Author: Mike & Jonell Murphree

Jul 30 – Mon
After 1 short day in Hastings, we departed on Monday morning for Peterborough Ontario.

As I had suggested in the last post, Peterborough was also a place of previous Looper memories for me & Jonell.

In July of 2015, while we were Looper Training on a 47′ Hatteras named Kat in the Hat with Richard & Katherine Cope, we ran into the folks who had gotten us into AGLCA, and were becoming our Great Loop God-Parents – Dave & Michele Sylver.

I remember vividly , that we were at a Looper dinner in Peterborough with about 14-16 people, when Dave Sylver approached me to ask if I would be interested in purchasing his 43′ Viking now known as Gettin’ Looped (formerly named Just Us). The rest is history, we ended up closing the deal in October of 2015 after  Dave & Michele had completed their Loop.

Back to today’s story.
Peterborough was about 38 miles & 1 lock away from Hastings.

While we were underway, I remembered the blog comments from one of our favorite blog followers –  Sharolyn (Doug Edgar’s 1st mate).
Sharolyn had made a comment on the Campbellford post about the Canadian Red Chair Program.

The Red Chair Program was created by marketing guru’s for the Canadian Parks & Recreation Department (Parks Canada).

The concept is this: plop pairs of red Adirondack chairs throughout Canada’s beautiful parks, capturing some of the most stunning views in this great land. And then what – you take a nap? Enjoy your lunch? Nope — you share !
You Facebook, Tweet, and Instragram your photos in those red chairs.
In the words of Parks Canada, “Visitors are encourage to seek out the ‘Red Chairs’ to enjoy these special places and to share their experience through social media and other communication channels.”

Well I’m not sure that we saw any of the official program chairs, but we sure saw a shit-load of the Red Adoirondack Chairs owned by the locals on the Trent Severn Waterway. And the chairs were in fairly prestine/beautiful settings !

Similar to yesterday’s ride, we also passed several remote areas, this time cows, not horses !

We arrived at the Peterborough Marina about 1:45pm.
The marina is not so much to look at, but the locals are very nice.
We met locals Rob-1, Rob-2, & Kyle all within the first hour of arrival.
A day later another local helped Jonell carry groceries all the way down the dock.

Our particular Pier-B is full of fun party people.
There is Docker the Deck Dog serving beer, and The Muskie Lounge Pontoon Party Barge.

Monday night seemed to come early, we went for a walk into town and had dinner at a place recommended by Christina the harbormaster.
We ate dinner at a place called Rileys, which had 3 floors ; a 1st floor with pool tables & a bar restaurant, and 2nd floor nightclub, and the 3rd floor rooftop bar. Per Christina’s recommendation, we ate at the rooftop bar.

The food was so-so, but I did have my first Molson Canadian since entering Canada.
I remember having many of these during trips over to Windsor in my youth (18-21).
Evidently according to the local kids, Molson Canadian is “old news” nowadays.
Microbrews are now The Rage in Canada.

On the walk back from dinner, we watched the Peterborough fountain for a while, but were too tired to wait for it to lite up at night.

 

Jul 31 – Tue
Tuesday was back to Tourist day.
There were a couple interesting things, of which Peterborough is known for.

> The 1st is The Canadian Canoe Museum (yes, a canoe museum).
> The 2nd is The Peterborough Lift Lock – one of only 8 in the World.

While walking about 1.5 miles to the Canoe Museum, we passed a little home restaurant serving only breakfast & lunch, so we stopped in for a quick bite to give us energy for tourist day.

The Canadian Canoe Museum is a unique national heritage center that explores the canoe’s significance to the peoples of Canada, through a large collection of canoes, kayaks and paddled watercraft.
Founded by the late Professor Kirk Wipper, and established in Peterborough in 1997, the museum’s holdings now number more than 600 canoes, kayaks and paddled watercraft.
The museum’s artifacts range from; the great dugouts of the First Nations, the singular bark canoes of Newfoundland, the skin-on-frame kayaks of the northern peoples, the all-wood and canvas-covered craft manufactured by major canoe companies, and the Royal Canoes.
Watercraft from as far away as Paraguay and the Amazon have helped the Museum expand its reach and scope to include International examples.
The Canadian Canoe Museum is a private not-for-profit organization with charitable status.

The place was expansive, in a huge warehouse.

There were MANY different types of canoes, showing different areas of the country, the evoloution of designs, the fabrication, the different materials used, & the link to fur trading & commerce.

Some of the most interesting exhibits for me, were showing ;
> The Fabrication Process of an 1800’s vintage canoe.
> The Royal Canoes.
> How they made the Graphic Designs on the sides of the canoes.

The Fabrication Steps of an 1800’s Montreal Canoe

 
The Royal Canoes Exhibit showed gifts given by the Canadian Royals to dignitaries of other countries or received by the Canadian Royals. The photos below show a canoe supposedly given by Pierre Trudeau to Prince Charles & Princess Diana as a wedding gift.

 

How they made the Graphic Designs on the sides of the canoes.

 

There were MANY exhibits, but you get the jist of it.
Time to go to the more interesting Peterborough Lift Lock.

The Peterborough Lift Lock is over 100 years old, constructed between 1896 – 1904.
> It is Lock #21 on the Trent Severn Waterway (we will cross it on Wednesday, Aug1).
> It is essentially a giant two sided seasaw or teeter-totter, moving hydraulically up & down, driven only by water weight & gravity.
> For most of its life, the lock was the highest hydraulic boat lift in the world, raising boats 65 feet. This was a considerable accomplishment in the early 1900’s, when conventional locks usually only had an average 7 foot rise.
> It is 1 of only 8 Lift Locks in the World, and interestingly enough a 2nd Lift Lock is also on the Trent Severn Waterway in Kirkfield Ontario (Lock #36 – only 45 foot lift).
> The Peterborough Lift Lock was designated a National Historic Site in 1979, and was named an Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1987.

How it works – No Electricity, only using Water Weight & Gravity to Articulate!
> The lock has two identical LARGE bathtub-like Ship Water Trays in which vessels enter (like big pans of water).
> Both Water Trays  are enclosed at each end by pivoting gates.
> Each Water Tray sits on a huge 7.5 foot diameter ram, the shafts for which are sunk 75 feet into the granite ground.
> Both Trays are filled with water for the boats to drive into the tray.
> The 2 rams are connected with a pipe that has a crossover control valve.
> The Water Trays are guided up and down on either side by rails affixed to concrete towers.
> The Water Trays the boats drive into are huge, measuring 140 ft long & 33 ft wide.
> No external power is needed: the lift lock functions by gravity alone using the counterweight principle. One Water Tray always ascends and the other always descends during each locking cycle.
> When one Water Tray reaches the top position, it stops 12 inches (30 cm) below the water level of the upper lake, and the control valve is closed.
> The upper gates open, and water flows into the top Water Tray until the level equalizes between the tray & the Lake.
> The weight of the extra foot of water is 144 tons, making the total weight of the upper tray (1844 tons) heavier than the lower tray (1700 tons).
> The crossover valve in the connecting pipe between the 2 ram shafts is then opened.
> Since the upper tray weighs 144 tons more than the lower (1,844 vs 1,700 tons), it pushes down on its ram, forcing out water from its shaft via the connecting pipe into the shaft of the bottom tray.
> The force pushes up on the bottom Water Trays ram, raising it up to the top position.
> When the gate of the newly descended top tray reaches the bottom, the extra foot of water is let out and equalizes with the water level of the canal.
> Any descended vessels exit, allowing the cycle to start over again.

The principle works because any boats in the trays displace their weight in water. So even if there is only 1 boat in one tray and 5 boats in the other, the descending tray will always weight 1844 tons, and the rising tray will always weight 1700 tons.

If you didn’t understand it in words, watch this great video.
https://youtu.be/Arj2mEVTmiM

 

Hopefully you liked the Lift Lock Post.
It is truly an Engineering Marvel.
Over 100 years old and still functions the same way it did back in 1904.

Dinner Tonight = Upper deck of The Light House, right here at the marina
Food Blah !
Scenery Nice !

Next Stop
The Islandview Resort @ Young’s Point Ontario.
Don’t get too excited, it’s a marina / trailer park.

BTW , we will be getting into some remote areas and may not have WiFi or Cell Service.
There may be a delay in your next installment of Gettin’ Looped 2017.com

 

Jul 29 – Sun
On Sunday we traveled from Campbellford to Hastings Ontario.
Only 20 miles & only 6 Locks, so it should have been an easy quick day right ?
6 hours later we arrived at The Village Marina in Hastings.

The main issue was – Sunday boating !
We usually try to avoid it.
But there were so many little boats, fishermen, paddle-boarders, water-skiers, etc.
Because we are the big boat and leave a big wake, we had to slow down to 5mph almost the entire ride.
The little boats & jet-ski’s were like Gnats buzzing around the slow moving Gettin’ Looped.

We traveled & locked together all day with our new Looper friends Gypsie – Mike & Patsy Kelly.

Along the ride, we saw many nice homes & cottages. It reminded us of boating up on Secord Lake in Michigan with The Spraggs, Schellers, & Klines.

We saw some remote areas with folks riding horses.

We arrived at Hastings Village Marina about 2pm.

Some of our blog followers may remember that Hastings was a special place for me & Jonell.
In July of 2015, we came to Hastings, and it was this town where we had met and joined Richard & Katherine Cope on a boat named Kat in the Hat, for a 1 week trial run of Looping to make sure it was really for us.
The return brought back great memories.

Just north of the Hastings Village Marina was the last lock, dam & swing bridge that we had went thru during today’s trip (Lock #18).
When we walked to dinner, we had the opportunity to see the lock, dam, and swing bridge from land.

We had planned dinner with several other Loopers or Looper friends, at a place called McGillicafey’s Pub & Eatery (moving up in the world, now we are dining at an “Eatery”).

On the walk home we went thru Hastings Pisces Park, and saw Pisces Pete & his pal Billy Bass.

That was it from our 1 night stay in Hastings !

Next Stop
Peterborough Ontario (also a special city for me & Nellie).
40 miles & only 1 Lock.

 

July 28 – Sat

Hey Blog Followers,
Today’s blog post is from Saturday July 28th.
Our plan for the day was to travel from Trenton Ontario to Campbellford Ontario.
It would be only  a 32 mile trip, but thru 12 Locks !
If this was the Erie Canal, I would say – No Way, 12 Locks in one day.
But lockmaster Tom, at lock #1, advised that we should be able to do the trip in 6-7 hours.

But our first order of business was gettin’ fuel & pumping out the heads.
We left the beautiful Trent Port Marina about 7:30am, to be ready at the Trenton City Fuel Dock for the 8am opening.

We arrived at the fuel dock about 7:50am, got tied up, and noticed the sign on the pump out station – “sorry folks, the pump out station is out-of-order”
Oh Crap, cross your legs Nellie, the heads are almost full !

On top of the good news (not) regarding the pump out, it was also our first fill up at a Canadian marina.
After converting the liters to gallons – OMG = $6.22 a Gallon !!!!
The most we have paid anywhere on The Loop has been about $4.60/Gallon.
I also confirmed that this was not a fluke, or an abnormality – this is what we will be paying throughout Canada (looks like more Subway meals coming).

After fueling, it was off to Lock #1 on the famed Trent Severn Waterway.
The Trent–Severn Waterway is a 240 mile long canal route connecting Lake Ontario at Trenton to Georgian Bay at Port Severn.  This natural waterway includes the Trent River, Otonabee River, the Kawartha lakes, Lake Simcoe, Lake Couchiching and the Severn River. Its scenic, meandering route has been called “one of the finest interconnected systems of navigation in the world”.
Lock #1 successfully completed.
Only 11 more today, and 40 more before we arrive in Georgian Bay.

As we were exiting Lock #1, we saw a couple dare-devil boys swimming & jumping off of an old railroad swing bridge just past the lock. These kids were crazy & fearless.
I would have never tried anything this dangerous.

The views during the ride were again very pretty (yawn) , We saw our normal allotment of beautiful homes & pieces of real estate.

We experienced yet another mid-day rainstorm while underway.

The ride into the city of Campbellford was gorgeous, with highly manicured, tree lined fairways into the city.

After the 7:30am departure, we completed the 12 Locks and arrived in Campbellford about 3pm, a 7-1/2 hour day.

We got tied up to the first come, first serve city dock wall.
It’s actually pretty nice digs on a nice manicured park setting called, The Old Mill Park.
The Old Mill Park has the biggest Canadian Toonie ($2 piece) in the world.

I’m not sure what they put in this Canadian drinking water, but while we were having drinks on the back deck, we saw some more young Canadian boys being dare-devils.
These guys were actually jumping off of the main bridge in Campbellford.
And it was not one, watch me jump, they were doing it over & over.

After watching the boys jump from the bridge, it was our favorite time of the day, it was dinner time.
We went to a place called Capers Tap House.
Set in an intimate 1890 heritage home, it was wonderfully old/historic house inside & a relaxing patio atmosphere on the outside, with a nice Jack Johnson type musician.

After ordering our drinks, and while we were waiting for our dinner, we noticed a guy in a mobility scooter at the entrance to the patio. He was by himself, and there were no tables left outside, so we invited him to join us.

His name was Ken (why, that’s my brother’s name).
As it turned out, this was Ken’s place !
He doesn’t own the place, but he lives close by and comes by scooter to Capers Tap House every day for a beer & order of fries.
Ken had a stroke about 4 years ago that robbed him of his driving freedom, but he uses the mobility cart to try to keep some sense of independence.

We had a great conversation for about 90 minutes.
I treated for his beer & fries.

That’s all for Saturday July 28th, Eh ! (we are now in Canada, need to speak the language).

Next Stop
Hastings Ontario
Only 20 miles away & only 6 Locks.
It should be a lay-up after the 38 miles & 12 Locks today.

 

 

Jul 26 – Thu
Thursday was a long day travelling 71 miles from Kingston to Trenton Ontario.

We will be in Trenton for 2 days, and on Saturday begin our journey up the famed Trent Severn Waterway.

If you remember the last post, we had a rough ride on Lake Ontario, it was whipped up like a Lion.
Like a Jekyll & Hyde character, on this morning Lake Ontario was again a gentle lamb.

The winds were still somewhat high at 15-25mph out of the SW, but we helped ourselves & the wave situation a lot by taking a route on the far north shore of Lake Ontario, with the Horseshoe, Amherst, & Waupos Islands blocking the wind, resulting in almost calm water.
We had a wonderful ride, doing 20mph for the first hour.

We arrived at the beautiful Trent Port Marina about 2pm.
The marina is very new, having been built only 4 years ago in 2014.
The main building, the grounds, the docks, and the showers are all beautiful and immaculately maintained. The 10 individual shower rooms are cleaned twice per day.
AND, it’s only $2.00/foot.

 

After arrival, we had many tasks to complete prior to our start up the Trent Severn.
> We had to get a new burgee/flag holder.
> We had to investigate a Garmin Chartplotter Issue.
> We had to call Lock #1 to find out where to buy the Trent Severn Waterway Pass.
> We called ahead to reserve slips in Campbellford & Hastings.
> We washed the boat.

New burgee holder
Bummer of all bummers.
Shortly after departure from Kingston, I noticed that our AGLCA Burgee/Flag mast, was loose & wiggling within the body of the mast holder (thx to the 40mph wind in Kingston).
The last thing we needed to happen is for our beloved AGLCA burgee to break off and fall in the water (Oh, BTW – I just lost my 2nd hat while securing the flag while underway).
This is a big deal because our rail mounted mast holder is a replica of the Rolls Royce Spirit of Ecstasy female figure, given to us by Dave Sylver.
If I can’t repair it, I may not be able to get a replacement, and it is the coolest part of the boat.
FOR NOW, we have temporarily replaced it with a generic mast from the marine store.

Garmin Chartplotter Issue
Also during the ride from Kingston to Trenton, I noticed that all the water depths and markers from Lake Ontario were active on our Garmin Chartplotter, and operating normally. As soon as we got on the Adolphus Reach Waterway, just south of Trenton, the screen went to just a blue water blob with no water depths, no markers, no information.
Luckily while underway, we had backup with the IPAD Garmin Blue Charts Mobile. Both the chartplotter & IPAD have read the exact same info on the entire trip. We usually set the chartplotter up for a long range & the IPAD for short range views.
Upon arrival in Trenton, I remembered that I had not updated the chip in the Garmin Chartplotter to the Trent Severn/Georgian Bay chip (actually, it’s the same chip as the Great Lakes, which we had used when we first began the trip last July).
Chip updated, Chartplotter functioning normally again.

Trent Severn Waterway Pass
We were not sure where to purchase the pass to allow passage thru the Trent Severn.
So I called Lock #1, and the very nice lock operator Tom said, “you get it right here at Lock #1”.
He said “you can come by ahead of time, or just before the lock on the wall, or potentially while in the lock if we are not busy”.

Because we have an 11 lock day planned for Saturday on the way to Campbellford, we made a plan to go on Friday to get the pass in advance.

Slips in Campbellford & Hastings
We will travel to Campbellford Ontario on Saturday & Hastings Ontario on Sunday.
So I called both places to make reservations.

We learned that in Campbellford, there is only a City Dock Wall, and that it is first come/serve, but they have never run out of docking stations. We also learned that the 50A power stations are all on the east wall, with 30A on the west wall.

For Hastings, we did make reservations at a marina called The Village Marina.
I am getting the impression that advanced reservations will not be a big deal here like they have been in some of the bigger cities.

After all of the above, Nellie & I spent about 2 hours washing the boat. It had been about 2 weeks since the last wash. Washings are needed much less frequently now that we are back in FRESH WATER.

So after all those happenings in the afternoon, we went to dinner about 7pm.
We walked the downtown, the riverfront, and ended up at a place called Tomasso’s.
Yep you guessed it – another pizza pie.
Tomasso’s is a pretty hip, upscale joint, at least as upscale as Trenton Ontario can get. The other bonus was that it was on a very nice piece of real estate on the Trenton River.

After dinner, we walked the riverfront, walked the downtown, and walked thru some parks. We walked by the famous “Gateway to the Trent Severn Bridge”, that we will pass under on Saturday.

I was a little sleepy after the big meal, and Jonell will not read me any bed time stories, so I ran into a nice old fella willing to help.

 

That was about it for Thursday ;
> 71 miles
> 5 projects
> Gettin‘ to know the town of Trenton
> and bed time stories from Roy.

What a day !

Jul 27- Fri
Friday was a much more low-key, laid back day.
There are a few things to do in Trenton, the most interesting being The Canadian National Airforce Museum.
But like I said in the last post, we are getting kind of overdone with museums.

So we spent most of the day on a long 2+ mile walk to Lock #1, to get our Trent Severn Waterway Pass, and watch some boats go thru the lock. We took the Jack Lange Walkway, which started out as a well defined path, then got smaller, then went adios as we approached the lock, and we had to walk along the lock entrance wall.

We watched some boats lock thru. This lock, and others on The Trent, are unlike all the Erie locks, in that the doors to the locks are manually operated via the lock operator and his assistant manually turning the gearing to the lock doors with a big lever arm wheel.

After watching lock operator Tom get his exercise, we met up with him and purchased our pass for the waterway.
Take a look at this baby !
Doesn’t look like $200 bucks Canadian, does it ?

After getting our pass, we took a taxi back to the downtown area, did some window shopping, and came back to the boat.

Mike messed with Canadian TV a little, as Hulu no longer works in Canada.
Nellie read her book.
Mike worked on the blog.

Day over, whew I’m exhausted, time for afternoon drinks & thinking about where we will eat !
Dinner was back on the beautiful Trent River at a place called The Post.

While walking to The Post, we went through the local park, where Trenton was having Friday night concerts in the park. The band was playing 50’s music in a beautiful setting.

About 30 minutes after we arrived at The Post, while we were having some pre-dinner drinks, and waiting on our meal, Jonell noticed a familiar face.
It was a guy named Glen who we had just met in the boat slip right next to ours in the marina. All of the outdoor tables at The Post were now full & the social butterfly Nellie said “why don’t we invite them to join us”.

I did.
They accepted.
It was another one of those wonderful, by chance meetings, in which we met another awesome couple.
Glen & Robin live in Toronto.
Glen has been a sail boater since age 4, and currently races twice per week.
Robin has been sail boating with Glen for the last 15 years.
They have a son in his early 20’s studying law.
They are about 3 years away from retirement and have bigger plans than us which include trips to the British Virgin Islands & The Mediterranean.
They recently (last year) replaced their longtime 37 foot sailboat with a fairly new beautiful 47 foot Benetau.
The conversation was endless, we loved their company.

On the walk home back to the boat, we noticed a gorgeous sunset over the Trent River.

 

 
Tomorrow will be an interesting day ; it will be our 1st voyage in the Trent Severn Locks, and we are planning on going from Trenton to Campbellford Ontario.

Campbellford is only 31 miles away, but there are 11 Locks to pass thru.
If this was the Erie Canal, I would say no-way.
But Lock operator Tom tells me we should be able to do it in about 6 hours.
We also have to fuel & pump out heads tomorrow morning, so it will be an early 7:30am start.

 

Jul 24 – Tue
Unlike Monday when Lake Ontario was a nice happy puppy, on Tuesday Lake Ontario was whipped up like an angry Lion & provided our worst ride since crossing Lake Michigan into Chicago last August.

The ride was not so rough, but the ability to steer & the rocking back and forth was not fun. We had following seas at our port stern corner (waves behind the boat at a 45 degree angle). It was only a 41 mile trip, but took 5 hours and felt like 8 hours.
While attempting to steer straight, the boat would sometimes take +/- 45 degree turns induced by the following seas. We attempted some changes in speed & tack which helped a bit, but also extended the distance from our desired route.

When we arrived at Kingston, the wind was howling at 25-30mph, with gust to 40mph. The dockhands had their hands full, there were about 4 boats ahead of us, so we had to wait in the bay for about 30 minutes for docking assistance.

After being called in by the dockhands we entered the marina.
Unlike most marinas we go to, we usually know our slip and research where it is at in the marina ahead of time. At Kingston they assign the slips as you arrive, and talk you in on the fly.
Well, we are now on Port #112.
That means during entry & exit, we have had 224 chances for something to go “not so well”.
We had our 2nd contact to another boat, again hitting another boat’s anchor while docking.
The good news was no damage to our neighboring boat, and only a small gelcoat repair on our poor little baby, Gettin’ Looped. Our neighboring boat is owned by Alan, he is Canadian, very friendly, and was very understanding given the conditions.

Lesson of the Day #1 (already knew this, but violated both rules) = Don’t go out above 25mph winds, and head into the wind when docking (I was somewhat inhibited by this due to the unknown marina, slip location, and limited area to turn around and head into the wind).
Lesson of the Day #2 = Buy a Boat with Bow/Stern Thrusters, or don’t go out into foreign marinas on days with winds above 25mph. We are the only Looper boat that I am aware of greater than 40 feet, without thrusters. But we are also one of the oldest vessels doing The Loop.

 

After gettin’ tied up, we spent most of the afternoon getting used to our new mode of operation in a foreign country.

First step was to call into Canadian Customs.
I had prepared my list of answers to the questions AGLCA had advised us of –
> Port of Entry = Kingston Ontario, Confederation Basin
> Vessel Registration = MC  4744 LF (Michigan Registration)
> Destination in Canada = Doing Loop, Trent Severn-Georgian Bay, exit at Meldrum Bay
> Length of stay in Canada = est 29 days
> Purpose of Trip = Great Loop Pleasure Boating
> Names, DOB, Passport #s = Mike & Nellie
> Anything to Declare = No
> Do you have any Fire Arms = No
> Do you have any Alcohol or Tobacco = Yes, we are carrying a legal amount of  SHIPS Stores !

In case you are interested, legal ships stores for Alcohol & Beer is ;
> Spirits/Wines = (40 Oz) x (# People) x (# Weeks in Canada) = 40x2x4=320 Oz (13 bottles)
> Beer = (288 Oz) x (# People) x (# Weeks in Canada) = 288x2x4=2304 Oz (8 cases)

I had my list ready, but we had a very nice Customs inspector, and the process went very smoothly with the Legal Ships Stores answer.
We received our Canadian Customs Clearance Number.
We posted the Clearance Number on both sides of the boat.
We raised our small Canadian burgee, as a common courtesy while in their country.

 

Our 2nd step of Entering a Foreign Country, was to deal with our phones & IPAD.
I had called Verizon weeks ago and made sure that we had unlimited international data for our cell phones & IPAD.

Upon entering Canada, we got the expected notice on the phones & IPAD of “Do you accept Roaming Mode”, we answered yes !
My phone & the IPAD updated to Canada without issue.
Nellie’s phone had a strange pop-up happening every 2-3 seconds “process com.android”.
The phone was basically unusable, you could not activate any apps because of the repeated, cycling pop up every 2-3 seconds.
So I went into action to save the day !

To make a long story short – I tried to backup Jonell’s phone & do a factory reset.
The Good News = The Factory Reset got rid of the pop up, the phone is again usable.
The Bad News = I did not do the data backup correctly.
I lost all of Jonell’s Contacts, Text Message History, and Photos !
I felt terrible, we started to rebuild her phone contacts last night at dinner.

Note to Friends & Family = If you see this note !
> call or text Jonell’s phone
> leave a voice message or text message with your name (the caller ID will be unknown).
> this will allow her to rebuild her contact list more easily.

For dinner we walked around downtown Kingston for a while on a rainy night.
There are MANY choices for dining.
Kingston is an old city, with original settlements in 1673 & first organized as a city in the 1780’s.
But Kingston appears a very cosmopolitan/modern city.
We walked around for a while, and ended up for dinner at a place called Jack Astor’s Bar & Grill.

After dinner we went for a short walk and saw a little of the town on the rainy, wet night.

It was a long, fatiguing, stressful day.
We were very ready for lights out !
“Tomorrow, Tomorrow, I love you tomorrow, you’re only a day away” !

Jul 25 – Wed
Wednesday started off as another wet, dreary day.
But that did not stop the adventurous team Murphree.
We started the day with a little research of “things to do & see in Kingston”.
Holy Smokes , I found out that there are no less than 10 Museums in Kingston (maybe more) – The Miller Museum of Geology, Kingston Archaeological Centre, Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston, Pump House Steam Museum, International Hockey Museum, Museum of Health Care at Kingston, Royal Military College Museum, Military Communications and Electronics Museum, Corrections Canada Museum, & the MacLachlan Woodworking Museum.
There is also a shit-load of historic buildings & 3 Art Galleries.

I apologize, but me & the Mrs Murph are a little burnt out on museums, art galleries, & historic buildings.

We had only one day left in Kingston, and decided to cover the most ground in the least amount of time, get an overview of the city, and not expend a lot of energy – a Trolley Tour !

Prior to gettin’ our tickets for the Trolley, we took the mandatory KINGSTON Welcome Sign photos, where the visitors become the “I” in the word KINGSTON. The “I” became somewhat distorted by umbrellas.

We also got another shot of the Confederation Basin Fountain, and today the fountain was on.
After the photo shoot at Confederation Basin, the Trolley arrived and we started our discovery of Kingston.

The Tour included 8 stops at –
> The City Hall
> Fort Henry
> Market Square
> The Pump House
> The Bellevue House
> The Kingston Penitentiary
> Queen’s University
> The Royal Military College of Canada

The City Hall – Shown in yesterday’s post !

Fort Henry 
Fort Henry is located on a strategic, elevated point near the mouth of the Cataraqui & St. Lawrence Rivers at the northeast end of Lake Ontario. The St Lawrence River is essentially the beginning of the Rideau Canal Waterway, leading from Canada’s original capital city of Kingston to the current capital city of Ottawa. The fort and the point on which the fort was built were named after Henry Hamilton, former Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Quebec.

Market Square
Market Square was created in 1784 and was the site of an informal market established in 1788. It was the only location in Kingston where farmers could sell their produce, which was brought in by wagon or cart. It was the center of commerce and trade in the city and through the 1800’s. Public buildings, hotels, and shops developed around the square including Kingston City Hall which was built in 1844. As the city grew, the market came to consist of ramshackled wooden stalls known as the market shambles, which were destroyed, along with many of the surrounding buildings, in the Great Fire of 1840. After the fire, the market area was rebuilt with a new market building, which was attached to the new city hall, and the market was deeded to the city in 1848.
Market Square was renamed “Springer” Market Square in 2008 to recognize the donation of $1 million to the City of Kingston by the Springer family to help pay for the revitalization of the square (businessman Norm Springer, not Jerry Springer).
Archaeological investigations that took place in 2002-2003 in preparation for the revitalization project provided evidence of the history dating back to the late 1700’s.

The Pump House
The Pump House is located in one of Canada’s oldest water works plants – where steam-powered pumps provided the first running water to Kingston residents as far back as 1850. Only six similarly preserved water pumping plants remain in North America.
The museum’s most incredible artifacts are the original pumps, which are animated and visitors can discover exactly how they worked. Tours show how steam power was an essential element of the industrial development of Canada and how pumped water played a key role in Kingston’s history.

The Bellevue House
Bellevue House National Historic Site of Canada was the home to Canada’s first Prime Minister Sir John Alexander Macdonald from 1848 to 1849.
We did not get out of the trolley car for this one, it was a bit of a walk & covered with old trees.

The Kingston Penitentiary
Constructed in 1833–34, and opened on June 1, 1835 as the “Provincial Penitentiary of Canada”, it was one of the oldest prisons in continuous use in the world at the time of its closure in 1981. It was the home of 2 famous riots in 1954 & 1971.
On August 14, 1954, a two-hour riot broke out in the penitentiary—the worst in its history up to that point, involving 900 inmates. During the riot a breakout was attempted, but was foiled by the guards aided by 160 Canadian Army troops and a squad of Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers.
On April 14, 1971, a riot lasted four days and resulted in the death of two inmates and destruction of much of the prison. Security was substantially increased and prison reforms were instituted. Six guards were held hostage, but all were eventually released unharmed.
The Penitentiary was replaced by Millhaven Prison.
In 1990, Kingston Penitentiary was designated a National Historic Site of Canada.

Queen’s University
Queen’s University at Kingston is one the most prestigious public research universities in Canada. Founded in 1841 via a royal charter issued by Queen Victoria, the university predates Canada’s founding by 26 years. Queen’s is organized into ten undergraduate, graduate, and professional faculties and schools. The campus was quite large and had a LOT of buildings. It’s most famous grad may be Elon Musk of Tesla & Space-X fame.

We also passed some stuff that was not on the tour, but makes for good Kingston info.

We passed the K-Rock, Rogers Centre
Also known as “Leon’s Centre”, it is an indoor stadium in downtown Kingston. The arena is the home of the Kingston Frontenacs ice hockey team of the Ontario Hockey League. It is also the venue of many rock concerts, with the home sweethearts being the rock band Tragically Hip, of Kingston Ontario.
They have even named the attached street after the band.

The RMC (Royal Military College)
The Royal Military College of Canada (Collège militaire royal du Canada), commonly abbreviated as RMCC or RMC, is the military college of the Canadian Armed Forces. Established in 1876, the RMC is the only federal institution in Canada with degree-granting powers. The RMC is Canada’s equivalent of West Point (1802).
Like West Point, the campus was huge.

Old Homes
We also saw many old homes of late 1700’s / early 1800’s vintage. Below are 3 of the coolest ones.

 

Overall Kingston was a really cool, metropolitan city, with a lot of ancient history too.
It was even nicer late in the day when the rain finally subsided & the sun came out.
Totally different vibes with the sun out (& people).

Last thought on Kingston 
Do you know where the first hockey game ever was played in Canada ?
You guessed it – Kingston !
Montreal is quoted as hosting the first Indoor game in 1875, but the first game ever played is recorded on the Kingston Harbour Ice back in the 1840s, using a square wooden puck. The game was between Queen’s University Royal Military College & Soldiers from the Horse Artillery at CFB Petawawa.

Next Stop = Trenton Ontario, and the entrance to the famed Trent Severn Waterway, the Peterborough Lift Lock, and the Big Chute !

 

It’s a boring post.
Skip it if you are busy, wait for the next one.

Jul 23 – Mon
After a nice 3 days at Alex’s on the Water in Oswego, we headed off into Lake Ontario and the city of Sackets Harbor New York, our last port in New York State & our last port in the USA for a few weeks.

Our goal was to check into Canada in Kingston Ontario because the Border/Customs Inspectors are well familiar with Loopers entering this city and the marina of Confederation Basin.
Sackets Harbor is about half way between Oswego & Kingston.

It was a somewhat sad ending to our time in New York.
NY was a great boating state.
We loved the excitement of New York City and the Hudson River.
We loved the beauty & tranquility of upstate New York on both the Hudson River & Erie Canal.
We had a great time with Adam & Patti, at Half Moon Bay.
We had a great time with Dave & Ashley, on the Erie Canal.

The 1st day on Lake Ontario was nice & calm, we only had about 40 miles to go from Oswego to Sackets Harbor, but rain was a chasin’ us, and we hit the throttle for a while.
We did 20mph for 1 hour and made it to Navy Point Marina at Sackets Harbor in 3 hours, try doing that in a Trawler !
And the other bonus was DEEP Water.
After being on edge in many areas of the ICW, it was nice to see Great Lake Depths again.
We saw depths in the 600-700 foot range.

We arrived at The Navy Point Marina in Sackets Harbor New York early about 11am.
We beat the rain by a few hours.

Once we got to Sackets Harbor, it was all work.
I was late on my 4th oil change, and wanted to get it done before entering Canada.
Sackets Harbor was the only port in the last 3 cities that I could find the oil we use.
I had called West Marine in advance to make sure they had stock.
So Mike changed the Oil.
Sackets Harbor Mechanics actually disposed of the used oil for me, nice folks here.
Nellie did Laundry.
Pretty boring day.

We went to dinner at a pretty nice place called Goodfellos (Luv that movie, actually spelled Goodfella’s).
Had a great salad, some great bread, and an awesome brick fired pie !

On the walk back, it looked like Sackets Harbor would have been a cool town with more history, but it was off to Kingston tomorrow.

As Porky Pig would say – “That’s All Folks”

Next stop = Kingston Ontario (NE corner of Lake Ontario) !

Jul 20 – Fri
On Friday July 20th, we traveled 54 miles & passed thru 9 Locks on our way from Sylvan Beach to Oswego New York.

We have now essentially completed The Erie Canal, and will enter Lake Ontario on Monday, towards Canada and The Trent Severn Waterway.

On todays ride we had the usual nice scenery on The Erie Canal, and the Oswego Canal. We went thru a total of 9 locks, and 8 of them were actually on The Oswego Canal, which leads to Lake Ontario.
The Oswego Locks all had very pretty waterfalls on the back sides of the Lock Dams.

Along the Oswego Canal, we passed a small town called Hinmansville. I immediately snapped off a couple of photos on the chart plotter and sent them to our friends Dave & Ginger Hinman who spent 13 days with us back in May.

It was a very long day with the 6:30am wake up.
It is still somewhat surprising how fatigued we get just driving a boat ??

There is a lot of concentration watching the 2 chart plotters, water depths, and slowing down for marinas, moored boats & fishermen.
Even though we have been thru a LOT of locks, you are also always on high alert when gettin’ tied up to the Lock Wall, for strange wind flows or current flows inside of the Lock. We had a bit of this happening in several of the locks on Friday. It felt like the water fill currents inside of the locks were different in the Oswego Canal vs the Erie Canal, with the stern of the boat being pushed away from the wall in most of the 8 locks. We also had about a 20mph tailwind running right down the canal.
It reminded me of a time we had on our Looping God Parents boat on the Tennessee River in 2015, when we watched a 37 ft boat get spun into a 360 degree spin when entering the lock in Florence Alabama.
All went well, but it was a fatiguing day, 9 locks in 1 day is a lot, even for us experienced Looper Lockers.

We arrived in Oswego New York at Alex’s on the Water about 3pm.
Alex’s on the Water is a beautiful place right on the Oswego River, at the entrance to Lake Ontario.
Alex’s is actually part of the Oswego Best Western Plus Hotel, and has about 8 boats slips with power & water. It is really a nice beautiful place, with a nice fitness room, pool, and beautiful views along the seawall.

The Pool & Fitness Center

We got checked in about 3:30pm (boaters actually check in at the front desk of the hotel), had some welcome to port #110 soda pops, took some nice hot showers, and went to dinner about 6:30pm.

We went to dinner at a place called The Press Box Sports Bar. The Press Box Restaurant is within a long building called The Old Freight House. The Old Freight House apparently did not have a lot of history, nothing much came up on Google.
After dinner, we were even more fatigued, thanks to the full bellies on top of the long day.

We came back to the boat and called my sister Paula for the ceremonial singing of the famous Mike & Nellie rendition of Happy Birthday to You !

I believe that it was Paula’s 51st birthday (she is also known as #4, being the youngest of our 4 siblings).

We enjoyed a little music on the aft deck before retiring into the salon about 8:30pm.
Our docking slip assignment is right next to the stage for the band at Alex’s on the Water.

Happy Bday #4, hope you had a good one !

 

Jul 21 – Sat
Saturday morning I spent about an hour on the phone with Doug Edgar.
You may remember him as both the Beaver Island Police Chief & our tour guide when we visited Beaver Island Michigan, way back in August of  last year.

Doug is also the father of one of my great coworkers at FCA, Ashley Edgar.
We met Doug, and his lovely 1st mate Sharolyn, about 3 years ago when we rented a house in Cape Coral just after I retired (Spraggs/Scheller’s – can you say Jaccarranda !).

I spent an hour talking with Doug about places to see when we get to Georgian Bay & The North Channel. Doug has a lot of experience in these waters.
It sounds so beautiful, we can’t wait to see it.
Saturday afternoon we returned to tourist mode, going to a place in Oswego called The Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum.

Almost 75 years ago, Oswego was thrust onto the world stage by a decision made by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The two world leaders, fighting a World War in Europe and Asia, decided to open havens for Jewish refugees, & people in Europe driven from their homes by the Nazi regime.
Britain would open four in the Middle East, France would open two in North Africa, and the United States would open one. The United States Safe Haven opened in August 1944 in Oswego at the then unoccupied Fort Ontario.

Safe Haven was the only “Official” U.S. Government activity to Rescue Jewish refugees during the Second World War, for victims of the Nazi Holocaust. The Oswego refugees were transferred from Italy, but deliberately only as refugees from other parts of Europe. They were all fleeing from the Nazis. They were chosen so that some were also non-Jewish people to allay anti-semitic fears at that time in the USA.
They were placed in Fort Oswego, behind barbed wire, and given no official status, and were told they would be returned to their homelands after the war, and would have no rights relative to entering the United States.
Later, due to political pressure at the war’s end, they were allowed to stay in the U.S.A.

The Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum is a place dedicated to keeping alive the story of the 982 European refugees who were allowed into the United States as “guests” of President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Holocaust in World War II. They were temporarily housed at Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York from August 1944 – February 1946.

We watched a movie of about 30 minutes, in which many of the 982 refugees re-lived what it was like to run from the Nazi’s, live in hiding, & be some of the very lucky who were offered Safe Haven travel to the United States.

To be one of the lucky few, they had to meet several qualifications.
> Have fled to Italy, and have no other place to go.
> Have been assigned to one of the concentration camps in Italy, awaiting Nazi disposition.
> Have a cross-section of skills, to make the refugee camp self sustainable.
> Saving Groups of people was high priority – families, community groups, etc.
> No family diseases.

Because the refugees had no legal status to be in the USA, upon disembarking from the USS Henry Gibbons into the USA, they were kept track of with a Casual Baggage Tag. It was so interesting because all of the refugees in the movie felt so thankful to be alive and safe, they did not care about the tags.

The refugees did comment that initially, upon arrival at the Fort Ontario Camp, they thought that they had made a mistake. The Camp was set up like a fortress with a barbed wire fence leading to the large Fort Ontario door.
It was reminiscent of the concentration camps that they had feared.

After arrival at the camp, the refugees were kept in quarantine for a period of time. During that time the refugees spoke very highly about the folks of Oswego , who would comfort them from across the camp fence, giving gifts of; food, clothing, and even handing bikes over the tall fence for the refugee kids.

After being released from quarantine, the town of Oswego went into full support mode with the churches, boy scouts, and community groups helping to assimilate the refugees into a normal life.
The refugees spoke very highly of the leader of the camp, director Joseph Smart, and all of the Oswego Educators who taught them to speak English and allowed them to become part of the Oswego community.

Their ultimate fate in the USA was still highly in doubt due to immigration nervousness of the country. But in 1946, President Truman (successor to Roosevelt), with the urging of Joseph Smart & Eleanor Roosevelt,  signed the proclamation allowing the official entry of the refugees into the USA.
They were allowed official access into the USA, and allowed to relocate from Oswego if desired.

Only a couple of years ago, a woman named Ruth Gruber passed away at the age of 105 years old.
Ruth worked at the office of The Secretary of the Interior in 1944.  Ruth advised the Interior Secretary, ‘Somebody has to go over and hold their hands; they’re going to be terrified,'” Gruber said in a 2010 interview in The Sunday Telegraph of London.
That somebody turned out to be her, and as she accompanied the refugees to Fort Ontario in Oswego, where she interviewed them, & which became the basis of her book “Haven: The Dramatic Story of 1,000 World War II Refugees and How They Came to America”.

Saturday afternoon, we watched some Golf, and watched the local Duck nest her little ducklings.

On Saturday evening we had dinner at the very nice Alex’s on the Water, right next to our boat slip.
We ate dinner inside the beautiful dining room.

After dinner, we had dessert & another Guinness on the outdoor patio.

 

Jul 22 – Jul
Sunday was a pretty boring day, we didn’t do Nothin’ !
And we were cool with that.
Maybe all the museums, forts, historic homes, and restaurants are finally getting old.
Poor Mike & Jonell.

We went to Walmart’s to reprovision for our trip into Canada this upcoming week.

In the afternoon, I swam some laps in the pool.

We watched some Tigers (rain delay), NASCAR (rain delay), and The British Open.

That’s it, a boring day.

Next Stop = Hopefully tomorrow to Sacket’s Harbor New York, last stop in the USA before entering Canada. Winds are projected very high (Uck !)

 

Jul 18 – Wed
For those of you who enjoyed the last post and sang along to “15 Miles on the Erie Canal”, we continued our journey east on the Erie Canal, another “48 miles” & 5 Locks.

We now started to see some of the older Erie Canal Locks, and how some are in high need of maintenance. Lock #22 fit that description.

It was another long ride, and Ashley & Dave’s last day with us after a nice 10 day visit.
So we wanted to hit the ground running when we got to Sylvan Beach.

After some delays at Locks #19,21, and 22 – We arrived at Mariner’s Landing in Sylvan Beach New York about 3pm.
I’m not sure why they call it Mariner’s Landing, it kind of looked like a combo ;  Trailer Park , RV Park, and Marina. 

But after a few walks around the place and into town, we warmed up to the place.
The setting for our boat slip is pretty nice.
We are docked on the Pool’s Brook River (part of the Erie Canal), just east of Lake Oneida, a beautiful fresh water lake.
The views down the river & over to the Lake are nice.

Attempting to take advantage of Dave & Ashley’s last day, we strapped on our beach chairs & went for a 15 minute walk from the boat, thru the trailer park/ RV community, into the city of Sylvan Beach, & to the Lake Oneida Beach.
Along the way we also passed some “Tiny Homes” that Ashley was instantly attracted to.

The town of Sylvan Beach New York appears to be a small resort town with lots of eating/drinking options. Apparently it is also Pirate’s Weekend here this weekend. Not sure what that means, it starts tomorrow and goes thru the weekend, but we will depart on Friday morning.

After what seemed like kind of a long walk, we arrived at the beach, and staked out our claim.
Ashley & Dave enjoyed their last day with some swimming in Lake Oneida.
The water was nice & clean, but it was a very windy day.
We watched a wind surfer for a while, as he came up on a hydrofoil lift foot.
Windsurf Video = https://youtu.be/gZm7hYr3oQg

After a few hours on the beach, we went back to the boat, took some showers, and headed back out into town for some Live Music in the Park & dinner on Lake Oneida.
We listened to a music band called “1/2 Fast Eddie & the Rusty Nuts”.
The band was pretty good, and also had a female singer who did a very good reproduction of Tina Turner & Pat Benatar  songs.

After some music from The Rusty Nuts, we went to dinner at Harpoon Eddies, I’m not sure if this Eddie guy has a monopoly on the town.

As you can see, the restaurant was right on the beach, and when sunset came it provided for some more great photo ops.

After dinner, we came back to the boat.
Not so surprisingly, the internet is poor here, so we had no TV (OMG) !
So we had to resort to one of Ronzello & Gibbon’s favorites – TOMMY BOY !

Jul 19 – Thu
After a late night ending with Tommy Boy, we all got up at 2:40am to say farewell to Ashley & Dave, who had a 5:45am flight out of Syracuse New York !

After sleeping in until about 10am, we woke up, got our bearings, and prepped for another travel day tomorrow by refueling & pumping out the holding tanks.

In the afternoon, Nellie cleaned the boat & I worked on the upcoming route & marinas, as we will soon be heading into Canada & The Trent Severn Waterway.

We also received a batch of mail from our mail processing service; St Brendans Island.
We received some more Gettin’ Looped drink koozies from my great pal Dave Noffert.
This is the 3rd set of 100 Koozies that Dave has sent us.
We use them in the locks as gifts to the lock masters, for helping us with pass thru.
It is a practice among some loopers to give the lock masters inexpensive thank-you gifts (they are not allowed tips or any gift of value), esp on The Trent Severn Waterway in Canada. The couple that we spent a week with on their 43′ Hatteras in 2015, gave ink pens with their boat name on them (Katt in the Hat).
Thanks again Dave !

In the late afternoon, we went into town and had dinner at The Sunset Grill. It was pretty much a dive bar, but the food was pretty good.

After dinner, as we were heading to the convenience store for some milk, we started to see many of the weekend partygoers dressed up for Pirates Weekend. Captain Jack Sparrow was attempting to sign Nellie up for his gang of wenches. She resisted and decided to stay with Cap’n Mike.

Tomorrow is another moving day.
Next Stop = Oswego New York , Alex’s of the Water Restaurant (& marina we hope) !
54 miles, 9 Locks, & crossing Lake Oneida

This is a somewhat slow/sleepy post, much like the town we were in.
If you don’t have much time, go directly to the post on our 2nd day here – Tuesday July 17, and read the post about the Moss Island Pot Holes.

Jul 16 – Mon
We are again on the move with Ashley & Dave.
We covered another 42 miles heading east along the Erie Canal, from Amsterdam to Little Falls New York.
The ride was another beautiful ride (for most of the day), accompanied with 7 locks today.
This section of the Erie Canal runs along Hwy-5.
So at times, we were able to see the highway & some civilization (even a McDonalds). Other sections were completely encircled with greenery and seemed like you were in the Amazon.

The long ride again made for a tiring day, especially given our pace of movement over the last few days. The crew was wearing down, but we will have a 2 day rest in Little Falls.

Near the end of the ride, we approached Lock #17.
Lock #17 is different from all the previous locks, in that it has a drop door, not a swing door to enter the lock. The lock is also newer than most of the previous locks. Built in the early 1900’s, it is the largest lock in New York State, lifting/dropping every passing vessel 40 feet & replacing four old locks on the old canal with just one. The design includes a guillotine style lower gate and a concrete arch of which the boats pass under – the only implementation of such a design along the Erie Canal system.

The lock entrance was somewhat hidden around a blind corner.
The water fill into the lock was pretty turbulent, and we also had a 15 minute drenching rain with high winds while we were locking thru.
Deck Hand Nellie had to use all of her arm muscles to hang onto the drop line.

While exiting Lock #17, the rains subsided.
We arrived at the Little Falls Marina @ Rotary Park about 2pm.
We were the only boat at the marina/seawall.

Little Falls is a sleepy town, not much going on.
Ashley & Dave took a bike ride over the Mohawk River Bridge into the small town.
I attempted to reserve a car to drive 1 hour north to Cooperstown NY to see The Baseball Hall of Fame, and the park where my nephews Jake & Brad played ball when they were younger.
Unfortunately, the town is so small, I think they have only 1 rental car, and it was signed out (boo, no Cooperstown on this trip).
For dinner, we went to a place called The Copper Moose Ale House.
Marina dockhand Steve gave us a ride over to the restaurant.

After dinner, we walked the sleepy town a little, then walked back to the boat, about 1.5 miles, arriving home at dark and just before another round of rain storms.

We had lights out about 10pm, and it rained all night.

July 17 – Tue
Tuesday started out as a boring rainy start to the day.
When the rain let up it was still dreary out, but the kids took the bikes into town anyway. They went to the coffee shop, the bead store, & the Alpaca store.

Nellie did laundry and Mike watched TV in the marina courtesy room !

It seemed like the day was going to be a bust for tourism.
But about 3pm the rain stopped for good & sun came back out.
We went back to our original plan for the day, which was to go to nearby Moss Island and search for the famous “Moss Island Potholes”.
We had heard about The Moss Island Potholes from several locals.
But, exactly what are the potholes, and how interesting can a bunch of rocks really be ?
The end of the day turned out to be spectacular.

The story goes –
Moss Island is a small island, only 1500 feet long and 625 feet wide.
It is bordered by the Mohawk River on the north, and the Erie Canal to the south.
The Moss Island Land was made over a million years ago by Magma from the earth’s core, injected above ground, and crystallized to become hard rock.
It became an island when the Erie locks were built so boats could avoid the 40 foot falls. It is known for its extremely large (40-50 ft) potholes, as well as being popular with local rock climbers. It was declared a National Landmark in 1976. There are ongoing efforts by the local community to turn Moss Island into a New York State Park.
The potholes were created by huge volumes of water falling over prehistoric cliffs once located on Moss Island (like Niagara Falls).
Around 20,000-80,000 years ago, the melting glaciers that created the Great Lakes drained through the Mohawk Valley / Hudson River, supplying the water pressure which created the huge potholes.

We took a taxi to Moss Island.
We had to search around for the trailhead to get to the Potholes.
Once at the trailhead, we then had to walk about a half mile thru the woods to find the potholes.

We arrived at The Potholes about 15-20 minutes into the walk.
The rest of the story was just beautiful, spectacular, rock formations.

On the walk back from the Potholes, we saw some Rock Climbers, at least one good climber and some younger teens. Moss Island is supposedly famous for this also.

Rock Climbing Video (no Murphree’s involved)= https://youtu.be/shsGuo-KiYc

We also took a stroll to the Lock #17 that we had passed thru yesterday.
It was interesting seeing the lock from the land side.
We could see the motors, gearing, and links which activate to open/close the lock doors.
You may remember that the westbound entry door was a guillotine style, drop door.
The one in the photo below is the westbound exit door, a normal swing door.

After looking at the lock mechanism, we went to see some of the downstream side of the lock, dam & powerplant. The powerplant at this dam #17 supplies enough energy to power about 8000 homes.

There was a mechanism arm which is used to pick up large debris/logs from blocking the water intake. Ashley decided to see if the mechanism grabbers could fit a human.

After the fun time at Moss Island, we walked thru a tunnel under the river, and went to dinner at Ruggiero’s Italian Restaurant. It was an authentic Italian place with Sinatra all over the walls and on the music speakers. It was a nice setting and good food.

The night ended with Ashley & Dave going on a final bike ride in Little Falls. They rode along a path that follows the Erie Canal, and is supposedly right above the old path of the original canal and series of locks that were replaced by Lock #17.

Nellie read her book.
Mike worked on the blog.

Ashley thought that we must add this final note to the Blog, hope you enjoy it !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcNJ2RMOd3U

Next Stop = Sylvan Beach New York
48 miles , 5 Locks

Well guess what ?
It has been exactly 1 year since Nellie & I left on this great adventure.
It seems like yesterday that we had the great farewell party at Miller Marina.

As we said in the last post, today was going to be a long day – 37 miles, 9 Locks, 17 Bridges, and 2 Guard Gates !

We got off to an early start, and were at Lock #2, the entrance to the Erie Canal, at 7am.
Our travel day was awesome, our early start resulted in only 2 boats at the 7am lock opening. We traveled thru the first 5 locks with a guy named Dave in a sport boat with triple 250 outboards.

It was a long boring day, but also an exciting day filled with a lot of happenings –
Like I said, we went thru a total of 9 locks, under 17 bridges, and thru 2 Guard Gates

 

 

We passed a Casino – The River Casino & Resort in Schenectady New York

Nellie pitched in with some driving while Mike planned for the next marina !

We had some technical issues, with an impending failure of the rear bumper strap. Captain Mike caught it just before failure. Luckily, we had spares on board. Dave changed the part while underway and we were back in business.

We had some Dam Waterfalls !

We saw ski jump ramps in the Erie Canal.

After what seemed like a very long day, we actually arrived sooner than expected at The Riverlink Park Marina in Amsterdam NY, featuring Dan’s BBQ – aka The River’s Edge Restaurant.

After gettin’ the electrical & water hooked up, it was time for play.
It was a very hot day in upstate NY, and we started our Amsterdam visit with the Safe-Arrival Toast, and then a nice refreshing swim in The Fresh Water !
It was delightful.

Upon return to the aft deck, we were refreshed but it was still hot on the deck with the sun bearing down on us from the forward port side of the boat.
Dave & I used some Beverly Hillbillies ingenuity to create some shade on the aft deck, and all was good in the world.

Later in the evening, Ashley’s friend Jeff from Vermont was in the New York area, and stopped by for the night.  Jeff has had an assortment of trades, but is mainly a  sustainable home builder from the northeast. Ashley met Jeff nearly 10 years ago when she found his ecologically driven construction business online and spent a summer in Pennsylvania working for him as a young builder-in-training. He is currently taking 2 years off of “work life” to rework his own 1800’s vintage stone house in Vermont.

Team Gettin’ Looped had Dinner at Dan’s BBQ – aka The River’s Edge Restaurant. Right on the Erie Canal, the setting was beautiful and the food was delicious.

BTW – after dinner we saw the “No Swimming” sign right next to the boat. Good thing that we were just floating in the water !

Tomorrow will be another early morning, with our plan to go from Amsterdam, to Little Falls New York – 42 miles, 7 Locks, and 12 bridges.