Stories about our experiences traveling America’s Great Loop.
Our departure time from Clayton was based on our need to add diesel fuel before we left US waters, so we departed at around 7:30am and filled up with fuel at the fuel dock in Clayton. We then enjoyed a beautiful 90 minute cruise up the St. Lawrence River from Clayton to Heart Island, home of Boldt Castle. Boldt Castle (http://www.boldtcastle.com/visitorinfo/) is a 1900s era castle that was built by George Boldt for his wife Louise. Unfortunately Louise died before…
The forecast for the morning was for minimal waves and light wind. There was no fog either. So we set off before 6am to take advantage of the situation. You never know how things will change over the span of a few hours. This was one of the longest open water crossings we have made. It took almost 5 hours to cross the lake. There was a small amount of waves, which wouldn’t normally be a problem except they were…
We departed from Pirate’s Cove a little after 9am. Our path took us a couple miles further on the Erie Canal and then we took a sharp right turn onto the Oswego canal. This canal took us to the edge of Lake Ontario. Along the Oswego canal we negotiated seven locks. These were just like all the ones we transited on the Erie Canal, with no surprises along the way. There are four ways to tie along the lock wall….
We had to put our great loop adventure on hold for seven weeks while I took care of some business trips. One of the trips was to Great Britain, and the other was to AirVenture in Oshkosh, WI. Both of these were awesome adventures by themselves. While we were away we stored the boat at Pirate’s Cove Marina near Syracuse, NY. They took good care of Blue Sky in our absence. They even sent us pictures of the boat several…
This was a fairly short day of travel, but the weather was deteriorating with rain forecast for the afternoon. So we got an early start and were ready at the first lock exactly at 7am. We had five locks to negotiate over 42 nautical miles. This part of the canal really started to look more like a canal, with several stretches being straight and narrow. We passed several dredging crews as well as a clean up crew removing debris from the…
Today was another fine day going through locks on the Erie Canal. Our destination was Little Falls, NY. They have a nice dock in the city that is pretty inexpensive and had showers and laundry facilities. There was also a good pizza restaurant. Thanks to Melissa for the camera work and for not falling overboard during the making of this video!
We awoke to a beautiful Saturday morning. As it turned out, we were the only boat in the chamber in every lock for the whole day! This made it easy since we didn’t have to worry about hitting other boats! This couldn’t have been a more beautiful day. The temperatures in the mid 70s, clear blue sky, and just a light breeze. The waters were great as well. The first five locks were one right after the other. After calling…
Most of the boats who were doing the great loop at Shady Harbor were there because of a Pig roast event that was scheduled for the weekend. We did not plan to stay for the pig roast but instead were planning to continue north. So at around 7am we headed onto the Hudson River for one last day of easy river cruising. Today took us through the cities of Albany and Troy. The river is pretty narrow through here so…
We waited until after noon to leave Kingston in order to take advantage of the current. The trip would only take about 4 hours, which gave us plenty of time to arrive before Shady Harbor Marina closed for the day. Not much to say about today except that we ate at a great restaurant at the marina overlooking the Hudson River.
We floated north at a leisurely pace and enjoyed the many sights on the Hudson River in this area. Our destination was Rondout Yacht Basin which was a quiet and secluded marina across the creek from Kingston.