Trip 2003

Southbound Through New York State

This details Leo's and Mona's cruise aboard Snug as they retrace their step southward through the inland waters of New York State.

CLICK HERE to see the prior part of their trip northbound through New York State.

NOTE: At this point in the cruise, Skipper Bob and Elaine Reib take over Snug's helm for the trip south while Leo and Mona finish up their work in Des Moines, Iowa.

8-27-03

Underway at 8 am. Hit one small snag at the only lift bridge between Dow Lake and the Flight of Eight (locks). They wouldn’t open and close before 8:30. We tied up for 35 min, until 9 AM. Then we pulled into the blue line for the Flight of Eight. Next lock 9:30. Yea!!! There is a four hour turnaround and if they had locked at 8:30 when they were supposed to, we wouldn’t have made it till 12:30. As it turned out we were out of the flight of eight locks by 1130 and on our way down the Ottawa River. All is well on Snug. She is running smooth. The only problem is the satellite radio. It is great, but is programmed for leo’s five favorite stations. We haven’t been able to find the book to see how to select our five favorite radio stations. What a great system. Tied up for the night at Montebello Marina. Tomorrow night we will be in Saint Anne De Bellevue, just outside Montreal. Skipper

Elaine added: We had a good day with our first trick being the flight of eight locks. Yes 8, all in a row. It took just less then 2 hours. The we had the most pleasant trip down the Ottawa River to Montebello where we are spending the night and our friends from the sailing vessel Johamique will come to visit. That will be fun. I fixed food left in the freezer and we managed until we got in here where Bob was able to find a store and bought a few things. He is missing a few calls a day because people won’t talk to a machine. That will be part of the things we will have to live with just to get to be out here seeing the waterway first hand and seeing our readers. They love my man. He writes good books. Elaine

8-28-03

Up early and underway at 7AM. Snug still running great. Made good time and stopped at St Anne de Bellevue (outside Montreal) for the night. We traversed the lock at Carillon today. It is the highest lock in the Canadian system. 65” in a single drop. Not too difficult as there is a floating dock inside the lock that you tie to. Then you just float up or down as the case may be and don’t have to adjust your lines. It is the only lock other than lock 17 on the Erie Canal that I know of where the door for the downside of the lock lifts over your head and you pass under the door going out. We got wet!! Hans and Magelle are supposed to meet us here for dinner tonight. Looking forward to that. Skipper

Elaine added: We are near Montreal and had a good but cool day of travel. Not many boats on the river today. The sun was in our eyes from sun up until past noon. Not complaining! We love the sun. Tonight we will go to a market and get some food and if we are lucky we will have a quiet night. We are close to the bridges that cross to Montreal and the mass transit goes by every 10 minutes or so. Not too loud.

8-29-03

It rained so hard today even the ducks were unhappy. We had to stop short of our goal because of the storm! We are on the St Lawrence not far from Montreal. Skipper & Crew (soaking wet)

8-30-03

Snug continues to run great. We were making good time today and hoped to get to Sorrel until we hit the two Saint Lawrence Seaway Locks near Montreal. They held us up an hour at the first one and two hours at the second. No reason. They just don’t like pleasure boats and don’t do much to accommodate them. While we were waiting at the second lock a line of thunderstorms moved in and the forecast was for severe thunderstorms with high winds starting in the afternoon. We pulled into the marina at Longiel (sp) in a rain storm and tied up for the night a bit early at around 3:00PM. It poured and the lightning was intense for most of the rest of the afternoon. Tomorrow promises to be clear and warmer. Temperatures remain in the low 70s and it is almost too cool to be on the water with only short sleeve shirts on. I will be glad when we get headed south and the temperature begins to pick up. I see a hurricane in the Atlantic a great distance off. No need to worry about hurricanes for at least two more weeks. The hydraulic steering station took about 2-3 ozs. Nothing critical, but something to keep eyes on and the O ring on the steering shaft should be replaced. Still no real problems and we expect to be on Lake Champlain this weekend and arrive at Waterford just after Labor Day (perfect timing for going south). I still haven’t been able to send and receive Email. It is very depressing. The people in Quebec province don’t seem to have even the slightest idea how to accommodate someone with a lap top that wants to send and receive Email. I went to the library in St. Anne de Bellevue and was greeted warmly by the librarian. She proudly took me to a room with 10 tables, each with an electrical outlet and phone jack. “Help yourself!” she said. None of the phone jacks had a dial tone. She was aghast. I was the first customer since the library was built 3 years ago and she had no idea they never hooked up the phone lines in the computer room. The only Internet Café they had went out of business a year ago. My business is at a standstill. I have lots of orders in my computer that I took via phone calls, but can’t get them to my daughter so she can ship them. I hope we have better luck when we reach Lake Champlain and New York.

8-30-03

We departed early this morning because the weather was supposed to be good. The weather was clear and sunny, but cool. Only got up to 70. We only went through 1 lock and arrived at the Chamblee Locks on the Richelieu Canal after more than 80 miles. If all goes well tomorrow we will enter the US at Lake Champlain tomorrow afternoon. Today is Aug 30 and we still haven’t found anywhere to send Email. Snug is running great.

8-31-03

Snug is back in US waters!!! We are Rouse’s Point at the north end of Lake Champlain. Cleared customs without a hitch. No one even asked to see any papers, nor did they ask for our customs clearance number. Up early, but could not leave until Lock 1 at Chamblee opened at 8:30. Had to go slow all through the Chamblee Canal as there was a strict 6 mph speed limit. Imagine that Snug had to throttle down as we were going 7.3 MPH and that is too fast. We went thru 9 locks and entered US at 4:45 pm. Weather for tomorrow is good. Will go down most of Lake Champlain tomorrow. Snug is running smooth. No oil used, transmission OK and no water need in the cooling system. All is right with the world. If you get this today it means that the Marina at Lighthouse Point does have Email service as they promised and we are back on the air.

9-1-03

All is going well. We are part way down Lake Champlain at a small marina in the lee of Valcour Island. We left at 0630 to a forecast of 5-10 knots out of the south. It was on the nose, but not bad. About two hours later they changed the forecast to 10-15 S. The winds did not pick up and the waves coming the 100 mile length of Lake Champlain became 1-2. It was splashy, but not too bad . Around 11 am they increased the forecast to 15-20 S and the winds followed. Now the 2-3 rollers on the nose made it a wet ride and our forward speed dropped from 7.3 to 4.8 mph. It was time to seek a harbor. We stopped at 11:30 to wait for better winds. Tomorrow is forecast as 5-10N. Perfect. Up our butt and pushing us down the lake. Even if the winds pick up we will just go faster. We have 70 miles to go to get off Lake Champlain. We expect to be in the Champlain Canal tomorrow night. Snug is purring along with no real problems. Fuel used is just over ½ tank at this point, about 130 gallons. Will probably fuel up on the lower Hudson or upper NJ wherever we can find a good price. We are now in cell phone range and can be reached most anytime.

9-2-03

Snug is off Lake Champlain. We are sitting on the free wall at Whitehall, NY at the beginning of the Champlain Canal. Today we are at the north end. We should be in Waterford on 4 Sep. Expect to be down the Hudson River at NY Harbor on 7 Sep. Would you extend the coverage on the boat insurance. Snug continues to run great. No significant problems. The small problems are being added to the list. Example. The plastic sleeve that goes on the top of the helm seat pedestal and allows the seat to move freely has worn out and fallen apart in pieces. I bought two of them years ago from West Marine. They were about $5.00. I thought I left a spare on the boat, but have no idea where it would be. You will have to order a couple from WM or suffer a wobbly helm seat. I went topside last night planning to program all the Lake Champlain waypoints into the GPS and was pleasantly surprised to find them already in there. (you must have entered them from the old Micro Logic GPS). All I had to do was set up a Lake Champlain route, tell the GPS to go and sit back and relax. Thanks.

9-3-03

Left early from Whitehall. The locks opened at 7am and we were at the first lock right on time. Weather forecast for today was not good. Rain was supposed to move in in the afternoon. We tied up at Fort Edwards about noon and the rain started shortly thereafter. I don’t mind moving in the rain, but when you are going through locks it sucks. So we opted to stop early. Snug still running great.

9-4-03

Not much to report today. The rain continued all afternoon yesterday, and is forecast to continue all day today. There is so much rain on the East Coast it is causing problems with the US Open. Boo Hoo. Again I don’t mind moving in the rain, but we have 6 locks to go through between here and Waterford, so we will sit today and take a lay day in the rain.

9-5-03

Snug is off the Champlain Canal and at Waterford on the Hudson River. We put up the mast today and prepared her for the trip south. She is running great. No problems to date. We have used about 150 gallons of fuel. Will start looking for cheap fuel soon. Will depart for points south tomorrow early.

9-6-03

Got up early. Weather forecast was for a perfect weekend. Left Waterford, NY at 0600 and pulled into Kingston at 1600. Snug continues to run perfect. We have used 160 gal of fuel to this point so I did some calculations and figured I could get to New River Marina if I took on another 100 gal. Found the best price on the Hudson and took on 100 gal at $1.59 gal at Coeyman Marina. I wanted to check to insure that that filled the tank to about 2/3 full. Unfortunately when I went below I could not see the fuel level in the sight tube. It needs to be replaced. I replaced them about every 1-2 years for $2.00. Added it to the list. I think I have about 170 gal on board, but no way to confirm visually.

9-7-03

We left early today to picture perfect weather and made 93 miles in an effort to be in position to do the “Atlantic” tomorrow. Weather for tomorrow looks good. Snug continues to run smoothly without problems. Hope to be in Brick, NJ tomorrow night.

CLICK HERE to continue the southbound trip back towards Florida

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