Wrinkly Crew, Lockin' Through and American Hospitality

Well we are back home, arrived a few hours ago. That's the first leg of the trip finished with a transit across Lake Ontario, 30 locks on the Erie and Oswego canals, plus another 30 miles down the Hudson River. After meeting up with Grandma Annie and and the man she is living in sin with (now referrred to as Bob) at Riverlink Park in Amsterdam, New York, we set off once again heading East towards the Hudson. While we are talking about Riverlink Park, we'd like to thank the owners who were kind enough to drive us to their house so we could leave our car there after an overzealous mall cop insisted we would be ticketed if we tried to stay in his lot. This is a family run operation so if any boaters are reading this, they offer cheap dockage ($1.00/ft), very clean washrooms and showers and reasonably priced food, in addition to very helpful and friendly staff/family members.

This section of the canal is very picturesque, continuing down the Mohawk River Valley towards Albany. Although at times we were travelling right beside I-90, you'd be surprised at the beauty of the area (just try to ignore the train noise!).The kids have been keeping track of wildlfe, in particular birds. So far they have seen loons, cormorants, Kingfishers, lots of Blue Herons and an Osprey. On Wednesday they were treated to the sight of an American Bald Eagle swooping down and plucking a fish out of the canal!! They then saw a second one a couple of days later on the Hudson River . The days on the canal are pretty laid back, and we were treated to some really nice weather.

After coming to the end of the canal at the Hudson River, we turned right/starboard and actually started going SOUTH!!!! We went about 20 miles down the river to the Castleton Boat Club in Castleton -on-the-Hudson, NY. This is a spot Lisa and I first visited 11 years ago when when we went south on Connemara II. They have a gin pole and for $50.00 (I think that's what we paid back in 1998 as well) you can use it to put up or take down your mast. We took our mast down last fall in Bath since it has to be down to transit the canal, but now that we are on the Hudson we can once again turn Charlotte-Ann back into a sailboat!

Bob was a great help with putting the mast up, much better than the two Mexicans I hired to help me 2 years ago when we brought the boat home from New Jersey!!

By the way, if Jorge and Julio are reading this, please note the newly installed electric control for the crane hook!!! It was harder than it looks, my thumb kept cramping up!! Thankfully beverage prices remained unchanged from 2007. After an excellent Italian dinner at a local restaurant (American Hospitality number #2, the owner drove down to the boat club and brought us to the restaurant, 2 trips to get all 6 of us there, then drove us all back after we had supper) we returned to the boat and had a good nights sleep before our last run down the river in the morning.After Castleton, we moved another 8 miles down the river to the Coxsackie Yacht Club. This will be home to Charlotte-Ann for the next 5 weeks while I go back to work. This is another case of American Hospitality, with an offer from the Commodore of the Club to allow us to keep our boat at their club with a small donation (it's a working club, non-profit). Everyone we met while there was super-friendly, and the Commodore, Sal, couldn't have been more helpful or accomodating. The club actually owns an island just off the shore of the main facility. They have set it up with a gazebo, BBQ's, Johnny-on-the-Spot and bonfire pit. They have even created a beach on the river side!!

After hanging out at the beach for the afternoon, we later joined a couple of families from the club for a bonfire and, of course, toasted marshmallows. We got back to the boat around 10:00pm and no one stirred until after 0900 the next morning.

Unfortunately it was then time to back the boat up and get ready to drive home.

We'd like to thank Tara for mowing our lawn and leaving dinner in the fridge for our arrival!! Thanks also to Taya for feeding and cleaning Maceo.

The trip will be on hiatus for a month while I go back to Newfoundland. Lisa has a couple of weeks to go before our tenant moves in, plus the kids have a 2-week sailing camp here in Port Colborne.

The next leg of the trip will include a stop-over in New York City, an offshore run on the Atlantic from Sandy Hook, NJ to Norfolk, Virginia, then the ICW to Oriental, NC with a stopover in Cape Hatteras to (finally) get some kiteboarding in!!!

Later,

Mark, Lisa, Delaney and Mitchell