June 2-August 14:: New York to Grand Haven

We love the Hudson River!  From New York Harbor to Troy, NY where we catch the Erie Canal, natural beauty and historical interests are all around.  Just north of the Harbor, on the west (left) side of the river, the 300-500 foot cliffs of the Palisades come into view.  Located mostly in New Jersey, these legally protected rock-faced hills stretch twelve miles down river.  Our first stop on the Hudson was at Half Moon Bay marina at Croton-on-Hudson, NY, near Sleepy Hollow (yes, there actually is such a place!)  After visiting daughter Jennifer and her family an hours drive away in Connecticut, Linda left by rental car for home to take care of business.  I stayed behind to enjoy the beautiful views of the Hudson, to visited Jenn a few more days, and to generally explore the area.  I'm including a photo of a 911 Memorial erected by the community in honor of those first and secondary responders to the World Trade Center disaster.  This working sundial consists of a piece of steel from the north tower and a woman "reaching through the shadow", showing the world that in the darkest hour there is hope.

Upon Linda's return, we moved north, passing the impressive structures of  West Point, then cruising though the "narrows" and the most awe-inspiring gorges of the river.  Passing by a couple of interesting lighthouses, we turned up a small river to the picturesque town of Kingston, NY where we walked its streets and enjoyed a fantastic Italian dinner. 

After spending the next day at Albany Yacht Club, we left in the fog for the Erie Canal.  The first day we transited seven locks, Linda wrapping a mid-ship line around a floating bollard, a large can that follows the water level up or down, sliding in a recessed slot in the lock wall.  She had her work cut out  for her, handling lines, while I worked the helm to keep the boat close to the wall and worked through fast currents which came from adjacent dams as we entered or exited the locks.   At the end of the day, we stayed at the Schenectady Yacht Club, where we stayed on our first loop, and enjoyed a close up view of remnants of the old Erie Canal off our bow.  While the modern canal, built after boats were motorized, follows the Mohawk River for the most part, the old Canal was built to accommodate mules and horses which pulled the barges.  When the canal crossed rivers, it consisted of a "tub" or aqueduct for the boats plus a raised platform for the animals pulling them.  The next day saw seven more locks and a stay at St. Johnsville, a friendly town obviously struggling to keep going economically in upstate New York.  The following day we did seven more locks and stayed with a number of other loopers on a free wall just short of Oneida Lake.  Linda was particularly happy to be settled in as she had worked through pouring rain over the last couple of days.  She did so with good spirits, BTW!   We crossed the shallow lake the next morning in light fog and arrived at Ess-Kay Marina where we stayed for a couple of days for rest and for repairs to the boat.  We had a diver check the boat bottom for possible dings to props or for ropes or fishing line around shafts or stabilizer fins, but fortunately, no issues.  After a mechanic worked with me for about eight hours to get the master head (toilet) to work again after a two week breakdown, we headed north on the Oswego Canal system, transiting another seven locks.   We stayed with several loopers on a free wall alongside a rapids running from a lock dam to Lake Ontario. 

The next morning, we went through Lock eight with several of our looper friends who kept going north to Canada and the Trent-Severn Waterway and then to Georgian Bay.  Since the T-S is shallow and rocky, we didn't want to risk taking our five-foot draft boat that way, and instead turned left toward the Welland Canal.  We put the pedal to the metal to beat potential P.M. storms and arrived at the Port of Rochester by 12:50.  The marina was beautiful, and the  bike trail excellent, at one point following a boardwalk for nearly a mile over wetlands.  Here, too, we saw for the first time, evidence of near record high water for Lake Ontario.  We saw fixed docks underwater, and a colorful houseboat community disabled until waters recede. 

In the morning, we again went fast to get to Port Dalhousie, next to the Welland, before projected afternoon storms.  The last one and a half hours, we traveled in light rain and fog, but no wind.  Coming into the marina the skies opened so dramatically, we couldn't see the number of our assigned slip.  As we floated by a docked looper boat we knew well, a fellow dressed in raingear came out and ran two dock lengths to point out our dock and help us in.  I turned out this guy was the AGLCA port captain for the area who was visiting our looper friends, helping them arrange repairs for their boat.  The owners, Steve and Debbie, evidently caught a line around a shaft while negotiating their slip, the line stopping their engine so dramatically that its transmission split in two!  We commiserated with them over fish and chips that evening, not imagining that it would be two weeks before they could leave again.

When moving upward through the eight locks of the Welland, three crew are required.  We met Bob, our hired crew, at 7:00 AM and after watching a freighter exit, we were flagged through Lock 1 at 1:45.  The locks are extremely turbulent when filling, and besides the captain at the helm, crew are required fore and aft to handle lines which at dropped by canal employees to the boats below.  While in the past we found the locks turbulent, lock tenders generally filled them somewhat more gently for pleasure craft than for lake freighters.  Now much is automated with someone pushing a button to begin filling, and the flow is the same for cruisers and freighters alike.  In addition, this year we were asked to raft a 32 foot boat off our hip, adding extra weight to our boat.  This increased the difficulty of our task to stay close to the lock wall.  Though we experienced some harrowing times, we got out O.K., dropping Bob off around 7:00PM after Lock 7, the worst lock of the bunch.  We an additional 10-12 miles to Lock 8, a "leveling" lock, which only moved two feet or so, then pulled into a marina at Port Colbourn at 8:30. 

Then for four days the wind blew, Lake Erie kicking up four to eight footers for the duration.  During the worst of it, a sailing regatta of 48 boats sailed toward our marina, with 44 making it.  One boat de-masted, , one lost its spinnaker, one man broke his arm, and another broke his wrist.  Waterspouts formed over the lake, and the photo below shows one fully formed a couple of miles from our boat.  It was reported that the coast guard rescued 38 boats on Lake Erie that day! 

After the fourth day, we left early for Dunkirk, NY, a thirty mile shot straight south across the lake.  As wind was rapidly building, we made the correct call to sit tight at the marina, as Erie kicked up to 4-6 again later in the day.  While Linda decided to stay on board I took off by bike to find a post office and a bottle of ketchup.  The first task was easy, the second not so much.  Yelp showed me a number of grocery stores in the area, but no super markets.  the first was Chinese, the second Arab. The third was ethnic American with great potential for ketchup, but I didn't feel comfortable going in past the Rottweiler out front. Again I consulted Yelp and found a Whole Foods store with a 4 star rating just three miles away.  Finding it, I discovered the closest thing to ketchup was a bottle of strained tomatoes.  Backtracking, I stopped at a Circle K.  Nada. Not to be deterred, I went into a nearby Rite Aid and found the Heinz label I was looking for.  Success after twelve miles on the bike. 

Thinking we might go fast to Cleveland to make up time, we left Dunkirk at 7:00 AM. But again winds picked up, so we tucked into Erie, PA at 9:45.  The next day we waited out storms and left at 9:45 for a 95 mile run to Cleveland.  Though winds did pick up, we had alternative ports to hide in if necessary, and thankfully, winds died down allowing us to make it all the way.  We did worry, though, that we wouldn't find a slip.  Since it was the Fourth of July weekend, all marinas were full. After pleading with one dockmaster, though, promising we would buy fuel, he miraculously found a way to accommodate us. 

Leaving Cleveland, we picked our way through a mile-wide debris field spawned by flood waters from the recent rain.  This day proved the longest of our trip in that we traveled 180 miles to a marina just south of Port Huron.  From there we stopped at Harbor Beach to wait out a storm with 40 mph winds which nearly broke our dock from its moorings.  Fellow boaters, seeing our dock tip at a thirty degree angle, came running to help us build a spider web of line across to another dock for extra support!

  Finally we arrived in Harrisville, where Linda's mom has lived for fifty years in her beautiful stone house (photo below) which is actually inside the harbor walls.  We had a great five days with her mom, her brothers, Dennis and Roger, granddaughter Jordan, and nephew, Brian. 

Stopping first at Rogers City Marina, where we hooked up with friends for dinner, we made it to Mackinac Island, one of our favorite places on earth.  Looking back, we have calculated that we have enjoyed four day stays on the island thirty eight times over our twenty four years of cruising, most with family and friends.  Here we truly felt we were in our home cruising grounds, and here we replaced our gold AGLCA burgee with platinum, signifying that we have completed the loop more than once.

Next we moved to Drummond Island for a two week stay, biking, fishing, reading, exploring neighboring islands by dinghy, and enjoying gorgeous Drummond Island sunsets. 

Still in our summer cruising mode, we headed toward home, stopping at Mackinaw City for a day before heading south.   My mom, at age ninety three, joined us for several days in Petoskey after traveling on her own by bus from Holland. We visited Bay Harbor and Harbor Springs, drove through the tunnel of trees, ate lunch at "Leggs" (a wonderful Polish restaurant full of quirky, whimsical carvings), and visited Mackinaw City.  After a couple of days, Jenn and the kids flew in and got to spend some quality time with Grandma Tuls before she grabbed a bus for home. The five of us enjoyed a long walk on the bike trail that offers views of Little Traverse Bay, and the kids had fun jumping off the marina break wall.  After Scott arrived from Connecticut shortly after grandma left, we cruised the short distance to Charlevoix, where we enjoyed our view of Lake Charlevoix while attached to the wall at Irish Boat Works.  By rental car we explored the area, spending one glorious, sunny day on Sleeping Bear Dunes.  During this stay we also enjoyed celebrating Courtney's seventeenth birthday!

After kissing the kids goodbye, Linda and I heading to Ludington, then Grand Haven where we entered the channel almost exactly eleven months after last seeing it.  Having done our first loop seven years ago, we began to look forward to another ride around the "Great Circle", finally waiting anxiously for the window to open for us to do it again.  For us, the second time was even better than the first.  We were more relaxed, knowing that in those scary places that we all hear about (e.g. whirlpools on the Mississippi) had been already conquered, and that we could vanquish them again. We missed our cat, Schatze, who made the first trip with us. And, alas, the people we met and befriended on the first trip were absent on this, but we found many new and wonderful memories in the fresh acquaintances we made.  Thanks, too, to Ward and Jean on Dream Maker for the chance to deepen our friendships during the months we traveled together after leaving Grand Haven in tandem September of last year.  It was a great run!