Antares Cruising East

Sometimes I have to spell it out for myself (our trip) in order to keep a semblance of a timeline. One day runs into another so easily. Do we call this a 30 day vacation or a 30 day ordeal or a 30 day adventure? I suppose it is a combination of all three, depending on the circumstances and our frame of mind. It could be something else entirely, like a new life view. We are evolving every day, every situation, every encounter. What will we be like in 60 days? …in 90? ...in 6 months? Everyone changes as one grows: older and wiser comes to mind. I believe this trip is forcing us to change/adapt more rapidly that we would have staying at home. Yes, I’m older, but does wisdom come so easily? ‘Nuff said. Time for the adventure (what I’m calling it today) to continue:

On the next five traveling days we usually began early, about 7:30 am. Weather each day was a copy of the day before: cold, around 45 degrees, sunny, light east breeze, mist on the canal, serene… We always bundled up in layers of clothing topped with foul weather coats, pants, and boots. Don’t forget the hats, gloves and woolen socks, either. We would get underway enough to get a good charge on the batteries then plug in the percolator. Such a beautiful cruise! Every day there were interesting places, structures, wildlife, fresh brisk air, and colors changing. I would sip my mug of coffee and watch it all. I did not want to miss a thing by going down below, even if it was warm and cozy there. I do admit that John is the first to rise, and we are often away from the dock before I’m ready. I get the GPS, radio, charts, and binoculars on deck and working, pinpointing our location, and following the route that we planned the day before. We have gotten pretty good at locking through, taking from 20-30 minutes each. We just figure on half an hour for locking, and 6 miles an hour for traveling, giving us an average of 4 hours a day cruising east. Often we would be at our next tie up with chores completed by 2:00 pm. The rest of the day we would talk to other boaters and find shops to make our purchases…sort of feels as if we are on a scavenger hunt. Sometimes we walked to town, sometimes we got a ride, and sometimes John would go on the one bike we brought. When he runs his errands I am usually doing either a bucket of laundry or arranging the food stores. As the weatherman said, “Rinse and repeat.” Works for me.

It felt strange as we left Baldwinsville to resume our trip. Just a few miles after Lock 24, we heard someone on the radio say, “Have a safe trip.” We thought we were still hearing the lockmaster until we saw two people waving from the marina we were passing. It was Jim and Ann aboard their m/v JWII. What a great feeling of connectedness and our smiles kept us warm. At 10:00 am we came to the Three Rivers junction, leaving the Seneca, passing by the Oswego, and continuing east on the Oneida. (If you are friends on Facebook with me, you will have seen the three photos). We noticed right away that the harmful algae bloom that we have on the western end of Lake Erie is here as well. The yucky stuff was flowing into Lake Ontario. We experienced our first lift UP at Lock 23, just a short lift and no problems. The fuel stop at Winter Harbor gave us a surprise. M/v Headquarters was nearby and we got a shout out from Shirley and Tony. Also, m/v Queen Bee was fueling up. We recognized them from Erie, PA. With greetings and stories swapped, smiles all around. We passed Ess-Kay Marina to see s/v Saltine getting ready to haul out and be transported to Charleston. Scott and Donna decided to skip everything in between and go straight for the warm waters and sunshine. This leg of our trip stopped for the day at the Brewerton terminal wall where s/v Meridian joined us, along with Captain Jim and Saffo on their home built solar powered tri-maran named Ra. 15 solar panels propel them along at 4 mph. John found a carry-out and that was the end of Day 27.

No locks on Day 28. We were about to cross Lake Oneida, the most open water since we took down the masts. You can understand that we were a bit uncomfortable with this crossing. Heck, when have we been absolutely comfortable anywhere on this trip? We were bundled up as usual: cold, sunny, light wind, hot coffee, binoculars, etc… Follow the green buoys, find the lighthouse, and return to the canal. Within five miles, the wind picked up, actually breaking waves over the bow and streaks across the water. We were fine. It’s that we wished we were sailing just then. It would have been beautiful. Four hours and 22 miles later, we docked at Sylvan Beach right in front of “The Crazy Clam.” S/v Meridian and s/v Ra joined us along with several other boats. Since this was Friday, add the fast powerboats that love to rev up their engines and their boom boxes. Add fishermen, motorcycles, kayaks, and diners, and you’ve got a happening place on one of the few remaining beautiful weekends. We happened to go out to eat and got a great table before the crowd arrived.

John promised to take me to Rome today. I wanted to rev up the engine as we went by the powerboats, but they could easily outrun, outmaneuver, and outblast us. We wouldn’t have a chance. We had two locks to go up in at the beginning of this leg, and straight canal to our next stop: Rome, NY. Well, he DID promise. The secret of going up in a lock is that you get as far away as you can from your entrance. The water really boils there, and it’s hard to keep your boat from boiling with it. Water is a powerful element especially in a confined space. This section of the canal is tree lined and arrow straight. The rowing clubs take advantage of this for their practices. We saw five eight-man teams, several 1-2-4-man teams, and their powerboat escorts going along so effortlessly. Coming back might be more of a challenge: against the wind and current and probably tired. In a little more than three hours, we tied up at Bellamy Park. We understood that Rome has the facilities we needed: grocery, computer store, hardware. This scavenger hunt is in earnest, since our generator and electrical system don’t seem to recognize each other. We have not had shore power for several days now, and we do want a hot meal. The computer is still out of commission since we don’t want to use it with the virus conduit running the show. Along comes Lynn and her little dog. She offers us a ride to the business part of town. We know it’s a bit of distance, so walking only one way is so much appreciated. She dropped us off at Tops, a well-stocked grocery store. We bought so much. Across the parking lot, we stopped at Staples to buy a flash drive. There was a special, just today, of getting your PC cleaned of spam and viruses. Voila! Daryl cleaned out the conduit for free and gave us advice on keeping the computer updated. Love it when we actually get a break on something. At the Ace hardware, we bought a hotplate and several other things. John became the mule and we toted all our purchases back to the dock and used the generator, extension cord, and electric skillet to make Sloppy Joes for dinner. This is such a nice park with a waterfall. S/v Meridian arrived, and they went to town. I think I heard Alex playing his banjo for a while. He’s pretty good with it, just working to build his confidence. We tucked in shortly after dark, lulled by the passing trains and wavy motion of the boat. This was our 29th day out.