Underway Again September 2012 #1

I am starting this blog sitting in the V berth with my right leg elevated with an ice pack. Yesterday we reached Herkimer and docked at a the town dock which is a long cement dock adjacent to the town cruise excursion boats. The water level is low in the canals as there has been little rain until we got there. I helped tie up the boat and when I was getting back onto the boat, I reached for the grab rails on our pilot house, and missed it and fell with full force onto the steel toe rail which is a 2 " steel rail which goes around the entire boat. I landed on my right shin and my left knee. The pain was excruciating and I felt dizzy and nauseous and when Roman helped me to sit up I could not put any weight on my right leg. I thought that I had fractured my shin for sure. The ambulance came in under five minutes along with a squad of the fire department which always apparently responds to paramedic calls. Even a police car showed up. I could not stop shivering. They carried me in a blanket off the boat and put me on a stretcher that was like a reclining chair. I was carried to the ambulance and taken to the hospital in Little Falls. There they gave me pain meds and took X-rays. Fortunately both my left knee and my right shin seem to have no fractures, although both are bruised and puffy, especially my shin. I was told to follow the RICE principle - rest, ice, crutches and elevate. I was to put no weight on my leg until the pain stopped. I had a contusion of the knee with a major contusion of muscle and soft tissues of the shin. It actually hurts very little if I do not move it but when I extend the foot or try to put pressure on the heel or any part of the foot, I find it VERY painful. I can't walk and was given crutches and when I stood up, I almost passed out and was taken in a wheel chair instead to a taxi which took us back to Herkimer, about 10 miles. The taxi was a regular car with a driver who had lost his job just two months ago and was driving patients home to supplement his income. He had been a school bus driver who had a nine year old boy on his bus whose single mother never came to the bus stop to pick him up. The driver had complained to his supervisor numerous times but not in writing and two days before the end of school the mom was not there and he let the boy get off instead of keeping him on the bus. The mother complained and he was let go. He feels that a great injustice has been done to him as he knows about children having had one of his own and been a stepfather twice. Interesting character. He carried all our stuff to the boat and I barely made it back with the crutches to the boat.  It was 12:00 midnight.   I took a pain pill, elevated my foot with several pillows, applied the ice pack the nurse had given me and tried to sleep.

 

For those who followed our blog last time, when we got home in June 2008 we went to Port Credit where our boat was hauled out. Then it was trucked to Lakeshore Yacht Club where we keep our boat. That was about mid July. When we lived aboard last time there were all sorts of things that we would have liked to change, the major one being the cockpit. Roman was working on that when he fell 15 feet from the boat.

He broke his tibia and fibula crushed his heel and injured his back. He had an operation to repair his leg with two plates and 30 screws inserted. He was none weight bearing for three and half months. I had a hip replacement in November that same year and we were quite the couple of cripples. Thank goodness for the kindness of family and friends. It took almost a year before he was walking fairly normally and even to today his right leg is bigger than his left. The next year he went back to the boat and worked on it fairly steadily the summer of 2009 and we were in the water again in 2010.

It's been 5 years since we last ventured south. When we left last time, we had one grandson. Now we are blessed with four grandchildren -three boys, 4 months, 4 years, 6 years and a 3 year old granddaughter. I miss them already. This time we have Skype on our computer and we have Skyped once. We plan to do that as often as we have access to internet. Right now the owner of the Waterfront Grille on the dock at Herkimer has allowed us to plug in our power but we cannot pick up a signal that far outside his restaurant. I am writing in Word and then when we have WiFi I will cut and paste into the blog.

 

Connor is 4.

  Tyler is 6 and Maya is 3.

.

 

And Luke is the newest addition and now is 4 months old.

 

On September 15, we started out early Saturday morning and my son and daughter came to see us off as did some of our friends.   Thank you Gail for the burgee.

 

 

 

 

 

Rick on "Southpaws" accompanied us out.

 

 

Our last view of Toronto

The weather was good but the winds were against us and we motored to Whitby Yacht Club where we stayed Saturday night.

 

 

 

Leaving Whitby at dawn

The next day we motor sailed to Coburg, a nice town with a beautiful waterfront. We borrowed bikes from the marina where we stayed and biked to No Frills where we picked up some last minute things. I spent several hours biking the trail along the waterfront and even sat and hat an ice cream overlooking the harbour. There is even quite a nice campground right on the beach. 
 

 
Roman adjusting the seat as it's too high for me.

 

Hello Toronto!

 We decided to cross the Lake to Rochester early the next day. We left by 7:00 in the morning and I had even showered by then. Oh the joys of boating! The sunrise was beautiful. How any times do we see a sunrise over the water in the city? The trip across the lake was not very enjoyable to say the least. Very quickly it became quite choppy with waves 1 to 1.5 m. The wind was against us at first and we motored, then motor sailed for about 5 hours and were thrown from side to side. 
 

 

 

 

 











Taking turns at the helm. Note how warm it is!


Roman had left the motor on the dinghy and it swayed to and fro and up and down. The constant swinging was too much and the davits actually bent on the side where the motor was. Roman put the dinghy down and we dragged it across the rest of the way. About 2:00 the trip smoothed out and we were able to sail the rest of the way to Rochester. 
 

 

We passed several freighters.  It's suprising how quickly they move compared to us.

 

 

 Just before the harbour, we radioed Rochester Yacht Club and were told they were hosting the J24 World Championships and had no room for us.  As it was only 4:30, we decided to go onto Sodus.  We knew we would arrive late but the weather and wind was with us, so we went on.  We had a great run - averaged about 6 kn and made it there by 10:00 at night. 

 Thank goodness for Raymarine as it had been 5 years since we were last there.  We were able to find our way through the harbour quite easily especially after I stood on the bow with a great searchlight which Roman had specially purchased for such a use.  We ended up in the same slip that we had 5 years ago.  We were both tired especially Roman as he had done most of the steering.  Auto is not set up as yet as Roman has yet to read the manual - no time as he just installed it the week we left.

 

Spent the next 2 days in Sodus.  Roman repaired the davits - we purchased some steel tubing from a canvas repair guy who lives in town.  Met a lovely couple, Marty and Kathy who took us by car to the hardware store about 7 miles away.  We spent a very enjoyable evening with them on their boat "Lovely Lady" and left early the next day and were in Oswego by 11:00 as we sailed along at over 6 kn all the way on just a reefed jib. 


The winds continued to build and it looked like we would not get our mast unstepped that day.  We were advised to wait by the dock.  With the high winds and the current our boat was pushed into a cement wall and we have a rail to fix.  It's a good thing Roman is handy!  The next day at Oswego Marina we had our mast unstepped after "Saber Tooth", a boat out of Port Credit Marina. 

The two consulting how and where everything is going to go.

  

 

Bernie attaching the main rope that attaches to the crane which will lift the mast up

 

 

 

 

Roman is checking that all the little details are just so.  You can see the horseshoe support he built for the mast.

 

 

Right after the mast is unstepped, Roman is adding the 2x4 for additional support.

 

Bernie is the same guy that unstepped our mast 5 years ago and is very knowledgeable and everything went smoothly.  Together with "Saber Tooth" we went through Lock 8 and tied up and spent the night right after the lock. 

The original Erie Canal took seven years to build and was the engineering marvel of its day yet it was constructed without the aid of a single professional engineer. It was finished in 1825 and cut through 363 miles of wilderness and had 18 aqueducts and 83 locks, with a rise of 568 feet from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. It connected New York with the Great Lakes and opened up the population in the centre of the continent to shipping to and from the rest of the world. Originally mules or horses would walk along the canal pulling the boats through the ups and downs of the canal. The Erie Canal was enlarged three times to accommodate heavy traffic, most recently between 1905 and 1918, when the present day Canal System was configured.

Today the system has 57 locks and the focus has shifted from commercial to pleasure, thousands of recreational boater such as ourselves "lock through " the locks dating back to 1918 and earlier and all are meticulously maintained. Last year Hurricane Irene caused a lot of damage but you would never know it from how swiftly everything was repaired.

The next day we went through Locks 7 to 1 of the Owego Cana lto where the Oswego, Seneca and Oneida Rivers come together at a place called Three Rivers Junction. Each of the Locks was unique in its own way.  




Just after Lock 2 is the only lift bridge on the Oswego Canal.  You can see Lock 1 just beyond the lift bridge.

Then we went along the Oneida River to Lock 23 and just beyond it Brewerton where we stayed at ESS Kay Yard.  We had supper together with John and Nora of "Saber Tooth".  What a small world!  He is currently president of the Boat Builders Co-Op where Roman rented space to build his boat and we had never met before. 

We filled up with diesel for $3.99 gallon.  Marine diesel fuel is pink in the U.S. to distinguish it from diesel at gas stations which is supposedly higher in price and has no colour.  The pink is to signify that no Road Tax is associated with it.  There is a stiff fine for any truckers caught with pink fuel.

Brewerton is at the western end of Lake Oneida, a very shallow lake, and it takes very little wind for waves to occur. When your mast is lying across the top of your boat the last thing you want is wind and waves, the calmer the better. We left by 7:30 when it was still calm but it did not take long for the wind and waves to pick up but fortunately the waves were with us and helped push the boat to 6.4 kn
 

 

Saber Tooth just as we start across the lake.

Utter concentration on the part of the skipper.

 

We just made it to Sylvan Beach at the other end of the lake when the waves started to reverse direction. It would have been much slower and choppier with the waves against us.We continued through the canal and locks until we reached Herkimer and that's where I started this blog.


 

See the road signs.  Someone has a sense of humour!

Please comment on our blog even just to say you read it.  Thank you