| New York City Trip 2004 |
| The trip of a lifetime! Jane and I took the Missy from her homeport of Buffalo, NY to the big city of New York. Our trip took us through 35 locks on the Erie Canal, then south on the Hudson river to our destination. Along the way we stayed in many ports, met lots of interesting people and just loved every minute of the trip. |
| Friday July 30 2004: The boat is provisioned, everything is packed, all systems go! Jane and I pulled out of port at 6pm and headed east to the Erie Canal. We passed through the 2 locks at Lockport and arrived in Middleport at 10pm. Chicken Wings at Mr. Ed's, these things are deadly. Unlike any other chicken wing in the world! Saturday, July 31, 2004: Our first full day of our trip. Unfortunately, our plans were already getting crimped. Due to torrential rains on July 26, a section of the canal between Lock 27 and Lock 24 was closed. We had hoped to transit that section on Sunday, it doesn't look like the canal will be open by then. So our plans today was to travel to Spencerport. No locks to go through today, just a bunch of lift bridges. We departed Middleport at 8:30 am and arrived at Spencerport at 1:45 pm. This is a great port, free power and water, and a grocery store within walking distance. Jane made ribs for dinner, slow cooked in the oven, then finished off on the barbeque. Sunday, August 1, 2004: Canal still closed at lock 27, so we decide to go to Newark, which is another great port just before lock 28b. Left Spencerport a 8am, arrived at Newark around 2pm. Went through 4 locks today. Newark is a fantastic port, free dockage, power, water and even laundry. Restroom shower facilities are clean and top notch. Most people pass up Newark in favor of Fairport. We met a couple here delivering a boat from Ohio to Sodus Bay, we ended up traveling with them once the canal opened. They gave us a tour of the boat, a 37' Silverton named "Survivor". Our friends, Dave and Jeanne Alexander, who we are going to meet on the way down, visited us by car for drinks. Monday, August 2, 2004: Harbormaster informs us the canal is still closed. Jane and I took a walk up to a small diner about 1/2 mile from the boat. $1.99 for 2 eggs, homefries, toast and coffee. We return to the boat at around 11am, and I decided to call Albany to get a status update on the canal. Low and behold, the person answering the phone tells me the canal is now open! Jane and I waste no time getting the boat ready and on our way. We pass through locks 28b, 28a, and 27. The lockmaster at 27 warns us of a low bridge right before lock 26- the infamous "Clyde Railroad Bridge". With the high water, it sure was a low bridge! I partially disassembled Missy's bimini top, and we still only cleared by inches. Our traveling partner, "Survivor", had to take thier bimini down. Once past lock 26 and 25, the water was really high! Docks and even some trailers on land were submerged. Tons of debris in the water, we did not hit anything. Saw a bald eagle while passing through the Montezuma swamp. We made Baldwisnville and lock 24 at around 7pm. I called Winter Harbor Marina in Brewerton to inquire about their hours. These people are great, the manager Leslie informed me they would open for us no matter what time we arrived! We went through one more lock and arrived in Brewerton at around 9pm. We took on 158 gallons of diesel at the bargain price of only $1.44 per gallon. We stayed on the Brewerton Terminal wall tonight, no services but it is free. Jane made us leftovers for dinner and we turned in for the night at around 10:30. A long day today, total travel time today 10 hours and 7 locks. Tuesday August 3, 2004: Left port at 6:30 am today with hopes of crossing Onieda Lake before it kicked up. We had a very nice crossing, 26 miles and 2 hours 15 minutes later we were entering the little town of Sylvan Beach and back onto the canal. Got caught in a huge downpour between locks 22 and 21. Passed Frances Langford's 118' Mega Yacht "Chanticleer" leaving lock 20. Not sure if she was aboard, but WOW - what a yacht. Originally owned by Ralph Evinrude of the outboard motor company. Went through 2 more locks before reaching our final desination, Little Falls at around 4pm. This is a great facililty, totally renovated with full facilites. Our charge for the night was $23, if your boat is under 30', this drops to $13. We finally caught up with our friends, Dave and Jeanne aboard their boat "Kaleen Plus Two". They will continue on with us to NYC. Dave and I rode our bikes up to the liquor store to reprovision our wine supplies and to the grocery store for some ice. Dinner tonight was Jane's homemade lasagna which was excellent. Wednesday, August 4, 2004: We left Little Falls at 7am. Nice day, sunny, about 75 degrees. Our first lock of the day was Lock 17 - the biggest lift of all the locks on the canal - 40.5 feet. The lock uses a guillotine type door instead of the normal double doors. Jane, on the bow of the Missy, didn't realize she was about to get a shower as we passed underneath it and the water was dripping off it in buckets! After lock 17, we continued on, and on, and on. Reached the Waterford Flight of Five at around 7pm. This is an awesome set of locks, five locks one after another, each with a 30-35 lift. You have to wait for a guard gate to open before entering the first lock on the up side, and once you start locking there is no stopping. You must make all 5 locks, you cannot stay overnight between locks. We did the 5 locks in just a bit over one hour, which we thought was pretty good as the canal literature indicates that it takes around 2 hours to pass through all 5. By the time we cleared the last lock, it was after 8pm and getting dark. We found a spot on the wall in Waterford, no power as all the spots with power were taken. We had started the Missy's generator in Lock 3, and Jane started dinner cooking as we locked. Air conditioning was cooling the salon; by the time we docked, the boat was cool and dinner was ready! A nice bottle of wine topped off the night. Today was the longest day of our trip, 13 hours of traveling and 17 locks. Needless to say, no one had a hard time sleeping tonight. Thursday, August 5, 2004: No more canal - today we venture out on the Hudson River! Jane was delighted to be free of the locks - or so she thought. We left port at 7 am and we were soon approaching the Federal Lock in Troy. (sorry Jane!) This lock is a bit more difficult than the canal locks, as you must hold your boat against the wall with a single cable, since the spacing of the cables makes it impossible to use two. We used a mid-ship line looped around the cable and tied off to the stern of the Missy. No problems, and we were soon on our way headed south. Passing through the City of Albany, we went by many ship and barge terminals. However, most were empty, I guess it was a slow day for shipping. We continued down the Hudson following our GPS chart plotter. There are alot of shallow areas and weed beds in the Hudson, charts are a must. Scenery was getting better the farther south we got, and we were amazed at some of the commercial traffic we passed. Many tugs with barges, we saw one tug towing 14 barges! It looked like a train. Speaking of trains, they are a constant presence, both on the canal and the Hudson. They seem to run non-stop along the shoreline and can give you quite a scare at times when they sneak up behind you and blow that LOUD whistle We arrived at our destination, Kingston, at around 1:30pm. We got a pumpout at the Roundout Yacht Basin, a bit pricey at $10, but hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go! We got a slip at the town docks in Kingston, we were a bit diappointed at these. Very short fingers, so you have to back in and then jerry-rig your lines to hold you on place. Dockage fee was $1.50 per foot, which didn't include much. However, I do have to admit the water pressure here is unbelievable, I gave Missy a wash and it was just like using a pressure washer. I would not attempt to hook this water to the ship's system, it would blow something out for sure. We met another Mainship owner here, Bob and Sue who own the "Tom-Kat" We chatted with them for a while (sorry about your lunch getting cold, Bob!). They are doing a mini-loop cruise, I sure wish we had the time to follow them. Friday, August 6, 2004: We are planning to arrive in NYC today! Jane and I cast off from Kingston at 7am. Dave and Jeanne aboard the Kaleen would leave later, since they can run at around 25mph. We poke along at 8-9 knots, so the Kaleen would leave a few hours after us and then catch us at our destination or before. It was a nice day for cruising once again, sunny with temps in the 70's. Our southward trip today took us through the most scenic parts of the Hudson, we were in awe at the Catskill mountains which towered over us on both side. We passed the Bear Mountian Bridge and West Point, one thing that is neat about the Hudson is that all the bridges are HUGE. They are both long and high...very cool cruising under them. Onward to Haverstraw bay and soon we we catching our first glimpses of the New York skyline! Once under the George Washington Bridge, everything started to change - boats, ferries, condos, the big city was upon us! We pulled into Newport Marina at around 4pm, and the Harbomaster, Iris, was ready and waiting for us. We were just in time to meet up with 8 other boats, all members of the Bayliner Owners Club. My last 2 boats were Bayliners, so I keep in touch with the club, and they were nice enough to invite Jane and I to their NYC rendevous, which was one of the reasons we decided to take this trip. I have never met any of the Bayliner owners at the get-together, but after quick introductions, we were all talking as if we had known each other for years. The internet is a wonderful tool for getting people with similar interests together, I had corresponded with many of these people for years. Actually, I met Jane through the internet as well, but that is another story for another day.. We enjoyed a wonderful happy hour aboard Joe and Sue's 39' Bayliner, the "Green Eyed Lady" Dinner was at around 9pm, we all walked over to the nearby mall and hit the food court. After a few more cocktails dockside, everyone turned in at around 10:30 - the New York skyline lighting the night across the river. Saturday, August 7, 2004: Today we are going to do the loop around New York City. I never knew it, but you can take a boat all the way around New York. The city is actually an island. I started taking movies of the dock activities around 8am, Capt Wally, one of the Bayliner owers, came out in his PJ's and said I was too loud. It is pretty funny to see this on video, we all got a chuckle out of him giving me sign language to be quiet! We left the marina at around 11am, Jane and I figured there was no way the trawler Missy would be able to keep up with a pack of gas powered Bayliner's, so we hitched a ride with Dave and Jeanne aboard their Maxum. The tour took us past Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, down the East River, Governer's Island, Manhatten, under the Brooklyn Bridge, through Hell's Gate, past Yankee Staduim, and then back out to the Hudson, just north of the George Washington Bridge. What a great tour! We had 8 boats in convoy around New York, with plenty of stops for Kodak moments. On our way back into the marina, a 121' mega yacht was pulling in - the name of the yacht was Que Sara - here is their website: Que Sara Looks like you can charter this bad-boy for only 65,000 per week! We had dinner tonight at the Newport Marina Restaurant, there were about 15 of us and a good time was had by all. Very nice view and the food and service were good. Sunday, August 8, 2004: The Bayliner Rendevous ended today, and most of the boats that participated left at around noon. Jane, Jeanne, Dave and I had other plans - it was off to the big city for us! We had tickets to a Broadway show, The Producers. From Newport Marina, it is just a short walk to the PATH train which took us to New York. We caught a subway from there to Times Square, where we did the touristy thing. Plenty of stuff to do and see here for sure! We had lunch at a deli, which was delicious, and Jane did some shopping from the street vendors. She bought t-shirts, and a bootleg purse and DVD. The show was terrific, we all enjoyed it. After the show we toured around some more and ended up going to the WTC memorial, although it was pretty fenced off and you couldn't really see much. We caught the PATH there and went back to the boat for dinner. Rick and Carol, the only ones left from the Bayliner group, joined us for cocktails after dinner and we had a good time talking to them about our adventures. We hope to make a cruise with them someday soon. Monday, August 9, 2004: The girls wanted to go back to the city today. Dave and I decided to stay back and do some reprovisioing, boat maintenance and laundry instead. So after breakfast the girls took off and Dave and I broke out the bikes. On this type of a trip, a bicycle is invaluable for running to the store and exploring shoreside. We took a ride to Jersey City, which was a few miles south of the marina. We checked out Liberty Harbor and Liberty Landing Marinas, which are much more protected from the constant ferry wakes, but also not quite as convenient to stores and the trains. We could see the Statue of Liberty from the marina, which was kind of neat. From the marinas, we toured Jersey City, which has a few memorials to pay tribute to those who perished in 9/11. You could look across the harbor from Jersey City and see the gaps where the WTC used to be. A sombering sight indeed. Next stop was grocery store, we bought supplies and of course, more WINE! We sure did drink alot of wine on this trip. After our return to the boat, I met with a co-worker of mine who works in our office in Jersey City. She owns a boat with her husband and they are fishing fanatics. She shared a photo with me of a 600 lb Thresher shark she caught over the weekend. This fish was so big that they could not fit it in thier 31' Luhrs and ended up towing it in!! Wow! When the girls returned, we had a dinner of shish-kabobs cooked over the barbie. Our last night at Newport Marina was spent viewing the skyline of New York and talking about what a great time we had here. Tuesday, August 10, 2004: Today we are starting our long trip back home. We left Newport marina at 7am under sunny skies. Dave and Jeanne would leave later, so Jane and I were on our own. In Haverstraw Bay, we passed the Tom-Kat, our friends Bob and Sue with the Mainship 350 like ours. They were heading south to visit New York. I asked Tom where a good spot to get fuel was and he recommended Haverstraw Bay Marina. Diesel fuel was $1.99 per gallon here, I just put 100 gallons in the Missy and planned on filling up again at Winter Harbor in Brewerton. We got a free pumpout with our fuel purchase, which was nice. Back underway, we passed through the scenic section of the Hudson once again. It was a beautiful day, sunny and 70's, a great day for crusing. Not much river traffic today, which was also nice. We arrived at Roundout Creek at about 4:30pm, Dave and Jeanne in the Kaleen were already there and had secured us a nice spot at the anchorage up Roundout Creek. We decided it would be nice to anchor for a change, there is a really nice anchorage about 4 miles up Roundout Creek. Don't go to close to the last bridge, the water drops off to over 20' and the bottom is all rock. After a great dinner cooked aboard the Missy, we all watched a movie and then turned in at about 10pm. Wednesday, August 11, 2004: - We woke early today after a great night at anchor. Today's plan was to go from Kingston to Waterford, the entrance of the Erie Canal. We pulled the hook at around 7am and headed out Roundout Creek. Dave and Jeanne had to get fuel before taking off, so we headed into the Hudson while they refueled. They passed us about an hour after we left, which was great, since they were able to zip ahead and get us good spots at Waterford. We passed quite a few trawlers today, all headed south. Wish we could follow, hopefully in about 9 years we will be looping with them. There were bass boats all over the river today, must have been some sort of tourney going on. Those things sure do fly, they were passing us doing 60-70 mph. I wonder how they ever find time to catch fish, seems like they spend most of their time just zipping around. After passing through the Federal Lock in Troy, we pulled into Waterford at around 4pm. Dave, as promised, had a great spot for us staked out. After securing the Missy and a cocktail or two, we all took a walk to the grocery store. It is a real hike for sure, you have to cross bridge over the Hudson to get there. Had a great dinner tonight cooked on the barbie, the girls played some scrabble after dinner while Dave and I discussed our plans for the next day. Thursday, August 12, 2004: - Our plans today were to do the Waterford flight of five and head west to Amsterdam. We got in the first lock, E2 at 7:50 am and had finished the last by 9:30. Approaching the last guard gate, which was down, we were unable to raise the gatemaster. We continued to radio for almost 20 minutes before he pulled up in a car and opened the gate for us. Never acknowledged our calls, not sure what was up with that. We found this behavior typical of the locks in the eastern part of the state; they would not answer our calls or have the locks ready. Some of the lockmasters really seemed to have an attitude; this was rather disappointing to us. Our normal cruising grounds are the western end of Erie, and the bidgemasters and lockmasters of that region are just wonderful. Continuing on, we did locks 7 and 8 without incident. However, as we pulled into lock 9, the skies darkened and all of a sudden the winds increased dramatically. Jane and I were straining to hold the Missy, it was almost a losing battle. Soon after leaving the lock, the skies opened, and I really mean opened! Rain so hard we had zero visibility. I switched the radar on and with the GPS and depth finder going dead slow I was able to inch forward. Dave behind me could barely see my anchor light. We found out later that that single rainstorm dropped over 2 inches of rain in less than one hour. We arrived safely in Amsterdam at 3:30, however, the rain was still coming down. A real soaker of a day for sure. Amsterdam charges $1 per foot to stay overnight, which I thought was excessive for a public facility. On the plus side they do have a nice park, restrooms and laundry facilities. On the down side, the trains run very close to the docks, non-stop. We found later that the lock right after Amsterdam has a great little park to tie up for free, we will stay there next time. Friday, August 13, 2004: - With the threat of a hurricane remnants (Bonnie) bearing down on us and possibly closing the canal again, we were going to try to get as far west as possible today, with an eye on the weather. We left at 7am under rainy skies. Tons of debris in the water from all the rain. However, as we proceeded west, the weather got better and by the time we reached Little Falls at 2:30, the sun was out and life was good once again. After checking the weather, we decided to stay in Little Falls for the night, as it seemed the hurricane was now going to bear further east than they initially predicted. We love Little Falls, the dockmaster is the best, he took Jeanne in to town to do her laundry. While Jeanne was doing laundry, Dave and I took bikes into town and bought some more wine and provisions. We also cashed in all the beer and pop cans that had been accumulating in our boats. After dinner, Dave and I walked over to the cruise boat that docks at Little Falls and started listening to the jazz band that was entertaining the people on board. We asked one of the mates who was on the dock next to the boat why they weren't cruising, as this was supposed to be a jazz CRUISE. She stated that their generator was dead, so they needed power from shore for the band. Dave and my eyes immediately lit up - the Honda generators! We both had one on board, Dave volunteered his for them to use. The captain agreed that that was a great plan, so we got the genny and some extension cords and the jazz cruise was back on track! For our heroic efforts, they invited all of us to join them on the cruise. Even Coco the wunder mutt got to come! It was a great little cruise, with the sun setting as the band played on. We all enjoyed ourselves and even got a free glass of wine at the end of the tour, compliments of the captain. Saturday, August 14, 2004: - Today we planned to reach Brewerton at the west end of Oneida Lake. Nice day, sunny in the 70's. We went through 5 locks today and then it was out to Oneida Lake. But before we reached Oneida Lake, we passed through a HUGE party at Sylvan Beach. There was some sort of Mardi Gras going on, everyone was dressed up in costumes on boats and they were all throwing beads into the crowd on shore. There were boats everywhere in the channel, thank goodness Missy is so big, they all parted for us as we threaded our way through the crowd. Once past that mess and out to Onieda, we had a very calm trip across the lake and arrived in Brewerton a bit over 2 hours later. We proceeded to Winter Harbor Marina for some cheap diesel and found the price had gone up 15 cents a gallon since we came through two weeks ago. It was now $1.59 a gallon, still a bargain. We took on 222 gallons and got a pumpout for $4. We stayed at the Brewerton Terminal wall for the night, the same place we stayed on the way down. Got pizza and wings for dinner and went to bed early after a 10 hour day on the water. Sunday, August 15, 2004: - We decided that we weren't going to go very far today, so we all slept in a little late. Dave's son and grandkids stopped in to visit them at around 10am. We got underway at around noon with the decision to go to Baldwinsville for the night. Just past 3 Rivers, we passed another Mainship 350, the EastNor. EastNor is a member of the Yahoo Mainship group so I hailed him and we chatted for a bit. He was taking his boat from Sodus Bay to Cicero, where he had bought a house with a dock. Nice. We arrived in Baldwinsville at around 3:30. There was a big concert going on in the bandshell across from the wall we tied up on, we got to watch it for free on the bridge of the Missy. Jane served some nice hor dourves and we all enjoyed the bands. A great day for sure. Monday, August 16, 2004: Time for a side trip! We decided that we would head west today to the Cayuga Seneca canal and then south to Seneca Falls. None of us has been there before, so this would be a nice diversion from our trip westward. We left Baldwinsville at 7:30 and headed west. This leg of the canal goes from fancy waterfront houses to Cross Lake, which is actually a pretty deep, good sized lake. After Cross Lake there are some cottages and then the Montezuma Swamp begins. Not much of anything here, but if you keep your eyes open, there is some neat wildlife to be seen. We saw a bald eagle and a deer swimming across a creek. Pretty neat stuff! We made our turn south onto the Cayuga Seneca canal and passed through lock C-1. From C-1 to C2/C-3 is about a 2 mile run through a section of wall-to-wall cottages. These cottagers are rabid about their no-wake zone, as we passed, many of them came out on their docks to stare grimly at us. As on many inland waterways, there is an unspoken battle between the boaters and cottagers on the canal. Many of the cottagers despise the boats for intruding on their privacy, and the boaters don't care for the unfriendly attitudes and deathly slow speeds we have to endure. I suppose this will only get worse as the canal land gets developed and the boat traffic increases. Lock C-2/C-3 is a double lock, similar to the one in Lockport. We were soon through it and passing through VanCleef Lake, a small man-made lake that was built to provide a reservior for the locks. There is a beautiful church right at the waters edge here, one of the only buildings that was not razed to make the lake. The lake curves right around the church, makes for some great photos - see one in my album. Seneca Falls is a great little port. Free tie-ups with power and water. However, dockage is limited here to about 10 boats (there is some additional dockage for small boats w/ no power) By the time we left here on Wednesday, the docks were completely filled with locals from Seneca and Cayuga Lake. If you plan to stay here, your best bet would be to arrive on Sunday evening toTuesday afternoon. After mooring, we took a bike ride to the Menonite store which is about a mile or so outside of town. They sell everything from books to groceries to furniture. All good stuff, we did some serious restocking of the boat's stores here. There is also an IGA within walking distance of the docks if you don't have bikes. We enjoyed the rest of the day relaxing and had a great dinner on board the Missy before turning in after much wine and good company. Tuesday, August 16, 2004: Today will be a down day for us - no traveling. We have been traveling now for 7 days straight, it is nice to spend a day in port without going anywhere. However, I do have to admit that once you start moving, it is addictive. We found that after 2 days in port we were always glad to be back underway. It always feels great to leave one port for another. Dave and I started the day by visiting the Seneca Falls visitor center. This is a free museum that has some literature, photos and displays that trace the history of this unique city. As a side note, the building also has nice restrooms which are open to the boaters during business hours. After the museum, I spent a few hours cleaning the Missy while Jane settled into a new book and Dave and Jeanne took a tour of the waterfront church. We had dinner tonight at a small chinese restuarant on Main Street, which was not very good. Tonight would be our last night together with Dave and Jeanne, as they would leave from here and head east back to the Oswego Canal and Lake Ontario, while Jane and I would continue west to Buffalo. Next time we will find a nicer place to eat! Wednesday, August 17, 2004: We bid Seneca Falls farewell at 7 am. A cement truck parked right next to our boat was making all sorts of noise, so not much sense staying any later. Dave had a scare in lock C-2, the lockmaster started shutting the gates as he was leaving the lock! All I could hear coming over channel 13 was Dave screaming "you're closing the gate on me!!" The lockmaster sheeplishly replied "Sorry!" and re-opened the gates. Dave thinks he was just playing games with him, I think he was still sleeping. Dave and Jeanne headed out to Cayuga Lake for a quick spin at lock C-1 as we said our good-byes. Jane and I continued through the lock and out the Cayuga Seneca Canal to the Erie. It turned out to be another nice day, although a bit windy. We had a difficult time holding the Missy in lock 28a, but we made it to our destination, Newark, without incident at 1pm. A nice short day of traveling, with plenty of sun left to relax in. We got a pumpout before tying up, they have a quarter operated job here, it took me $2 to get the Missy's tank clean. By 6pm, the docks we full, we were glad we made it early to get a spot here. I met Gary, one of the town councilmen, and I complimented him on the beautiful facilties here. This is a great place, we plan to visit here again if we are traveling through. Jane and I have a steak and lobster dinner tonight cooked on the barbie. We bought a small freezer for this trip to supplement the Missy's onboard freezer, this was a great decision! We were able to carry more than enough frozen food such as steaks, lobster, shrimp, chicken, to last us our entire trip. The freezer I purchased is an Avanti convertible model, which means it converts to a refrigerator when needed. I use it for a beer cooler when we aren't traveling. Definitely worth the $150 I paid for it. Thursday, August 18, 2004: Reunion day! My son, Rob, has been working at a Boy Scout camp all summer. Our plans were to pick him up today at Spencerport, where he had returned and was staying with my brother Jeff. We left Newark at our usual 7am and arrived in Spencerport at 2pm. Got soaked in lock 32, but the sun did come out by the time we got to Spencerport. Jeff and Rob showed up (with all his gear and bike) at around 4pm. It was great to see him after 2 months and I think he was glad to see us for about 5 minutes, after which time he inquired as to when we would be home so he could see his friends. Sheesh! We all had a great dinner together and Jeff left at around 7pm while we enjoyed the nice evening. Friday, August 19, 2004: Our trip is really winding down now. We traveled to Middleport, which will be our last stop before we are back home to Missy's dock in North Tonawanda. We enjoyed great wings and fries at Mister Ed's, you really need to try the wings here if you are ever passing through. They are unlike any other wing, trust me on that! We rented some videos at the Wilson Farms, this is outside of town, but within walking distance. If you need provisions, this is about it for Middleport, there are no nearby grocery stores. Good weather prevailed again, Jane and I enjoyed one of the last days of our trip reading while Rob watched the videos. Later in the day we watched a rented houseboat crash one of the docked boats. Found out it did around $1,200 worth of damage to the boat it hit. A word of warning, watch for th the Canal Princess houseboats on the western end of the canal, the operators obviously do not get enough training to handle these craft. This was not the first time we have seen them involved in a mishap. Saturday, August 20, 2004: Against Rob's objections, we decided to spend one more day in Middleport. We had a great breakfast that Jane cooked us as she cleaned out the fridge, and spent the rest of the day reading and walking about town. Rob was bored silly, but he lived. For dinner we visited the Basket Factory, a nice restaraunt a short walk away. Good food and reasonable prices. Try the coconut shrimp if it is on the menu, they are out of this world. Make reservations if you decide to go, as it fills up quickly on weekends. Day done, tommorow we go home :( Sunday, August 21, 2004: All good things must come to an end. So goes our trip. We made the short 4 hour trip to our home port and then it was time to unload the boat and head home. With our belongings we took memories with us of a fantastic 3 weeks spent cruising and living the life we dream about. We are really looking forward to the day we can do this full time. Until then, there is always next year's trip to look forward to....stay tuned! Thanks for reading our adventures, hope you enjoyed them as much as we did! Be sure to check out our photos by clicking on the link at the top of the page. Ron and Jane aboard the Missy |
| On this trip, Capt Dave and Jeanne Alexander, our long time friends and best boating partners wrote their own impressions of the trip. Click on the link below to read the log of the Kaleen Plus Two!! |
| The Missy Log |