We arrived at the Oswego Marina by 10 am on Wednesday morning. The masts were stepped by 3 pm by Bernie and Kate who did a great job. Al and I spend Wednesday night and Thursday morning re-rigging and connecting all the electronics. We were able to head out into Lake Ontario by 11 am.
A quick motor sail to Sodus Bay with the Multi Function Destination Direction Finder pointing the way, put us in Sodus by 5 PM.
UNABATED is in her new home at Katlynn Marine in Sodus Point.
Free water, Free pumpouts, Free WiFi and Ice anytime I want it......
I spent most of Friday scrubbing the decks and cleaning the mud and crud from the canal off the outside of the boat. I had already polished the stainless (stainless... ha ha ha) with Soft Scrub to remove the rust stains of the last 8+ months while motoring though the canal.
Heading home to Henrietta to do 7 loads of laundry. Seems the green water we took over the bow on the trip up the East coast had found it's way into my clothes lockers and made everything a "little damp".
That should be about it. I hope everyone who has followed me on my journey has enjoyed my observations, learnings and adventures.
While I compile the stats of my trip and look for some meaningless job, if anyone has any questions that I can help with, feel free to contact me.
Signing off
Alan
sv UNABATED
"you can't fix stupid"

Sorry I have not updated my blogs in a while. Once you enter the canal there is very little internet access and with the masts down there is practically no chance to "grab" any "stray" signals.
We sat for a day and half day while they lowered the river almost 4 feet. We saw all sorts of things floating by, docks, logs, telephone poles, whole trees, even 2 green markers. It wasn't until Thursday afternoon before we were allowed to move on.
By then Paul had to return to Ottawa. We had planned to be much further by then. So Paul called a taxi to take him to the bus station. He was home by midnight.
Me, I was there another 5 days before I could find crew to help me through the locks. Although I am usually a single hander I think having at least one other person on such a big and heavy boat is the prudent thing to do. I still had another 23 locks to go though.
After many phone calls and one offer to help me for 250.00 a day, my old sailing buddy Al showed up on Sunday morning and we were off. His wife was kind enough to drive him from their home in Hamlin (about 250 miles away) to Lock 7. She must have really wanted to get rid of him for a few days.
It was nice catching up with Al as we had not seen each other for a number of years. Raining on and off we were able to make Oswego by early Wednesday morning to have the masts re-stepped.
Only one incident worthy to note, in Lock 9 there was a "valve malfunction".
According the the lock tender a valve got stuck and the water came in faster than normal. In locking up, the water comes in from the bottom and has a tendency to push the boat away from the wall somewhat. This time it BLEW the boat off the wall almost smashing it against the other side of the lock. Al and I had to let go of the ropes as we were almost horizontal and about to be be pulled off the boat.
I was able to to motor forward enough to control the boat trying to stay in the middle of the lock and avoid a major crash. NOW THAT GETS YOUR HEART PUMPING............. especially since you have 10 feet of expensive mast sticking out from the front of the boat.

Departing NYC early Saturday morning we started the long ride up the Hudson River. After a day and a half motor boat ride up the Hudson (one 14 hour day and a 3 hour day) we arrived in Catskill on Sunday to have the masts removed. Hop-o-Nose marina (where I had the masts raised 3 years ago on my way South) was destroyed in the flood last fall so we went to Riverview Marine Services instead. A very friendly yard with great service. We were told we could use the scrap wood in the back to build our mast supports. The wood was all free. We found some pre-built stuff that was easily adaptable to UNABATED. Armed with nothing but a hacksaw and a power drill, Paul and I worked well into the night on Sunday and up early on Monday to complete the work. They were kind enough to make a few saw cuts for us. I was also able to convince a local sailor who wanted to hear our lies, to take Paul to Lowes for some more deck screws. The masts were pulled at 10:30 the next morning and we were off by 1:30 in the afternoon. In less than 24 hours we were in and out of there. Paul agreed to continue on with me as far as Sylvan beach or Brewerton, so off we went. Traveling with a fair tide all the way to Troy we were able to tie up to the Troy Town Docks.... which are nothing more than a high concrete wall. I think there may have been some floating docks there at one time (before Irene last fall). The only good thing was that there was a brand new Dinosours Bar-B-Que that opened up last October that was only a 2 minute walk from where we tied up.