Days 172-177: July 8-13, 2023

Golfing

After spending two nights at the Thousand Island Club, it was time to head over to Clayton for a couple days. Mayli’s parents were visiting and let Boris and I borrow their car. So, we headed to the local golf course for a quick round. It was a pretty good time. It had been a long time since I swung a club.

Clayton

Clayton was a busy little town that had many cool things to see. When we arrived, the Saga crew met up with Mayli’s parents to spend time with them so Steve, Barbara, and us set out to get a bite to eat and ended up sidetracked at the Saint Lawrence Spirits Tasting room, which Steve really enjoyed, so Barbara bought him a beverage souvenir.

After that, we found ourselves at the Coyote Moon Winery tasting room. There we met Mac. She is definitely a fun character. Great conversation ensued along with some pretty tasty samples. The wine was a bit on the sweet side so Tonia and Barbara definitely approved, though we both found a few bottles to take back.

We also found the long-anticipated River Rat Cheese, which lived up to the hype! We resupplied with cheese curds that could nearly rival Wisconsin, though not quite as squeaky. 😉

We got a nice sunset walk in through town all the way to the Antique Boat Museum, which has the Boldt family’s 106′ houseboat La Duchesse. It was built in 1903, when Mrs. Boldt was still alive, and was donated by the last owners to the museum.

Signs, signs, everywhere there’s signs!

However, these signs contributed nicely to the scenery and ambiance of the town.

Clayton was a fun town to walk around and take in the sights from all the signage to cool old houses and gargoyles to random other things along the way.

We even found a house sporting a Swedish flag so, of course, had to take a pic for our Swedish friends!

Once we were resupplied in Clayton, we hit up a couple nearby anchorages again.

Saga and Coda on the Clayton Marina dock.

We had some last fun at anchorage before we left, with the boys getting some fishing in and sparkly fruity drinks courtesy of Barbara.

Day 172 Trip Details (July 08):
Jefferson County, US to Village of Clayton, US
Time 2 h 28 m (06:07 to 08:36)
Distance: 9.99 nm

Day 174 Trip Details (July 10):
Village of Clayton, US to Town of Clayton, US
Time 1 h 27 m (10:11 to 11:38)
Distance: 2.57 nm

Day 175 Trip Details (July 11):
Town of Clayton, US to Town of Clayton, US
Time 0 h 34 m (08:03 to 08:38)
Distance: 2.15 nm

Days 170-171: July 6-7, 2023

We left our anchorage heading for our next destination in the Thousand Islands. We passed Singer Castle once more getting a nice view of it, including a pic of Coda. On the way, we passed a teen on a jet ski ushering a deer back towards land, a huge ship with crazy huge water displacement at the bow, and Doug & Shari from Thistle! They zoomed up and greeted us from their dinghy – an awesome surprise!

The next couple days took us back south to the Alexandria Bay area. First, we docked at the Thousand Islands Club. This is a yacht club with great facilities, including pool and restaurant. Everyone enjoyed the pool time.

Boldt Castle

The club is also a very short walk to the Boldt Castle Yacht House where we hopped on the boat taxi and were whisked over to Boldt Castle. Boldt Castle broke ground in 1900. Yes, 1900! George Boldt, the hotel magnate (Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and more), was building the castle for his wife Louise. When Louise died in 1904, he abruptly stopped construction, so the castle was never finished or lived in. The grounds and buildings went into extreme disrepair until The Thousand Islands Bridge Authority took it over in 1977. It’s done a great job of restoring and maintaining the castle and completing the originally planned construction. There are still a few floors to complete, which they are actively working on with the income from the castle visitors. While the Singer Castle was large, it was more intimate whereas the Boldt Castle was much, much larger, like a grand hotel. (Side note: one of the origin stories for Thousand Islands dressing is attributed to Boldt’s chef.)

Secret side quest: George Boldt built the castle on Heart Island and incorporated many hearts into his castle and grounds design. We found some of the many hearts – how many do you see in our photos?

Day 170 Trip Details (July 06):
Town of Hammond, US to Jefferson County, US
Time 2 h 51 m (08:51 to 11:42)
Distance: 11.42 nm

Days 167-169: July 3-5, 2023

Picnic Point at Canoe Point

Arriving in the Thousand Islands we decided to anchor at Picnic Point by Canoe Point State Park. It was a popular anchorage and island park for the locals, but we found a spot and stern anchored, so the bows of the boats were into the wakes from the passing tubers.

It was a nice place to relax, as you can see with Mayli hanging in Steve’s chair hammock.

On July 4th we headed a little further north to check out Singer Castle, checking out the Thousand Islands along the way. Fun facts: there are over 1800 islands making up the Thousand Islands, and to qualify officially as an island, the land must have at least one square foot of earth above water and support at least one tree. There’s technically a tree on the white rock with birds, though it was questionable if still a living tree.

Dark Island / Singer Castle

Our next adventure was Dark Island, home of Singer Castle. It has a great day-use dock for people like us. We arrived at a great time as we were the only people there and our tour was just us, missing the tour boat crowding.

Frederick Gilbert Bourne was the president of the Singer Manufacturing Company — yes, the sewing machines. He had Singer Castle built in 1903 to be like the castle described in Sir Walter Scott’s book Woodstock. It included secret passages, a painting with eye-hole peeping, and even a dungeon.

We ended the July 4th holiday with some water fun, tubing, and relaxation. The weather and anchorage were so nice we spent an extra day hanging out to enjoy it. All in all, it was a great holiday!

Day 167 Trip Details (July 03):
Anchor Marina, Village of Cape Vincent, US to Town of Clayton, US
Time 5 h 3 m (05:53 to 10:56)
Distance: 16.70 nm

Day 168 Trip Details (July 04):
Town of Clayton, US to Town of Hammond, US
Time 4 h 7 m (04:37 to 08:44)
Distance: 15.47 nm

Day 168 Trip Details (July 04):
Town of Hammond, US to Town of Hammond, US
Time 0 h 26 m (10:22 to 10:48)
Distance: 1.55 nm

Days 165-166: July 1-2, 2023

Henderson Bay / Continued Engine Issues

The weather was warm, and it was time to head for the Thousand Islands, which are located between Canada and New York and partially lie in both countries. As it was a big distance, our first stop was Henderson Bay, after a 6-hour voyage. It would have been a shorter trip, but our port engine was acting up again and we did the journey on only one engine. Still, presumably, a fuel issue. And with it being a weekend and the July 4th holiday coming up, there was no way to get a local mechanic to investigate. We’ll be on one engine for a while it appears.

When we got to the anchorage, it was time to relax. We all enjoyed a nice dip in the water to cool off while sipping our safe-arrival beverages.

Cape Vincent

The next stop on the way to the Thousand Islands was Cape Vincent. Tonia, Boris and Mayli walked around town, but I was a bit stressed/exhausted from the trip on one engine that I passed.

We did have a wonderful happy hour with Leave it to Wally.

Day 165 Trip Details (July 01):
City of Oswego, US to Town of Henderson, US
Time 6 h 21 m (05:42 to 12:04)
Distance: 35.29 nm

Day 166 Trip Details (July 02):
Town of Henderson, US to Anchor Marina, Village of Cape Vincent, US
Time 6 h 5 m (05:28 to 11:34)
Distance: 26.17 nm

Days 163-164: June 29-30, 2034

Last Erie Lock

With Coda back in the water, it was time to continue on. We headed out with Thistle locking with us. Day 163 took us thru the last Erie Canal lock for our trip. After E23 we turn north into the Oswego Canal and make our way towards Lake Ontario.

Goodby Erie Canal!

Owego Canal

After the completing our segment on the Erie Canal we turned the boats north and into the Oswego Canal. The remainder of the day was transiting thru the O1 to O6 locks. We have tons of pictures, in part thanks to the great lock master at the O2 lock, Call J Metz. He takes lots of pictures and keeps the Great Loop group updated on river conditions and closures.

Engine Issues

As we left the lock O5, we increased the RPMs and the port engine died. It restarted fine but then had issues again at higher RPMs. It led to a little anxiety when arriving at lock O6 and then docking on the wall at Oswego.

The problem was determined to be fuel. The engine was starting fine but was just not getting fuel. I replaced the filters and it appeared to be fixed. However, this was the beginning of a two-week ordeal. More to come…

Oswego

When we arrived, we were able to get on the free wall. The wall itself was a bit questionable with the cement crumbling away though suppose you pay for what you get and that’s just a place to tie up. There was a little gathering area so we had an impromptu docktails with the other boats that were already there. Later, we took the Harbor Rail Trail, which was a railway bridge converted to a walking trail, to the downtown area for their evening market.

Lock O7

While out for our morning walk, we saw that Thistle departing and headed thru lock O7. Bon Voyage!

Fort Ontario

Next to town in Oswego is Fort Ontario. The fort was originally built in 1755 by the British as one of many to protect the area at the east end of Lake Ontario.

The fort is neat to walk around. It has a bunch of underground areas, and we had fun exploring.

The three captains were up to some antics as well.

Night on the Town

On the last night Tonia suggested we walk around town to stretch our legs and mail some cards before leaving the next day. That took us by the H. Lee White Maritime Museum where we got to check out some boats. It was, of course, closed so we only walked around the outside.

Bar Hopping!

After walking around the museum, we were on a street with an Irish bar. We decided to go in for drink. It was a nice local establishment with the crowd being loud and jubilant.

After finishing our beverage, we continued our walk back towards town. That led us in the direction of live music and another bar. We decided to go in. It was crazy because you could not hear the loud music once inside yet it carried for blocks outside. The bartender was friendly and got us setup up with drinks.

After that we started heading towards back to the boat. However, there was another bar so why not? We headed in for a last nightcap and this place turned out to be the local college dive bar, though college was out for summer so sparser than usual. Tonia decided to try the Sunny D she’d seen at the previous couple bars. It tastes pretty much how you’d expect a Sunny D to taste. Then, about 10 minutes later, a girl pops in and under the end of the bar. It was the bartender from the previous bar. Appears she works at both establishments. She commented that the other one will never miss her.

Turned out to be a fun spontaneous night of walking and bar hopping.

Departure Morning

While Boris, Mayli, and I grabbed a couple provisions and fishing bait, Tonia took a walk to see some architectural points of interest.

Under way…

Day 163 Trip Details (June 29):
Winter Harbor Marina, Brewerton, US to City of Oswego, US
Time 6 h 38 m (05:04 to 11:42)
Distance: 27.61 nm

Day 159: June 25, 2023

One of the planned side trips for the Loop was Niagra Falls. Winter Habor was a great location to rent cars and make the trip happen, especially since we planned to be at the marina multiple days while Coda’s bow thruster blade was repaired and get bottom painted while hauled out. We loaded up with the Hodaks and me in one car and Tonia driving Steve, Barbara, Gary, and Carol.

We arrived and beelined it for the first falls we could see and were in awe. The group decided it was worth splurging for the Cave of the Winds and Maid of the Mist excursions to get up close, and very wet, looks at the falls. Thankfully it was a very warm day, so we all dried out pretty quickly. We had an interlude with lunch and ended with, would you guess, ice cream!

Most of what follows will be photos as we had many! The falls were so fun it was hard to limit our excitement to just a few!

Horseshoe Falls

Cave of the Winds & Bridal Veil Falls

Cave of the Winds view from below.

Seagull Nesting & Babies!

An exciting find on the Cave of the Winds path was the many hundreds of seagulls nesting. There were lots fuzzy little ones of varying sizes.

American Falls

Maid of the Mist

A view of Horseshoe Falls from the Maid of the Mist

Luna Island view of American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls from above

Video from Luna Island showing Bridal Veil Falls with Cave of the Winds tourists (in yellow) below, the Maid of the Mist (Americans in blue), American Falls with a misty rainbow, and finally the Prospect Point Park Observation Deck (where Maid of the Mist leaves from below), Rainbow Bridge to Canada, and the Skylon Tower on the Canada side.

Misty Rainbows

We had a great time visiting Niagara Falls! A side trip well worth the drive!

Days 157-162: June 23-28, 2023

The next destination on the Loop was Winter Harbor in the town of Brewerton. This trip took us across Oneida Lake, the largest lake entirely within New York state. It was a pretty relaxing journey and a nice break from the narrow passages of the canal.

Gross bugs

When we got to the marina there seemed to be tree debris everywhere. It wasn’t though. It was dead mayflies floating around into massive (no really, we mean massive) slicks across the water. It was not a great smell. Luckily, the current floated them off quickly. This photo shows a ‘small’ collection of them that got accumulated by the dock and boats.

Coda on the hard

When leaving one of the lock walls one morning Coda sucked a log or something into the bow thruster and it was not sounding happy. He swam under the boat at one of the anchorages and found that three of the four propeller blades on one side had broken off. It just so happened that Winter Harbor had the blades in stock and could pull him out early the next week. Being Friday, it would delay us for 5 days. The marina had a loaner vehicle, so at least made it a good stop for provisioning and getting maintenance done.

Projects

With the multiple day layover, it allowed us to work on some projects. One was to fix the entry stairs leading into the boat. The stairs lift open on a hinge and that hinge was just fastened with tiny screws, really not a great original boat installation. Those screws can’t handle the stress of people going up and down. Steve manufactured a support for the hinge, and we checked it off the list. Right after he jumped and down — enough to put Tonia on edge — on the stair to make sure it would hold.

The other project we worked on is a longer ongoing one. We are making screens for our helm area to allow for airflow and to keep out the pesky bugs. Steve is always looking for an excuse to use his fancy Sailrite sewing machine and his seamstress expertise came in handy.

Fun & Games

We had the pleasure of celebrating Annette’s 13^th birthday with her. She requested lasagna so Tonia complied with a gluten-free homemade lasagna. Annette was thrilled to get a bubble gun for her birthday and the day ended nicely with a rainbow for her.

We also enjoyed a meal out with other Loopers laid over in Winter Harbor, including Saga, Coda, Legacy, Thistle, and a couple others that joined the fun.

In the evenings after dinner, we got the Loopers to join us for a heated game of Codenames. Some enjoyed more than others and we’re looking forward to another match with Sheri as she was into it!

Thistle was also delayed in the marina waiting on a mechanic to address an engine issue so Doug & Sheri introduced us to “little beers.” It’s just Licor 43 and heavy cream in a shot-sized portion, in this case mini red solo cups. It does resemble a beer in appearance though not in taste. Pretty yummy.

We also enjoyed a lovely evening out with Doug & Sheri at The Cafe Bella Luna, which had some tasty and LARGE dishes. The leftovers were great though!

Fire

On one of the afternoons, we were working around the boat when we heard a mini explosion. More of a pop like a propane tank or something had burst. I could hear Delaney from Shenanigans (the boat behind us) say there was a fire and calling 911. We poked our head out to check and sure enough the boat across the canal had caught on fire. It took a very long time for the fire department to come so there wasn’t much left of the boat after. At least they saved the house. It was a pretty crazy thing to watch and scary to think if it had spread more.

Niagara Falls

Check out the next blog for the land side-trip we took to Niagara Falls!

Here are a couple parting rainbow pics from our Winter Harbor stay.

Day 157 Trip Details (June 23):
Town of Vienna, US to Winter Harbor Marina, Brewerton, US
Time 2 h 43 m (05:26 to 08:09)
Distance: 19.19 nm

Day 162 Trip Details (June 28):
Winter Harbor Marina, Brewerton, US to Winter Harbor Marina, Brewerton, US
Time 0 h 38 m (10:26 to 11:04)
Distance: 0.09 nm

Days 154-156: June 20-22, 2023

Locking to Sylvan Beach – Locks E18-E21

It was a long day! Almost 8 hours of boating. That’s a lot when you throw in locks and navigating thru the narrow areas. But everyone was doing great as we pulled up to Sylvan Beach. The sun was shining, and it was time for the air conditioning. Luckily, we got a spot that was shaded by the bridge. Therefore, our boat was cooler than most.

Sylvan Beach

We were near a mini tourist area that comes complete with an amusement park. We planned to stay three nights so the kids could go play on the rides. Unfortunately, the park never opened when expected because we were too early in the season. And we weren’t prepared to stay another week.

The two of us walked across the bridge to Verona to see one of the three lighthouses on Lake Oneida. We gather this area of New York State was heavily Italian inspired as we passed by Rome earlier when locking through (pic above) and then Verona was across the bridge from Sylvan Beach.

Tubing

Boris and I decided to check out the local marine store in hopes of getting some water skis. That plan failed as they were out, though we did find a tube to pull behind the dinghy.

That led to a fun afternoon enjoying the sun and water in Lake Oneida.

Anchored Out

The city wall had limitations on length of stay so we decided we’d anchor off the beach the last night. It was a great evening with great friends The sunset was very pretty…

Thank you for the good times Sylvan Beach!

Day 154 Trip Details (June 20):
City of Little Falls, US to Town of Vienna, US
Time 7 h 55 m (02:22 to 10:18)
Distance: 42.61 nm

Day 156 Trip Details (June 22):
Town of Vienna, US to Town of Vienna, US
Time 0 h 21 m (11:17 to 11:39)
Distance: 1.37 nm

Day 151: June 17, 2023

Locking to Canajoharie – Locks E12-E14

The crews once again heading out for the day.

Along the canal, we passed two large religious facilities: the Holy Mountain Buddha Land (left) and Our Lady of Martyrs Shrine (right).

Canajoharie

Our first order of business when hitting town was to find some grub. We were along a free wall, which we found later to be annoyingly close to a loud train crossing. The good news is we found an Irish pub and got some lunch and beverages before heading on to our outing for the day.

Here are the sites we saw along the way to the pub.

The Pot That Washes Itself

Canajoharie is a Mohawk term that means “the pot that washes itself.” Up from the village is a gorge that has a large pothole named the boiling pot. It regularly flushes enough water through to remain cleanish. There was not enough water to see the phenomenon when we were there. There was also what appeared to be an old dam just upstream.

Van Alstyne Homestead Museum

On the way back it started to rain hard, so we ducked into the Van Alstyne Homestead Museum. The original home, built around 1730, was smaller and demolished/added on to throughout the years to accommodate larger social gatherings, including a ballroom along the full back of the house. It was used as a meeting place during the American Revolution and later for the Fort Rensselaer Club, a men’s only club (perhaps to this day) and it still has a stale basement bar/gathering area. Interesting feature: if you click the bed photo, you’ll see a pullout trundle with straps or ropes across – the phrase “sleep tight” originates from medieval times where rope-strung beds needed to be tightly secured.

Michael was gifted a fishing pole in Waterford and has been fishing ever since. He’s really getting into it.

Day 151 Trip Details (June 17):
City of Amsterdam, US to Village of Palatine Bridge, US
Time 4 h 25 m (03:10 to 07:36)
Distance: 20.16 nm