Lock 20, Center of the World

It has everything you need. A vegetable stand. A beer & soda joint that sells beer from all over the world. A barbecue place that does naked ribs (carb-free, so I can eat 'em!). Up the other highway is the town of Whitsboro which has a library, liquor store and bakery (extra-carby so Jim can enjoy a snack, too).
Why am I so thrilled? Well I am not thrilled, but content. You see the New York waterway has been brought to a standstill by a dam that suffered a sudden break. So the good folks at the NY Thruway Canals Dept. are hurrying their efforts to get a temporary repair done in order to get the transiting boats on their way. So far there are close to 70 boats waiting. Most are all parked much closer to the damaged area of lock # 13...how lucky is that? The canal staff will put us all through in three eight hour days. October 4-6. We arrived September 20.
So we wait.
We have all kinds of projects to keep us busy; we started by opening up our mast to find out what in blue blazes was making that infernal clanging racket. Did I mention the mast is a hollow, aluminum sound chamber? The noise invoked the Bells of St. Ives. Anyhow, we found a 20' length of conduit that had come detached sometime during our journey home. We knew we would have this chance to investigate while the mast was down for the canal transit. So we ripped out the rest of all that wire up there, except the feed to the steaming light. What a relief that will be!
I have done more scraping, fairing and painting of the cockpit boards and some hull areas. Jim has been re-doing the board that the battery bank sits on. We have been using our wood burning heater, so there is plenty of ash to flush off with canal water each morning. *sigh*! At least the weather has been fine.
Cooking, cooking, cooking. As some of you know I am on a special diet that promotes healing of the small intestine, its called the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. Google that puppy to find out ALL the details, but the upshot is...I eat vegetables. No starch. Which is why I am particularly happy about being stuck in the middle of no-where-upper-state-ny with this farm stand. The town of Whitsboro sold out to Walmart, so there is no longer a grocery store in town, but the gas station has eggs and some pretty good New York Cheddar, so we're doing all right.
In order to make up lost time, Jim has been doing some route planning. We are hoping to sail near shore from New York City to Hampton, Virginia, a two day passage that should get us below the chilly autumn temperatures of the northern states. We'll let the crush through, let them deal with each other and all those canal walls, before we slide through on the Saturday, this should allow us  to find room at the self-serve crane at Castleton to re-step the mast and get on our way down the Hudson River. Maybe this delay is sparing us having to dodge a hurricane or two?
As more boats come through, it becomes more apparent that Lock 20 really is a good spot, so more are tying off here. Party at our place tonight!

Preparing to Enter The Oswego Canal

We left Cape Vincent after a rough night of North wind, and under sunny skies we sailed fair Dolphin with the sail Jim had just cut from the old 170%genoa. The lapper, as it is known, set beautifully and pulled us on a 3 knot average beam reach halfway to Oswego. A great wind came and filled in all available canvas, the cooling towers and stacks of the generating facilities quite visible on the New York horizon. After putting the first reef in, we doused the lapper and put up the wee staysail. The wind started to back, as forecast, and we screamed in to Oswego, our speed topping out at 7 knots, the rig in complete control. I think I like this boat!

We tied off at a public wall, and went for another beautiful evening stroll.

Now there is a lot to do to prepare a sailboat to transit the Canal. Knowing that it saves us roughly 1200 nautical miles on the St. Lawrence, we felt it well worth all the cost and effort. Plus we got to meet the Legendary Bernie Bacon, crane-dude at Oswego Marina.

After unclipping rigging, wrapping up all the shrouds, turning the turn buckles, stowing the boom, club and spinnaker-pole, pulling down the sun shade and generally going out of our minds with work, we got our mast unstepped by Mr. Bacon. We had heard how great he was, but the actual experience has left us amazed. he and his crew had that puppy down in about thirty minutes. We were on the crane dock for an hour and a half. Kudos!

Jim had designed the whole load to go under the re-installed sun shade, rather that hold it high aloft, so we could travel confidently in case of other boats putting up a big wake, which happens. So here we are, back in the U.S.A, heading south.

Ah, South! We like to monitor the degrees of latitude w cross by seeing what grows. The holly bushes here are plump with berries 

And here is a very pleasant thing, indeed. Before we left, our friends Curtis & Shannon delivered a CSA box of all kinds of veggies. We just finished that green stripe-y guy this morning. The darker orange one was dense and full of flavor, nice in a bowl of chili. We have yet to enjoy the Buttercup and "Weirdo" at the end is quite a good variety of zucchini. I named this variety myself, clever, huh? I forget where I got the pumpkin.
My posts will be a bit less often, now that we are really on the road, but I'll check in at our next Public Library! Ciao!

Launch Day...Again!



Well, let's hope this is the last time we hafta do this for a long while!

We wanted to lay eyes on one problem spot under the keel before we sailed Dolphin offshore (even if it is just Lake Ontario), so  we spent a week at Collins Bay Marina on the hard. Some jobs are so much easier when a boat is out of the water, so we tried to get as much done as we could.

 

 Her waterline wasn't quite right; the antifouling paint was too low for long distance cruising, so we raised it by five inches.  I gave her topsides two more coats of Tremclad Loving Care and cleaned up her transom with some sandpaper and two coats of Epiphanes varnish.

 

 Jim hauled out a small amount of rot from the deadwood area of the keel, where there are two bolts holding it on. He removed a wiggly one and repaired the area with epoxy, then screwed on some pressure treated planking to make up the new shoe. Layered it all out with some good, old, sticky roof patch compound...mmm...tar. We gunned a couple of seams with SikaFlex and called it a day.

We took advantage of having some scaffolding nearby, so Jim went after two more areas and made  repairs to the deck and rub rail on the port quarter. After some fairing and paint, she'll once again be the Belle of the Ball.  I took advantage of having a new, yet good friend to take me into Kingston and get all the last minute stores for the trip south.

 

Then we were ready to go back in, so on with The Show!

 
As long as he wore a hard hat, the crew let Jim stay on board and play with all the toys!

Here's Paul and Tony, a couple hard working guys. You couldn't hope to find more attentive, knowledgeable crew.  

The leading man Henry, crane-guy extraordinaire. As the song goes, he's got our whole world in his hands!

Down, down into the sea.

The Ringleader, proud yard owner Gerry. Another job well done. We found Collins bay Marina to be one of the tidiest, most organized and  best places to haul, heck just to hang out with The Gang to enjoy the coffee and goodies that Lori puts out for the live-aboards. Thanks again, folks!

 

And special thanks to Susi for all her help with pick ups and deliveries. We met a few years ago at Rosehaven Knitting Group, but only linked up now, as she lives only three km away from CBM. She and her husband Hans had us over for a splendid meal, and spent a couple of evening on board Dolphin sharing friendship and food. That's really what these cruises are all about.

So while Dolphin continues to tighten up after 8 days drying out, her leak rate continues to improve and give us confidence to take her out of Collins Bay. And if we make it out of Kingston, we'll head across to New York. If she still hasn't sunk, it's down the Erie Canal we go for trip #3 to The Bahamas. We'll chat again soon.