness and a very uncomfortable ride to Vermilion. Due to our conservative nature, we will wait another day for better weather. The boat can handle much more severe weather than that but the crew doesn’t want to endure more than they have to…lol (see Dan and Mary Jane, you don’t have to worry!). Right now it is blowing 15 knots in the harbor (which is always less than on the lake). Deadlines and cruising don’t mix, and usually makes sailors make bad decisions to meet a date versus using prudent judgement. We will make the final call tomorrow and will err on the side of safe passage.

Lesson of the day: If you have been drinking and can carry a 40 lb bin out from the back seat of a Jeep Wrangler, down a 50′ dock, onto a boat, under the bimini cover, and not drop anything in the water…including yourself…you can have another martini!

First dose of storage management

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9/10/14 – Catawba Island, OH
Posted by Bill

In the last post I was expounding on the virtues of inventorying everything on the boat so you can find it. There are more than 70 storage locations on our Island Packet 40. We have been inventorying and stuffing things away and noting the location of where it is stuffed. Today I was doing a boat project installing 12V cigarette lighter receptacles in the navigation station (nav station). We have a pretty elaborate electrical system on board which allows us to use AC power at the dock or through an inverter when not connected to shore power. The inverter converts DC power to AC power and works very well but uses battery power at a feverish pace, all depending on the power draw. Charging phones, iPods, iPads, laptops, etc… is very inefficient compared to just plugging in to a 12 volt receptacle like you would your car, so this is a good project. I look up the location of the electrical supplies storage and it reads “Starboard – salon – forward – settee – under” which means it is under the bench seat on the right side of the boat in the “living room” at the forward most seat. I know this is wrong because there is an air conditioning unit in that storage location….crap! I begin to search around that area and after 20 minutes of pulling out storage bins and tearing the inside of the boat apart I find what I need. At this point I realized 2 things: 1) Don’t drink vodka while you are putting stuff in storage, and 2) it’s a good thing we are inventorying all of this stuff or the process I just went through would be a standard routine every time I need to find something.

I got my project half done and then we went to have dinner with friends we consider family. They grew up in the Port Clinton/Catawba Island area, lived in Columbus for a time (where we met), and then moved back up to Catawba. While in Columbus we had a dual wedding where we all got married together and had a huge party. Great fun! We have a special bond with them and it was great to spend time together again. We will miss them!

We continue to press forward, hoping to be able to leave Saturday as planned, and we just might make it!

Let’s get going…..

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9/8/14 – Catawba Island, Ohio
Posted by Bill

It took a day and a half to recover from the move. Man am I sore! We have stuff piled all over the place in the house. I couldn’t sleep so got up and started route planning. The general plan is to sail for Vermilion on Saturday the 13th. We have dinner plans with friends that share the same birthday as Tricia and are celebrating at one of our favorite restaurants, Chez Francois. Sunday we plan to leave Vermilion and sail 30 hours overnight to Buffalo, NY. I figure we leave at dawn and will be there around mid day on Monday. After an overnight stay we take the mast down and enter the Erie canal on Tuesday. It will take probably 6 days to get through the canal if the weather is permitting. The canal terminates at the Hudson River, which will take 2 – 3 days to transit ending in NY City/Sandy Hook, NJ. There we will wait for good passage weather for an overnight sail in the Atlantic Ocean around New Jersey to Cape May, NJ. After an overnight stay we will move up the Delaware Bay to the C&D canal which will take us into the Chesapeake Bay. We would like to be in Baltimore by October 6. Assuming the weather follows the current forecast (uh huh), we can make it. If the weather goes bad we will sit it out and be late.

So after looking at the weather and route, we decided to bust ass this week and get the boat loaded. Sunday we dis-positioned all of the stuff we brought in the move and started to inventory everything that goes on the boat. Island Packet boats are known for their ample storage but it is still a 42 foot boat, so you can imagine the challenge of trying to find a way to load all of our land based stuff, in addition to all of the things you need to manage and maintain a sailboat. Once loaded, it can be a significant task finding something you want, so everything gets put into an inventory spreadsheet with storage locations noted. We inventoried around 70% of what we have, went and bought engine and rigging spares, and took our first load to the boat.

The process repeats starting with the most important “must take” stuff, followed by less important stuff until the boat is full. Also this week we need to get rid of 2 cars, make a trip down and back to Columbus, and I need to install some 12V cigarette lighter adapters in the boat to power our Engel freezer, laptops and phones. It is going to be another crazy week with lots of activity, but it appears do-able (yeah – sure it does).

If we don’t make it for some reason…no big deal…we have plan B!

The first move is complete

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9/5/14

So our house in Powell has sold and we moved to our house at Lake Erie. We lived in that house for 18 years and we really liked the neighbors, the community, the Columbus area and the house. We are relieved to have made it through the process because it really sucked – mostly because we totally underestimated the effort involved in moving, and also underestimated the amount of stuff that we had stored in the house. The last 2 weeks just about killed us, especially yesterday when we actually moved. We started the day around 8 AM and worked non-stop until we left the house at 10:20 PM, then drove 2 hours to the lake. The 12:30 AM martinis tasted really good!

Now our lake house is crammed with stuff from the other house in addition to all of the boat stuff that has been waiting for the right moment to move aboard.

We will be glad to only have 1 house to maintain, but the whole event was very sad for us. Good-byes to our neighbors, Columbus friends, and especially our kids and grandkids, were very difficult emotionally. There is definitely some second guessing going on…”Is this really the right thing to do?” Our Wednesday night drinking club (WWHWC – Wednesday Watering Hole Wanderers Club) is ending it’s 7th year of meeting every Wednesday. Tricia and I are founding members and the core group of founding members are regular attenders. Some days we have only core members show up and other days we have 20 or so. We will miss them like family. We were sad that they are going to meet only monthly because of us leaving. We will be visiting back in town on a somewhat regular basis, but it is still sad. The neighbors threw a fun party for us a week ago which had me wishing we had done that more often.

Now the focus is towards the boat and the first leg of our journey. I sit and stare at the chaos inside the lake house and wonder how the hell we are going to disposition all of it, load it on the boat, and prep the house for winter before it is too late to depart through the Erie Canal. Good thing we have a plan B.

Frequently asked questions – Part 1

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So more people are starting to check out our blog site. As mentioned before…we won’t be regularly updating it until we get underway, but in the mean time……

When people hear that we are going to live aboard and cruise around for an extended period we get 1 of 2 reactions that are about 50/50 split: 1 – you guys are nuts, 2 – wow, that sounds exciting, wish I could go too

There is usually a lot of questions, most are the same from person to person, so I thought we could start a FAQ page (which I will do when I post part 2 in the future). This is the beginning of the FAQ process.

Q: Why are you doing this crazy thing?
A: We want to simplify and get back to nature, travel and see the world via H2O. We will spend some time checking out places on the water that we have targeted as potential places to live. While very rewarding, the lifestyle of living on a boat is physically demanding and we need to do it now, if ever, before we become physically unable. If you have never experienced it, moving on the water under the power of the wind or floating at a beautiful anchorage experiencing the natural world around is absolutely incredible. If you have experienced it, you are probably one of the 50% that wants to go with us!

Q: Where are you going?
A: We don’t believe you can survive this lifestyle if you need to have a hard and fast plan with any specificity. Our preference is to take the boat through the Erie Canal to the Hudson River, down the Hudson to New York City, out on the Atlantic Ocean around New Jersey to the Delaware Bay and into the Chesapeake Bay. We have friends and family that we would love to spend time with in the Chesapeake and the Bay area offers so many places to explore via boat. From there we want to get to the Bahamas for the winter and to get there we will do ocean passages between major harbors on the east coast if the weather is good, or use the intracoastal waterway if the weather is bad. In spring, head back to the Chesapeake and also cruise New England, then back to the Bahamas for winter. We do want to head down the island chain in the eastern Caribbean, down to Grenada, but we will figure that out after we get the first year under our belt!

Q: Aren’t you afraid of being on the ocean?
A: We have chartered boats and sailed the ocean and have experienced 30 knot winds and 12-14 foot seas, so we have some idea of how rough it gets. We will be conservative in our planning and make sure that we have adequate weather windows when making ocean passages. We have also been on the water in 50-70 mph winds in Lake Erie. Many people who have extensive experience sailing the ocean and the Great Lakes will tell you that they have had more challenging experiences on the Great Lakes, especially Lake Erie. The storms can come in fast and without warning, and the shallow water builds the waves steep and with a short wave period. All that being said, we are not naive enough to think we will not be challenged on ocean passages. Bottom line is that “afraid” is not the right word, but rather
respectful of the power of the ocean and nature overall. A deep and serious respect fosters safety and a conservative approach.

Q: Aren’t you afraid of hurricanes?
A: Yes! Because of our conservative nature and that our boat insurance requires us to be out of the “hurricane zone” (north of Georgia in the US) during hurricane season, we will be out of the hurricane zone during the season. We do understand that hurricanes still strike north of Georgia….see the answer to the previous question.

Q: Won’t you miss your family?
A: Hell no…we want to get away from those people! I had to open this answer with a joke because it is the most difficult part of doing this. We love our family dearly and will miss seeing them regularly. We will come back and visit, and there is already planning to come visit us. We also see this as an opportunity to teach the grandkids about the world, nature, and living a simple life. Most children grow up without this perspective, especially in this technology dominated era. We will also miss our friends very much. One of our favorite blogs we follow has called this the “true cost of cruising”, and I think it will be for us too.

More to come….

Let’s talk about docking technique

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Ok….so I’ve been boating since the mid-seventies and except for going to a school for my Coast Guard captain’s license, I have never had any formal training on how to pilot or maintain a boat. That being said, I am pretty anal about proper seamanship, especially when it comes to safety.

I also believe strongly in the “Black Box” theory. For those that are unfamiliar with the “Black Box” theory here is the cliff notes version: There is an imaginary black box where a sailor deposits credits for every act of good seamanship and/or preparedness, whether it is needed or not. Preventative measures are high on the list of credits. There will be times where you screw up, forget something, or bad luck will befall you, and a credit will be taken from your black box in place of having a bad experience. Because of this you never want to have an empty black box, so you practice good seamanship, preventative maintenance and preventative measures to keep the box as full as possible.

Docking is probably the hardest thing to do in a boat and provides many opportunities to have bad things happen, usually with a crowd of onlookers just waiting for an entertaining experience. It is a common courtesy to help someone into a dock when you see them coming and we always make an effort to lend assistance if they are ok with it. There are some “standard” techniques that are usually applied and several variations that are used based on wind direction and water current. Here is the most basic standard for docking:

1. Tie dock lines to the forward, aft and mid ship (breast cleat) cleats before you approach the dock (so you are ready to tie the boat securely to the dock – duh!). If approaching your home dock there are usually lines secured to your dock permanently that you will grab so this step is unnecessary.
2. Approach the dock going into the wind or current if possible.
3. Use a spring line (dock line that is a bit longer than half the size of your boat) attached to your breast cleat as the first line that is secured.
4. Use the boat’s motor with the spring line attached to bring the boat alongside of the dock.
5. Attach the bow line (forward cleat) and then the stern line (aft cleat).
6. Adjust the lines as necessary and put fenders in place to protect the sides of the boat.

So we were sitting in Florida at a bar on the intracoastal waterway that had almost 50 docks for visiting boaters. There was a little bit of wind (8-10 knots) and a tidal current of 1-2 knots. This is a popular place and there was constant docking activity. They had a dock master and a dock hand to help people get in to the docks and secure their boats. I call it “Boating Lifestyles of the Lame and Clueless”. Here are some of the typical scenarios we saw as people came in to dock:

1. First approach…go straight for the dock unaware of wind or current…the boat drifts off past the docks before they get half way there. Second approach…same as the first…there must be something wrong with the steering? Third approach…aim up wind/current of the dock so they can drift down…oops not far enough up. Fourth approach…pick a different dock that is parallel to the wind/current…current rams the front of the boat into the front of the dock.

2. Same as scenario 1 except after 6 attempts…forget it, let’s not go to this bar.

3. Slam the boat into the dock…make the dock hand hold the boat in place by the rails (and risk falling in or pinning a limb between the boat and dock) while you get the dock lines out of storage.

4. Dock lines out and ready…throw the dock line to the dock hand…oops, the line isn’t attached to anything on the boat. (This is a frequent scenario believe it or not.)

5. Dock lines attached and ready…a person standing next to the dock line on the deck of the boat…never throws the line to the dock hand until after the dock hand wrestles the boat to the dock by the rails.

6. Absolutely no spring line…boat drifts away while trying to secure the bow line.

7. Dock lines attached to railings instead of cleats…railing gets pulled out of the deck.

We watched this go on for days with more than 3/4ths of the boaters having no clue how to properly dock a boat. We see it all of the time in our home waters as well, especially Put In Bay. It just amazes me that people have 40, 50, 60 foot boats costing hundreds of thousands of dollars that don’t have even a basic understanding of good seamanship. The worst part is that they will probably be the one that docks next to you and use your boat to stop theirs!