Splashed in 2022!

 Providence was launched last Wednesday and after a little cleaning and prep work we loaded her with provisions and headed for the great unknown. Ok, I’m exaggerating a little, we knew where we were heading out to. There is a little “hidey hole” we know of and spent the night there. AWESOME! What a wonderful evening for our start to the 2022 boating season. 

On Saturday I completed the electrical connection for the raw water pump so now we can wash the boat with raw water and not have to use our drinking water. Yay!

We headed out to meet up with friends at Foxy’s for drinks and then boated over to Clayton for dinner at The Hops Spot. 

We stayed the night in Clayton and departed early Sunday morning for Alex Bay, Melissa needed to get to a bridal shower so we made wakes, in a solid wall of fog! That’s a little unnerving if you’re not used to it. Oh, and we’re not used to it! Yikes! 

We made it without incident a lived to tell the tale. Yay! So, what’s next? Good question. There is a plan to visit Montreal, Ottawa, and Kingston on a two week trip in August. We’ve been trying to do this trip for the last two years but COVID-19 has been dashing our plans. It’s that social distance thing and Canada has been very strict on entry requirements, for good reason. Here’s hoping 2022 does well for everyone’s sake, and our boat trip! See ya on the water!

Captain Rusty is now an official title!

 Yes it’s true! I went to the True Course Captains School at the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, NY in November 2021. I then assembled my application package and submitted it to the Regional Exam Center in Boston, MA. After a few corrections to my application the evaluators determined my suitability to be sufficient to become a merchant mariner and they issued my license! 

Captain Rusty Rosenberger at your service!

Master, 25 Ton, Near Coastal w/Assistance Tow Endorsement

2022 Season - Yay!

 The spring of 2022 is here, let the boating season begin!! 

We are hard at work in the Horizon Marina boat shed working on our list of projects for Providence. We still have another month before launching the boat, sigh. There is light at the end of the tunnel so to speak, ice is almost out of the bay and we will be splashing the dinghy soon! Yay! 🚤 Let’s get this season started!!

Home Waters

 It’s been said that there’s no place like home and you know what, it’s true. 

We had a motion filled ride from Sackets Harbor today. We saw 2-3 footers most of the way and Melissa wasn’t feeling the best. Truth be told, we were taking the waves on the beam so we were rolling beam to beam most of the way. That makes for an uncomfortable ride no matter how you look at it. Sophie? Once again she slept through most of it. 😊 Hey FB, why is there no emoji of a Pomeranian wagging her tail huh? Get with the program will ya!

We cruised to North Bay on Carlton Island for lunch and a quick swim, yeah yeah yeah it was hot again, I know, broken record, blah blah blah.🏊‍♂️🤿

After lunch we made our way to Clayton’s Mary Street Dock. We tied to the dock and grilled a couple of  Montreal seasoned steaks for dinner. Melissa sautéed  some mushrooms to top the steaks with and made a broccoli salad for a side dish. YUM! 😋

After dinner we learned of a bass tournament that was taking place in the morning so we decided to go to our favorite anchorage, Picnic Point for the night. You know how I don’t like waking up at “oh dark thirty” when I’m on vacation. 🤣 There is one other boat here, it sure is crowded tonight!

It sure is nice swimming in cool, clear, and clean water after traveling through muddy water the last two weeks. Can you see the loons between me and the gazebo? There are no loons downstate. 

What do you mean? I AM smiling! 🤣

So, now that we’re back “home” so to speak. Here are a couple of cool stats for this trip.

Miles:  507

Engine Hours: 70

Miles so far this season: 1046

Total Sea Miles to date: 8,367 

Whew, that’s a lot of water!

Back in the Cruising Grounds

 We made it safely across Lake Ontario this morning, duh, I guess I wouldn’t be posting otherwise. I saw the weather reports and Doppler radar and determined we could be in Henderson Harbor before the rain clouds arrived. As we crossed the lake I saw the storms dissipate on radar. 

We still saw 2-3 foot waves with a 4-5 second period (interval). That makes for a choppy surface and a squirrely ride. Now there’s a nautical term straight from the back waters of some Louisiana swamp rat’s thesaurus, squirrely. It means not quite right, as in, it’s not exactly the way it’s supposed to be. Used in a sentence it looks like this:

How was the breeze at your house last night Timmy? Timmy says, “Well Billy-Bob, the wind during that  F5 tornado was gettin’ a little squirrily around the edges,  it blew all the dandelions out of my yard last night.”

So we made the turn into Henderson Harbor to look for a slip for the night. After almost getting the boat stuck in soft mud near Bays End Marina we hightailed it to Sackets Harbor and booked a slip at Navy Point Marina.

I strung up a hammock and snoozed a little in the cool shade of a large tree. 

We invited Terese over for dinner and we all went to Good Fellos for dinner. It was great. Ice cream for dessert and now to bed. Good night ya’ll. 

Northward Bound

 Today was our first official “laundry day challenge.” We put everything into the bike trailer and my canvas duffel and started our trip. Six paces into the journey I halted progress and demanded we take the bikes. I didn’t really feel like pushing and pulling that thing. I wanted to let the trailer hitch do all the work so all I had to do was pedal. Much better. 

We got the the washing done and went to Dunkin Doughnuts for coffee and yes, Melissa was good and resisted the doughnuts. I caved and went for the blueberry cake doughnut. We went back and got our laundry and took it back to the boat. Mission successful!

We readied the boat and cleared our first lock of the day at 1100 hrs. We turned north at Three Rivers Junction and are now northward bound.

I know, I’m starting to sound like a broken record but it was another hot day so we decide to jump in the water to cool off.  We saw two boats this morning and none all afternoon so we stopped the boat in the middle of the Oswego Canal and jumped in!

We made it to Oswego with minutes to spare, five of them actually, before the dock master left for the day. Between the canal speed limits and lock masters giving me dirty looks for getting to the next lock too quickly we just barely made it in time. Why do math teachers have to teach those guys time-distance-speed calculations anyway? All it does is get me dirty looks and a stern talking to! 😎 Just kidding, nobody said anything to me…yet.

After spending a little time cooling down and celebrating our safe arrival in port with a little “safe arrival” drink, we cleaned up and I took my girl to dinner. It was five o’clock you know…

Tomorrow, we cross the “Big O”, Lake Ontario. Here’s the latest forecast:  

THURSDAY...South winds 5 to 15 knots becoming west. A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Some thunderstorms may produce gusty winds. Waves 1 to 3 feet.

Piece of cake…

  

The Long Slog Through Montezuma Wildlife Refuge

The day started out innocently enough, but don’t they always? 

 We got up early today and rode our bikes to an old Erie Canal lock to see what they looked like and compare size differences. The old locks were a LOT smaller than they are today. The cargo barges must have been much smaller than todays commercial boats.

We enjoyed a leisurely three mile bike ride and then prepared for the visit from one of Melissa’s college girlfriends. 

They spent the better part of an hour catching up in the still morning heat and humidity. After a too short visit, we made our way to the local fuel pump and paid our dues. We negotiated a cash price instead of the usual arm and leg for the amount of fuel we took onboard. After getting the fuel, filling the water tank, and getting a pumpout we were ready for the cruising day. It was one long day indeed.  We did see a family of deer getting water by the edge of the canal, two were fawns with their spots still on!

Melissa wanted some ice cream from Aldi in Baldwinsville and I wanted a 12volt extension cord for the car fan from Autozone. We both wanted 110 volt power for the AC unit so we could get some good rest. Do you know hard it is to sleep in a sauna? Me neither but it’s gotta be a little like what we’ve been in the last two days, or was it three? Not sure. Anyway, when we finally got here at 7:30, Melissa started cracking the whip to get the bikes ready to go to Aldi for ice cream. Who am I to argue with a woman that wants ice cream? Yes ma’am I say and we put the bikes in riding mode in record time and pedaled our way there before they closed. She also got a few bagels for breakfast sandwiches. I love that woman.❤️ I wonder what she wants. We saw a girls softball game and figured that’s as good as anyplace to eat the ice cream so we did. 

Now? We’re enjoying the AC and going to bed.

 Good night.