Summer of 2017

The commute to Westbrook, CT from Ipswich was about 2.75 hours and we tried to plan the trip outside of heavy traffic, so not bad at all.  Prepping the boat in April for launch in May was interesting, as well as a test.  We stayed on the boat while it was on the hard so that meant no water and no head.  We did have lots of blankets but we also had a heater that came in handy.  The test was in the middle of the night if one of us had to go to the head.  It was not only a long walk to the marina facilities, but also navigating the ladder to get on and off the boat.  Mascot was launched mid May and we were cruising Long Island Sound by May 28th.  We rented a slip at Brewer Pilots Point for the season and since we were also there for the winter, we were Gold card holders which entitled us to discounts on fuel and at Brewer marinas.  

We finally made a trip to Block Island in June as part of a rendezvous with other Brewer customers.  On the way we stopped to anchor at Fisher Island and then had a great cruise to Block.  Early June is the time to go, it was not crowded at all.  We anchored one night then went into Payne's Docks for the next 2 nights.  The docking system at Payne's is quite unique, they jam as many boats as possible into each fairway and raft boats together as well as to docks.  It's quite entertaining to watch  their process, you just do what they say and everything works out fine.  We celebrated Scott's birthday dinner at Dead Eye Dick's with 3 other couples and had a delicious meal.  We had a great bus tour of the island, walked around the town and enjoyed meeting new boating friends.  The second Brewer rendezvous was to Greenport, NY.  We left a couple days earlier to anchor at Three Mile Harbor and Sag Harbor, circumnavigating Shelter Island on our way to Greenport.  The town of Greenport has lots of shops, restaurants and a great maritime museum with a fire boat.  We had a private boat tour to Bug Light where we heard about the history and ghosts of the lighthouse.  The third rendezvous was to Mystic, CT.  On our way we went to Watch Hill, RI to anchor at Napatree Beach for a couple of days.  What a beautiful spot.  The best was gathering fresh sea clams for stuffed clams - delicious!  Everyone kept telling us how exciting it was to be inside Mystic Seaport after hours.  We basically had the run of the place, outside that is, none of the buildings were open.  We had a private tour of the newest building, the Thompson Exhibition Building, which was just amazing in design and exhibits.  Brewer did a fantastic job of hosting all three rendezvous.

Our last cruise of the season on Long Island was to Essex and the CT River.  We met up with friends, Brian and Jan, on Moxie for this cruise.  Essex is always fun and The Gris never disappoints for entertainment.  One night at Essex Isl Marina and one night at Hamburg Cove where we took a mooring for the night and had Moxie raft to us.  Perfect way to end our summer on Long Island Sound.  Would we go back?  You betcha!

Getting Mascot ready for cruising

Next time we'll hire someone to bottom paint

Our slip at Brewer Pilots Point

Enjoying an anchorage off Fisher Island

Payne's Dock - Block Island

Southeast Light - Block Island

Dinghy exploration in Westbrook, CT

It's a Brewer's party at Greenport, NY

Sightseeing in Greenport, NY

Bug Light - Orient, NY

New fender covers - handiwork of Mary

Anchored at Napatree Beach (Watch Hill, RI)

We gathered sea clams for Scott's stuffed clams

Gloucester exhibit at Mystic Seaport

Codfish was on the dinner table quite often

We had an endless supply of Gorton's, my dad (Mary) worked there for 40+ years

Mayflower II Restoration Project - Mystic Seaport

In desperate need of work

Massive shed for Mayflower II

Excellent photo exhibit - A Century of Women in the Rosenfeld Collection

Friday Happy Hour at Pilots Point

Scott climbed into the lazarette to replace light fixtures

Mascot and Moxie meet at Brewers in Essex, CT

August 2016 - Hudson River to Westbrook, CT

Now that we've completed the Triangle Loop, we are on the home stretch.  We traveled 5 days down the Hudson River stopping in places like Saugerties, Poughkeepsie, Chelsea and Croton-on-Hudson.  We only had one day with wind against current for a pretty unpleasant cruise, otherwise, it was beautiful.  Our stop in Poughkeepsie was to visit friends from RMHYC where we enjoyed a wonderful dinner. Thank you Brenda & Ted for welcoming us into your home.  While we were out for the evening, we found out the next morning, someone had hit our boat.  Not major damage but enough to scar her with a few scrapes down the starboard side.  The next day RMHYC friends, Harela & Vic, picked us up and we went to Motorcyclopedia in Newburgh.  This museum turned out to be pretty awesome with over 450 bikes on display from 1st half of 20th century.  Special emphasis on Indian motorcycles as well as military & police, choppers, scooters and more.  There were even a few for visitors to sit on for photo ops.  

We docked at One 15 Brooklyn Marina located just south of the Brooklyn Bridge.  We wouldn't want to spend an extended period of time on the boat here because wakes from ferries and water taxi's would be too much to take but for a one night stop, it was perfect.  What a view of Manhattan!  We met up with friends we met earlier in the summer and they took us for a bicycle excursion around the city.  Over the Manhattan Bridge, down the East Side, around the battery and up to 75th St where we stopped for lunch, then south to Warren St and back across via the Brooklyn Bridge.  27.5 miles!  Very fun afternoon.

Greenwich, CT is home to the previous owners of our American Tug so we stopped to visit them.  When they owned our boat, they had it painted at Brewer Pilots Point Marina in Westbrook and suggested we stop there for an estimate on repairing the damage done in Poughkeepsie.  We got a reasonable estimate and also found out they still had the paint on hand.  With Hurricane Matthew wreaking havoc on the East Coast at this time, we weren't going anywhere and since we were nearing the end of boating season in New England, we decided to leave the boat in Westbrook for the winter, have them do the work on the boat and then rent a slip here for the summer of 2017 to explore Long Island Sound.

Kingston waterfront rehab

Motorcyclopedia in Newburgh, NJ

More Motorcyclopedia

The new Tappan Zee Bridge

View of Manhattan from Brooklyn Marina

...and Manhattan at night

Auto in charge while Scott reads

August 2016 - St. Lawrence River to New York

My mudder is dead.  These were the words uttered as we passed a pontoon boat carrying 6 passengers heading east on the St. Lawrence River.  Our first thought was, oh no his mother is dead, what the heck will we do.  But after careful consideration of those 4 words and the fact he was speaking with a French accent, we figured out his motor was dead.  What a relief to us since dealing with a dead motor is so much easier than a dead body.  Doing what boaters do best, we set up a tow line and and towed them into their marina a few miles down river and waved good-bye. 

We began our journey south into Lake Champlain and eventually the Hudson River by way of the Richelieu Canal and the Chambly Canal.  The temperature was well into the 90's for an extended period of time so we took it slow and searched for air conditioning wherever possible.  The villages were very quaint, each with a personality of it's own.  There were family events and music events at most stops and of course we sought out cheese, bread/croissants and ice cream.  It was quite breezy as we entered back into the U.S. at Rouses Pt, NY.  Scott took our passports,documentation and the few fireworks we had on board up to the Custom's trailer to check in.  There was an electronic billboard before we docked flashing the message 'all fireworks must be checked in'.  Fifteen minutes later he was back to the boat with our clearance number and the fireworks.  The custom's people had no idea what to do with the fireworks so they were ours to keep.  Just trying to be law abiding citizens!

Anchoring was plentiful on Lake Champlain.  We anchored in Pelots Bay, St. Albans Bay, Deep Bay and Valcour Island before heading to the Champlain Marina in Mallets Bay.  Exploring, swimming, bird watching, boat watching and kids swimming were just some of the highlights to our days at anchor.  Once in Mallets Bay, we rode our bicycles into Burlington a couple of times for sightseeing and grocery shopping.  While in Burlington, we were also treated to an Air Show.  We logged 44 miles on the bikes at this stop.  After our stay at Mallets Bay, we headed off for more anchoring in Willsboro Bay, Kingsland Bay, Mile Bay, Crown Point and Ft. Ticonderoga.  The only anchorage we had a problem in was Kingsland Bay.  At 0500 the anchor alarm went off , we had 20-25 mph winds with gusts to 32 and to top it all off, we had wind against current with standing waves coming into the anchorage and we began to drag.  Scott started the boat, I put on my life jacket went out to haul anchor but of course it wasn't that easy.  The chain came off the roller and I had a beast of a time getting it back on in gusting winds and rough seas but eventually it was hauled and we set off for quick protection and a regroup.  After the events of the evening we took a mooring in Mile Bay.  Crown Point was a destination for us since a few years ago when crossing the Chimney Point/Crown Point bridge, we saw an American Tug anchored in this very spot.  We really wanted to get ashore at Ft. Ticonderoga and were told we could land our dinghy on the pebbly beach through the weeds and walk up the hill to the welcome center.  After a couple of attempts, we gave up.  Nothing is ever that easy.  The "Fort" is not boater friendly.  In my opinion they are missing the boat!

Whitehall, Ft. Edward, Mechanicsville and Waterford, and we've completed the Triangle Loop.  We saw a poster in Whitehall for Shakespeare in the Park, A Midsummer Night's Dream so we planned our day around this.  Great performance set on the banks of the Champlain Canal.  The Champlain Canal had lots of weeds, so much so that they wrapped around the propeller and caused a vibration when moving the boat.  Scott laid down on the swim platform and reached under the boat to the prop with a knife attached to a boat hook to cut it off.  We were able to continue then stopping at the next lock to cut off more weeds.  Eventually we were back to normal.  Note to self: don't go through the carpet of weeds in the future.  Yeah, Waterford!  The Triangle Loop is complete!

Doing a little shopping

Cruising the Richelieu Canal

Up close and personal in Willsboro Bay

Selfie at Chimney Pt (Mascot in background)

Shakespeare on the Champlain Canal

Inexpensive real estate along the canal

Lock 1 Champlain Canal-Triangle Loop Complete

July 2016 - Ottawa River & Montreal

Leaving Ottawa we descended the flight of 8 locks onto the Ottawa River.  For the most part, the Ottawa River defines the border between the provinces of Ontario and Quebec.  Water depths range from 6 ft to 100 ft with plenty of buoys to aid in navigation.  The Gatineau Mountains on the Quebec side were majestic and scenery along the river beautiful.  One of our must stops was Chateau Montebello, a Fairmont hotel, in Quebec,  It was built in just 4 months by 3500 laborers back in 1930, opening on July 1st and is claimed to be the worlds largest log cabin.  In 1981, the G7 Summit was held here with leaders Pierre Trudeau, Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and Francois Mitterrand.  It also acts as a museum with memorabilia and photo's of balls, international events and more covering the walls.
St Anne-de-Bellevue was one of our more interesting stops for boat watching and quite a tourist attraction with the lock front and center along with the boardwalk, restaurants and cafes along the canal.  The lock lift is only 3.3 ft but takes approximately 30 minutes.  The lock attendants will fit 20+ boats in the lock when busy, it's organized chaos while they load the lock.  The boat captains all know how to maneuver their boats and are courteous to other boaters.  We spent 3 nights here including a visit with RMHYC friends Louis and Tilly who graciously showed us the area between here and Montreal, as well as providing us with a car.  Merci beaucoup!  
Montreal has so much to see and do.  We checked out the Underground Mall, Old Port, Mont Royal, great restaurants, shopping at European & Asian markets, St. John's Oratory, Notre Dame Cathedral, neighborhood festivals and so much more.

Welcome to Chateau Montebello

Aux Chantignoles-main dining room

Marina facility

Hotel Lobby

St Anne-de-Bellevue Lock

St Anne-de-Bellevue at night

This yellow Smart Car was ours for the day to go into Montreal.

The other pictures are St. John's Oratory.

The Montreal Yacht Club

Sightseeing in Montreal

Notre Dame Cathedral - Zoofest & Just for Laughs Festival

    

Rue St. Denis & Rue St. Laurent