Crossing our wake

For Loopers, ‘Crossing your wake’ is the mark of having completed THE Great Loop. Had we completed the Loop this year, that place would have been NY Harbor at Lady Liberty. But crossing your wake does complete other loops as well and today we reached a milestone. The Great Loop is not a single well defined path. In fact it includes a number of tangential and alternate opportunities. Given our situation this year, we were able to add to our adventure last year and complete what is referred to as The Triangle Loop. That triangle is The Erie Canal from Waterford, NY to the Oswego Canal, north across Lake Ontario to Kingston, ON, up the Rideau Canal to Ottawa, down the Ottawa River to Montreal, further east on the St Lawrence to Sorel, QC and south on the Richelieu river to the Chambly Canal, into Lake Champlain and south to the Champlain Canal to……. well Waterford, NY !!!!! OK, thats probably hard to visualize so here is the a graphic depiction;

This evening/Happy Hour, we toast our G and T’s to this mini loop accomplishment and look back at what has been an amazing journey. We do this with 97 degree sweltering sun beating down on our trying to keep up air conditioners. With 20 or so other boats on the Waterford wall, all avoiding the normal and customary interaction between boaters ( know as docktails) given the heat.

For those considering this loop, the Rideau Canal is not to be missed. Gorgeous, steeped in history, kept in historically appropriate condition. Just a delight. You can do this canal via a boat service named Le Boat which is basically no mariner knowledge bumper boats for hire. Ottawa, with government buildings and museums is a great destination by boat or car. Montreal is a first class European city just a half a day drive from NY or Boston and well worth the time. The entire loop is loaded with history I did not know and forts/battles I never understood. All very interesting in understanding how we as a nation came to be.

Whats next is a bit of a mini sprint back home down the Hudson to the East River, across Long Island Sound to… well as of right now, I don’t know where we will end up. You see in the age of Covid, many have bought boats to be able to recreate with their families in some isolation and they all need a place to dock their boat. Thus as I have been searching for a slip for Aisling, at this point I have no dock secured. I am confident something will emerge and we will remain flexible about our needs and location.

Whats next you ask? Our plan is to get the gardens in Woodstock back under control in August as well as attend to some Aisling repairs. Once the kiddies go back to school in September, we plan a Block Island, Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, Cuttyhunk…. mini loop, close to home and in the cool (hopefully) of an early Fall. October brings some excellent fishing and I suspect Macks and I will be actively pursuing some Striper and Tautog.