Author: mghalpin

Day 1, May 31st and thus a day early, we left Thousand Island Club and headed for Kingston, ON (that’s right Canada!) The early departure was due to expected t-storms on Wednesday June 1st and the forecast did not disappoint as we observed Kingston largely from our boat sheltering from the continuous line of storms rolling through here all day. We took advantage to read all morning and snuck out for lunch and provisions during a brief respite in the rain. We will likely stay another day as getting to Kingston was never the point. Getting to see Kingston is and the weather looks to cooperate with that tomorrow.

Our crossing included a stop in Clayton, NY for fuel as it is well understood that fuel prices are even higher in Canada. Hard to believe given we paid $7.14/gallon!!! I was expecting something like that and so did not have a stroke, but it sure did give pause. The run to Kingston was chilly, the water 61 degrees and Lyn donned a blanket just about as we were crossing the border. But a more pleasant crossing one could not have. Little traffic, zero commercial shipping, minimal wind and flat seas.

So where do we go from here? We thought we knew and had a plan that would take us through the entire summer and most of Ontario. But as of this writing neither of us could tell you definitively where will be on Friday. That seems to be the way this summer is going to be. A wide variety of factors have produced this condition, but mostly we have found that we value spontaneity and a relaxed pace the most. All else will fall in line.

Aisling has a monitoring system onboard (Siren Marine) and last Thursday morning both of our phones blew up with alerts that she was moving!! Indeed our secondary system (Nebo) documented the move from warehouse to the dock at the TI Club where we will spend the month getting her ready for our voyage.

While in winter storage she had some necessary maintenance and upgrades performed. There was the issue of a slightly bent prop to be reconditioned. Probably happened in the Utica Flash Flood last summer. It was minor, as we never felt any vibrations under weigh, but needed to be fixed nonetheless. While the prop was off, the cutlass bearings were replaced. The forward bilge pump has been on my list for sometime and yet I could simply not fit into that space to do the work myself. A Borel exhaust overheating monitor was installed. Lastly the hull was compounded and ceramic coating applied. Notice the lack of Erie Canal brown ‘mustache’ on the bow!! I’m guessing it stays that way until we hit Chicago as the Canadian waters are clear enough to see the bottom.

Prepping a boat for a year long trip from 5 hours away is a challenge. Each trip is at least 3 days whereas I used to be able to spontaneously go to Warwick in an hour… So we will make as many trips as needed to make sure both the boat and our mindset is ready.

With luck and good weather we are down-bound to Montreal on June 1st!

It has been a very long time since we had to pause our Great Loop adventure. Though we have kept busy, Lyn remains in high demand professionally and I rediscovered woodworking as a means of getting out of the house and being productive, restarting our Loop has been foremost in our minds. ‘Boaters Weekend’ (4/2-3) provided a milestone to install, update, resize, remember and generally get back to a boaters frame of mind. With luck, normal water levels and the absence of ice, we expect Aisling to be in the St Lawrence River by mid-May. Of course that is when the really hard work begins; cleaning, polishing, stowing, provisioning in the hope that June 1st we depart for Montreal.

The St Lawrence Seaway opened on March 22nd as the ice subsided and the Coast Guard Breakers poised to keep things moving. Many of the cargo/freighter/oilers we saw last Summer have passed through the Locks to/from Montreal though life on land in northern NY is still very much in the throes of Winter. There is no snow on the ground in ABay, but we drove through snow showers as we headed home on Sunday. The bartender at the hotel said he hadn’t seen a customer since Thanksgiving (only slightly exaggerating…) and a boat owner we met lamented ‘he hoped Spring would be here soon’!! There were no buds on trees, no crocuses, no pussy willows… and it was not hard to find ice in the coves and marinas.

As has been said, ‘Hope springs eternal’ and thus we have purchased our Lock and Mooring passes for the Canadian Canals, and our DTOPS permit which allows us back into the USA and the Covid restrictions requiring a test within 72 hours of entry in Canada have been lifted!!

March is the month Winter dies! In that thought, I can begin to imagine getting back to Aisling soon(ish). Last week it was 68 degrees in Woodstock. Just enough warmth to see the maple sugar pots appear. Of course that was followed by 8″ of snow/ice 2 days later… But the signs are unmistakably there. Take this photo of the St Lawrence River from this morning;

Ok, so no swimming anytime soon, but the seaway anticipates opening and that is a very good sign.

We have been researching our options and limitations for the next phase. Our plan is roughly ABay > Montreal > Ottawa > Kingston > Trent Severn Waterway > Lake Huron/Georgian Bay/North Channel > Mackinaw Island > Chicago in 11 weeks leaving on/about June 1st. Thats approximately 55 travel days and 87 locks in 81 days (don’t quote me on this as planning continues….). Going to be busy, but it’s also the reason we stopped last year as we only had 5-6 weeks once the border opened.

Today we will experience the joys of the Holidays and head to West Marine to enjoy the generous gift certificates received. These, together with the price matching from Defender.com, will add some creature comforts to our floating home. Also it gets us out of the house ’cause cabin fever is a real thing you know! (all work and no play makes Johnny….;-o)

Hitting the pause button has not meant that we stopped boating or enjoying the 1000 island area. Anticipating our restart in the spring, we took a trip down river to the Eisenhower Lock which we will pass through on our way to Montreal. The locks on the St Lawerence are much bigger than those on the Erie Canal as they accommodate ocean going cargo ships up to 700′. Two of the 6 locks are in the USA which allowed us to visit without crossing the border. Our timing was perfect as we arrived just in time to see a tanker entering the lock. Fortunately we also got to see a dozen pleasure boats line up in the lock after the AlgoNorth exited and this provided a glimpse of what we will experience.

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As we prepped Aisling for her long winters nap, we were able to take her out for a last run of the year. Despite storing her in heated building, there was a car load of stuff that still needed to come off the boat. A day of unloading the boat, packing the car, cleaning the boat and driving 6 hours to Woodstock was just about all we could accomplish in a day…. Exhausted, we ordered Thai takeout and promptly retreated to the couch.

Though it did not fulfill our original expectations for the year, we both agree it was an amazing summer and we can’t wait to get back out there in the spring.

And you may be interested in seeing another side of Lyn. It’s a bit long, hopefully entertaining and definitely revealing 😉 https://youtu.be/xHsjzAL1nvc

Mixed emotions; Happy to be headed to a full sized shower, gulping Woodstock Orchards cider, eating all that is peak season at the farmers markets. Sad that the gardens have not been weeded in months, the A6 needs an exhaust system repair and despite Macks’ best efforts the entire house will need to be cleaned. Happy to get the Miata out of storage, and happy that Aisling will go into heated storage (no winterization required!). Sad to, well you know not really all that sad….. This has been a great experience and it’s pausing for all the right reasons.

Those reasons boil down to Canada opening and voyage timing though Covid increase, especially in AL and FL are reasons to not be rushing there….. We know several people/boats that have made their way into Canada this week and all report an easy and quick process. The most painful part seems to be getting a Covid test within 72 hours of entering given there a few testing locations in this area. Some have paid as much as $100 round trip to get a test in Watertown, NY that could deliver results in 24 hours. But for us, it meant possibly skipping the Montreal/Ottawa/Kingston loop and moving quickly through the Trent/Severn to get out of the Great Lakes before the infamous storms begin to roll in (background music should be the Gordon Lightfoot ‘ Edmund Fitzgerald’…)

Our plan for next spring is to return to 1000 Islands, head up to Montreal and Ottawa, down the Rideau Canal to Kingston, though the 1000 Islands to The Trent/Severn to Georgian Bay, Mackinaw and down to Chicago. At a leisurely pace this will take us 3 months and put us in Chicago around Labor Day. Of course all this depends on how much snow these areas get this winter, what the spring floods look like…. I will be watching snow accumulations in the Upper Midwest and Ontario this winter as well as ice reports on the St Lawrence.

This voyage has been amazing on so many levels. Not only were Lyn and I successful at not killing each other, I think we have never been closer. The teamwork, compromise, dependance, cooperation evident in our many years together on ‘terra firma’, only enhanced by being on the edge, facing the unknown, dealing with the challenges, and acknowledging our lessons learned and our accomplishments. I love my 1st Mate!

The birds we have seen on this voyage have been amazing. Eagles and osprey, loons and cormorants, kingfishers and herons and of course the multitude of gulls and geese. Most have been while we were underway, but this guy gave us a special viewing at the dock in Clayton, NY yesterday.

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Click on them to enlarge and zoom in.

We have been planning on posting unusual things we came across on our journey, but have yet to get it done. So this is a compilation of those we captured during the trip;

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To be continued as we sort through the billions of pic’s we took….

These past two days, Lyn and I were within 150 yards of Canada. On our way to Singer Castle, the Shipping Channel actually goes into Canada and we were told we should not cross that line. Apparently last year the Canadian Border Patrol was very aggressive about enforcing that line. So we broke another rule, provided by local Harbor Hosts, ‘stay in the shipping channel’! The reason for that rule are shoals; rock outcroppings with no trees and often covered by water. But we felt confident that our navigation software was current, our situational awareness keen, and our luck has been pretty good lately as well.

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Hopefully all that is interesting, but it’s not the point of this post. This post is to announce that because the uncertainty of getting into Canada remains today, 3 days from when the border is supposed to open to vaccinated US citizens, we have decided our voyage for this year will end in Alexandria Bay, NY. We have weighed many options over the past few weeks and decided that short changing the Canadian Experience including Montreal, Ottawa, the Rideau Canal, Trent Severn Waterway, Georgian Bay….. would be a regret. By stopping here, we gain a head start on those areas next Spring (assuming this winters snow fall is not so great that everything floods next spring…) and we get to enjoy all of that at a slow pace. The trade off is no Florida this winter and honestly that has never been a lure for us. New England winters are just fine (again assuming the Gulf Stream does not stop and cause us to enter the next Ice Age ( check out the movie The Day after Tomorrow or an article in the NYTimes this morning if you don’t know this scenario)).

Aisling will remain in the water at the Thousand Island Club until mid -September after which she will go in to heated storage in Alexandria Bay. We will head home for hair cuts and then return for a few more weeks of cruising in this heavenly part of the world.

Several cultures enjoy this concept. The Danes call it Niksen, the Italians ‘Dolce far niente’ and not surprisingly there is no English (American) equivilant. But there is hope for us. Sitting at anchor off of Cedar Island State Park in the St Lawrence River, we are observing people sitting on the dock and in their folding chairs at camp, doing nothing. True to that spirit I decided that today I would also do nothing. Except write this blog…. Hmmm, maybe I don’t get the idea yet.