Back on Sea Fever - Great Lakes Here We Come.

Well – here we go.  It’s been  8+ months since we left you with pictures from the Hudson River – where we concluded Sea Fever 2012’s Boats Notes.  Now we return with a real blog – I’ll thank Debi (actually Emily and Samantha) for getting us into this century.  We are reconstructing some of the previous Boats Notes posts into the blog – along with many pics from the old days on For Play.   All of that work is in progress, but have a look if you are interested.

It was exactly a year ago yesterday that we started the 2012 trip with the tornado.  The 2013 trip started haltingly, but much less dramatically.  We took two days driving from Atlanta to just south of Albany where Sea Fever was waiting patiently inside a large building.  Of course, there were some immediate fine-tuning issues associated with sitting still for a winter – but nothing too serious and the boat has performed flawlessly since we got it in the water.    

We had the good fortune of being in the Albany area at the same time as Wayne Dow, along with his two favorite women, Virginia and his mom, Marge.  As a result we had a car loaned to us for a few days which was great for finishing our provisioning – and for my two trips to the emergency room (the second in the middle of the night) for a blood clot.  The first time they told me I did not have one.  When I woke up in the night 36 hours later, I was sure and went back.  They confirmed and I’m finishing my last couple days of two shots per day. 

Great start, eh?  We also got to spend some nice time with Wayne et al at Marge’s house, seeing her gardens, going out to dinner, spending the night, etc.  Very interesting to see the house Wayne lived in from age 12 on.  Then they all came down to Coeymans (where the boat was) for the short ride up to the Albany Yacht Club. 

Debi kept things under control while I detoured to San Francisco to play a gig with the Mothers of Prevention and see Adam and Doyanne – LOTS of good time with them – thanks, guys.  My artsy pic (right) is from the lobby of our Hyatt:

Upon my return from SF 5 days later, we finally got things rolling – taking a short trip up to Waterford which is at the junction of the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers.  Taking that westerly turn onto the Mohawk began our first official entry to the Erie Canal.  The Waterford grocery store encourages boaters to take their carts the 2/3 mile from their store to the docks – then they pick up the carts once per week.  I hadn’t run yet that day – thus, the picture below.  Debi said the locals were staring, trying to decide if I was one of those crazy boaters making a supply run or a homeless person who had just scored a big haul and making a quick get away...  I never pushed Emily along in a jogger stroller, so this was my make-up.  We also visited a local history museum there, along with the usual small town bar – and breakfast café (two places).

After two days in Waterford, we took off for REAL on today’s journey.  In the span of 10 hours we covered 60 miles of the Erie Canal and 12 locks (20 minutes per).  We had done one lock on the Hudson, but this was the real indoctrination.  It didn’t take long to get the routine down – fenders (bumpers) down, pole ready to catch a rope hanging over the wall.  Each of us would hold one of these lines connected to the top of the lock, keeping the boat near the wall (but hopefully not scraping – thus the fenders).  Held onto the ropes as the lock filled and we rode the rising waters.   Some locks have a vertical cable along the height of the wall that you can loop your rope around to guide your ride up.  The first five locks, called the Waterford Flight, took us up 169 feet in less than 2 miles – the largest lock elevation change in that short span in the world.  All of today’s locks were rides up – eventually we’ll come down before entering Lake Ontario.   We had to make an “emergency” rescue of one dropped pole and one lost fender – but both had only moderate drama associated.     

Debi's dockings have been masterful - has had to basically parallel park the boat on several occasions and has even garnered some high-fives and applause from by-standers...that, of course, makes her day!

We went farther than expected today – we’re trying to make good time today and tomorrow before another round of storms comes through.  We’ll probably hole up at Sylvan Lake at the eastern end of Lake Oneida until the weather passes and we can do the 22 mile lake crossing with minimal turbulence.   

The boat traffic was extremely light.  In 8 hours we saw 4 other boats.  The scenery was pastoral, rolling green hills, Canadian geese, old river towns, trains riding the rails alongside the river.  It was much less developed than we had expected – very peaceful traveling. 

Took time for one celebratory brew at the local pub, and one round of bocce ball in the park by our boat but decided best to sign off and get to bed – early departure tomorrow.  

COME JOIN US!!!
Jim and Debi