Farewell Great Lakes and hello Erie Canal.

Arrived at Port Colborne after three uneventfull days of sailing from Mentor Harbor outside Cleveland. The marina is right next to the Welland Canal entrance so we got our act together early and checked in with "trafic control" at 7:30AM. Since we knew this canal gives priority to the commercial freighters locking through, delay getting the go ahead is a real possibility. The initial time we were given was 2:00
PM which turned out to be 5:00PM.

We locked through with two other sailboats and arrived Lake Ontario at 1:00AM the next day. While locking through the 5th of 8 locks the first mate caught a locking line in the eye and was in immense pain.
After visiting the pharmacy in Niagara on the Lake, Ontario, Canada (which is the most beautiful town visited so far, sorry Cleveland and Sturgeon Bay) the next day, we're happy to report all is well  now. It is worthy to note that the 1st Mate showed up for her duties like a true "seaman" for the last three locks.
A bit of info to note on these locks; we were locking down so the turbulence is less than locking up when an average change in elevation is 46 feet forced into a lock about 40 X 1000 feet.  It took 5 minutes or so for all this to happen. 

Spent a very HOT day at the Niagara on the Lake Sailing Club before moving across the southern shore of Lake Ontario. A stop in the little resort town of Sodus Bay, population 1100 and three churches (the crew picked the Methodist one for Sunday worship), was a welcome rest for two days.
The town puts on concerts in the park over looking the Lake on Saturday afternoons. We biked over to enjoy two brothers performing Irish and other Folk songs.  Quite nice, actually.

Arrived Oswego, New York later in the day Monday due to a series of thunder bumpers that came through while on our 25 mile sail there. 37 Kt winds were anti-climatic after our 57.5Kt experience on Lake Huron.  Too windy to take the mast down so we continued to ready HD to be demasted the next day. The Captain performed all the prep work with guidance via phone from Chris who we met at Eldeans in Holland.

Tuesday morning Bernie at Oswego marina assisted by two hefty helpers and the crew accomplished the de-mast-task flawlessly. The mast with her rigging had to be readied for shipping to the Hudson River by the crew. Thanks to Chris' info and the first mate laboring alongside Captain, all was neatly done and given the OK by Bernie as the best mast-packing job he has seen. Hopefully the trucking company will treat her kindly as well and arrive in the same shape it left Oswego.

The crew is currently enjoying an extended shore leave of 4 days. It is "Harbor Feast" in Oswego with a expected 300,000 people to participate in the concerts, vendors, food and fireworks which are supposed to be second to none.

Since the MRI taken in Cleveland didn't show any tear in the Captain's rotator cuff, the first mate, who is also a self-proclaimed medical doctor, made arrangements to have the shoulder rehabbed with all the shore time available.

Food in Oswego is excellent. New York pizza, yea! 

Next stop - The Erie Canal.

Waiting 10 hours to go thru the locks...at least near downtown!

Those walls kept getting higher and higher.

We loved Niagra on the Lake-Prince of Wales Hotel was gorgeous!

Taking a break from the action.

Red sky at night....

Nice town to go back to

Bernie and Pete "into action"

Bernie and 1 of his hefty helpers

Successfully down!

What a job wrapping for shipping!

Our first "back-east" style dinner...scallops and sweet potato fries
at a little hole in the wall restaraunt near the water in Oswego.
Preceded by NY pizza for appetizer and NY pizza for dessert.

Peace and Love.

Leaving Cleveland with Good Memories

Arrived into Mentor Harbor Yacht club Sunday evening a week ago. Planned layover to have Tartan fix the lingering issues and to visit with my old Sticky and money friends.
After a slow start, Tartan came through with the coordination of Art Averall and the very competent work of one Tim Young from the factory. Now the engine works without the alarm going off  EVERY time we docked or anchored; the boom and mainsail actually go out by themselves; the anchor locker no longer takes on water while sailing taxing the bilge pump; the mainsail goes up and down the mast and the companion way hatch opens without the necessity of any body slams and other miscellaneous items are all working. Had the opportunity to meet and speak with both the old and new owners and management of Tartan to get perspective and insight on Happy Destiny.
All said we are happy with the current state of sailing fitness of HD. Thanks to all who helped.
While waiting for Tartan to show up we rented a car, had backs cracked at the old back cracker in Hudson Ohio, made a major provisioning run at Costco and had an MRI on the  Captain's sore arm.

• We had a wonderful last day with visits from the Zolans, Peruzzis, Crookstons and Rains. After a picnic lunch land side by HD, the Tartan folks finished their work and we all went for an afternoon sail leaving Marty to guard the beer.

With pleasant memories of the Cleveland area HD is on its' way to the Welland Canal which connects Lakes Erie and Ontario and then to the Oswego & Erie Canals to the Hudson River.
And just while writing this we received a picture of our newest crew member to be: baby Stuyck.
All is good and we are blessed.

Back in the USA

As it turned out Kincardin Ontario was our last port of call in Canada as we took advantage of SW winds and sailed back across Lake Huron to the Michigan shore and the town of Harbor Beach (HB). Before leaving our hot water heater hose broke and it being Canada Day, July 1, no  stores were open. I meet a fellow sailor also waiting for the hardware store to open who offered me a plug to stop the leak so  we could have water, if not  hot.
So at Harbor Beach we did find a hardware store who hooked us up with enough parts to jury rig it together. It has worked all the way to Mentor Harbor, Ohio where we are now. This is our planned stop at the Tartan factory for repairs which begin tomorrow.
After HB we sailed to Lexington and were hit with a line of thunderstorms with winds clocked by HD of 57.5kts. (that's better than 65mph if you don't have your conversion table handy) We only had short notice however being the careful crew we are we had the sails down and were as ready as you can be. The winds hit us from our starboard aft quarter with some small seas as we were just of the coast and that was where the storm came from. We did hull speed for a half hour or so and then the worst was over. We had to steer off our coarse to keep our speed below hull speed even while in idle. Good news again for our new home did her job and  HD never put her rail in the water.
When it was all over we were rewarded with a place at the sold out marina in Lexington and a front row seat to the 4th's fireworks while we ate a gourmet meal in the cockpit the first mate pulled together again.
We checked back into the USA at Port Huron, the first of the ports in the St. Clair river. We motored through the rivers of St. Clair and the Detroit to get us to Lake
Erie. Had a nice sail across the St Clair Lake which separates the two.We will miss the blue waters of Lake Huron. They are truly a magnificent.

A stop at the  island of Put in Bay then  Huron Ohio which didn't have a town? and we finally found the lovely boating community of Vermilion. We spent a planned second night with shore leave for the crew which was a nice change from the traveling we have been doing on this part of the trip. We had dinner at the 5 star restaurant,Chez Francois, which was as good a meal as we have had in a long time. (not counting the  home cooked delights which the crew is blessed with on a daily basis). We told the co owner this and that our sister is the publisher of Food Arts Magazine. He was familiar with it and Marvin Shanken and the past now deceased publisher which he was glad was not our sister.
The crew is anxious to get on with the next adventure which is the 7 to 10 trip through Erie Canal and then the much anticipated NY and NE coasts. We will leave here after the repairs are finished and visiting with some old friends from the Captain's second tour of Ohio.