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

Still Going East and Unconditional Love

As you can tell by our sporadic posts, free wi-fi on the Erie Canal is hard to come by. Might be because we are being cheap and stay away from marina's, preferring to spend nights tied along free walls and docks. We miss our nights at anchor, but it's a bit tough to do on the canal. Anyway, things are going well. The weather has been hit and miss, but for the most part it has been sunny and warm.

We have covered about 230 miles since leaving Bath, averaging about 30 miles on the days we are moving. The days are pretty relaxed, the locks are simple to go through and the kids are doing great at keeping themselves busy. The have their chores on the boat, and are also getting quite good a helping lock the boat through. A couple of times it would have been nice to have the dinghy available (it's rolled up on the foredeck right now), just to go out and do a little exploring.

No problems with the boat either, although we did catch a submerged log between the engines just as we came off of Oneida Lake (we were going slow, just backed up and it released). The new engines have been great, we average just over 5kts on one engine at 2/3 throttle. Did a little test yesterday and hit 7.8kts with both engines at around 80% throttle.

We spent 2 days in Conajahorie, home of the Beech-Nut factory (you know, they make gum). Visited a local art gallery and Count Olaf's house (of Lemony Snicketts fame). O.k, it wasn't really the Count's home, it actually belonged the inventor of the train sleeper car. It must have been stunning when it was new, unfortunately it is now in a very sad state of repair. We stayed in a park along the canal, played badminton and hung out.

Today we are sitting in Amsterdam, New York, waiting for mom and Bob to arrive. We'll then drop one of the cars off at the Coxsackie Yacht Club on the Hudson River. We have another 3 days travelling to get there, then we will secure the boat for a month and head home, the first leg of the trip over with. Lisa needs to get the house ready for our tenant and the kids have 2 weeks of sailing camp (as if living on a boat for a year isn't going to be enough sailing for them!?!).

Oh yeah, the unconditional love part?? So I am driving the boat the other day and Mitchell comes up to me and says, "Dad, you have a booger in your nose". He then proceeds to stick his finger in my left nostril, remove the offending booger and flick it overboard!! Thanks for the help buddy!!

Well this connection is acting up so I'll stop now. There is a function on the satellite image here on the Blog, click for a larger image and you can see some more pics tagged for the location taken.

Later,

Us.

Remind Me Again Why we Are Doing This???.... Oh, This is Why!!!!

First of all, this may sound like a bit of a bitch sesion, and I suppose in a way it is, but trust us when we say that moving your kids onto a boat and heading off for a year isn't always as romantic as it sounds. Lisa has had alot on her hands getting ready to go, and I have been spending alot of time working on the boat. Now normally I wouldn't complain about that, but since we left the boat up in Bath it meant I had to be away from home during the time I'm not supposed to be away! When you already spends 6-months of the year away from your family, any more than is necessary really isn't much fun. So anyway, enough said, lots of work, but it all seemed worth every minute just this weekend when we finally got the trip underway. Seeing the excitement of the kids as they moved all their clothes, toys, books and "stuff" into their cabins made the memories of all those times away this winter just disappear. Later that night I went hunting for worms so the kids could do some fishing.

Yup, it was all coming together.

Our friend Tara dropped us off in Bath on Friday night (Thanks Tara and the quiet kid she brought along). After loading the boat up it was time for the obligatory couple of drinks with Dave Hinton, the owner of the Marina and our former Harbormaster when we lived aboard 12 years ago.

Saturday was spent finishing some final boat projects, putting stuff away and a little housekeeping.

Sunday morning we fueled-up, took on water and finally started the trip!!Our first destination was Main Duck Island, about 20 miles south of Bath out on Lake Ontario. We had a nice motor and dropped the hook for the night. The kids and I went snorkeling while Lisa enjoyed the peace and quiet of the boat. Lots of big fish in the fresh, clean water (could have been a bit warmer though!). Yesterday we set off for the remaining 30 miles across the Lake to Oswego, New York. Again, the weather co-operated and we had a nice crossing. Then the miserable part started! Clearing through immigration was straightforward. There is a videophone that you use, they scan your passports, pretty easy. One thing we weren't aware of was the need for a decal if your boat is over 30' long (we are 34'). So I had to apply for one on-line, laptop wouldn't connect to the free wi-fi hotspot, but our IPod touch would. Problem was the site wasn't working well, I needed to phone the helpline, we ran out of minutes on our cellphone, the phone I could use was out of range of the Wi-fi, etc, etc .... So we eventually walked up to the US Border Patrol office and explained what we were trying to do. These guys were fantastic!!! They let us log onto the receptionists computer and it was all done with in about 15 minutes!! Woo hooo!!!!

So we were now free to continue onto the Erie Canal, initially heading south then turning east towrds the Hudson River.

Today we arrived in Phoenix, NY after going through 7 locks. It's a bit cool and rainy but we are looking forward to getting to Sylvan Beach tomorrow. I'll post a few videos once I get a more reliable connection.

Later,

The Crew of "Charlotte-Ann".

IRONY, NORMALCY AND WHERE ARE YOU GOING ANYWAY???

Well I couldn't resist this one. We are now less than a week before starting the first leg of the trip. Lisa decided to go to Costco (bulk retailer) to load up on some things to save money by buying larger quantities. You know, stuff like shampoo, sunscreen, vitamins etc...

She also picked-up a monster size bottle of Tabasco sauce, and anyone that knows Lisa realizes this MIGHT get her through the next 4 months. Cool, buy it in bulk and save some money. The kicker is she also bought a Jumbo package of Tums, to help get her through the Tabasco (oh yeah, she also bought a huge bottle of Worcester sauce). Self-defeating? Ironic? I wish she had gotten me a jumbo pack of Skittles (and toothpaste).

Things are also winding down on all the "normal" land-based activities we do.

Delaney had her final night of gymnastics, which was actually a demonstration and competition. She was awarded two second place, one 3rd place and one 6th place ribbon in the four disciplines, in additon to a trophy for 2nd place overall!!! Here is a video of her floor demonstration.


Part of Mitchells weekly routine also came to an end this week. He has been taking drum lessons since September, and unlike Jiu-Jitsu, soccer and Beavers, this one he actually stuck with and enjoyed!! He had a great instructor (Dwayne, a big RUSH fan) and really seemd to enjoy it. Here is a little clip from his final lesson this week.

Lisa and I also finished up something we both really enjoy, mountainbiking. Today we (along with my brother Alan) raced in our local race, the Great Lake to Lake Classic. The race starts around the corner from our house in H.H. Knoll park next to Lake Erie. It then runs 50km through the Niagara Penninsula finishing in Port Dalhousie on Lake Ontario.

You can't really see how muddy we were here at the end, but trust me, we were caked in good old Niagara clay!

It was fun, tiring , muddy and frustrating (I got 3 flats, and no, I wasn't racing a tricycle!!). Here is a short video giving you an idea of what we and over 900 other riders faced at about the 30km mark.

Lisa’s turn to write in our blog (bare with me)!!!
Everyone keeps asking what our agenda is for the trip. Well in a nutshell, this is it:

June 26: Drive up to Bath (thanks Tara and Kathryn!). The kids and I finally get to see all the hard work Mark has done.

June 27: Leave Bath and cross Lake Ontario for the Erie Canal (weather permitting). The plans are to be in Sylvan Beach, NY around the 1st or 2nd of July. We have recruited the driving team of Ann and Bob to meet us in Sylvan Beach (with 2 vehicles). After a bit of shuffling back and forth the six of us are continuing through the canal to Coxsackie Yacht Club on the Hudson River. This is were the Charlotte Ann will be left for the next month (thanks Sal Santo “SeaDog the Cat”). We then head back home to Port Colborne so Mark can go back to work.

July 14 – August 12: The kids and I will have time to pack up house (we have it rented out), and say good-bye to our friends. It looks like we will need a place to stay as of August 1 (thanks friends and family for putting us up). The kids are also attending a 2-week sailing camp. They will come out of that with a higher sailing qualification than either Mark or I have!

August 12: We are off!!!! Mark comes home and we head back to the Charlotte Ann (still haven’t figured out how we get there).

August – September 8: We sail down the Hudson River, spend a couple of days in New York City (say hi to Lady Liberty), head on to the Atlantic Ocean and make our way through Norfolk, VA, the Dismal Swamp and on to Oriental, North Carolina. This town is on the mainland side of Pamlico Sound (actually on the Neuse River), but very close to the Outer Banks/Cape Hatteras. One of Mark's "goals" is to anchor the boat in the Slick at REAL kiteboarding, walk ashore and buy himself a Jimmy Lewis kite surfboard. We'll have to see how that plays out, but at the least we are hoping to sneak in a couple of days of kiting before heading to Oriental. The kids and I will be staying here for the month while Mark goes and makes more money.
October 7 – November 3: Sail from North Carolina into Georgia and a town called Brunswick (South of Savannah). Here the kids and I will be held up for another month while Mark heads back to work.

Mark will be back with us around December 2nd. Normally he would have December off, but he has told his office he would like to take January off as well (sadly without pay). So that will give us December, January and February together. We will leave Georgia and stop off in Fort Pierce, Florida. There is a small mooring field there where we will leave the boat for a few days and drive to Disney. We will then continue south to Palm Beach. It's here that we provision the boat and wait for a weather window to cross over to the Bahamas Islands. We will start in the Abacos portion of the Bahamas then possibly move further south to the Exumas. Our goal is to arrive for Christmas, but at the latest to be there for New Years (really hoping to catch Junkanoo).

Plans start to get a little hazy after this. If I feel comfortable in an anchorage the kids and I will stay while Mark goes back to work in March. After that it will be time to head back to the States and start going north (boo!!).

Well that's what we know right now. Some of it will happen, some of it might not. All part of the adventure I suppose, no brochure available for this one!!!

Getting Close!

The departure date for the first leg of the trip is fast approaching. We will soon be posting our planned itinerary, but for now I thought I'd just bore you with some stuff from recent work on the boat (both Charlotte-Ann and Atlantic Osprey).

First regarding Charlotte-Ann. Last month when I was home I spent a few days up on the boat. No, she's not ready to go yet, but she's getting there! Thankfully Lisa and I learned from our first trip south that we shouldn't expect the boat to be 100% ready, EVER.

I did manage to get some pretty large projects completed, the biggest being the installation of our new engines.

We replaced the 12 year old original Evinrude 9.9's with brand new 2009 Yamaha T9.9's. Unlike the old engines the new ones have power tilt and trim, are lighter, quieter, more fuel efficient and use huge 11-3/4" props. We also replaced the controllers, tachs and start switches, as well as adding hour meters for maintenance purposes.

The other big project was replacement of the doghouse window. Anyone who has been on the boat can attest to how UV damaged it was, nearly impossible to see out it. We had a new window fabricated and Alan helped me install it. What a difference!! It actually makes the boat interior seem bigger.

Other projects included installation of custom made screens and privacy covers, new propane sensors, new batteries and battery monitor, holding tank level sensor (Pooh-Meter), fuel filters , new bottom paint and manual bilge pump. We also replaced the original 3" foam matress in mine and Lisa's cabin with a queen-size 10" Obus Forme memory foam mattress! Very nice!!



There are still a few more projects to do, the largest being the wave slap hull modification that is hopefully underway at this moment (right Dave??).

So things are coming together nicely.

Sounds as if we have the house rented, and much to Lisa's relief we don't have to move all our "stuff" out. We also have a home for Maceo, thanks brother Alan!

Lisa has all the info she needs from the kids teachers so with a little luck, patience and work both kids will return to school in 2010 a little smarter than they are right now.

Now as far as the "other" boat I mentioned, that one is Mark's home away from home, the Atlantic Osprey. I thought I had a nice picture of her, but I was

As most of you know, I am a Superintendent with Oceaneering, the largest ROV (remotely operated vehicle) company in the world. ROV's are those underwater robots that seem to be in the news and on Discovery Channel alot these days.

I am fortunate to work with the most talented, intelligent and good looking bunch of ROV guys in the WORLD!!!!

O.k, sorry, the good looking guys were off working on something else, so you get to look at a picture of this bunch!!

We operate out of St. John's , NL, doing underwater construction and maintenance work for Husky Energy out on the Grand banks. There is a total of 12 of us (1 Supt, 3 Supervisors and 8 Technicians) working 12-hr shifts, 28 days on then 28 days off .

Below is a short video of us recovering one of the ROV's (we have 2 onboard).

If you are curious about what we do, you can always go to www.oceaneering.com

That's all for now.

WONDER WASH!!!!!

O.k, I admit this isn't the most interesting entry, but I (please note, Lisa was an "unwilling" participant in the following pics) wanted to show you our most recent purchase for the trip.

It's called a "Wonder Wash" http://www.laundry-alternative.com/washing.htm

We thought we'd give this a try for those days when we just can't be bothered to jump in the dinghy and find a laundromat.

Our first try was two pairs of Mark's jeans. Following the instructions we added about 12 cups of water and 2 tablespoons of detergent.

An airtight lid gets screwed on the top. Supposedly this increases the air pressure inside (when using warm/hot water), which in turn helps force the detergent into the fabric.

You then crank the handle for a 2-minute wash cycle, attach the drain tube and drain off the dirty water.

We then ran through a "rinse cycle" with a bit more freshwater then removed the jeans to dry them.

Admittedly, not very exciting, but considering the highlight of our last post was our new "Pooh-Meter", things are looking up!

The Winter That Won't End!!!!

ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!!

It's cold again today. It was cold yesterday , and probably will be tomorrow as well.

Time to turn our thoughts to warmer things, right! Like getting our kiteboarding gear out of the damn furnace room!!!!!

Truth is , the forecast is looking better starting tomorrow, and not a minute too soon.

Our trip plans are slowly getting into gear. The time has passed in it's usual lightning speed, time to really give some thought to both the fun (boat) and mundane (house).

Here is a link to a speech Delaney gave to her Grade 3 Class about going away on the boat for a year. She is a little embarrassed about the way she ended it, so please feel free to leave a comment letting her know how good a job she did (thanks, The parents).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEhV9knMkL4

The spare room is slowly filling up with "boat stuff".

A few dollars spent at IKEA (storage solutions for the kid's cabins, galley stuff etc...) and don't forget the Boatshow back in January (Sham Wows!!!), new masks and snorkels, remote VHF mic, sailing gloves and Pooh-Meter!!

Yeh, I am really excited about the Pooh-Meter!!

Spend any amount of time on a boat (especially with 2 young kids) and you will gain an appreciation for efficient waste disposal.

"Engines, anchoring and head (bathroom)" are three of our main priorities. A close fourth is keeping the beer cold, but I'll save that one for a later post.

Last Fall I did a rebuild of our head. The toilet was removed, cleaned and serviced (yes, they require service). All of the hoses were replaced. The holding tank was removed, and you can never get "every last drop" out of a tank that is installed. It was emptied, scrubbed, flushed and disinfected (sorry, no pics). I also added a macerator pump so that when we are in areas where it's legal (Atlantic Ocean, parts of the Bahamas) we can directly discharge overboard rather than into the holding tank.

As you can see from the above pic, our raritan PH2 head suffered a knockdown in the basement. Thankfully I can buy just a new bowl, but it's costing us over $200!!! That's just for the bowl!

Anyway, back to the Pooh-Meter. We bought a really slick little unit that will tell us exactly how full the holding tank is. Kinda hard for someone to appreciate how nice this will be (actually a real luxury) until you have had to deal with an overflowing holding tank and not a Pump-out station within a day's sail!!

Other gobs of money being sunk into the boat this past week include:

- VHF radio and antennae

- laptop (Sorry Cheryl, it's a Dell!!)

-manual bilge pump

-digital battery monitor

-hand-operated washing machine (more on this when it arrives and we can try it out)

-replacement windshield

Future posts will give an update on all the other things we are doing to get the boat ready.

That's all for now.

Repeat after me, "Summer, Summer, Summer, SUMMERRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

If that doesn't work, please check out the link below (check it out regardless). Mark's cousin Colin and his family have just moved to Oman, and it's stinkin' hot there!

http://www.travelpod.com/members/themitchells

Hasta luego,

Mark and the crew of "Charlotte-Ann".