Lake Ontario was on its best behaviour, when leaving TORONTO on the 15.Sept., while heading towards Oswego, NY. With a full moon shining the way and the "Simrad" auto pilot steering, it was a relaxing and enjoyable trip. Upon arrival at 8 a.m. we called US Customs via video phone, slid our passports under the camera and voila, our Cruising Permit was faxed shortly after to the Oswego Marina. So easy!
From here we will travel through 32 locks to Albany at the Hudson river, where we can step the mast again. We opted to purchase two 2 day passes for the canals at ea. US $20. A 10 day pass would be $50. The locks are operated from 7 a.m. til 5 p.m.
Transiting through the locks was a piece of cake and all the lockmasters were very friendly. On Sunday we had to wait until 8 a.m. before opening and on some occasions we waited for other vessels to catch up. All went well except we thought we would run out of time before closing to lock through the flight of locks #6 through #2, as there is no tie up in-between for the night. However, Joe, the Lockmaster of lock 7 called ahead and the Lockmaster from lock #4 came to the rescue and took us through all 5 locks, working two hours overtime while his wife and kids watched from the shore. We thought he had earned the bottle of red wine from Diesel Duck's locker.
The overnight stays in the canals were very nice spots and we enjoyed free docking with power and water hook-up three times out of 4 nights.
The Castleton Boat Club on the Hudson river in Albany offers self-help mast stepping for US $50 which we took advantage of together with a Canadian catamaran. Across the river we found a mooring US $5/night at a peaceful setting and continued working on the rigging, hooking up the radar and electronics and in general putting things back in order.
Next day we anchored for the night up the Esopus Creek (one of the best-protected anchorages on the Hudson river as per "Skipper Bob") and it was true. Not so good the next evening where the anchor dropped in the Haverstraw Bay. At that time we had gusts up to 25 kt from the south and an incoming tide. The anchorage was ok but rolly at times because of ships traffic. Benno was up in the crows nest when a sudden gust ripped off his baseball cap. He almost cried. We didn't have the dinghy ready to retrieve it. He loved that hat and it was a gift from our son. :-(