Lady V - Great Loop Voyage: September 2017

DAY 103 - OSWEGO MARINE TO PORT CREDIT (158.3 Mi.)

Tuesday, August 15, 2017 ~ We needed to get fuel in the morning before we started our Lake Ontario crossing for home. The gas dock opened at 8:00 am and we were there ready to fuel up and on our way at 8:20. Lake Ontario was choppy for the first hour and a half, but smoothed out nicely for the rest of our cruise. This allowed us to rev LADY V up to her maximum speed. With the throttle pushed forward as high as it can go she can do 30 knots per hour at 2474 rpm’s. We had our way point from Oswego Marine to Lake Promenade and arrived there to fuel up again at 1:30 pm. We finally crossed our wake in Port Credit at 2:15 pm after being gone thirteen months. Stewart was at the dock to help us. It was sweet to be home. Astrid was in the area and dropped by shortly after with champagne and an appetizer. Monica with Ronin, Savana and Vivian came to see us around 5:30. What a great welcoming party. We are truly grateful for all of our family and friends who followed our amazing adventure on Loopers of Lady V.

Our 158.3 mile trip across Lake Ontario.

The Toronto Skyline after thirteen months.

LADY V will be crossing her wake at Port Credit
Harbour Marina.

Celebrating our return to Port Credit with Tante Astrid.

Savana and Vivian in their new outfits celebrating our
return to Port Credit with us.

DAY 102 - ILION MARINA TO OSWEGO MARINE (95.6 Mi.)

Monday, August 14, 2017 ~ The alarm went off at 5:30 am. I tried to get up and all of my muscles were so sore. Locking thru is hard work. It was a cool morning, only 58 F when we left the dock at 6:20 am. There were numerous delays between locks today. Sometimes we were waiting for the locks to be filled. Between Lock 19 and Lock 20 we had to wait for dredging barges to get out of our way. We are finally at Lock 21 which is our first lock going down and locking thru is much easier. At 1:45 we are at the first of seven Oswego Locks. Unfortunately Lock 1 did not let Lock 2 know that we were on our way and we had another half hour delay. Don’t forget the locks close at 5:00 pm. We are ready to offer ‘donations’ to the locks to allow us through. We leave Lock 6 at 4:50 and they say Lock 7 will allow us thru. Now we only need Lock 8 to stay open a few minutes later or we will be stuck having to spend the night on a lock wall without power. The Lock 7 lock master called Lock 8 and they said to us “Because you are LADY V they will lock you thru”. I had tears in my eyes. We locked thru at 5:20 pm. We had secured a slip at the Oswego Marina, which also closed at 5:00 pm but she stayed and we docked at 5:25 pm. Our final and successful 12 hour day.

Beautiful morning mist on a man-made portion of the
Erie Canal.

Erie Canal Lock 19 with a bridge in front of it.
This is our first lock today.

Dredging on the set side of Lock 19.

A deadhead in the middle of the Erie Canal.

A spillway and taintor gate.

A spillway is a structure used to provide controlled release of
flows of water from a dam into a downstream area.

Oswego Lock 8.

Looking into Lake Ontario from Oswego Marine.

DAY 101 - SCHENECTADY YACHT CLUB TO ILION MARINA, ILION (71.8 Mi.)

Sunday, August 13, 2017 ~ It is another great day for travelling as we left the dock at 6:30 am for the next lock. The locks are open from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm so there was no reason to leave too early. The going is mostly slow with a maximum speed of 10 mph or No Wake. We had an incident in Lock 13. One if the large fender holders broke, so I cleated the line I was holding to fix it as the boat was rising. When I got back to the line I could not release it and YELLED for Frans “Knife - We need a knife”. He raced down and cut the line. We could hear the strain on the boat as it continued to rise. We felt the boat drop about 6 inches. My heart was in my throat. It could have been so bad. Of course i never did that again. We did Locks 8 thru 18 today and docked at Ilion Marina at 3:15 pm. It was a marina and trailer park with very nice grounds.

Rexford Bridge, Schenectady.

Waiting at Erie Canal Lock 18 for eastbound
traffic to lock thru.

Typical Erie Canal scenery.

DAY 100 - NEW YORK TO SCHENECTADY YACHT CLUB (172.7 Mi.)

Saturday, August 12, 2017 ~ We were up at 5:30 am and left the dock at 6:10. We have a 134 nautical mile run up the Hudson River to the Troy Lock. The Hudson River is a well marked shipping channel. This is our fourth time on it and it is the calmest we have ever seen it. At Haverstraw Bay the river is at its widest, stretching 3 miles. It narrows to 800 yards as it snakes through a 15 mile long gore where West Point dominates the landscape. After the winding stretch we are in the “Lange Rack” (Dutch for Long Reach) which is a straight stretch for 10 miles. There are so many interesting sights along this river. At 1:00 pm we are at the Albany Yacht Club where we stopped for diesel and a pump out. They were having a Summerfest barbecue so I went up to buy some hamburgers for lunch. Much to my amazement they were free. We are only a few miles south of the Troy Lock so we continued heading north. From the Troy Lock we entered the Erie Canal and did the five Waterford Locks by 4:00 pm. We did one more lock and at 5:30 pm we docked at the Schenectady Yacht Club. They were having a potluck club get together and we were invited. A free lunch and now a free dinner after a long day on the water.

New York Skyline sunrise as we are leaving
Liberty Landing Marina, New Jersey.

Rocky Heights of the Palisades on the western shore.

West Point, NY is a preparatory school for
the United States Military Academy.

The Poughkeepsie Bridges, spanning 1.25 mi.
It was too expensive to tear down the old bridge when the
new one was built so it was turned into a "walkway" linking
New York and New England over the Hudson River.

The restored Saugeries Lighthouse is now a
Bed and Breakfast on the Hudson River.

Traffic Jam - We are waiting and allowing the big ship
'Star Gamma' to come thru a busy, narrow opening.

Erie Canal Lock 7 - Our last lock for today.

Schenectady Yacht Club showing some of the structures
from an old lock that have been saved.

DAY 99 - LIBERTY LANDING MARINA, NEW JERSEY

DAY 99 - NEW YORK CITY

Friday, August 11, 2107 ~ We took the Liberty Landing Ferry which takes us across the Hudson River to New York. It is less than a ten minute ride. We are only minutes from the 9/11 Memorial of the World Trade Centre. It was interesting to see the redeveloped area consisting of the Memorial and commercial and retail office space. This was followed by a cab ride to 5th Avenue. Here we took a one hour bicycle tour of Central Park. We then walked the streets of New York to Time Square. The streets were bustling with tourists like ourselves. It was a beautiful warm day to be out sight-seeing.

Liberty Landing Ferry which takes us across the
Hudson River to Manhattan, New York.

The 'Friends' Fountain in Central Park.

One of the twin Reflection Pools built as a tribute of
remembrance and honour to nearly 3,000 people killed in
the 9/11, 2001 World Trade Centre attack. The names of every
person who died are inscribed into the bronze panels.

The new One World Trade Centre.

Time Square in New York is a major commercial
tourist destination and the site of the annual
New Year's Eve ball drop which began on
December 31, 1907.

DAY 98 - ATLANTIC CITY TO NEW YORK (112.9 Mi.)

DAY 98 - ATLANTIC CITY TO LIBERTY LANDING MARINA, NEW YORK (112.9 Mi.)

Thursday, August 10, 2017 ~ We were up early awaiting the caterpillar mechanic who arrived at 9:30 to do the oil change.

He was very competent and finished shortly before noon. We left the dock at 12:00 for our run to New York. The winds were less than 10 mph and the Atlantic Ocean was even better than the day before. We saw a few fishing boats and freighters on our way but always had to keep a look out for fishing nets and markers not on the chart. Cruising at 28 knots we arrived at the Liberty Landing fuel dock at 4:00 pm. This is the third time that we are staying at Liberty Landing Marina. We were here twice with Dolce Vita.