Thursday, July 18
1 week 6 days into trip.

We woke at 6am at first light, and cast off Lock 25’s walls at 639am. We wanted to get an early start to see if we could cross Oneida Lake before the higher winds came which are expected tomorrow and Saturday.

Last night Lorraine put her sandals in the deck just outside the cockpit so that they could dry for the rain. She forgot about them, out of sight out of mind. This morning she found them, and guess what? They were wet from the heavy dew as you can see from the photo of the dinghy this morning.

. BTW, she just put them on.

They wind had been so light that there was an accumulation of pollen or something like that on the water. Here is a photo to show that.

It was still very humid, so humid that there was sea smoke on the water, that disappears after the water has been disturbed. Previously, we had seen it only when it was very cold.

We passed the Seneca Cayuga canal, which takes you south to the Seneca and Cayuga Lakes, which are part of the Finger Lakes in NY at 651am. Not too much later, we pass the ruins of an aqueduct that went over the Erie Canal years ago. The lines of the reflections are curved on the lower right side of the photo from our wake.

In this part of the canal, there are a few RV Campgrounds along the shore. Some have a dock for fishing from, and others have quite a few docks for boats too.

Phil and I were taking 1hr watches at the helm. Lorraine was tired after her watches, so took a nap on her off watch time. (She sure does like those naps!) We made good time getting to Baldwinsville Lock 24 at 1055am. Even though it was 92F, we made the decision to continue on. We checked the weather reports again, and it looked good that the winds would be ok for crossing Oneida Lake. As we came up to Brewerton, the wind picked up as we got diesel ($3.69/gal) at Winter Harbor Marina. Another check of the radar showed that thunderstorms were going south. We would go on the lake and check the horizon before making the final decision to cross. It quickly became apparent that there were no storms close to us so we made the decision to continue. The entire Erie Canal just opened yesterday, so there were 6 big power boats who also were crossing going west. We arrived at Sylvan Beach and were docked on the wall just past the bridge by 620pm. Not bad in our opinion. We were expecting this morning that it might take until 7-8pm before our day was finished. We had gone 66.35 miles today.

We’ve been noticing this trip that there aren’t many sailboats traveling south yet. I’m sure that we are ahead of the pack still, but expect after visiting all our family and friends, that we’ll meet them somewhere in the Chesapeake or ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) in October.

Diana from M/V Spirit who is docked to our stern, came to her bow and spoke with us. Her husband and 2 grandchildren are on their way to Buffalo to see their daughter. They are from Brunswick, GA and have made this trip many time as full time live aboards.

We had a cold supper finishing up the Beans Creole Style, cold broccoli and cold ham. Then chatted with people walking by until the sun went down behind the bridge and we could take showers. Lorraine is starting to lose it being sticky all the time and is really looking forward to cooler temps that are predicted to arrive in a couple days.

After showers, we walked to get ice cream, then continued to walk along the beach where there was a breeze coming off the lake. There is quite a bit of the green algae floating in the water, but people are still going swimming. It looked like what was in Fairport Harbor last fall, but not as bad. We passed Eddies Restaurant where Phil and I and then Phil and Colin had eaten on previous trips. On our way back we stopped at the Sunset Restaurant and listened to a live band playing. They were pretty good, but too many solos, which doesn’t make it enjoyable, for us anyway, to dance to. About 945pm, we started our our way home and heard another band playing at Yesterdays Royal. Unfortunately, they played only 2 more songs and called it a day.

Back at the boat, it was too hot inside since we had to lock up when we went for our walk, so we fought the battle of the mosquitoes and lost, but not before Jim from M/V HeidAway stopped by to talk. Him and his wife Heidi have the dream of cruising on their boat when they retire, or when the kids are set, but have a few years before that happens. They just bought their Silverton Sidewalk 392 so will have plenty of time to get her ready. It was very enjoyable talking with Jim. We found out that it’s the Pirate Weekend with a parade so I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the boats on the wall are here for the duration. As there are no services and our water supply is running low, we are going to continue on tomorrow morning even if we don’t go far.

Below are some photos that Phil took that I hope you enjoy.

They are Teagan, Lauren, and Riley from left to right in the car and Lauren, Riley and Teagan are watching the iPad in their special eating table. They were very interested in videos showing how to make Sesame Street character finger puppets from Play Doh.

This is our dinghy, which is our equivalent to a car for us. Phil made it and improved it from the last trip. It’s great to aim the pointy bow between the inflatable dinghies at the dinghy docks, gun the engine, and make a path all the way to the docks, most of the time just like parting the Red Sea.

. These are white ducks that we saw on our way for the kids. No other new animals seen, but we do see a lot of dragonflies, spiders, flies and of course mosquitoes on this trip. Did you know that once we hit saltwater, that the spiders disappear?