On the Road Again....On the Water Again....

Saying goodbye to friends on the dock at Lakeshore Yacht Club. This is a dream we have had for about....15 years to sail off into the sunset on our Swan. Man....sometimes becareful what you dream. I haven't blogged the pictures or stories about Ireland, Scotland and England or the Havelock Jamboree and fun things we did in the month and half that we were in Toronto area. That'll have to wait for another time because right now I want to take you across a very, very rough Lake Ontario and down the Oswego and Erie Canals. We're in Waterford, New York right now and heading for the Hudson River, New York City and then south. We're not sure if we're going down the Intercoastal all the way or in and out or on the ocean. We'll know when we get closer to the ocean.

More goodbyes...dear friends.

...more friends

...and more dear friends....

The lake was very, very rough. Rougher than the ocean was, I'm sure. We sailed straight across through the night. We didn't get sea sick but it was a rocking.

Finally we found the lighthouse in Oswego. I tried to get a picture of the waves breaking on the rocks but you can't really get the real picture. I should have video taped it but it was too rough and we were busy.

Sal's our crew for 3 weeks.

Leaving Oswego, heading down the Oswego Canal system into the Erie Canal system. We had our mast taken down by Bernie in Oswego and carried it on top of our boat. We went through 31 locks in 4 days.

There were a lot of falls created by dams.

One night we stayed in Minetto and had the largest pizza I have ever seen. It was delicious. There were some old cars on display at the park and the people were very friendly. There was an old studebaker like one Anthony used to own.

Most of the locks looked the same. We went up until lock 17 in the Eric Canal System and then started going down. The highest one was lock 17 and it was 40 feet deep.

Sally and Anthony at the helm. It was cool and rainy most of the way. We had a couple sunny days.

Self-portrait. It's a lot slower than on the ocean and very beautiful with the trees changing colours.

We motored across Onieda Lake, it's on the Erie Canal System. This is the lighthouse on the east side of Onieda Lake.

What a beautiful day!

Dams on the Erie.

Sally at the helm.

When we were in the locks, Anthony held the rope and Sally and I pushed the boat away from the wall so the solar panels at the back didn't hit or the top of the mask didn't scrape. Sometimes it was scarey but most of the time it was fine. We got a system going by the end.

Here we are inside a lock that has just drained.

There were quite a few tugboats along the way. This was one of our favourites.

What beautiful country. I saw a lot of flocks of red-winged blackbirds migrating south and some shore birds, Plovers, red-tailed hawks, turkey vultures, Canadian geese, cormerants and many different kinds of gulls.

We're getting closer to Waterford.

Now we're in Waterford and stayed overnight. Had a pint at "The Angry Penguin" and some fish and chips. Beautiful place and beautiful people. They let us take the grocery cart from the supermarket down to our boat. I have finished two books both by Catherine Cookson from Noella. Listened to Schubert by Handel from Doris' music collection. Life is good. Miss you all.