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Email: davejoyceajohnson@gmail.com
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We left the wall (lock 6)around 8:00am and arrived in Campbellford, Ontario around 1pm. We went through several locks however the picture above is a step lock. You go up a level and then into the second lock which is the blue wall in front of "Gullwing". Quite interesting.
We are tied to another wall with a park like setting. The picture above is Dave and Joyce in front of a giant twoney (spl?) which is a Canadian two dollar coin
New update: Joyce fell and broke her hip. In the hospital right now. Dave is trying to get in touch with insurance company. Plan is to fly her back to Cloverdale do surgery and rehab St. Vincent's hospital. Not sure of all the logistics. More later.
We left Trenton around 8:15am this morning and arrived at our final destination around 12:30pm. We went through six locks, rose 117ft. and only traveled 7 miles! The Trent-Severn locks are much smaller than the Erie Canal locks. However, they are beautiful. Each has a park setting with picnic benches, charcoal grills and restrooms. Above Joycie keeping Joysea close to the lock wall after going up.
Joycie talking to Bill and Phyllis after lock 6 where we will spent the night. So far there are 5 Loopers tied to the walls ... not much room for many more.
Tomorrow we travel 24 miles and four locks to Campbellford where we plan to tie off at the lock wall. The tie offs are not free, but reasonably priced.
This morning Joyce and Dave will head for church then Joyce will do laundry while Dave washes down Joysea. Then we will do a little planning for tomorrow's adventure. The Trent-Severn locks can take only 3 boats at a time, so we will be coordination with other boaters our schedule. Some say this is the best part of the trip ... we will see!
We found out that the free concert was Irish - Scottish music, so of course, Joycie had us dress the part. And of course we got to participate ... the music was really good and the musicians were good sports.
Although you can't read the blue lettering under the bridge, it reads: "Gateway to the Trent-Severn Waterway". We will go through this Monday morning and head for lock #1.
As you can probably guess we had a great time last night. Everybody loved the concert and afterwards Dave, Joyce and two other looper couples went to an Italian restaurant. Great food ... and they gave us a free bottle of wine ... our kind of restaurant! The Canadians have really been treating us good.
This morning Dave and Joyce went to the farmer's market and bought home grown tomatoes, lettuce and bread. Later today we will go to the grocery and stock up the ship's store.
We arrived in Trenton this morning around 12:15pm. It was a nice, easy run. We plan to stay in Trenton until Monday morning. Trenton is a nice area where we start on the Trent Severn canal. Tonight there is a free concert behind Joysea. To the right is Joycie and Joysea posing in the park. More on Trenton later ... if Dave can find the library and Internet access.
Note: Four boats left the Picton marina at different times. We were the second boat to arrive in Trenton but all four Loopers ended up here ... sounds like another AGLCA party to us!
After some discussion (procrastination) by the three captains, we finally went through Oswego lock #8 by 8:20am. The concern was thunder storms in the area. However, they quickly went though and we headed out. It was a beautiful cruise with smooth seas. We arrived at the Tip of the Bay marina around 4pm. Tomorrow we will head for Trenton after we take a quick tour of Picton.
Ontario Lake is similar to the ocean ... but I think deeper. We experience 500 ft. waters.. and Joysea loved it ... didn't worry about getting her bottom scraped up. The picture to the left was our lead boat, a couple from Britain, Brian and Jean aboard Spirit of Whitby. The picture above is Ron and Erin aboard Running Erins. Notice no visible land front and back. No problem ... Joysea performed well.
Pray for good weather ... Joysea doesn't like big waves.
Updates to the blog may slow down, but phone calls are now affordable ... AT&T has a pretty good plan for calls, but the data part is not worth the cost. We should be able to find WIFI from time to time.
Last night we met another Looper couple, Jane and Larry aboard "Bavarian Cream". We had happy hour on Joysea with Steve, Linda, Jane and Larry.
Steve aboard Yesterday's Dream across from us in Pirate Cove Marina.
Yesterday evening we had Steve and Linda over for happy hour and to continue celebrating their Loop completion ... and they had us over to their boat for a complete Lobster dinner ... it doesn't get any better than that!
The fort was interesting with a lot of history ... Google it for more information.
We were treated to a firearm demonstration. The soldiers back then were trained well. They could fire 4 rounds in one minute ... amazing! The only problem was the muskets were very inaccurate. Thus the reason they stood in a straight line ... so they wouldn't shoot their fellow soldiers. Seems that the projectiles being fired would bounce around the cylinder of the barrel and depending on which side it hit last would be the direction it flew ... sounds crazy to us!
Above is a picture of the rickety wall. It is actually scarier than the picture depicts. We are minimizing our trips on/off the boat. However, we may stay here until Monday. We are waiting on a call from Joe and Pat aboard "Glory Days" to see how crowded the free docks are at Sylvan Beach.
Happy Father's day to all you fathers!
To regress a bit, above picture is at Little Falls Canal Harbor marina where we caught up with a bunch of Loopers.
Everybody is probably getting tired of lock pictures, but Anna in the boat behind us took some nice pictures.
Here we are going in:
Here we are in and secured.
And here we are going out 20 feet higher.
Today we are tied to a rickety wall in Rome. We are not complaining because it is free with electricity. After lunch we plan to visit Fort Stanwix. It is a Revolutionary War wooden fort. Tomorrow we head for Sylvan Beach ... for another free dock ... liking this free stuff!
After spending 11 hours on the water yesterday we decided to slow down and "smell the roses". This morning we went through one lock, traveled around 9 miles and called it a day. Notice the parade of boats. Four behind us and one in front. Now immediately Captain Dave was concerned on how well all of these boats were going to fit into the lock. As it turned out quite well. We were the second boat in and had no trouble securing Joysea (not always the case). The water in the locks can push you around and the last thing you want is to get sideways. The boat behind us did, but with both stern and bow thrusters he was quick to get to the other side.
We are now in a slip at the Village of Ilion Marina & RV Park ... a real nice place. We walked to the Remington factory and saw their museum. It was interesting but we were disappointed that they were not doing tours of the factory. Tomorrow we head for Rome (not Italy) where Linda and Steve will have completed the Loop ... party /celebration time!
Boat upper left is "Yesterdays Dream" with Linda, Steve, brother John and wife Daisy. All of the boats in the lock were "Loopers". Last night we had a Looper cocktail hour at the park ... fun!
Joyce enjoys the view from our slip in Schenectady Yacht Club. We set the alarm for 5:00am this morning to get an early start. We left our slip at 6:20 and heading for Lock 8. We had to wait for a good time because there was construction going on in the lock. To make matters worse, only one gate would open when we finally exited the lock. Normally the locks are 40 ft wide ... so do the math. We had 20 ft to navigate, but it looked like 10 (Joysea is 14'2" wide) ... we made it through with out problems.
This part of the canal is the Mohawk River and it is very beautiful. The slow start in Lock 8 was the only hitch because timing on the rest of the locks was great. We pulled up to the locks and got right in (longest wait was 10 minutes). We went through 10 locks (which is a lot!) and are now at the Little Falls Canal Harbor marina ... and the best part is that we caught our friends Steve and Linda aboard Yesterday's Dream. It was nice to catch them because we will be going our separate ways in a couple of days. We are not sure what tomorrow brings ..and are. to tired to think about it now!
We went through 6 locks today. We think we have a good system worked out .... although it is somewhat stressful.
We followed Van and Dianne aboard Simple Interest through all of the locks.
We didn't get a name for the boat following us. However, they were new to locking also. We all did just fine getting in and out.
We stopped at the Schenectady Yacht Club for an overnight stay. Tomorrow we have no definite plans however Dave wants to go longer. We would like to meet up with Steve and Linda in Utica this Friday ... we will see if Joysea can go a little longer ... she kind of got freaked out with the lock walls .... kept saying dirty, dirty, dirty :-)
Joycie in front of Waterford Welcome Center with Joysea in the far background. Tomorrow we plan to go thru 6 locks.
Dave is standing at the bottom of lock 2 which is the first lock we go through.
Joyce is standing on top of lock 2 where the over spill/water fall is located. After lock 7 there is the Schenectady Yacht Club where we hope to get a slip. If not, there is a free tie up close by. Then our next stop will probably be Amsterdam which is less than 30 miles away with 3 locks to navigate. When we get through all Erie canal locks we think we will be master locksmiths ... or maybe lockmasters?
The above picture dates back to our New York/Statue of Liberty anchorage. "Tall George" took this picture from across the bay during evening hours. He didn't have an angle for the Statue of Liberty, but in the background you can see New York city.
The picture to the right is when we cruised by Albany NY.
Note: Dave will be updating the blog daily, but we are finding limited Internet access . Our laptop will be updated but it could be days before we can upload the blog.
We left the Poughkeepsie yacht club around 6:15am and arrived at the Troy Dock around 1:45pm. We stayed below most of the time because of rain and cold weather. Dave's backup laptop GPS system worked great from the lower helm. Tomorrow we have a short trip and one lock to our Waterford destination. We plan to stay two days at Waterford to get provisions ... and do the tourist thing. After that we start down the Erie Canal. The first two hours we will go thru 5 locks .... how exciting is that!
Left anchorage at 6am and arrived at Poughkeepsie yacht club around 11:30am. Timed the current and were traveling 8.5 - 9 knots the whole trip ... fast for Joysea. The Hudson river is beautiful ... the most beautiful river we have encountered anywhere.
Below a picture of West Point from the river. You can no longer pull into their dock ... too bad, we would have loved to see the grounds.
George and wife Linda picked us up at the yacht club and treated us to lunch. Afterwards we toured the Vanderbilt estate (above) and the CIA campus (below)
CIA is the Culinary Institute of America. It is on the river and the campus is beautiful ... like everything else along the Hudson.
We tried reservations for dinner but we could not ... besides we were not in compliance with their dress code. Too bad, because the food is reported to be excellent. Tomorrow we head for Troy.
We left our anchorage behind the Statue of Liberty (see her in the background) around 11:30am and arrived at our anchorage in Haverstraw Bay around 4:15.
What a wonderful cruise! Bernie did all of the driving and once we were past the George Washington bridge (above) the waters were calm and the scenery beautiful. The river is lined with fjords and the ones we saw today had to be at least 400 feet high.
Tomorrow we head for a marina where we hope to see "tall George" and wife Linda. They plan to drive to the marina to see us and we are looking forward to seeing them!
Pat and George invited over many of their neighbors for a bon voyage party for Joyce and Dave .... how nice is that! Above New Jersey T-shirts ... send off gifts.
We got up early (5 am) this morning and headed for New York around 6am. Pat and George saw us off and we arrived at our anchorage behind the Statue of Liberty around 12:30 pm. It is the second time we have cruised by the statue and it was just as awesome as the first time.
The food was wonderful and the people were great. What a nice bunch of neighbors!
Besides the neighbors, George's sister Pat and husband Al from Richmond VA, also attended. We believe everyone had a great time ... we certainly know we did.
We left Atlantic City at 6:20am and arrived at Pat and George's home around 1:30pm. The ICW in New Jersey is known to be shallow. They move markers around a lot so you can't always depend on charts. Joysea hit bottom a couple of times after Dave took her threw a couple of temporary markers ... soon after that Joysea yelled that we were getting her new bottom paint dirty. Before Dave could get her back into the channel she hit something hard, but kept on going ... she's a tough ole gal! We were worried about damage but there seems to be none ... whew, what a day.
We met Ernie, their next door neighbor who offered us a draft beer ... and of course we immediately accepted. Both of the above pictures were taken from Joysea's upper helm. The homes in this community are very nice! The picture on left is Joyce, George and Pat standing on their back patio/dock and the picture on right is Joyce, Ernie, Pat and George on Ernie's back patio/dock. We are staying here for two nights and hopefully we will get a weather window that will allow us to get to New York where we will anchor out behind the Statue of Liberty. The Hospodar's are having a big party tomorrow night. More about that later.
We arrived safely in Atlantic City this afternoon. We left Cape May 7:15am and arrived at the marina around 12:45pm. Seas were 1 to 2 feet. A little rocking and rolling but not bad. We head for Pat and George's home in Brick, NJ in the morning. We are going via the ICW because the seas are going to be a little rough. This afternoon we visited an aquarium ... but no casino ... we must be getting old. Above picture is Atlantic City skyline as seen from the ocean.
Walked to the historic part of Cape May yesterday afternoon. It is a real nice area. Lots of shops ... guys beware.
There are a lot of B & B's as well as museums housed in older and well
maintained houses (mansions). Really a great place to visit.
Leaving sometime this morning for Atlantic City. Going outside, so
pray for calm seas:-)
Okay, we left very early this morning to get as much push from the tide as we could. Alarm went off at 5am and we were cruising by 5:30am. We arrived in Cape May at the Miss Chris marina around 1pm. Tomorrow we will be looking at the weather. Our next stop is Atlantic City and you have to go outside (i.e. ocean cruise).
Above Dave waits for a large vessel to pass before entering the Cape May canal.
Okay why did we immediately hit it off with people we just met? They own a mainship and of course Joysea is a mainship. They own a small farm with a 20 X 40 swimming pool ... sound familiar? They had a Great Dane, they do hog roasts, they love to entertain, etc. We discussed other similarities, but right now we are having a senior moment and can't remember. God seems to be placing good people all around us ... how wonderful is that!
www.krysti.org
for more information. Wonderful people who created a wonderful organization ... donations gladly accepted :-)
