Chesapeake City on the C&D canal...

...if you look at this picture, left of the bridge, you can see the basin in which we are anchored!

Chesapeake city has an historic district to which we are closest and it has been delightful to take walks in its streets!!!

No easy shopping here...but it keeps us healthy walking while admiring the sights pulling our little caddy!

Time for the 120 miles overnight ocean passage from New York to Cape May! After checking the tides...we had to accept the fact that again, the best time to leave was a t 5h30!!! Ah! cruising life can be demanding...espeically when it's cool outside...5h30 is early. But we did...and by 7h30 we were on the ocean, bopping up and down waves of 4 to 5 feet, with a light southerly wind (on the nose...) for all 24 hours! The west winds never came...and the waves diminished, as soon as we were 3 miles offshore. It was an uneventful passage during which we slept, taking turns on watch and eating well. I prepared pasta salad, sandwiches, coffee, and non-alcoholic beer and water for the drinks. I made tea...enjoying the russian chocolate bouth in Staten Island!!! We read...I actually read a complete book which was quite fascinating (The Bone House by Betsy Tobin...) and which made the night go by quite quickly!!! At 7h30 we were entering Cape May. Given the tide in our favor, we decided to continue the trip and cross the Delaware River to arrive at Chesapeake City at 18h30, entering the anchorage with a 8 knots speed! Youpi!

Great Kill Harbour...we arrived in time for our second breakfast...around 9h30 and then went to bed as we were pretty tired. When we woke up, the sun was shining and the waters were so calm...after the hectic currents of the Hudson, it felt wonderful. Another wonderful surprise was to see a dinghy coming towards us..Andree and Benoit of Douce Folie V, a sailboat of Collins Bay on Lake Ontario! We were all so happy to see each other again! We spent quite a bit of time with them on the two following days, exchanging engine stories and sharing our current experiences of cruising life. Those two have been cruising in the Bahamas before and like us, have decided to take another sabbatical on their boat. I discovered new shops in the little town - russian and east-european products such as smoked fish, makerels, even huge boxes of chocolates with golden ornaments in honour of the Tsar Nicolaus II...almost a trip in itself to visit the store! Indeed, the burgeoning Russian population of Staten Island is said to be hovering around 75,000!

Leaving Manhattan...already??????????? Yes, these are the constraints of cruising. Weather conditions constantly affect your life! We had savoured our two days in Manhattan. For the first time, we spent time in central Park and its beautiful venues.

The oldest man-made object in Central Park is this Obelisk, located directly behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Nicknamed Cleopatra’s Needle soon after its installation, the stone shaft has nothing to do with the legendary Queen of the Nile. Thutmosis III, an Egyptian pharaoh who ruled from 1479-1425 B.C., had a pair of obelisks made to celebrate his third jubilee (30th year of reign). This is one of them, and the other stands on the bank of the Thames River in London.(...)The Obelisk’s trip from Egypt to New York was a complicated engineering feat. The delicate moving process required laborers to inch the monument on parallel beams, aided by roll boxes and a pile-driver engine. It took nineteen days just to cross the 86th Street transverse road, and it took another twenty days to move it from Fifth Avenue to its resting place on Greywacke Knoll due to a winter blizzard. All together, it took one hundred and twelve days from the time the Obelisk touched upon the banks of the Hudson River until it reached this place. A huge crowd was on hand for the turning of the obelisk upright on January 22, 1881. A crowd of thousands stood in the snow to watch the event. As reported in the New York World, “Bonfires had been built on each side and the scene was most picturesque as the huge mass of 220 tons swung majestically from the horizontal to the vertical position.”

We thought it was worth a picture!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We walked on the 5th avenue, on the Avenue of the Americas, and made it to Times Square. We had lunch behind the Rockefeller Centre in a wonderful cafe with all those Manhattan office workers streaming in and out like ants...we went to a wonderful market type store and felt like in heaven. We bought great cheeses, salamis, sourdough bread...and went back to the boat although it had become quite breezy in the mean time. our boat was quite a way from the marina's dock and it took almost 30 minutes to go against wave and current. That night was going to be very turbulent with the bow of our boat hitting the mooring ball and forcing us to sleep in the salon setties.

At 5h15 in the morning, after a very short night, we were up and unhooking the boat from this devilish ball to ride across the New York harbour, in the darkness! Despite traffic of barges and ferries, we had the time to greet the Statue of Liberty, Ellis and Governor Islands and by sunrise, we had reached the Verrazano Bridge and had to sail another 2 hours to reach Staten Island's Great Kill Harbour.

NY harbour is immense and we positioned ourselves ready to take the ocean whenever a weather window comes up. Great Kill Harbour is only 4 miles from the ocean (always keep in mind here that our speed is 5mph...).

NY City! 79th Street Marina, on the can!

We arrived yesterday, after a long day on the Hudson. It was wonderful to admire Hudson Palisades a line of steep cliffs along the west side of the lower Hudson River in northeast New Jersey. They rise nearly vertically from near the edge of the river, ranging in height between 350 ft and 550 ft . These cliffs are among the most dramatic geologic features in the vicinity of New York City, provide a dramatic vista of the New York City skyline from the opposite bank of the Hudson.

But the current was in our favour and after we filled the diesel tanks in Tarrytown ($4.58 a gallon compared to $1.09 in 1999), we drove down the Hudson in style! Perfect weather, ebb current hitting 3 knots, which made the mooring can dance under the water pressure. But no problems picking up the mooring lines, they streamed straight in the current and it required only to position the bow close enogh to the dancing can so that Marleyne could pick up the lines.

No Wifi where we are moored, but we are sitting here in the beautiful public library,

in rooms looking out of these Harry Potter movies, and (together with hundred of others) typing away at our terminals. In a few minutes, our time is up, and we will be walking back to the boat.

When did we arrive here in Waterford?????????It all seems a blur...time passed quickly. We were supposed to leave today for Castelton on the Hudson in order to raise the mast but the weather was poor with wind on the nose and lots of rain...so, everybody stayed puthere on the docks. Our friends von Benoit and Andree on Douce Folie were hoping to come to our dock but ...no such luck. On this very rainy day, we decided to ...sew curtains in preparation for the hot caribbean sun!





We received many mails asking how to find our current position: the instructions are in the heading now...as it seems that people had not noticed the instruction on the right hand side of the page.





As we will leave tomorrow, this blog will not be updated for a while...until we get an Internet connection again. And yes, we are watching Ike's path and are very confident that its effects will be felt only slightly here up north.





Voilà notre séjour à Waterford qui tire à sa fin...nous devions partir pour Castelton on the Hudson ce matin mais les vents et la pluie nous ont vite mis d'autres idées dans la tête...comme celui de coudre des rideaux pour nous protéger du soleil des Antilles!
Nous avons reçu plusieurs courriels nous demandant comment faire pour trouver notre position actuelle: voilà, nous avons noté les instructions dans l'entête de la page puisqu'il semble que peu d'entre vous aviez noté le côté droit de la page...
Nous serons donc dans l'impossibilité de mettre le blog à jour pour les prochains jours jusqu'à ce que nous redevenions "branchés" sur l'Internet...mais ne vous inquiétez pas, nous sommes prudents et gardons un oeil vigilant sur Ike qui ne devrait plus être très fort quand il sera dans nos parages.

In preparation for Ike???????? Est-ce là en prévision des effets dévastateurs de Ike???

Here is the long but busy dock of Waterford, just as one exits Lock 2. It is a friendly and picturesque village nested between the Mohawk and the Hudson rivers.Many tugboats make it their home port and add character to the waterfront. We found the Old Canal Champlain to be very lovely and evoquing far away times...

Nous sommes tombés sous le charme du joli village de Waterford et du vieux canal Champlain aux murs recouverts de verdure! Paysages bucoliques.......

Après avoir enfin réussi à quitter notre marina de Kingston, nous avons décidé de faire notre dernier "pèlerinage" dans les eaux claires du lac Ontario, à Kerr Bay puis dans la baie de Prince Edward County et d’y passer quelques jours, question d’y rencontrer des amis et de nous reposer un peu du stress des derniers mois...avant de partir! La traversée du lac a été super agréable, et nous avons passe 7 jours dans les eaux du Canal Erie, soit dans la rivière Oswego puis dans la rivière Mohawk. De très beaux paysages mais des villages ou villes qui se sont endormis depuis le début du 20 e siècle et qui ne se sont pas encore réveillés...en arrivant ici a Waterford, près d’Albany, on a l’impression d’une bouffée d’air frais. Les berges des rivières Hudson et Mohawk offrent des paysages bucoliques et il y a même des grandes aigrettes (sorte de héron blanc qu’on retrouve jusqu’en Floride mais pas au Canada!). Il est très plaisant de rencontrer les autres voyageurs, canadiens, américains, français, qu’importe la nationalité...nous avons tous nos projets de croisière, un goût pour l’aventure et pour le soleil! Mais il y a des rencontres plus étonnantes que d’autres, comme celle du voilier La Loupiote et de son équipage d’acrobates qui ont réussi a unir leur goût du voyage, des arts et de la voile..tout en étant parents! Ouf! Leur site décrit bien leurs escales (plusieurs au Québec, aussi loin que Natashquan): http://www.voilierspectacle.com/. Ici on voit la jolie Lovéa qui adore marcher sur le mât et quelle grâce!



Voila des journées bien remplies, avec les petites taches, les lectures, les rencontres...

Celebrating our arrival in Waterford (September 9, 2008).
After a successful "landing" on the 8' wall of the Waterford docks, we have been enjoying the commodities (free Internet, showers, groceries, etc...)of the great visitor center, here in the village of Waterford. Yesterday, we did the locks 6 to 2 for a descent of about 150 feet which brought us almost at sea level. It became realllllllly exciting when the thunderstorms picked up intensity and forced us to stop at lock # 3 for about an hour! But today, the sun was shining and despite the chilly nights, is a great weather to accomplish tasks (laudry, repairs, cleaning, etc...)and clean the boat. We had nice moments with the crew of the French boat La Loupiote, a family of traveling artists, boat acrobats, who are traveling around the world after having spent quite some time in Quebec, giving representations. Their performance is really amazing and can be sen on their bilingual website http://www.voilierspectacle.com/ . That’s what we like about cruising: in addition to enable us to be close to nature, it gives us the opportunity to meet interesting people and share all kinds of experiences with them.

It is the end of the Erie Canal. Next will be raisng the mast again...but in the mean time, we enjoy life here!

September 2, 2008
Great lake crossing, with some motoring but also sailing for the last 2 hours. It was really hot weather and after our arrival in the US, at the Oswego Marina, we sure enjoyed a couple of Genny’s...we were on American soil once more. We were to unmast next day at 8h30 so the rest of the afternoon was spent preparing for the task.

September 3, 2008

One of the very first thing we did in the morning is removing all instruments from the mast top...we now of experience that these can be destroyed in just a very brief encounter with the lock walls! Heiner had a very decent view from up there!

That’s how she looked like our Buena Vida...packed to the rim! Full of stuff...But somehow one gets used to the mast, the canisters, the sails and on we go...departing Oswego for a long Canal voyage.





We did not want to rush and bought a 10 days vacation pass at $37.50. We have done this trip quite often and we like the flexibility to stop wherever and whenever we feel like it. The Fulton’s Price Choppers was going to be the only store we would find at walking distance from the water. Yes, we are in America and the malls are far away..if you don’t have bikes or cars.

September 4, 2008
Very hot day, windless day and the day we chose to cross Lake Oneida...which was, to our surprise, discovered by Samuel de Champlain in one of his first voyages in the new world. Several French explorers have been here, including D’Iberville, LaSalle...where are my history books? That night we docked at the pier of Sylvan Beach..to the sound of the Beach Boys music! Every Thursday night, from 5h30 to dusk, amateurs of old cars gather in the Park. I liked the 1950's feel of the place

That evening, we met Mike on Resolute, a 27th footer of Midland Ontario who is also going south...finding it pretty challenging to lock by himself...his dog being of not much use except for his barking at the geese!

September 5, 2008

Our first rainy day..thanks to hurricane Hanna..but giving the mountainous landscapes a dramatic touch. And wait that you see Marleyne the lock witch.......

She dangles her stick, speaks a couple of magic words and voila, the huge guillotine type door o p e n s...

August 30th, 2008

After we finally managed to leave Portsmouth Harbour Marina, saying final goodbyes to our dock friends, Sheila, Mark, Al and to begin our voyage, we decided to make our first stop at Kerr Bay because there was no wind whatsoever but mostly because we were able to meet our friends Mireille and Christian once more before leaving Canada. It was a wonderful gathering and next day, we were off to Waupoos to meet once more with our friends Lindsay and Karen at the County Cider Company. We realized more and more that these were our last days in the clear waters of Lake Ontario and enjoyed our swimming even more. We left Ontario for the US (Oswego) after a very quiet night at Long Point, Prince Edward County, with a sight of False Ducks, Main Duck and Long Point lighthouses.

The time has come..........to leave our comfort zone of the marina with all its commodities! I absolutely love my toaster!!!!!!!!!!!!!!but must leave on land. It's an absolute no-no for mariners as to toast 2 slices of bread would cost us too much energy!!!!!

Adieu veaux vaches cochons...et grille-pain!!! C'est un objet banni du voilier à cause de sa trop grande consommation d'énergie!!!!!!!!!!Snif!

Finally! It was our turn to host our dear friends Lindsay and Karen who have fed us and supported us throughout the preparation of our trip - mind you, their support will be ongoing#@!! Anyhow, it was a sunny afterwork get together on La Buena Vida and we had a relaxing time! Lindsay will join us for the passage Beaufort to Virgin Islands!

And last but not least, a feast in my sister's new home...the sun and the heat made it a very enjoyable evening. We loved the songs of the crickets, we even liked the neighbours's reggae music fitting the mood of the evening...but we could have done without the moskitoes! But after all this is Canada!

May we wish Liette many happy garden parties at her house!

Montreal! With each visit came the task of saying goodbyes...with good food and drinks! And wonderful company!

Joanne in her most favorite activity: choosing the right wine in a glamorous restaurant (Version Laurent Godbout:Look at the backdrop!) where we loved to treat them to delicious rose wine and delicious appetizers!

Here is Heiner feeding Marleyne tasty Tempura Asparagus!

Annik, Gunnar, Joachin and Eliana...we enjoyed their company and are very happy to have them occupy our house while we are sailing...mind you, the whole family took to sailing very rapidly!!!!! What a wonderful afternoon we spent with all of them...we'd adopt the absolute fearless kids at anytime as they seem to be ready for serious sailing! (The parents were good too, supplying us with all kinds of exotic beers, including Belgian beers of course!)

We spent most of August in a very busy place...lots of traffic...especially around 4h00 when hundreds of adrenaline charged sailors came all at once back to the harbour! No duck in sight....

Our "new" acquisition ... if there were only wind. It is a Hamilton Ferris model, rigging-suspended (as one can see ...) and runs very quiet. To be stored in our engine room when not needed. Félix!!!! C'est le nom que j'ai donné à cette éolienne.......nous attendons le vent depuis son installation il y a 3 jours!!! Quand nous serons en mer pour de longs passages, Félix sera démantelé et ira dans la cale...une éolienne digne d"Ikéa, quoi!!

Another day in the ... office?
Une journée au boulot ressemble à cà, maintenant:quand le capitaine a des réparations à faire - la cale est définitivement son endroit préféré - c’est le branle-bas de combat! Toutes les portes et les compartiments s’ouvrent et moi..j’en profite pour aller faire des courses!!!

Working on a couple of jobs - self-inflicted!

Had bought some spare parts for the boat, an autopilot to back up the old one (20+ years ...), only to install the newer model (all relative, it is a usedone, but with more fancy electronics) ... and it was taking days to get everything in place, wired up, ... eventually the unit fired up ... and after some hick-ups: it worked.

Future will tell if this fancy one will do the job.
Nousavons fait l’acquisition d’un nouveau pilote automatique - lui aussi usagé mais moins que l’autre - et ce en prévision de notre voyage d’une douzaine de jours sur l’océan! L'avenir nous dira si cela était une sage décision!

La cale n’est peut-être pas l’endroit le plus confortable mais au moins, c’est sec!!! La température pluvieuse a considérablement ralenti nos préparatifs, surtout les travaux d’époxy et de vernissage! A chaque jour, ces gros nuages noirs nous laissent présager des orages violents!
But work is severely hindered by the weather. A few days earlier, we had sanded down the toerail - all 75 feet and between showers, hoping for some improvement in the weather to start varnishing. No go ... very heavy rain moved in ... every few minutes significant downpours came our way. Instead of getting to Cetol the toerail, we had to empty the dinghy on a daily basis - if not twice. Did it ever rain!!!!

Already August! the number of projects has been diminishing and we managed to go sailing for a weekend and to invite our (street) neighbours Leslie and Mike for a wine-and-dine cruise! See, that's how happy sailing make people!

Nous voilà déjà au moins d'août et à force de faire des listes de projets, leur nombre a considérablement diminué..au point que nous avons pu aller faire de la voile en fin de semaine dernière et même invité nos voisins Leslie et Mike à faire une petite croisière en fin d’après-midi : n’ont-ils pas l’air ravi?

Ce chapitre pourrait s'intituler:"A la recherche de l'Essentiel". Le Pepto Bismol ou le vin rouge???? Le vin aide a faire les bons choix! Non, je n’ai pas de débordements capillaires ou cutanés qui me forcent a appliquer mille crèmes ou onguents mais j’ai la « Cosco-ite » et donc j’achète des grands formats ou la Walmartite qui fait que je profite des aubaines! Et voila, le moment arrive ou tous ces flacons doivent être sauvagement réduits au confins d’une mini armoire!!! Ou on se lave très souvent les cheveux!!!!

We have moved ....!

The house is empty, and we are in the process of cleaning up each room, fixing holes in the wall, and get the place ready for our Belgian/German tenants.

In the process, we emptied every cupboard and moved our stuff onto La Buena Vida.

Every load disappeared, and the only sign that we were adding "stuff" to the boat was that the waterline was getting lower and lower ...

But a big job was ahead: The "cosmetics and medical division" had a lot of stuff coming to the boat.

Today, we went over bottles, and creams, powders and more bottles, ... ok! ... eventually we managed to get this pile into something we could actually store away. But we had to make a hierarchy: to sort the essential, that is the question! (Marleyne seems to be pondering over her choices: Pepto Bismol or red wine???? but really the wine just helps her to make up her mind!)

And we have still space for more!!!!

Sometime .... we will go sailing to try out the boat. New equipment (meaning new to the boat, but bought used as back up systems for some of our existing gear) is to arrive in the next couple of days. Which means, more things to store. But if all fails, we will tow a barge behind us to ensure that we are properly equipped!

You never know when you need this anti-wrinkle cream!

Cheers!

We have been asked if we were excited ... about our upcoming trip?

La nouvelle de notre évasion est habituellement suivie de :¨Vous devez être excités!¨ déduisant que nous passons nos journées à rêver aux plages des îles.....Ben...pas vraiment...

Yes, we are ... but!

Une image vaut mille mots!!!!!!!! et un millions de listes de choses à faire...avec la fin de nos activités professionelles, nous pouvons consacrer notre temps à réparer/préparer le bateau, trier les vêtements et articles qui seront entreposés et ceux que nous apporterons...je n'ai pas encore réussi a enlever les spaghettinis de leur emballages pour les ¨ziploguer¨avec la sempiternelle feuille de laurier..ca se fera demain!ou ce soir, pendant que je transfère mes musiques préférées des cassettes au format mp3..... Heureusement que nous avons déjà passé par cette phase éprouvante en 1991 et 1999...on s'énerve moins, on sait qu'un jour, tout sera rangé et que le voilier, lourd de plusieurs centaines de livres additionnelles, voguera (malgré tout) dans la bonne direction! Pis là, on va être excité!
There are a lot of preparations to do. For one: we closed our (3) offices. I finished my last major project last Friday, celebrated with a beer ... and off we went to get going on moving, storing, getting the boat loaded, getting the boat fixed up, getting papers in place, getting .... yes, eventually, we will be excited.

But now, life consists of making lists of "things to do", and another list of "things to do before the other list comes into effect". Never mind, there are always surprises: the autopilot acting up, the windspeed indicator falling off the mast, the SSB radio not tuning, ... and wasps trying to built a nest around our garage entrance.

One project done, two more added to the list!

But, we must be making progress, giving the number of times we are driving to the boat loading stuff into La Buena Vida. She must be getting heavy. Food is being stored, gear, tools ... And as you can see: I am on my knees again - what's new?!

And at home ... the house looks a bit of a mess. Stuff in the living room - one area dedicated for "shredding", another one for "re-cycling" ... and all the clothes to be stored for the future, or on the boat.

Fortunately, our tenants arrive 10 days later than planned. That gives us more room and more time to work with - it was making the difference between "Help" and let's work at it and enjoy the "cleansing".

A "cleansing" it will be - tomorrow is a day for the dump, shredder and re-cycling!

Are we having fun yet?

Kind of ....