2. Toronto to Waterford

In the rush to leave we forgot our computer at home and didn't realize until we wanted to take a picture of Old Orchard Yacht Club which is a very picturesque spot about a mile inland from Lake Ont. at Point Breezes. I went back to the boat to get the camera which Roman said was with the computer. What computer??? We searched the boat - no computer. After several phone calls, our son, Evan, discovered that the computer was sitting on our kitchen table at home where Roman had left it in a plastic bag. We arranged that we would sail back to Niagara- on-the-Lake. We are so grateful to our daughter, Katya, who drove after work the next dayto Niagara-on-the-Lake with our computer.

We left Old Orchard at 6:00 in the morning and had time to walk to town. While strolling through the picturesque streets, we met a friend of our commodore at Lakeshore Yacht Club. Roman had met Stan several times at the yacht club and Stan introduced us to his girlfriend, Andrea. We chatted briefly as we were expecting Katya and were on the way back to our boat docked at Niagara-on-the-Lake Yacht Club where Stan said they were staying as well. We planned to meet later on. We took Katya out to dinner and by the time we got back, it was late. We were tired from our long trip and all the walking we had done so we went to bed. The next morning Roman went down to see Stan while I was showering. I noticed that there were all kinds of men in suits, ties and dress shoes which you do not often see around boats. When I got back from my shower, Roman told me that Stan was there with his daughter and that he was all shook up as Andrea had fallen overboard at night when they went for a moonlight cruise. What a tragedy! I was all shook up for days after as that was the first time I ever met anyone who died so shortly afterward. We heard that the coast guard was still looking for her as we left about noon on Tuesday back to Old Orchard. We never heard anything else about this. Apparently she was not wearing a life jacket. This tragic event just underscored how much we have to pay attention to safety.

We travelled along the southern coast of Lake Ontario to Rochester where we stayed at the posh Rochester Yacht Club. When I introduced myself to the head waitress as olha, she reprimanded me, in a very pleasant manner, that " we go by Mr. Mrs and Miss here". In Rochester we were lucky to make a new friend, Ken Nott who drove us around Rochester showing us the sights and West Marine, Radio Shack, to mention a few. He also introduced us to this fabulous homemade ice cream at a place called "Abbots" which is unique to Rochester. We had a great time together and had dinner together aboard our boat. Here we are relaxing after dinner.


After Sodus Bay, we finally made it to Oswego where we had our mast unstepped and it now lies across the top of our boat on a cradle that Roman had made beforehand at Lakeshore Yacht Club in "his" office as those at the club called the workshop. He labelled like it like a jigsaw puzzle and proceded to pit 1 with 1 and 2 with 2 etc. The guys operating the mast crane were impressed by his expertise. When I looked around at other boaters who were rigging up cradles with rope, I could see why. Our mast unstepping went very smoothly and very quickly and now the 50 ft mast lies atop of our boat. We have to be careful with spreaders in the locks as they extend over the sides of our boat.

With the exception of the tragedy at Niagara-on-the-Lake, it has been a great trip so far. Everywhere we have gone we have found the locals extremely helpful to all boaters. Below is a picture of our boat going through the Erie Canal with our mast down. We are grateful to Craig and Maria Wesley who were visiting the canal and snapped this picture and then sent it to us via e-mail.