With Orion Jr on her trailer safely tucked into a storage lot in Clearwater, we turned our attention to Christmas preparations, which meant shopping, travel and family time.  We also came to a final decision on something we had been studying since the fall and began moving our residency to Florida. 

Where is home?

Upon learning that we have decided to change from Virginia to Florida residents, most people assume we did it for tax reasons. And they would be wrong. We did it for health insurance coverage.

Back in September, Dave started calling Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield, our health insurance carrier in Virginia to understand what options we had for 2015. We knew that our insurance policy which gave us coverage throughout the US (using a PPO plan) was going to end in 2014. Last year, Anthem representatives had offered some encouragement that by the time we were enrolling for 2015, there would be similar offerings in the exchange. (For 2014, Anthem only offered HMO's, which restricted you to in-state doctors.) With a lot of persistance, Dave made his way up the chain at Anthem to finally talk to someone in a position with some knowledge of the 2015 options. By late October, we thought we were set. Anthem was offering a plan with national coverage and we were eligible to sign up.

So imagine our surprise when we called back during open enrollment to learn that the plan described in the earlier call was not available where we lived in southern Virginia (although it was offered in Northern Virginia, where Congress lives). Despite endless attempts to follow-up with the employee who had given us reassurance in October, Dave never heard back. We had to either live with only emergency room coverage outside Virginia or look elsewhere. We knew from other cruisers that Florida had the coverage we needed. So, we contacted a broker in Florida and found that a policy existed that would work for us. To get it, we would need to establish residency in Florida.

That meant a Florida mailing address.

You don't have to be cruising for long before you start meeting a lot of people who have the same street address in Green Cove Springs. In conversations, you learn about St. Brendan's Isle mail forwarding service. This is how a number of people who cruise by boat or RV establish a permanent address. So, we signed up for their service and began changing addresses to have mail sent there. We wanted our change to start officially on January 1st, but to get driver's license, voter registration cards, etc., we would need documents with a Florida mailing address on them. The folks at St. Brendan's Isle have been very helpful in helping us navigate the change, including recommending we complete a Declaration of Domicile form to make the change of address effective January 1st, even though it would take us longer to get everything moved.

Since we spend more time in Florida than any other state, the change is reasonable. And health insurance isn't something we felt we could take chances with, so we are moving to the sunshine state. Although unless you looked at our mailing address, you would never know we had done anything at all. Such is the life of a wanderer.

Christmas Classic

It was going to be a rare gathering. All of Cathy's sisters and their families plus Bonnie's and Adam's families were gathering in Winston-Salem for Christmas. With everyone together there would be 23, plus 2 on the way. We never actually got a picture of all 23, but it was a great time to see the larger family and enjoy the interactions between generations, between all the kids, and with kids and grandkids. Wow!. It was a lot of work for the NC hosts, but the joy of time together was certainly something we'll remember throughout the year.

By New Year's Eve, we were back in Florida, bringing in the New Year with Dave's sister's family.  We even managed to stay up till midnight.  (That's the real thing, not cruiser's midnight (aka 9pm).  

It's not a big accomplishment, but still one worth noting. Over the past month, we traveled from Tarpon Springs south to the Manatee River near DeSoto Point, where we last anchored 2 years ago, connecting the dots of our track with that journey north in 2012. So, if you visualize a track that covers all of our coastal travels since we started cruising, it would be a continuous line, starting at Tarpon Springs on the west coast of Florida and continuing down around the tip of the peninsula through the Keys, back up the east coast and ending in Newburyport MA (with a side trip to the Bahamas). That might even qualify for half of the Great Loop, which consists of the connected waterways that circle the eastern US.   

Last Few Dots:

Dunedin
Since we only had to travel about 3 miles to go from Caladesi Island State Park to Marker One Marina in Dunedin, we could afford to take our time. After one last walk on the beach, we made ready to depart. Surprisingly the wind was up inside the protected basin and with short finger piers in a much larger slip, Jr got pinned on the outer piling before Cathy could get the engine to do what she wanted and get us off. As we made our way out of the shallow channel for Caladesi, we were at a lower tide and saw depths dip below 4ft before we cleared into the main channel. Thankfully, pulling into the slip at Dunedin was much less dramatic and we had lots of offers of assistance. Several "Looper" boats had recently pulled in and were on the dock to help us. "Looper" is the way cruisers doing the Great Loop describe themselves. Most of this group had just made the jump across Florida's "Big Bend", doing an overnight from Carabelle. 

We spent several days in Dunedin and enjoyed the company of this friendly group while we were there. In addition to some potluck social hours, we also shared some details of our solar panels and freezer/ice box set up with another couple on a small boat with similar issues. Within a few minutes of docking, we had them on board showing the systems. Within a couple of days, the solar panels were going on their boat. I guess we tipped the balance on that decision. 

 As we explored beyond the marina, we discovered that we were a little further (i.e. 2 miles) from town than we thought. With that discovery we waited for a day that would give us the time and the weather to make the trek. We were rewarded with a charming, historic town, some delicious Mexican food at Casa Tina's and, of course, some homemade ice cream at Strachan's. All of the businesses along the main street were working hard at their Christmas decorations. They each had responsibility for decorating the lamp post nearest their shops for the Old Christmas celebration and they were busy with preparations.

On our return trip, we stopped in a canvas shop to look for something and found another small trailerable boat fan. His boat was sitting just outside his back door. Even more intriguing was his work as founder of Threads of Hope, an organization that teaches sewing and provides machines to individuals around the world that are struggling. On his wall were pictures of a school his organization had recently built.

Dunedin to DeSoto Point

We pulled out of the marina at first light on Friday, December 5th in calm winds and partly cloudy skies that unfortunately obsured our view of the distant rocket launch at Cape Canaveral. By the time we reached Hurricane Pass (so named because a hurricane created it), the sun was high enough that we could begin to read the water. We were a couple of hours up from an extremely low tide. The prior day a local couple from the marina had run aground re-entering the inlet in their MacGregor sailboat. We were understandably ready to watch carefully. Cathy went to the bow to make out where the deepest water was. We navigated the bends in the passage successfully and shortly after had our sails up. The wind was good for most of the day, although we had enough distance to cover that we had the engine off for only about 3 of the 8 hours of our passage.

By early afternoon, we were making our way into Tampa Bay, between Egmont Island and Fort DeSoto State Park, which marks the northern edge of the bay's entrance. Although we had to cross the shipping channel, the big ship traffic was light entering and exiting the bay. As we approached the Manatee River entrance, rain clouds were approaching. We managed to stow the sails just before the rain arrived. It was shortlived though, so we were anchoring in dry conditions a few minutes later on the eastern side of DeSoto Point.   We had officially connected our track.

DeSoto National Memorial

DeSoto Point is named after Hernan DeSoto and a National Memorial that interprets his exploration of North America sits on the point that bears his name. We happened to time our arrival to coincide with the start-up of the living history interpreters arrival at the park. We watched the blacksmith make bullets and weapons, and learned about the Cracker horses, which are Florida's strain of horse that descends from those the Spanish left behind. We walked all the trails again through the mangrove hammock, enjoying the beauty of the park. 

We actually had a more pressing reason for returning to this location. Dave's sister, Wendy wanted to join us for a sail. Since the weather hadn't cooperated Thanksgiving week, we moved south to be closer to her when her schedule freed up again. As it turned out, we had a great sailing day. We made our way downriver toward the bay and into the wind. We tacked around the river's entrance and then had a great downwind sail back up toward the point. Wendy's motion sickness was kept at bay thanks to some meclizine and she had a great time. Maybe there are more sails in her future.

St Petersburg

We made our way back into Tampa Bay on a cold, rainy Monday morning, headed for St Petersburg, which sits on the western shore of the Bay. This route took us under the Skyway bridge, a massive structure that carries I275 4 miles across Tampa Bay. As we approached the bridge, it only seemed to get bigger, not closer. We had to keep checking the chartplotter to see how far we were from it. By noon, we had rounded the iconic St. Petersburg pier and picked up our mooring in the north basin in downtown St. Petersburg. The mooring field was mostly empty, but we knew why. Our trip up the channel from the bridge had taken us past dozens of boats leaving town after the just-ended St Petersburg boat show.  

Apparently, the sun shines so often in this area that the original publishers of the local paper would give away an edition for free if the sun didn't shine the day before. According to our 50 cent trolley tour guide, this occurred only about 4 times a year. Our luck had us arriving on one of those 4 days. It rained off and on all day. As we arrived at the dinghy dock, we were surprised to learn that we could not exit the dock without the dockmaster's assistance, since it required a key to clear the gate. Not so much fun in the rain. However, we shook off the weather and enjoyed our visit in this affluent downtown port.

We had made plans to stay for a week when we learned that our mooring ball was going to be one of the prime viewing spots for the Holiday Boat Parade on Saturday. In the interim, we explored more of downtown and got some of our work done as well. There are lots of parks, galleries, shops, restaurants and lots of good walking as soon as you come ashore in the city. We did a fair amount of exploring by foot, in addition to the aforementioned trolley tour. On Saturday, there was a pretty spectacular Farmer's Market in the nearby park, with 3 different performing venues, good food and some excellent produce. Mid-week, we took a tour of the stained glass windows at First UMC, a few blocks down from the marina. These Tiffany-style windows were astonishingly beautiful. Their colors and textures glowed in the morning light. The pier was a great place for a walk or a vantage point to watch the bay, but it is in a transition state. The impressive building is closed to the public as the community determines what will replace it.

However, by week's end, we were ready for the Holiday boat parade. We stood out on the pier watching the boats assemble for their grand entry into the basin to be reviewed by the spectators on shore. Once back on Orion Jr, we fixed some hot chocolate, turned on the Christmas CD's and sat back to watch the parade. There were dozens of boats in the parade. Their route brought them into the basin to make a circuit. We were on the outer corner where they made their turn just across from the reviewing stand. It was a front row seat! There were power boats and sailboats, large and small, single-handed and full of crew. What they had in common was the lights that covered them along with some more creative decorations.

Back to Clearwater

With the boat parade behind us, we were about ready to leave. Our focus was beginning to return to the haul-out process. So, on Monday morning, we headed out of the north basin for the Clearwater area. We joined up briefly with the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway before heading out North Channel inlet to the Gulf for an outside run up to Clearwater. Since we were a day early for our haul-out and the weather was calm, we anchored behind one of many spoil islands that line the waterway and were formed by its creation. The next day, we had some time to kill, so we rowed over to the island to explore. They are state-owned, but "adopted" by a local family or organization, who cared for them. There were places cleared for camping, a small beach, and a couple of fire pits. It looked like a neat place to spend a night or two.

By Wednesday morning, Dec. 16, it was time to start prepping the boat for haul-out. We pulled anchor and 45 minutes later were in the same slip at Clearwater Basin Marina that had started this adventure. Dots connected. Time to move on.

Back on Dry Land

Although we're getting better at stowing everything and lowering the mast, it still takes us a good day plus a little to get Jr ready to be hauled. And this is a long, hard day. We had looked at several different boat ramps during our travels as possible alternatives for hauling out onto the trailer, but finally decided we liked the space and depth of the Seminole Boat Ramp in Clearwater where we'd started out. We were enough ahead of schedule that by Thursday morning high tide (around 10:30am), we were motoring over to the boat ramp to haul out. Dave backed the truck into the water and we floated Orion Jr easily onto the trailer. Dave winched her in and made her snug and then – we were done. It seemed too simple.

And it was. As we prepared to wash her off at the nearby spigot, we noticed the bow was about a foot back from the bow roller. This was not a safe way to travel. And she's too heavy to winch in tighter as she sits dry on the trailer. So, we had to head back to the water and get her floating enough to try again. Dave winched her in tight and began to pull out. Nope. She still wasn't snug. The third time was the charm. Now that we know what to aim for we should get it right the first time. The good news was that nobody was waiting for us to finish, since the boat ramps were pretty quiet on Thursday morning.

Some lessons we learned from our first successful hauling: 1) We need to remove the bimini bows completely before lowering the mast. The mast pin can't be removed until the mast is laying on the deck and it won't lay on the deck with the bimini bows in place. 2) We can't run the outboard completely out of gas at the haulout slip because we need to run fresh water through it. 3) The truck back wheels may have to go into the water to get the trailer in deep enough, but we can put chocks behind them as long as they are tied to the truck. 4) Hauling a sailboat out so close to an urban center makes you an interesting sideshow to the locals who have time on their hands. Sigh!

We've spent the better part of 3 weeks in Florida as we made our way across the state to the west coast to launch Orion Jr for the first time on our own. She made it into the water in Clearwater and we have since taken her north from there to Tarpon Springs. We hope to spend another few weeks in this part of the coast.

Ready to Launch

Although Orion Jr is a trailerable sailboat, we've never been able to launch her on our own. We discovered this on our way to our summer cruise on NY's Erie Canal. (Luckily, the marina there had a way to launch it for us.) There were 2 problems. First, the electric over hydraulic brakes had a battery and a brake controller mounted just behind the tongue of the trailer, neither of which was supposed to get wet. Given how deep we needed to put the trailer into the water to get her to float, these boxes were unlikely to stay dry. The other problem was our need to use the extended tongue to let the trailer go deep in the water without getting the truck tires wet. Since this tongue sits about 7 inches below the regular tongue, we needed the trailer to raise an additional 7 inches to get it on our ball mount. However, the original jack could not raise the trailer more than a couple of inches higher than the ball mount. Not nearly enough. When Dave contacted the folks at Magic Tilt, they agreed to solve both of these problems for us.

So, before we headed south, we arranged a stop in Clearwater at the Magic Tilt headquarters so they could work on the trailer. Arriving at their location on the end of a narrow, dead-end street, we were a little nervous about getting into a difficult situation. But, we were able to disconnect before getting into trouble. Graham confirmed that he planned to raise the controller up on the post that supports the bow. He would then replace the jack with one that had the range capable of mounting the extended tongue. While he had the trailer in their shop, they would also remove the extra length from the bunk supports. When we returned a couple of days later, all work was done as expected. If we managed to get the brake controller wet now, we had lots more serious problems to worry about.  

The new jack stand was also very different to work with. It has no wheel on it, but rather a small plate that supports it. The post can be moved large distances by removing a pin and then dropping it. The last few inches of height were covered by the crank. Although the lack of a wheel means there's little side to side movement, we managed to hook up the trailer successfully without any trouble.

After picking up Orion Jr and her trailer from Magic Tilt, we made a beeline for the boat launch. It was a Thursday, and the one thing we knew for certain is that we didn't want to launch on a weekend. We had observed this same boat ramp the Sunday before and the power boaters were launching and retrieving boats in quick succession, non-stop. And Friday would count as a weekend day. Our timing was good. The combination of weather and weekday gave us an empty parking lot and 6 empty boat ramps. Right! This boat ramp also had labels on each ramp showing how much distance back the ramp extended into the water. That would allow us a comfort margin to ensure the trailer wheels didn't drop off the end.

We had already decided to raise the mast after launching, so we focused our preparations on the essentials to secure the boat and get it underway: mount the outboard and connect the fuel, re-mount the rudder and tiller, rig docklines and fenders, and remove the dinghy and gin pole from under the trailer. We had one new installation to do as well. Our homemade motor mount pad had delaminated over the summer, so we had to install a new factory-made one. It took less than an hour to get all of this prep done. When we were ready to move, we took off all of the straps, except the one attached to the trailer winch at the bow. We then switched to the extended tongue. Using the new jack, it connected easily. So, we were finally ready to launch.

We had chosen the Seminole boat ramp in Clearwater not just for its proximity to the Magic Tilt plant, but also because it had a deep dropoff, lots of open parking area. So, in the empty lot, Dave manuevered over to the longest ramp and Cathy positioned on the side of the ramp. We had really wanted to keep the truck tires out of the water to ensure they didn't run the risk of slipping. Cathy gave the signal when they were at this point and we tried to release the boat and see if it was floating enough. As Dave let out the strap and Cathy pulled on the dock line, it was obvious she wasn't going to move. So, Dave edged the trailer further back. It didn't take many inches before Jr was floating and she pulled off easily. There was a stiff breeze, and Cathy had only managed to grab a bow line, so it took a little more manuevering to get her on the dock and keep the mast away from the pilings. With her secure, Dave parked the truck and trailer. Shortly after, we had the outboard fired up and we were backing up out of the ramp. Check a big milestone off the list. With the marina around the point from the ramp, we were tied up in our slip a few minutes later. Of course that was enough time to get a 3 foot wake from a power boat. It's great to be back on the water. 

Ready to Sail?

When we headed to the Erie Canal, we had completely removed the mast, so re-rigging it proved more work than it had been to take it down in the spring. We carefully followed each stay / shroud from its location on the mast to the deck fitting trying to ensure it would be untangled when the mast was in position. We had labeled each of the ends, and luckily most of the labels stayed in place and readable, although pretty badly worn from 4 months in the weather. Before we raised the mast, we had a couple of projects to take care of. Dave had fashioned a new mast top bracket to support the new anchor light and a new Windex. The Windex needed to be attached to the bracket. Then the bracket secured to the top of the mast. Once we made the first attempt, we realized we needed to change its orientation so that the Windex would clear the VHF antenna. This required it to be bent at a different angle. Once Dave made the changes, it mounted fine. After wiring the anchor light into mast wires, the installation was complete.

In the meantime, Cathy secured new spreader boots and replaced the cable ties on our lazy jack blocks on the spreaders. She also ran some fish lines through the lazy jack blocks to ensure we could get the lazy jacks run once we had the boom in place. With the mast projects done and the rigging secure, we now had to rig the gin pole. This would be critical to having the leverage and control to get the mast up. After a few false starts, we finally remembered all of the rigging for the pole. The biggest oops being that we initially forgot to put the spinnaker halyard on the gin pole. Note to self: This is really important. In our defense, we were into our 6th hour of work on these projects by this point without any breaks. So, we were getting a little loopy. 

Once the gin pole was rigged, we secured 2 ratchet straps loosely over the mast at the deck step and at the stern in preparation for positioning the mast on its tabernacle. Once the mast started moving, it would no longer be balanced and would want to flip into the water. We wanted to avoid this possibility. With the bolt in place, securing the mast to the deck, Dave started to raise the mast with the gin pole. It worked great. We had a couple of twisted turnbuckles that we had to straighten out. The majority of the rigging was run as it should be. However, the backstay was on the wrong side of the stern rail, which it took us a bit to figure out why all the forward rigging was too tight.

Despite our fatigue, we had to keep going before we could relax. The furling system had to be installed to give the mast its forward support. The boom, stackpack and mainsail had to be installed to allow the bimini to be rigged. And we needed the bimini in place to get us out of the sun. So, the day ground on. As the sun was starting to set, we were finally getting ready to leave the boat to get some supper. The only big things left were the headsail and the solar panels. But Dave realized he hadn't tested the anchor light once it was reconnected. He quickly flipped the switched to see it light as we were about to leave.

Nothing.

We were running out of energy, but this could be a big deal. What if there was a problem inside the mast? Neither of us could even consider the possibility of lowering the mast again. And we had left the Top Climber back on Orion to save weight. Dave pulled out the multimeter and began testing the light. He became convinced that the problem was in the connections at the base of the mast. He was able rig a temporary connection to plug it into a 12V outlet and it lit. Hurray!! The problem wasn't solved, but we knew the problem was at deck level. It was time to get some dinner and call it a day.

Ehe next day, Cathy was down for the count, so Dave did what he could to get the boat ready. By Sunday, Cathy was back and we were able to finish provisioning, and cleared out the V-berth so we could finally sleep there. By Monday, the winds let up enough to get the headsail rigged. We were almost done. Dave just had to wire the outboard into the batteries so the electric start would work and the batteries charge when we are running. However, even this simple task didn't go well. The engine wouldn't start despite all the connections showing power. In the process, Dave broke a fuse in the engine that we had no replacement for. That meant he had to replace the fuse holder. Even after all this work, it still didn't start. At that point, Cathy looked at the gear shift. It wasn't in neutral. Aaargh!. That was the problem all along. So, we were able to top off the water and fuel, return the truck to the storage lot and cast off the dock lines by early afternoon.

We were finally underway and for the first time in 7 months once again ready to sail.

Doing What We Came For

But what's all this work for? We wanted to see new places and visit with friends – old and new. It didn't take long to have that happen. Before arriving in Clearwater, we learned that our friends Randy and Sherri on Priorities would be anchored there when we arrived. We stopped over to Clearwater Beach on a blustery Tuesday and joined them for lunch. They were on their to the Bahamas with friends, so we were not likely to see them again this trip. Our next reunion was with Val and Graham from Bonnie Lass, who were at home in Palm Harbor, which is right next door to our first port of call, Tarpon Springs. We were invited to join them for their Thanksgiving celebration, which started with the Turkey Trot in Clearwater. While Dave, Val and Cathy walked the 5K Fun Run, Graham dug in and ran the 10K. None of us got recognized as top finishers, but we felt that we earned our Thanksgiving dinner, which was delicious.

Between visits, we explored some new areas. Tarpon Springs is our new "high water mark", being the furthest north we've traveled on the gulf coast. Trips further north require longer distances between ports and not much development until you get to Appalachicola on the panhandle. We'll see when we make it there. After touring the sponge docks in Tarpon, we moved back south to another of Florida's state parks, Caladesi Island. Like Cayo Costa, it is a beautiful barrier island, with a lovely beach, good shelling, and a scenic nature trail through the interior. Unlike Cayo Costa, it has some very nice, protected docks. They were inexpensive and had power and water. Pretty nice! While there, we got to know a couple that had just arrived on their Island Packet, Luna, and were settling in to be park hosts for the next few months.

So, all the work paid off, and we expect to continue to enjoy the fruits of our labors a bit before we have to haul back out later in December. More about that later.

With only a general idea of our departure date, we set about the task of prepping Orion for the winter and Orion Jr for her trip south. There was enough to do to keep us busy. As plans came together, we finally pulled out of Hampton on Friday, November 7th. By Monday, we were in Florida, just ahead of this season's first "Polar Vortex". Good timing.

Boat Stuff
There wasn't much new on Orion's checklist – another coat of Cetol on the wood, wax the hull, wax the upper deck, clean and polish the enclosure glass, clean the interior, top off the batteries with water, and update the inventory. It was just a matter of getting it done. And there was nothing like a deadline to make that happen. It's always ironic that she starts to look the best just before we leave her. In addition to prettying her up, we also had Jake dive on the boat to clean the hull and change the zinc. For added protection against galvanic corrosion, Dave replaced one of the 2 hanging zincs that was almost gone with one that was much heavier. That should last a while, especially since we unplug Orion for most of the time we're not there. The only time she is plugged in is if it is expected to get really cold. Then we run some work lights that will give it a little heat to raise the temperature above freezing.  

The final tasks waited until our last couple of days. We removed the canvas enclosure and stowed it, winterized the water, A/C and head, and packed up our stuff that would make the transition to Orion Jr. By late Friday, the 7th, we were ready to walk down the dock at Joy's for the last time in a while.

For Orion Jr, there was also some waxing to do and the batteries needed some water as well, but there were a few improvement projects that we had in mind. One on Cathy's list was adding the hailing port to the transom. We ordered one from Signspecialist.com and it now displays Hampton VA proudly from the stern. Dave had more ambitious projects in mind. He wanted to upgrade the road lights for Orion Jr to more durable LED lights, with more permanent wiring. He found some lights online and wired them into the boat's batteries. By connecting a fuse on the stern, we can turn them on for travel at night or in questionable weather. Having used them working our way down the road to Florida, they've served their purpose well.  

One of Cathy's other projects was to turn the loose Reflectix insulation on the ice box into more a permanent solution. So, she sewed the insulation into a vinyl sleeve with a "hinge" that matched the hinge on the top of the ice box. After a couple of re-stitches, it now fits perfectly. Meanwhile, Dave was studying the waterways north of Clearwater, since we had decided that would be our planned cruising area before Christmas. He planned a number of routes and loaded them into the chartplotter for the trip.

Eyes in the Back of the Head
The truck and trailer needed some attention before we headed out as well. Dave had been considering the possibility of getting a back-up camera ever since we hooked up the trailer for the first time back in the Spring. He finally decided on one for the truck, which he purchased in 3 components: the monitor, a wireless transmitter / receiver pair and a camera. The camera was designed to mount over the license plate, with a wire that ran to the wireless transmitter. Dave positioned this under the bedliner on the side of the truck bed. (Our original choice was on the inside of the tailgate, but Steve quickly pointed out this was very likely to get stepped on. Oops.)  

The monitor was connected to the wireless receiver and had a DC plug. Dave rigged an "elegant" mount that sits in a cup holder in the center of the dash, with the cords and its wireless receiver hidden inside the container. When he needs to use it, we simply plug it into the DC outlet and it lights up. Perfect. With the trailer sitting in Steve's backyard, we practiced using it to line up the hitch ball mount with the trailer. This pointed out the need to angle the camera down a little more. Since then, Dave's had a few opportunities to use the camera -- both to connect the truck to the trailer and just to back the truck into tight spaces. It's proving to be a valuable tool.

But Dave didn't want to stop there.

Wouldn't it be useful to see behind the boat when it's on the trailer? Sure would. So he installed a 2nd camera on the boat's stern, tucked inside a dorade cowl. With a 2nd wireless transmitter attached to the new camera, he just needed to connect the 2nd wireless receiver to the monitor. Unfortunately, it turned out the transmitters worked on the same frequency as the first pair. Since the truck's camera is closer, it is always the dominant feed. So now, he's working to see if he can change the frequency in the transmitter, so the monitor will display the feed from the boat's camera. Once this puzzle is solved, it should be a valuable tool when backing the trailer into tight places.

While Cathy's hand motions are not obsolete, Dave is starting to rely more and more on his new set of "eyes".



Food and Fellowship

Between chores, we made time for some visits with friends and family, especially since we wouldn't be seeing our Hampton neighbors for several months once we hit the road. Dave's parents and sister were traveling to Richmond on the spur of the moment, and we met them in Richmond for a few hours. Instead of handing out candy on Halloween, we met Steve and Sue for dinner at a Tucano's, a Brazilian steakhouse in Newport News. And our last night in Hampton, we spent at Steve's roasting hot dogs and marshmallows over a roaring bonfire. As the temperatures plunged, it started increasing our motivation to get to warmer climes, countering our regret to be saying goodbye for so long.

Time to Go

As usual, by late October, we weren't the only cruisers sitting in Hampton preparing to go south. Although most of our neighbors were making the trip by boat. This was the 2nd year of Hampton's Snowbird Rendezvous, which filled the Public Piers and the anchorage for almost a week before they started their trek. It was followed a couple of weeks later by Sail Magazine's first ICW Rally, which was using Hampton as its starting point. In one the first blog posts, Wally Moran took a picture of some of the participants, which just happened to have Orion sitting in the background. However, you had to know that that green canvas in the far left of the picture across the water was Orion or you would probably (definitely) have missed it. Then the Salty Dawg Rally (which takes off on an outside run), left a couple of days later. We were getting the message.

So, on Saturday, November 8th, we hooked up the trailer and pulled out of Steve's yard. With a stop in Emporia to see Bonnie and Taylor, we headed on down I-95. Before pulling out of Emporia's truck stop, we had a chance to weigh the truck and trailer again. You may recall, we had been stripping all unnecessary weight off the boat after our last weigh-in on our trip back from the Erie Canal. With the mast, boom, sails, dinghy, gin pole, etc back in place, it was going to be a toss-up. Did we get her under the limit? As we waited to get the result from the cashier at the truck stop, there might have been just the faintest of drum rolls . . .

And the number was: 6960. 65 lbs under the trailer's capacity. Whew! We just made it.

Let's hit the road.

Once again we alternated between time in Hampton and time with the grandkids in Richmond. The time is going by fast, as we move closer to October's end and another southern migration.

Boat Stuff

It's certainly true that having a deadline can focus you on what's most important. We finally got Orion's hull waxed. And after ignoring Orion Jr for the last 6 weeks, we suddenly switched into high gear. The mast, boom, sails, dinghy, gin pole and various other items that we stripped off her in the spring are back in place. In another move to save weight and space, Dave downsized from our Honda 2000 to a Honda 1000 generator. It should be more than powerful enough to run Jr's systems and can also power Orion's 55 amp battery charger.  

Cathy also bought a new toy, a new Sailrite zig-zag machine in the hard case that she put to good use on projects for both boats. Orion's main sail needed to have the webbing at the top of the sail replaced, which she could now do with the zigzag stitch option. Jr needed some help as well. When we working on her to re-load the mast, Cathy touched the bow strap and the webbing disintegrated into powder in her hands. Wow!. So we ordered some more webbing and made replacement straps for the bow and stern. The red flags that are required to hang from her stern were also showing wear after only a few months in the sun. They had faded to white. So, she made new ones – the third set so far. These will be taken in when we're not traveling. Making flags is getting old.  

Boat Show and Babysitting

As the week of boat chores came to an end, Dave took off with Steve for the Annapolis Boat Show, getting answers for projects on both boats, including an annoying flashing light on the Xantrex battery charger. (It's gone now!) As he returned we headed back to Richmond for a week of homework, playing dollhouse, and baking with the grandkids – to name a few of the activities we don't usually find ourselves involved in. We celebrated Cathy's birthday at week's end with a dinner out before heading back to our final 2 weeks in Hampton.

With our arrival back in Hampton after seeing the kids off to school, we had a lot of things to catch up on. Cathy had committed to do a number of sewing projects for Doug and Lisa, which would take up most of the month before we headed back to babysit again. Dave had some projects of his own, and he had committed to helping Steve with a few on Bay Dreamer. In between we had another week of babysitting duty, volunteering at Bay Days, crewing for the Tri-Service Race, and a "medical procedure". We managed to get it all in, but by month's end, we were dragging.

Sew Much

The biggest "to do" item for Cathy was to finish the projects she had signed on to do for Doug and Lisa. The stackpack and bimini were in place, but now she had to make bimini windows with covers and a sunshade. It took a little more than a week to complete, but they came together well and look good. The last stitches were going into a few cockpit pockets Saturday night before we left for Richmond. They were delivered as we were leaving town. By the time we returned, Carefree had moved on to a nearby marina to be hauled, so the work was finished just in time. Dave even got his hand in at the sewing machine making a winch cover.  

Steve had been looking to install new solar panels on his bimini, which led him (with Dave's prodding) to reconsider the way his bimini was supported. He decided to remove the bimini straps in favor of struts and internal supports. Cathy made some modifications to enable the new poles to attach underneath the bimini as well as adding webbing so the panels could be secured to the bimini. With some wire ties, MC4 connectors and 12 gauge wire, the solar panels were installed and connected in to charge the batteries. After a few adjustments, the battery monitor was confirming that the panels were doing their job.

Boat Stuff

Orion's recent safety inspection showed a problem with the LED bulb in the stern light. Some of the diodes were not lighting, although it was able to pass inspection. Dave decided to order replacement bulbs for Orion's bow, stern and anchor light. Orion Jr's safety inspection in June had highlighted a problem there as well. It was a little more subtle. We had only one all-around white light on Jr, which was at the top of the mast. This was for both our steaming light and our anchoring light. However, it had a photocell on it, and would therefore only light when it was dark. This worked especially well when we were at anchor, since the light would always come on automatically at dusk. However, the inspector pointed out that we would have no way of turning on our steaming light in foggy conditions, since the photocell would not force the light on.

With Orion Jr's temporary mast in place, there was no issue, since we could simply reach up and cover the photocell to force the light on. However, when the light was returned to the top of the regular mast, we couldn't reach it. So, we decided to order another anchor light for Orion Jr's mast, which would allow us to turn it on and off. It means a little more power draw at anchor (or more work to turn it on and off), but at least we can now turn it on at will if we need to.

We continued to strip unnecessary stuff off Orion Jr in an effort to lighten her on the trailer. In all, we've removed about 150 lbs, which should give us the leeway to account for the mast, boom, sails and dinghy which weren't on board the last time she was on the scales.

Tri-Service Race -- Almost


For the first time, we were recruited to join in the Tri-Service Race, a competition between the Air Force's Langley Yacht Club, Norfolk Naval Sailing Association and Fort Monroe (former Army post)'s Old Point Comfort Yacht Club. It has some complex point systems to determine that winner that encourages participation. Each club gets a point for each boat that starts the race. We were asked to join Bob on Ruach as crew along with our friend, Sue. We made it to South Hall Landing bright and early and were on our way out toward the Hampton flats where the race would begin.  

To say there was "light air" would be generous. As each of the classes ahead of us limped over the start line, we tried to get into position to do the same. However, instead of advancing on the line, we kept drifting back. The wind had died and the current, which was now the determining factor was pushing us up the James River and away from the committee boat. After 15 tortuous minutes of this, we and 20 of our fellow boaters were declared ineligible to start. There were more boats that didn't start than did. To our commodore's dismay, we lost posession of the cup to the Navy for only the 2nd time in more than a decade. 

On an interesting sidelight, as we made our way in and out of Salt Ponds, we got to witness an amazing salvage operation. A sailboat had dragged onto the beach and had its keel firmly embedded in the sand the weekend before. A crane was positioned just off the beach and the boat hauled out of the sand and onto a barge.  

Festivals and Family

We volunteered for a 2nd year at Hampton's Bay Days festival, opting to serve meals in the VIP area of the festival. We had a good group of volunteers and also got to sample some good food. Although our shift was only for a few hours on Friday, we put some time in on Saturday and Sunday as well. The coordinators were glad to have us and we had a good time.

With a week back in Richmond, we enjoyed more time with Adam's family. Although the boys were back in school, we got to spend more time with Serenity and still had evenings together with the family. On the weekend, we made a trip to Emporia to see Taylor as Queen Bee and Troy as a little beekeeper on the Southside Beekeeper's float in the Virginia Peanut Festival.  We finished off the weekend watching the civil war re-enacted at New Market Battlefield near Richmond.  This was a significant battle in that the African American troops were placed in a strategic position and proved themselves by earning 14 of only 16 awards given during the war for bravery in this battle.

Although we originally thought we'd be spending much of August in Hampton, we actually were here very little during the month, just enough to entertain our grandson and for Cathy to make a bimini for Doug and Lisa. The rest of the time was spent traveling to NC, Richmond and Jarratt for time with Cathy's family and the grandkids. There was still some time for the Cape Charles race, a yacht club event and a Busch Gardens trip in our "down time". And we got to see George and Gail for a couple of days. 
(Very Little) Boat Stuff

We didn't have a lot of time to spend on the boats, but you can't completely ignore them either. With Jr back in Virginia, it was time to get it back together with the parts we left behind – little things like the mast and boom – that had been stored in Steve's yard during our Erie Canal trip. With fall approaching and the likelihood of more stormy weather, we wanted her ready to move, since Steve's yard can flood during the high tides associated with Nor'easters and hurricanes. We also started taking weight off the boat in an effort to compensate for the weight we had to add for the mast, sails, boom, etc.

As for Orion, we finally completed a self-survey required by our insurance company. We answered a questionaire and got a report from our diver about the condition of the hull. The final step, getting a safety inspection, was taken care of and Orion passed as she always does. The insurance company was satisfied, so we're good for a few more years.

Sunset Beach Birthday

Cathy's sister, Grace, was approaching a milestone birthday, so we joined the family at the beach to celebrate this big event. With lots of remiscenses from the 60's, 70's etc., it was a great time with the extended family. Of course, Grace didn't make it through completely unscathed.  

Time with the Grandkids

Now that we were back in Virginia, we wanted to maximize our time with the grandkids before school started. We had our oldest visit us on board for a week, and then we spent a week staying with our son's family to watch the kids that last week of August. We rode bikes, baked, sewed, and even jumped on the trampoline. It was a lot of fun.

We didn't head straight home, though. Our next stop was in Jarratt to visit with our daughter's family. We got to do some fun things there too, but maybe the best was taking the kids to school on their first day (pre-school and first grade). Grandpa even made the local paper.  

Parting Shot

After many less than spectacular race performances on Wednesdays and pretty much every other race, Steve finally placed in the Cape Charles race, coming in 2nd on the first day's leg. Of course, he couldn't have done it without his crew and tactician Dave. Way to go!

We spent the last part of July split between our Erie Canal trip and helping Dave's parents with their move to Pennsylvania. By month's end, we were about to pack up and leave with Jr on the trailer for the ride home to Virginia.  

More Time on the Canal

After spending several days in Pittsford, we began to move further east on the canal. Our intent was to go as far as we could and still ensure a reasonable trip back to Macedon and the trailer. On our first day, we retraced our route through Bushnell's Basin and Fairport and Mid-Lakes Marina, before we started covering new ground. We made a quick stop in Bushnell's Basin to pick up Dave's dad, who would ride with us for half the day and through the first 2 locks. It wasn't long after Mid-Lakes that we encountered lock 30 in Macedon. The cables that we had grown accustomed to grabbing in earlier locks were not there any more, which caused some confusion as Cathy and Dad switched gears to grab a ladder instead. We were a little more ready to make the grab in the next lock 29, which we encountered just before Palmyra. This was Dad's jumping off point, so we pulled into their basin for some lunch while he waited for Dave's Mom to come pick him up. Palmyra is the birthplace of the Mormon church and the Hill Cumorah pageant had just ended, making the town a little sleepier than it might otherwise have been on a Friday afternoon. After grabbing an ice cream we hopped back on the boat and headed on east.  

We decided to spend the night in Newark, which was reputed to have not only the standard freepower, water and showers, but also free laundry! To our surprise, the space on the wall was a little tight, but luckily we found a spot near a ladder, since this was a very high wall. Not even Dave could make it off without one. On our return trip through Newark, finding the ladder proved a little challenging, but another boat was willing to move a little and we found a spot. The reason this port was a little busier is that we had arrived on Friday night, when their free live concerts took place. We were basically right in front of the bandstand both nights for some lively music. In between laundry loads, we even got in some dancing. Newark's claim to fame in years past was as the birthplace and longtime home of Jackson and Perkins and the growing of beautiful roses. Although that business moved to California, Newark is still proud of its connection with roses. We also stumbled onto a clock museum in the local library with some amazing examples of clocks – large and small that dated back to the 1700's. We were joined one night there by John and Millie who met us for dinner. Millie grew up in Newark and gave us a little picture of what it was like in the boom times when Jackson and Perkins was still there.  As an example, this small town had 4 Cadillac dealers. We also spent quite a bit of time with a couple on the sailboat Amante, who were just beginning their trip south for the first time. 

Lyons, the next town east of Newark is only 5 miles away, but you travel through 3 locks to get there – a lot of work per mile. Although we bypassed it on the trip east, we made sure to stop there on our trip back west. It's amenities are located in the firehouse next to the dock. It's kind of unusual walking into the firehouse to get showers, but the facilities were very nice. Lyons was the home of the Hotchkiss Co. That became internationally famous for its prize-winning Essential Oil of Peppermint. In its heyday, it was the source of most of the world's supply. We took a walking tour of the town, found ice cream at a stop across the canal and even took advantage of a tour of Lock 27, which sits right in town. The lock tender explained his process, and we learned to better read the various lights in the lock to understand what state the lock was in. This helped us down the line to understand how long before the doors would open. Later that afternoon, we joined the other boaters here for some food and conversation on the hill overlooking the dock.  

The next stop east was the town of Clyde. We stopped here both going and coming, but it turned out to be more of a stop for convenience than for interest. There is a very long stretch east of here until you come to the next place to stay – over 35 miles to Baldwinsville on the Erie Canal and about 25 miles to Seneca Falls on the Cayuga – Seneca canal. We toured the town, but found very little to explore. The much-touted hardware store was closed, since it was Saturday afternoon. And even the "Famous" mineral springs were a disappointment, since the pump handle was broken. Oh well. That's not to say we didn't have some excitement here. Like most of the towns on the canal, the town had created a docking wall with some lower floating docks on either side. However, the power pedestals were only on the wall. We tied up to the wall, even though it tends to be a little tall for Orion Jr. Since the speed limit here is 10mph, we had never encountered any wakes to worry about. Not so this Saturday afternoon. A large power boat came through on full plane. Cathy saw it coming and called to Dave. We fended out as best we could as the boat swung wildly, causing the bimini poles to barely miss getting mangled by the dock. Everything down below was on the floor in a puddle of water caused by a falling water bottle. We called the boat to tell him of the havoc he had caused and called the lock to report the boat. We then moved onto the floating dock. We didn't want to risk that happening again. And luckily it didn't.

We were nearing the outer limit of what we could travel and still make it back roughly by the end of July. We also wanted to position ourselves somewhere we could rent a car to travel to Victor to help Dave's parents on their moving day. So, we decided to make a right turn off the Erie Canal and travel a few miles down the Cayuga-Seneca Canal to Seneca Falls. This aptly named canal connects the Erie to the Cayuga and Seneca finger lakes. Seneca Falls lies beyond 3 of its locks about midway between the 2 lakes. The Cayuga-Seneca actually turns west just after the first lock as we make our way to Seneca Falls. We had to wait for several boats to clear the first lock, so we were just idling toward it to kill time. However, just as we crossed the entrance, the engine died. Cathy tried quickly to restart, but nothing happened. She turned her attention to grabbing the ladder. While we waited for another boat to enter, Dave looked at the engine. There was grass all over the lower unit. He cleared it and the engine started. The only problem was the lock was filled with grass. As the water was rising it pushed more grass our way. We threaded our way out of the canal around the many patches and successfully cleared it all as we moved into the Seneca River. The next 2 locks were a repeat of the double locks in Lockport, with one notable exception. Lock 3 was coated from top to bottom with zebra mussels. One thing we learned about this invasive creatures. As the water falls, they like to spit out their water. It was . . .interesting.

Seneca Falls is probably most famous for its role in women's rights, since the first women's rights convention was held here in 1848. Elizabeth Cady Stantion was one of its most famous citizens. The Women's Rights National Historic Park and the Women's Hall of Fame are here. Since they were closed and we had seen them on previous trips, we spent our time here taking in other sites, such as a car show that was in progress as we arrived, the Museum of Waterways and Industry in the Visitor's Center above the boater's lounge, a wonderful Amish market named Sauder's and a unique sculpture garden. We were ready to move on after a few days there, when the night before departing we saw a notice from the NY Canal Corporation the canal between locks 26 and 27 were closed. That was exactly where we were headed. Best laid plans.  

The delay gave us time to enjoy a fabulous farmer's market, when the notice came that the canal was re-opened. We were off the dock within 15 minutes, joining another boat in "spitting" lock 3. By the time we made it back to lock 26, the spillway next to it was still overflowing with water, pushing a strong current across the entrance to the lock, forcing us to power up to maintain steerage at a point when we usually are shutting the engine down. For the next 12 miles, the current was flowing strong and there was lots of debris in the water. We kept a sharp lookout for possible logs and decided we would need to stop early. Storms were coming and the current was slowing us down. Combined with our late start, we wouldn't be able to make it further than Clyde.

By the second of August, we were back in Macedon, having come full circle with our abbreviated canal trip. We had a great time, and for sure, we'll be back.

Boat Stuff

Prepping the boat for haul-out took less time than we thought. Within a couple of hours we were being loaded back on the trailer for the first time. It went OK, but we required the marina's backhoe to maneuver the trailer deep enough for the sailboat to be able to settle onto it. Cathy used the engine to try to power it on, but it wasn't strong enough to make a significant difference. With the marina's help, Jr was winched onto the trailer and secured good enough for transit. Another half day of work and we were ready to move out – the next morning. It was ironic that we set her up in the rain, and at the end we packed her up in the rain.

We have had a nagging question since we put her on the trailer for the first time. How much does Jr weigh? We finally got an answer on our way back to Virginia. Stopping at a truck stop scales, we positioned the truck and trailer to get a weight for each axle. It turns out that the boat on the trailer as we had it loaded, which did not include the mast was 6800 lbs. Since the limit is 7000, we will need to make a careful inventory of what we can remove before we hit the road again.

Family and Friends


Before leaving Pittsford, we took advantage of our proximity to Rochester to connect with some friends. We had several nights of picnics and canal cruises on Jr, that gave us time to catch up with our former co-workers. In some cases, it had been many years, so it was time we really treasured together. Just before leaving, we made a long trek into downtown Rochester, a pilgrimage to a favorite eatery called Dinosaur BBQ. As it evolved, we ended up walking most of the way from Pittsford and part of the way back. It allowed us to walk off some delicious BBQ. It was a beautiful day, almost fall-like, so the walking was pretty easy. We took time to explore the historic canal's path over the aqueduct in Rochester. Our travels gave it a new perspective. 

We also used the time on the dock in Pittsford to do a road trip, carrying a load of boxes to Pennsylvania for Dave's parents and moving more into the house from storage there. The weekend ended with Dave's cousin's wedding in NY. While we were gone, we heard from our friend Carol. She was in Pittsford and could see our boat on the dock. It was all by itself. Hmmm. . . . when we left, we had a nearby neighbor watching the boat. When we returned, we learned what had happened. They had a benefit event, called the Duck Drop. And since we weren't there to move the boat, it was right in the middle of it. Actually on the finish line. Carol got a great picture.

It's not a circumnavigation or a major sea voyage or even a significant navigational feat. But we did make it to the western end of the Erie Canal and back before putting it in at Pittsford again for a few days in preparation for some family time. The trip was a delight, and we would do it again in a heartbeat. We saw a completely different view of this western part of NY than we had seen in all the years we lived here.

Traveling the Canal

To make the most of the time we had between family events, we decided to limit our travel to the ports west of Macedon. Our goal became simply to reach the western end of the canal and "touch" the Niagara River. That way if our travels bring us back to these parts with Orion Jr's mast in place, we can simply start where our track left off and put her in the water with her mast up. With that lofty goal in mind, we had about 160 miles to cover and a week to do it. At 20 miles a day, it would just be exhausting.

The canal west of Macedon has 95% of the lift bridges and 10% of the locks on the entire canal. The overall rise in level on this section is 100ft with almost exactly 25 ft rise in each of the 4 locks (#32 - 35). After Fairport, most of the lift bridges look identical to one another. They sit low on the water when closed so that only the smallest of vessels can pass beneath. To open, the central span rises to a height of approximately 15 ft above the water. When raised, pedestrians can still cross it via stairs on either end. 

With the small volume of traffic on the canal, the bridge tenders tend multiple bridges. This can make for some interesting passages. Sometimes, the bridges are so close together that you have to work to stay in place while the one bridge is lowered and the tender races to the 2nd bridge to stop traffic and raise it. At other times, this multi-tasking results in there being no one to answer the hail when you're calling the bridge right in front of you. Luckily the phone numbers for the bridges are published. So, you can call the bridges up and down the line until you get someone at his post. Then that person can either come to your bridge or call the right cell phone to get someone there. On our westward journey, the process worked smoothly. Each bridge called the next and let them know we were coming. No waiting. However, on our return trip, the operators always seemed to be somewhere else, despite our attempts to give them a heads up.

We've been through locks before, but none as tall as these, especially the 2 in Lockport. These locks all have lines and cables that run from top to bottom of the lock wall. Snagging one fore and aft, we tend the boat as it rises and falls. Since these lines spend much of their life in the water, they and the walls they rest against, are disgusting. So, we have work gloves for tending the lines, and boat hooks to keep the boat fenders off the wall. That doesn't mean we didn't get the slime on the bimini, the flag and the screens. Another new feature was the speed of the water's rise/fall, which was fast. To accomplish the 50 ft rise over the Niagara Escarpment in Lockport, the 2 25ft locks share a common middle gate. It is a massive door. As the lock gates open and close, the sound brings to mind a large metal monster, echoing around in the nearly empty chamber. Our eastward trip through the lock was the most interesting as we were locking down in lock 35, while 2 boats were locking up in lock 34. We passed each other inside the lock. It was pretty cool.

Traveling down this section of the canal, we passed miles of farms and about a dozen small historic towns, each with docks that are free to the boats traveling through -- most with power, water and showers. Its elevation relative to the surrounding land varied dramatically. West of Rochester's Genesee River and west of Lockport, we traveled through mini-canyons, the tree-lined rock walls looming above us. At other times, we were soaring above the land below, passing over creeks, farmland, houses and even a road. With rare exceptions, it was peaceful and beautiful. The sad thing is that we went miles and miles withough seeing another boat. This is an amazing treasure, and there are lots of boaters who are not taking advantage of it.

The Ports

Spencerport, Brockport, Middleport, Gasport, Lockport. Are you starting to see a pattern? We spent some time at all of them and a few more. For many of them, their prosperity as canalports in years past has given them treasures of grand main streets that still have many of the original buildings. Some of them are still bustling towns: Spencerport and Pittsford as Rochester suburbs, Brockport as a college town, Lockport with the locks and the tourist traffic, Tonawanda as a Buffalo suburb with its own industries. The rest are quieter, more rural towns: Holley, Medina, Albion, Middleport, Gasport, each to varying degrees developing the canal as a resource for their economy.  

Each port had something that made it unique. Gasport had fresh vegetables and herbs growing in pots next to the dock. Holley had a beautiful park nearby with a waterfall and some fresh black raspberries growing along the path. Of course, it was helpful that the path led to a Save-a-Lot. Medina had the Model Train Museum and Sandstone Hall of Fame, which were just a short walk from the dock. Albion had Friday night movies at the library, complete with popcorn. Lockport had the famous Flight of Five original canal locks, which were being reconstructed. It also had some amazing ice cream at Lake Effect Artisan Ice Cream and a unique winery named after the original locks. Tonawanda had the Herschell Carousel Museum, a unique collectible train store, called Jack's Trains (next to a candy shop, called Barb's Sweet Treats).  

But, by far our favorite port was Spencerport. OK. You probably think we're biased because it's where we used to live, but it had everything we could have asked for. The facilities and docks were excellent (and free). They have restored and relocated an old Trolley stop to serve as a museum and boater welcome center. Within a short walk are some great restaurants (the smoky smell from Texas BBQ was a pretty effective advertisement) and another Abbotts within a short walk. Most everything you need to provision is an easy walk: groceries, fuel, drug store, Dollar Store. There was a walking tour of the town and an amazingly good band playing on the canal the Sunday night we were there. One thing that was incredible is how many store fronts had changed in the 15 years since we lived there. There were probably only 3 that held the same business that was there at the end of the last century. Time does move on.

Friends and Family

It's been fun re-connecting with friends as we travel our old neighborhood. Gary, a fellow scoutmaster and his wife Karen, joined us on a ride from Spencerport to Brockport. Carol, a friend met in our early days at Kodak, biked to meet us in Middleport and rode with us to Medina. After a Sunday brunch at her house, we managed to track down the mysterious Soldier's monument in Brockport a few days later. Dave's dad helped us through the 2 Rochester locks on the trip west to Spencerport and Mark, Cathy's J&J co-worker did the same on the way east (after biking from his house in Penfield out to Spencerport). Since we found ourselves in Spencerport on 2 successive Sunday mornings, we attended the Spencerport UMC, which we used to attend and saw many of our friends there as well. 

After a few days away on the road, we'll have another week to explore before Jr has to be hauled and we head south again.

We closed up Orion on a rainy Saturday morning and hooked up Jr behind the truck to make our way north for our mid-summer cruise on the Erie Canal. After a stop in Reston for annual physicals and some time with friends, we finally arrived in New York in time to launch Orion Jr just a few days before June came to an end. However, we didn't set any records for long days, since our first 3 days of cruising only had us 8 miles west of where we started. 

Splashing Orion Jr

Jr's trip north on the trailer from Hampton was pretty uneventful. We were pleased to find an inexpensive and easy-to-get-to storage lot at Bull Run Regional Park in Centerville, not far from where we were staying in Reston. Another pleasant surprise was the small Mid-Lakes Marina on the canal in Macedon, just a short distance from Dave's parents. They were very accommodating, even letting us stay on the boat on the trailer for a night while we readied her for launching. It took us about a half a day to rig the new mast, put the canvas back up, mount the rudder, tiller, outboard, anchors, fenders, etc. Just after lunch the next day, we were ready to launch. However, we weren't ready to use the truck to do it.  

Just before our trip, we had a sudden epiphany about using the extended tongue. We needed another, lower ball mount or a trailer jack that would lift the tongue up high enough for our existing ball mount. Both options had us asking a lot of questions about which was best, with no obvious direction to take. Thankfully, Mid-Lakes offered us an out. They would launch the boat with a backhoe. This would give us time to figure out the extended tongue. It turned out to be a very good thing. We learned that the brake controller and battery are mounted too low on the trailer to effectively launch the boat using the extended tongue. So, before we do that, we'll stop by Magic Tilt and have them move them up higher. In the meantime, the backhoe with a skilled operator worked like a charm.

While we were waiting for launch, we managed to squeeze in a Vessel Safety Inspection. Although Orion Jr had been inspected in January, the sticker was sitting on her mast back in Virginia. So, we got a new sticker from an inspector in NY to put on the "little" mast that we'll use for the canal. As usual, we learned something new from the inspection. NY doesn't allow the flare guns, which are considered concealed weapons. So, we had to rely on our handheld flares to pass.

Once in the water, there were only a few tasks left to get going. We wanted to take the bikes with us, so Dave lashed 2 x 2's on the foredeck to support the bikes on either side of the deck. We topped off the water, and got the refrigeration going so we could stock with food. That was pretty much it. Ready to go.

Getting Underway

For such a momentous occasion as our first trip on the canal, we needed crew to witness it. So, we recruited Dave's dad to join us for the first leg. It was going to be a marathon trip from Macedon to Fairport – all of about an hour and a half, with no opening bridges and no locks. Pretty mild stuff. If it weren't for the withering heat, it would have been a nearly perfect run. We knew our speed wasn't exceeding the canal's 10mph speed limit, when we saw runners on the canal path pass us easily. This part of the canal is very green, with trees on either side. There is not a lot of boat traffic, since this is now a recreational waterway, so our fellow cruisers were mostly local boaters or the popular canal boats that are available for rent – many of them from Mid-Lakes Marina.  

Fairport is one of many small towns in Rochester's eastern suburbs. But its popularity on the canal is much larger than some of its bigger, wealthier neighbors. We've passed through the town many times while living in the area, but didn't know about this other identity. The port is centered around the 100-year old Main St lift bridge, which is unique, since it is not level, but on a slight rise as Main St heads south across it. There are no right angles on the bridge, causing many challenges for its engineers back in the early 1900's. There is dockage on both the north and south walls of the canal, which include power, water, and showers for only $7/night. Pretty amazing for us southern cruisers.

After a couple of nights in Fairport, we made our 2nd big hop from Fairport to Bushnell's Basin. This was an exhausting 45 minute run. However, it was definitely worth it, since we were docked within a few feet of an Abbott's Custard store. Given the continuing heat of the late June days, the ice cream was a welcome treat. And we were greeted with a generous welcome packet from the dockmaster, including a very nice Bushnell's Basin T-shirt and a free frosted mug of root beer at Tom Wahl's across the street. Wow!

The next day we were off to Pittsford, Rochester's weathiest suburb -- another run of under an hour. It's just a grind! The free docks here were in a beautiful setting, once again with power and water. It was disappointing that there were no showers, but we made do. And they came with the benefit of a natural alarm clock. The Pittsford crew goes by shortly after 6 in the morning with bullhorns to coach the rowers. Hello there!

But we have no complaints. This waterway is absolutely beautiful and its towns are welcoming to us at every stop. We've met locals and other boaters with lots of their own stories. The family from South Africa who were escaping the heat by jumping in the canal. The local boater who docked his boat near work during this July 4th week, so within a few minutes of leaving work, he was on vacation. You get the idea.  

Getting to Know the Erie Canal

Since we used to live along the canal, we always had an awareness of its importance in forming the towns and cities in upstate New York. However, what we started to learn in the process of reading about it, was its wider influence on regional and national events. The Erie Canal made New York City a major city, as it became a hub for imports and exports. It was the first time America's frontier became easily reachable and the idea of further expansion took hold throughout the country, as the canal's success was studied and envied. Not only did the region flourish economically, the canal corridor became the engine of ideas as well, with social, religious and progressive movements sprouting in the towns along its banks. Abolition, Women's Rights, utopian communities were ideas that were formed and incubated here. Although the canal's critics were many as New York's Governor DeWitt Clinton promoted and obtained funding for this grand engineering feat, they were eventually silenced by its stunning success.

The canal rises 568 feet from the Hudson River to Lake Erie over 400 miles from Albany to Buffalo. The original canal, opened in 1825 was dug to avoid the natural waterways and was only 4 feet deep and 40 feet wide. It was the engineering marvel of its day, with aqueducts and locks carrying the canal up and over existing natural terrain and waterways. By the early 1900's,it was enlarged and re-routed to "canalize" more natural waterways, with an average depth of 12ft and width of 45 feet. However, its commercial use declined in the1960's with the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway for much larger cargo vessels. Within the years since, the canal has become a recreational waterway and in 2005 was designated a National Heritage Corridor. Tourism and community revitalization along the canal has benefitted in the intervening years. Many of the docks that are recently installed are result of state and federal funds made available through this initiative.

Almost every day we encounter some new or interesting feature. On our second day of travel, we learned that our stop in Bushnell's Basin was actually the original western terminus of the canal. The reason? They needed to devise a strategy for crossing Irondequoit Creek, as much as 70 feet below the canal. The solution was the "Great Embankment", which apparently is unequalled even today for its height. Understandably, since the embankment had a breach in the not too distant past and flooded the surrounding land, there are guard guates that close off the rest of the canal's waters. One to the east and one to the west of the embankment. We had always wondered why they were here. Mystery solved.

There will be more discoveries as we travel, if our first 3 days are any indication. We're looking forward to it.

Family and Friends

Since arriving in New York, we've had the chance to visit with Dave's parents living nearby in Victor, NY. However, that will not be true for much longer, since they are moving to Pennsylvania at the end of July. Our travels on the canal have been split between time with them, some just visiting and some to help with pre-move tasks. We also worked in our dentist visit as well.

We enjoyed some time visiting our friend Cookie in Reston, as we visited our doctor for another physical and maybe the best report of our overall health we've had. Guess all that swimming helped. This was also the first time in years we've had a chance to visit our church in Reston, which has a newly remodeled facility including a beautiful sanctuary. It was great to see it and catch up with several friends there. There was a lot of buzz as the long-awaited Metro station is completed and the date of the first run was set for late July. If we had stayed, our house would have been a short walk from the Metro. Maybe we should have waited for it . . . Don't think so!