CATCHING UP

It’s been a few days since I updated things - a combination of not having internet access and being busy getting the boat ready for the winter.

Boldt Castle

As we left Canada, our Canadian data plan was no longer available, so I thought it would be a simple procedure to re-start my US data plan through Verizon. Ha! Verizon may have the best coverage, but they have to have the worst customer service. Hours on the phone listening to their insipid ranting about how easy it is to deal with them, hearing apology after apology that they can’t seem to take my payment because someone “pushed the wrong button” and suspended my account for 24 hours, and absolutely nothing could be done about it, etc. etc.

After cooling down for a couple of days, I called back, and with only a half hour on the phone, they finally got my account squared away so I now have my data plan back.

In the mean time, we cruised through the 1000 Island area of the St. Lawrence River to Alexandria Harbor, anchored out a few nights, stopped by Clayton to visit the Antique Boat Museum (a fantastic place for boat lovers), spent a night at Sacket’s Harbor (a great little town) then down to Oswego to start the canal system down to Brewerton.

A real classic

As I have mentioned previously, we participate in the Small Vessel Reporting System, a “coordinated” system between the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), Homeland Security and neighboring countries. To get our SVRS status, we had to make an appointment with the US Coast Guard station in Oakland, CA, submit our passports and be “interviewed.” Getting our “BR” number is essentially the same process as the NEXUS system which lets allows facilitated re-entry to the US after foreign country visits, and is supposed to allow telephone reporting to the CBP when we re-enter on our boat. When we called the designated number, no one seemed to know anything about it, and since we were within a few miles of a check-in station, they directed us there. We stopped in at Heart Island, which we were going to do anyway to visit the Boldt Castle, and cleared customs with them. Ironically, they said they didn’t trust the people who used SVRS and file Float Plans with the USCG. Go figure - follow all the rules, contact all the right people, get all the pre-authorizations, and we’re the people they don’t trust. I got the feeling it was more of an inter-agency thing, CBP doesn’t want to acknowledge a Homeland Security or USCG program. Anyway, we got back into the country with minimal hassle.

We had a quick visit to Alexandria Harbor to pick up a water pump. Our pressure pump (which feeds fresh water to all the faucets on board) died and with an incredible stroke of luck, a marine supply store close by had an exact replacement pump. A quick visit to the municipal dock (a block away from the marine supply store) and a half hour to replace and rewire the pump, and we were on our way. Well, not without a quick visit to the ice cream shop at the end of the dock.

Sacket’s (sometimes spelled Sackett’s) Harbor was a needed stop after several hours fighting 2-4 foot waves after leaving our anchorage near Clayton. The area had significant battles in the War of 1812 and present a good historic view in their municipal museums and buildings. We had a fine dinner at the Tin Pan Galley, dining al fresco on a warm evening. 

The next day was forecast to be light winds with waves less than 1 foot, but they lied. We bashed into 4-5 foot waves for an hour or so until we could get into the lee of the shore, and then had a tolerable cruise into Oswego where we went through the first lock on the Oswego River and tied up to the wall for the night. We walked around Oswego, hearing that it was a vibrant little town, but maybe the 90 degree heat and the holiday weekend explained a completely dead town. It was similar the next day (Sunday) when we stopped by Fulton. About the only people we saw was a congregation having a church service outdoors next to the river. Otherwise, that town, also, was dead, so we kept going down to the Erie Canal. 

Early fall colors

It has been unseasonably hot the past several days, and we passed by where we are going to store the boat for the winter and continued on to Lake Oneida so we could anchor out and cool off in the lake. I got most of the "lock crud" off of the fenders, fender boards and deck with the lake water,  but there were constant wakes from speed boats going by, so we decided to backtrack to the marina and tie up for the night. It was nice to be able to plug in to shore power and run the air conditioners.

Today, we started packing everything up getting ready to abandon ship. It is amazing how much stuff one can store onboard! We’ll probably end up filling around ten medium size moving boxes, and a couple of large ones, with all the belongings we are taking off of the boat. We’ll rent a car tomorrow so we’ll be able to get around, get the boxes either stored or make arrangements for shipping, and then start serious cleaning of the boat. We’ll probably have to get a motel for a while while we get the boat prepared for haul-out, then see how much time we have and maybe visit some nearby areas before heading home on the 19th.

We figure we travelled 3500-4000 miles on this trip and went through 127 locks. It’s been a great experience - glad we did it, but it’s time to go home…

This will likely be the last entry - thanks for keeping up with us on this blog.

CLUB ISLAND

As expected, it was a relaxed day today. It started out with thick fog which lasted until almost noon. We busied ourselves with boat-chores, Elaine inside and me outside, trying to keep the boat livable and presentable.

Our morning view

Luckily for Elaine, the spiders have stayed outside, but do they ever make a mess. Not only with their web-making, but they leave dark spots all over the boat. It’s only been a couple of days since I thoroughly washed down the boat, but I had to go at it again today to clean it up. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a hose, and with the fog, our solar panel wasn’t putting out the usual amperage to allow me to use the wash-down pump, and we were docked at a noise-free National Park dock which does not allow generators to be run, so I had to use a bucket to get the water I needed to clean the boat. That was okay, though, since we weren’t going anywhere until the fog lifted anyway.

Speaking of solar panels, we are learning about electrical power management at higher latitudes. I installed the solar panel in Florida when we were getting the boat ready for the Bahamas, and for the two years she was in Florida and the Bahamas, we had abundant power to keep our house bank of batteries fully charged all of the time. We could leave the boat for days at a time, even at anchor, and still had power to keep everything frozen in the freezer and all the beer cold. We could use the fans/lights/stereo as much as we wanted at night and the batteries would charge right up in the morning. We have learned, however, that being at a higher latitude, especially in the late summer/early fall, the angle of the sun hitting the panels means they are not as efficient as they were in the Bahamas. If we have a couple of cloudy and/or rainy days in a row, we can’t keep up with our normal demand and have to supplement with either the generator or shore power at a marina. This has been a learning experience for us, but I think we now have it figured out.

Incredible "cottages" along the river

So, once the fog lifted today we continued down the St. Lawrence River (born & raised in the West, it still seems odd to me to be heading East when going downriver) looking for an anchorage near the Boldt Castle, which we plan on visiting tomorrow.

Who else, but St. Lawrence?

The first anchorage we tried was very protected from the wind, although a bit shallow at 4-5 feet. This means that the weeds grow abundantly in the clear water, and we were not able to get the anchor to set with all of the weeds. We had a back-up plan, and went around another island to find a deeper spot. It ended up being a good anchoring bottom, but very exposed to the wind. That was okay, though, since it was a pretty warm day and the wind felt good. It just meant I had to mount the barbecue in a more protected area in order to cook the chicken for dinner.

We went through all of our documents and protocols for border crossing this evening, since we will be in the US tomorrow. When we entered Canada, I checked in by phone, and they gave me a “report number” which I am supposed to reference as I check out (by phone). For entry into the US, we have registered with the Small Vessel Reporting System (SVRS). This was done before cruising to the Bahamas last year, and it allowed us to check in with US Customs by phone upon entry. Before we left the US, I confirmed that it was still valid, so we should be good to check in with Customs and Border Patrol by phone when we cross the border tomorrow. We’ll see… Somehow I think it is a bit optimistic that we can get through all that bureaucratic red tape simply with a couple of phone calls. As usual, we have a back-up plan - our first stop in the morning is at Heart Island which is the setting for Boldt Castle, a major tourist draw for both the US and Canada. Hence, there is a Customs and Border Patrol office to handle the Canadian tourists. If the SVRS doesn’t work, we’ll check in with CBP on the island…

Our last Canadian sunset