July 26, we were up and gone early before coffee this morning. Suzanne got it brewing and breakfast made underway as we headed out to meet the tide to push us through the Cape Cod Canal. One of Suzanne's big worries was that she would be seasick below decks underway. The canal system is no true indicator as it is always calm compared to the ocean. She was very happy to learn, as we had made our way through Long Island Sound, that it did not bother her being below decks. Good news for us guys as well. The meals would have been downgraded significantly. We had looked at where we would spend the next night's mooring, and after looking at Sandwich being another $135, we tentatively planned for Provincetown. The seas had calmed since yesterday and it was a good plan that we had stayed over. There was almost no wind, but it was a beautiful day to be on the water. We motored between the channel markers in Buzzards Bay that slowly narrowed approaching the entrance of the CCC. We knew we were getting closer, as you can see the train bridge preceding it quite a ways in the distance. We entered the CCC and knew we had timed the tides right. We were pushed through the narrow channel at over 11 knots at times. It took us only 45 minutes to get through the canal. The US Corps of Engineers built the canal, and they have available on their website the tide tables so you can ensure you show up at the right time. Our trip was much better than we hoped for. We got through into Cape Cod Bay earlier than we expected before noon, so we had to decide to have an early day and stick to our plan, or take advantage and push for a long day. This is still a delivery trip after all. We opted to push on. Glouscester, MA will be our next tie up and we made the big jump across Massachusetts Bay. There was a light breeze and warm even though we were pretty far off shore. The surprise was annoying black flies, around the size of a bluefly, that swarmed and bit at us. We had one person on bug patrol with the electronic fly zapper most of the trip. 
It was late as we fuelled up in Glouscester harbour  at the end of their day. The attendant offered us to stay on the dock for the night at $3/foot. We called the harbourmaster on the VHF instead. He directed us to Dockwa to pay for a mooringball; $30 was a better plan. There weren't many balls available as this is a busy working harbour, but we found one to our liking. A BBQ aboard and an evening in the cockpit. We would've liked to have time to go ashore here. Suzanne really wanted to see the pub from "The Perfect Storm" movie, which was within sight, but we were beat after a long day. Another thing for the to do list.

July 25, we were off early into town for breakfast which was a bit of a walk but was worth it. Margaret's was a small cafe but had very good food and a pleasant atmosphere. From here, we called a cab and headed to West Marine in Faihaven and got the remaining charts we needed for the trip, and a few other things. After this, we walked to the nearest Walmart, which again was a bit of a trek, but we made it. We got some needed supplies here we did not want to pay West Marine prices for, such as jerry cans and things like that. We then headed to a grocery store to get the fresh items, and cabbed it back to the shipyard. We got some lunch and were planning to leave after. We did not leave early today as we had to get through the Cape Cod Canal, which was our next big bottleneck. We have to watch the tide tables here to ensure we hit the tide and make it work for us. There was no hurry to leave till in the afternoon, and then the weather decided not to cooperate. The wind picked up, and outside the harbour was much worst. We decided we would stay, but I had no interest in paying the $135 fee again. Fairhaven Shipyard had no mooring balls, but a little further in the harbour Pope's Island Marina did. We threw off the docklines and motored into the harbour a few minutes and grabbed a mooringball. It did take a couple of attempts as the winds had picked up quite a bit. To pay for the ball, it seems much of the USA has moved to using Dockwa as the way to reserve and pay for slips and balls. Once booked, thy send you any info needed such as ball number, slip location and wifi passwords. Note that the use of internet is required to be able to book and get the info needed. $35 was a much better fee than the previous $135. There are services available here, such as showers and laundry in the yacht club and a water taxi is available as a pay per use fee. Now tied up and not going anywhere, we settled in to rest for the evening. The night remained windy and was a bit lumpy for sleeping.

July 24, up and on the move early after coffee, with breakfast underway, was now the common start to the day. We headed out from Fishers Island, and found it's name is truly reflective of it's area. Lots of fishing boats everywhere as travelled, with them going about their day of setting nets to eek out a living off the sea. It ended up being a big day and we made it to Fairhaven, MA. We decided to top up the diesel and I asked for a slip for the night. The dock attendants did not seem to have much knowledge of being around boats. We threw them lines as it was a pier that was above us being able to step off, but they didn't know what to do with the lines once they had them. With a brisk wind, this was worrying till we got tied off. Fairhaven Shipyard has all the facilities you need, whether you are a small boat, or a large ship. We needed to do laundry again at this point, and they have a small building that holds the laundry, showers, internet, sitting area, and dock staff in one location. They even have coffee and doughnuts available in the morning. There are no moorings available here and the slip ended up costing me $135 for the night. Ouch! Electricity and water was available on the slip. This was more than I liked paying, but it was done and I wasn't moving now. The fuel price was better here and near half what it was at Mt Sinai Yacht Club. There were some pretty big boats here, as I'm sure some of them were in need of shipyard services. There are several travelifts here, with one that was monstrous. See pic below. Oh my! It was late in the day, so we got some laundry done, had a great supper and settled into a few sundowners. It is close to town, so in the morning we planned to head in and get what we needed for the next few days. Another uneventful day with a safe place to tie up. Boring is best when sailing as exciting and eventful are usually tense situations you don't want to be in. We expect to have some tough situations, but an easy day certainly works well for me. 

July 23, up and off early as usual, but this time we are in search of fuel to ensure we don't have issues at a later time. Try to always be prepared, as the boy scouts teach you. We were told that there was fuel in Mt. Sinai a short sail away. We headed out in that direction, which turned out to be a pretty lumpy trip as the waves were hitting us side on. It wasn't a long trip, and not worth extending it to make it a smoother ride. We entered Mt Sinai harbour and quickly found the gas pumps and before long, the attendant came by and we filled with diesel. It was very pricey here and the most we spent per gallon through our travels. I'm not sure if they were benefiting from the ongoing issue with Port Jefferson harbour pumps, or they are just expensive as a rule. Next, try to get a pump-out. None was available at the marina, but there was a boat that came around that did it....if you knew who to call. Nobody knew. We tried the radio, phone, etc..., but to no avail. The attendant thought there was a dock, and we set off to look for a dock that might have a pump-out boat attached to it. It's a small harbour, and we found it before long. We tied up behind it, and went looking for the responsible person. No luck finding anyone, but then I thought back to my technician days for the answer; find a break-room door. Sure enough, a door was propped open and inside... the pump-out crew. A guy came with me and we got the tank pumped and we were ready to get moving again. We headed out of the harbour, and into Long Island Sound again. The waves were not as big now and we were headed into them, so it was a smoother ride. We were definitely making way much later than we wanted, but the tides were with us, It was around suppertime when we arrived at Fishers Island, and we checked out the East and West ends and decided to anchor in the West end. Quite a few people were in the anchorage and there was a fair bit of traffic and music into the night. The wind died completely past dark, and boats bobbed facing all directions. I was not a fan of this in the anchorage seeing boats get pretty close in the mist. No damage would come of it at bobbing speed, but I don't want to hit another boat, or be hit. The music did die down later and we got a nights rest at anchor.

 July 22, we still had things to do in town to resupply, so we decided we would set off a bit later today. We caught a water taxi and were back into town. West Marine, grocery stores and the hardware store. I need a portable cigarette lighter inverter. The magic smoke in the 1750 watt inverter we have onboard came out and it was no longer working. A small portable inverter was needed to run laptops, etc on a small scale, till I was home and able to replace it. With the boat resupplied, we got a return water taxi and were off to our next spot at Port Jefferson, NY. $25 again as it was now a new day, but $50 for less than 24 hours isn't much of a deal for a free mooring. Guess I should've sorted the dingy out.

 Upon entering Port Jefferson harbour, I decided to top up on fuel at the docks, but they had no form of payment available. Another boat arriving at the same time was in distress due to not having any fuel left. This was a top up for us, so less of a concern. I feel that this was a byproduct of COVID as businesses starting to fail had services cut off, such as debit/credit machines. It's hard to run a marine business if there are very few boaters out on the water. We asked, but they were also not able to do a pumpout.

With no fuel top up, we headed over to moor at Port Jefferson Yacht Club. This is a nice little club, with showers available and water taxis. We took turns going in to shower, got supper ready and had a few sundowners. I paid the water taxi guy the nightly fee at his dock tie up, then got the wifi and shower password. There was a concert going on in the park that evening, and the harbour was busy with tour boats, and the ferry that came and went. We ran out of evening quickly it seemed and we were done for another day, a little closer to home.

July 21, as usual we were up early with me making coffee, and Suzanne cooking breakfast while we were still on the dock. We topped up our fresh water and left Peekskill behind. Out the channel and heading South down the Hudson River, we were making good time over ground due to the current and tide working with us. We managed to get over 11 knots, over ground, at some points of the trip. Our rocket speed down river didn't take long to make the shoreline look very different with more built up areas as we got closer to New York City. The widening river had a different feel than the narrow canals.  Before long, we were in the busy harbour of New York. Suzanne really wanted to go see Lady Liberty from the boat, so that's where we headed. She sat in her favourite bow seat and got some great pics and memories. As we passed Lady Liberty, and Suzanne got her fill, we turned the boat around heading back upriver to our next destination. Now that great current, was no longer our friend and the boat slowed to a crawl at 3 knots. That's when the skies decided to open up as well and we got hit with a big storm front. Thunder, lightening and torrential rain with terrible visibility as we tried to navigate our way through the busy harbour. Lots of recreational and commercial boats, and the Staten Island ferry were our obstacles as we got ourselves on route. Eventually the rain did slow down, with one sailor was not as lucky. He radioed for help due to getting struck by lightening. He had lost most of his electronics. Our detour to see the lady did not take us much off track as we headed towards Hell's Gate. We had ensured our time we wanted to hit there as we needed it to be slack tide for us to get through. The currents versus tide will make the water stand up and a sailboat would not be able to maintain control other than at slack tide. We got there within 10 minutes to slack tide, so no worries about waiting around for a window to pass. Yippee!

Now this is the part where most people ask us "What are you doing passing through NYC? That's a stopover, not pass through for sure. It's a great city". That may be true, but this as you remember is  a COVID year, and the USA doesn't have a great vaccination rate. While many do not believe in COVID, we do and were not too interested in stopping anywhere with a lot of people. Our stops, thus far, had been with minimal people. Although it had slowed enough for us to feel comfortable coming to get the boat, we had no interest in being a statistic of having COVID. Also, we are not "big city" people and prefer being in the country. We lived outside Toronto, Ontario for many years and rarely went in.  We felt we would be able to stop by all these places again if we can stay healthy while en route. 

Now past Hell's Gate with time to spare, we focused on where we would moor for the night. The decision was made for Port Washington, NY. We motored along and finally made it to Port Washington in the late afternoon. We caught a free mooring and radioed in. Water taxis were available here, and since we still had not had a chance to look at the outboard yet, this is what we used for the remainder of our trip. The taxi could bring you to one of three drop offs and everything in town was a close walk after that for $8 roundtrip, or $25/ day. We picked up some fresh groceries, liquor and wine, then were off for supper. Suzanne wanted a break from cooking, and as this is rare, I always let her. We had a great meal at La P'tite Framboise just a few minutes walk from the stopover at West Marine. We also stopped here as we need charts for the next leg of the trip, plus a few other things. We use OpenCPN to navigate with a GPS and AIS by USB, but like to have paper as back up. A boater never has a hard time spending a few hundred dollars at West Marine regardless. After getting dropped off to our boat by the water taxi once we were finished, we stopped by a couples 36' Island Packet, Jabiroo II,  in the next mooring we had seen flying a Canadian Flag. They were full time cruisers, an American lady and a man that was a retired Canadian military pilot. They were flying out the next day, so after a pleasant evening, they sent us home with their fresh food, to not waste it. Suzanne also got a foldable toaster and diffuser. Toast on a boat is not as easy as you'd think. No electric toaster! This couple, as many do, fried their bread, others have other ways, oven, etc, but Suzanne felt this was as lose to electric toaster toast as it could be. After a few wine, this lovely couple gave us a ride back to our boat and we called it a night.  

July 20, We left our dock at the marina early in the am to get a good start to the day with Suzanne making breakfast underway. We usually have at least a coffee or two into us before we leave to start the days off correctly. We had topped off with water and diesel from the marina the day before. We hit the tides right and we had a good current running with us giving us good time and course over ground. The river was opening up here from the canals, and was a very pretty trip. We loved the old lighthouses in the river system. Before we hit the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, we saw our single hander from Castleton heading across, then back upriver. Hope he knows that's not the way to South Carolina! Funny guy! His sails were still up, so I guess he did get that sorted out. We initially thought we would stay at Westpoint, as I am able to stay at any Allied military base being retired military. Unfortunately, although they do have docks there, there was no place we could see to be able to tie up, and nobody answered the VHF to get any information on stopping over. No worries, we were off to the next place we could stay and decided on Peekskill. We entered the marked channel to get to Peekskill Yacht Club  and found an end slip to tie up at. Suzanne and I went ashore to the clubhouse to ask permission to tie up for the night. Nobody was around, but we eventually found a family heading to their boat for the night and they set us up via cellphone to the Commodore. He kindly allowed us to tie up for the night at no charge. This was a very nice little self-help yacht club. It is not close to anything within walking distance for stores, restaurants, etc that we could find. There were no services available, but a nice dock to tie up to. We did find out where all those trains were heading at 80 MPH from Castleton as the whole evening was train whistles constantly all stopping at the station close by. We timed them and they were quick, with one count at 1 minute 42 seconds. Later in the evening the trains did quieten down, thank goodness. Supper aboard and a few glasses of wine and we were done for another day.

July 18, we were up and ready for the lock operator to get us through at open, which was at 7 am. We completed the remaining locks of the Champlain Canal, entered the Erie Canal heading for the lock at Albany . We were now done with locks and were now in the Hudson River. We finished motoring around mid-day arriving at the Castleton Boat Club with a plan to stay over, stand our mast and be ready to go first thing in the morning. We had lunch at the clubhouse and were second in line to be able to stand our mast. First in line was a guy with a Catalina 30 who was single-handing, so we offered him help in raising his mast. We quickly found out he had no idea how to do this; it was three hours to finally get him stood and able to finish on his own. He finished rigging in torrential rain (no raingear) and after getting later in the day with poor weather, we decided to defer till the morning. He did kindly offer to help us with ours, but we were confident we did not need his help.

July 19, We hoped to start our day with breakfast out (Suzanne was missing proper toast), but there was nothing in the area within walking distance. We did go try, but no luck. The local area seems to be very poor. Beware the trains that pass through at 80 MPH! It was breakfast aboard once back. Taking our time, we had the mast up, cradle disassembled/put away and rigged in an hour. Mike and I did most of the grunt work of getting the mast in place and Suzanne was in charge of operating the gin pole. It was a pretty slow machine, but slow is good with large heavy parts. The cost here was very reasonable. To raise/lower the mast is $55 for use of the pole and dockage is $1.50/ft. It quickly warmed to be a pretty hot day, but we got all sails bent on and the decks tidied up with all covers in place. We looked like a sailboat once again. Yay! We did manage to take a couple of cold beverage breaks to cool down in the clubs bar throughout the afternoon, and once finished had a celebratory beer/wine there as well. The evening was spent more on us recharging to get ready for the rest of our upcoming busy trip.

July 17, I walked to Lock 12 a bit after 6 am, which will be our first lock to enter, and spoke to the operator to see when they could get us through. She said it opened at 7 am, and we could get right in. She also informed me that since 2017 there have been no lock fees, so money saved is as good as earned. Yippee! I returned to the boat and we got ready to ship out to get moving south again. We entered the lock and positioned ourselves in the centre, where we were told to be. This is a turbulent lock as the water enters to raise us up to the higher level. Before long, our first lock in the Champlain Canal was done. The first three locks we would do, are still rising us up to reach the top of the continental divide, then we were over and heading down to the Hudson. Due to COVID still having most things closed down, it was very quiet in the water and we rarely ran into other boats. The Lock Operator told us she would radio ahead and the next lock would be ready for us.  We quickly became familiar with the process of entering, and locking through. We quickly became old hands by the time we got to Lock 4 where we tied to the North wall for the night. This lock was closed for the night, so we relaxed having a few tasty beverages with supper. No charge for tying up in the locks. It was a very pretty trip through the canals as was our stay for the night. No issues (Thank you) today with the boat and our repair seems to be holding up well.

July 16, another early start with coffee along the way. We hoped to get through two or three locks before days end. The river system narrowed and was very scenic and enjoyable to travel. Boats are always full of surprises, and before noon I had one. What do you do when you are travelling 6 knots in a narrow channel, then you are heading towards the shore without steerage; Panic, or anchor. It is certainly a surprise when the wheel spins in your hand without turning the boat. It's definitely the fastest time I have ever anchored. A quick inspection of the steerage found a chaffed cable that wore through near the crossover. Mike and I jury rigged two lines to previously installed padeyes on the rudder. Luckily we were close to Lock 12 and we stopped at Whitehall Marina in hopes to commence repairs. We tied up and went inside to see if we could acquire new cable. The manager could only get galvanized wire, so at least that would keep us moving toward home after it was installed. We tore the binnacle apart to get the length, then installed our new parts. Sounds easy right? Nope, it was not, plus it was too darn hot, but in the end, it got done! I confess, I may have even got a little cranky along the way. The Marina was great, as was the manager. They let us borrow a car to pick up some groceries in town, so I brought Suzanne to get whatever she wanted and needed, ...plus wine. Not the day we had expected it to be, but by bedtime, we were ready to head out and be moving through the locks when they opened in the morning. A bit behind where we expected to be, but we were back on track. It was a tough day overall. Whitehall Marina is full service and was fantastic helping us out immensely. If you are going to break down, this is a great place to do it. Even better, just stop by and enjoy it. Great facility,people and we were treated very well.