The Burlington Reunion and Good-byes

Champaign reunion toast aboard the Kingfisher.

Champaign reunion toast aboard the Muriel June

Muriel June packs up her belongings for a winter in Vermont

Plastic tubs are piled high on the aft deck of the Muriel June as we remove two years of work, maps, and materials.  Some will be stored in the Gillman basement, while other materials will be shipped back to Houston.  Moving off the Muriel June this year is like moving from a home–because the Muriel June has been our home for virtually the past two years.  We will look forward to being back here in the spring to once again set up housekeeping.

Last night Joe and Abby Avertt arrived in Burlington from Louisiana.  They are former members of the Lakewood Yacht Club and their boat, Kingfisher, is identical to the Muriel June.  They left in the spring of 2006 and we have finally joined them.  This week they have several other couples with them who will be taking the trip up the Lake, through the Canadian locks to the St. Lawrence and to Montreal, Canada.  Last night we had a celebratory dinner, champagne to toast our reunion, and lots of catching up with stories to exchange.  Tomorrow we will once again bid farewell to the Kingfisher.

This weekend will be spent cleaning and clearing the Muriel June.  Tuesday she will head to Shelburne Shipyard for a two day process of winterizing her for 30 below temperatures. A tent will then be built over her for snow and weather protection throughout the winter.

Burlington, We Have Arrived! The Reunion!

Peggy enjoys a cup of tea as the Muriel June glides up a glassy smooth Lake Champlain.

Just imagine a brilliant blue sky day, with low humidity about 75 degrees and mirror calm water.  That was our ride up the Lake Champlain today.  We passed two trawlers and 8 sailboats with their masts stepped for the canal heading south.  We, alone, headed north, from a foggy harbor this morning about 4 hours south of Burlington.  After so many days of low clouds and rain, the brilliance of the day made us forget all those days of waiting in the Erie locks.

Burlington is a beautiful port town with everything in close walking or bike riding distance.  We look forward to summer days next year spent cruising on Lake Champlain before we head north to Canada and the Canadian canals.  Our nieces and husbands live here too.  So, we have family and a place to stay while we work on the boat, getting her winterized.

We still have the bimini down, the radar arch lowered, and antenae are all stepped.  We will keep it that way for the haul out which is scheduled for October 4th at the Shelburne Shipyard.

In  2006 Muriel June and King Fisher shared the same L dock at the Lakewood Yacht Club in Seabrook, TX.  We have talked over the years hoping to catch up with her.  She is the identical Grand Banks to Muriel June.  Finally we have met King Fisher and her captain and crew will join us on Wednesday night for a celebratory dinner.  What a reunion this is for us and for our Grand Banks! The champagne will be ready when the Avertts arrive!

Locked out of Champlain Canal and Into Lake Champlain

On the bow of the Muriel June Peggy looks out of a Champlain Canal Lock at the long straight section carved out of rock.

PCB Contaminated Hudson River bottom from General Electric plant is offloaded from a barge and sent through a reprocessing plant and returned to another barge to go back to the river.

Muriel June encounters another really ugly, low, and rusty railroad bridge we had to duck under.

Heavy fog this morning delayed our departure.  But once in the Locks we cruised right on through 5 more locks.  Lock masters called to the next lock to tell them we were on our way, the Lock 3 Yacht club cruisers who had been locked in for a month,  and also told us what to expect along the way.  All the lock masters came out to talk with us about the New York Canal System and the damage on the Erie as well recognize the Lock 3 Lock Club.  We reminded them that we had written a letter to the Director of the Canal and Governor Cuomo.  Alan continued to wear his yellow hard hat for low bridges and space junk.  Lock masters thought we might stay and help them spiff up their locks for their October 21st inspection.

Our weather window worked perfectly and by the time we got to Lake Champlain at noon, the skies had cleared and it was a beautiful 70 degree blue sky and puffy white cloud day.   We arrived at Crown Point Bridge and marina about 4 p.m. today.

Along the way at Lock 8 the General Electric re-constituting river soil from the PCB contamination were working away.  They were off loading the bottom of the Hudson River into a processing plant that looked like an oil refinery.  The reprocessed soil was put into another barge and replaced into the river.  Also along the canal were many farms with dairy cattle grazing.  Unlike the Erie, there are not major towns along this stretch, only farms and open spaces.  It was a beautiful fall day.  The original tow path for mules is still evident in most places.

Once in Lake Champlain, we lifted our fenders, and headed north to Fort Ticonderoga.  This is where the Americans held off the British long enough so that Benedict Arnold could gather his troops at Saratoga to defeat the British.  (Before he was a traitor)

Many have asked where is the Champlain Canal.  It does not go through Lake George.  It leaves the Hudson River at Ft. Edward and it cut through rock to the bottom of Lake Champlain.  In the old days, boats were portaged from the bottom of Lake George to the Hudson River.

Unlocked and Heading North: Fort Edward

Wearing his hard hat the First Mate of the Muriel June lines up for the ugly, rusty, low Railroad Bridge C-5 that we ducked to go under. We made sure no train was going across to flex the span.

Not only low bridges but also low flood gates. MJ lines up to see if she will fit under.

Champlain Sailing Canal Boat from the 19th Century.

What a great day and wonderful feeling to be unlocked from Lock 3!  All the lock masters and helpers were there at 7:30 a.m. to wave good-bye and let us through locks 3 and 2 on the Erie and back onto the Hudson River where we turned north up the Hudson and eventually into the Champlain Canal.  What a wonderful trip this was today with fall foliage, crew races, friendly lock masters and a bunch of dredges at Fort Edward doing chemical clean-up from a General Electric plant.  The feared low bridge at Mechanicville gave us plenty of height, a mere foot above our high point (16’2″).  Alan wore his hard hat during the entire trip in case of bumps from low bridges–or falling space debris.

We passed the American Revolutionary battlefield at Saratoga, the turning point of the Revolutionary War, and then as we passed Schuylerville their Regatta was just beginning with 4 shells with 4 person crews.  At Fort Edwards lots is happening.  Across the river there are tents set up for a Revolutionary War reenactment.  Parked in front of us is the famous Lois McClure, a replica of a 1862 sailing canal boat.    She sailed on Lake Champlain and then took her masts and sails down at Whitehall and became a barge boat.  The current Lois McClure is used to teach children about New York history and the importance of the canal transportation system.  Teachers can teach all subjects with their students on the boat from art and math to history and language arts.  We were privileged to meet Art Cohn who actually did the 1980 excavation of the original sailing canal boats that were on the bottom of Lake Champlain and have him sign his book.

Lock 7 on the Champlain Canal has a wonderful city park and for the first time in a month we have fresh water, electricity, and toilets!  Muriel June is finally getting a much needed bath and we shall get a hot shower tonight!   Tomorrow we will traverse locks 7-12 on the Champlain Canal and into Lake Champlain.

Back in Lock 3 and waiting

Muriel June with bow pole measuring 16 feet 5 inches with flexible "feelers" up to 17 feet. If the pole is hit we go into reverse big time. If the "feelers" are hit we proceed. We will be watching for the rusty bolts hanging down for the Champlain Canal

Muriel June rigged to be under 17 feet for Champlain Canal’s numerous bridges. Radar is the highest point at 16 feet two inches.

After a 5 day stop over in Houston to see the eye doctor for a retinal tear and laser surgery, we are back in Lock 3.  Tomorrow was supposed to be our departure day, but MORE RAIN and heavy rain is predicted, which means more flooding, locks closing, and too high water to get under bridges.  We have been here for a month now.  All the boats that are heading south have left, but those heading north are still here.  We returned last night to the Canadian geese who had moved back onto the dock, and no dock wine and cheese party. Although there are three boats left, we are the only people still on our boat.  I e mailed the Lock 3 Yacht Club last night to tell them we were back and missing them all and wishing them safe journeys.  The Scottish couple has already rounded Cape May heading for Baltimore in order to fly back to Scotland in October.  Two boats were actually loaded onto trucks and taken to their home ports. The three sailboats are now in New York City waiting for good weather to cross into the Atlantic around New Jersey.

We have made our grocery run and West Marine run.  So now it is just watching the weather and the river levels.  We only need a two day window where river levels are low and rain holds off to get to Lake Champlain.  We are beginning to think that bad weather is attached to us.  But, Alan warned that if the space junk hits us tomorrow, that will be some kind of sign from God.

We’ve learned a lot while here: how to live on 115 volts and 15 amps that are located more than 200 feet away,  how to minimize our water use and human waste issues, how to use municipal resources like transportation, and how to gather one great group of boaters together to help each other.  Our next blog will be added once we are under way.

Hair, Eyes, and Locks

This has been an interesting week of diversity.  On Wednesday I started to see headlights in my right eye.  I called my ophthalmologist in Houston and he said to come right in not realizing that we were half way across the country.  Southwest airlines complied and got us here by Thursday night and on Friday I was having laser surgery to repair a tear in my retina.  I have to stay in Houston until Tuesday to be checked and hopefully, we will return to the Muriel June on Wednesday.

The Champlain locks are now open and we’ve talked with the Lock master in Lock 3 who tells us that the water levels are dropping and we should be fine to go through the end of the week.  So, we plan to re-provision on Thursday and leave on Friday. We have 12 locks on Champlain and the two locks leaving the Erie.  Our plan is to be in Burlington, Vermont by next Sunday.  However, we’ve had so many failed plans, we hate to predict any longer.

Hair has been another issue we’ve dealt with.  One’s hairdresser is personal and Alan and I have had the same hairdressers for as long as we’ve lived in Nassau Bay.  But, traveling on the waterways, we’ve had to find different hair dressers.  In Annapolis Alan got the typical Navy cut!  In Lake Placid Alan and Kai our grandson both got the Lake Placid buzz cut.  In Key West, the lady said my hair was so grey and fine, she couldn’t do a thing about it. But, here in New York, I can say that I look like the rest of the New Yorkers with dyed  reddish hair, short and spiky.  Alan didn’t recognize me when I first came aboard the Muriel June after my hair cut and New York look.  We decided that a blog needed to be posted about our various hair cuts.  The most expensive cut I got was in Baltimore.  I have little hair to trim each time, but that cut cost me $60.  Alan’s Navy regular was $8 in Annapolis. But the worst cut for both of us was from Kathy in Chesapeake who could barely hold the scissors and we were both luck to escape with our ears.  When we got back to Houston last fall, my regular hair dresser said, “Oh my GOD, have you seen the back of your hair!???”   Unfortunately we don’t have pictures of each of the cuts, but it caused a lot of laughs along the way.

Lock 3 Yacht Club Gives Thanks

Group picture of Erie Canal Lock #3 Yacht Club in front of Yacht Club #3 entrance

Erie Canal Lock #3 Yacht Club shirt. Front says “2011 Hurricane Irene Port of Waterford NY”

Alan discusses Peggy’s thank you letter to the Executive Director of New York Canal System with a copy to the Governor of New York which all Yacht Club members signed

It has been two weeks since Irene hit this area and then a week later Lee hit the area with massive amounts of rain. The recovery is very much in progress along the Mohawk River, but it will take many months for the locks between 7 and 12 to open on the Erie Canal.  We are told that for the 15 boats at Lock 3 Yacht Club it will be about another week before we are released–assuming no more heavy rains.  All but the Muriel June will be heading south.  We have lowered our radar arch another foot, so hopefully, once the Champlain canal water levels recede, we will be able to head north into Lake Champlain and our winter haven at the Shelburne Shipyard near Burlington, VT.  It should take us three to four days for that journey.

Last night, we gathered on the Lock 3 dock with our official Lock 3 Yacht Club shirts to offer thanks to the wonderful New York Canal Corporation lockmen and women who have helped us these past two weeks.  We have a letter written and signed by the cruisers to thank the Canal Corporation mailed to the Director (Brian Stratton) as well as their public relations person and to Governor Andrew Cuomo.  Each of these cruisers has a story.

We have two  French Canadians  and several American boats heading to the Bahamas, two nordic tub boats who were heading to the tug reunion here at Waterford, four of us were heading to Winter Harbor for the winter and have made other plans, another boat is actually going to be trucked to Connecticut and the Scottish couple are going to harbor their boat in Annapolis and head back to Scotland.  We have discussed the American and world economy, politics, and society in general throughout the two weeks at our yacht club picnic table.  Here on the Lock 3 dock peace reigns as we watch the Canadian geese land in the mornings, the two minks swim across the spillway and scurry into their hole, and yes, Edith the spider protecting her dock and her huge egg case.

Erie Canal Lock 3 Yacht Club

Muriel June at the head of the Erie Canal barge dock in the "Lock # 3 Yacht Club"

Peggy stands in front of massive door of Lock #4 on Erie Canal which the Muriel June will not be going through this year

This lady spider measuring about 4 inches across greets us each time we exit the Muriel June

Rain has finally stopped but the river is supposed to crest at 2 a.m. tomorrow.  The water is about as high as it was during Irene 10 days ago.  This part of the country has been hit so hard by water and we wish we could send it all to Texas to put out the fires.  Although, we drove up to see Lock 10 yesterday, the Schenectady Gazette reporter called today to tell us that it was even worse today and NOBODY was allowed up there today.

As a result we spent most of the day getting caught up on paper work and taking a walk to investigate Locks 4 and 5 above us.  The flight of 6 locks on the Erie are considered an engineering marvel, and indeed they are.  The lock masters are very proud of these 6 locks which fortunately held out the Mohawk River and kept us safe.  On our walk we saw a river otter swim across the water above lock 3, scamper across the dam bridge and into its hole.  There is also a beautiful yellow kneed spider about as big as my hand who has a huge egg case attached to her belly.  She lives at the edge of our dock just where we get off the boat.  We are careful not to disturb her and are hoping she eats tons of mosquitoes.  This is the time for spiders to place their egg cases in strategic places for spring hatching.

Floods Continue from Tropical Storm Lee

Lock #10 Before the storms Note the Cranes no longer exist below.

Lock 10 has a bridge to nowhere. Mohawk River has cut new channel in foreground. Photo taken in pouring rain.

Lock 10 control house overturned in foreground. Temporary road to lock installed after Irene being wiped out by Lee. Photo taken in pouring rain.

Last Friday we had high hopes that we’d be able to move the Muriel June, but those hopes have been drowned with rain here since Sunday.  Swirling, pouring, lingering, tropical storm Lee keeps pumping in rain, rain, and more rain—so much rain, that any recovery from Irene has been cancelled.  Again, today, the prediction is 2 to 6 inches of rain.  With a rental car, we drove up the Erie canal to investigate the damage from Irene.  It is horrible!  Between locks 7 and 12 the Mohawk River’s rampage continues: over the banks destroying more homes and roads. Most of the damaged locks and dams were blocked, but one was right along the road and we could clearly investigate the damage.  We now understand that it will take a long time to repair these locks, especially since the New York locks normally close in November.

Over the weekend we drove to Burlington, VT, to check out the Shelburne Shipyard, the oldest continuous shipyard (1820) in the country.  We signed the contract for winter storage there.  However, once the locks have opened into the Champlain canal, water levels must drop to allow the Muriel June‘s 17 feet height to get into Lake Champlain.  We have 65 miles through 12 locks to get into Lake Champlain and those are both ascending and descending locks.  Currently, with all the rain, water is pouring into those locks from the side canyons making the crossing impassable.  We desperately need dry, warm weather!

Three more boats joined us here at the Lock 3 Yacht Club concrete pier.  They were tied to docks further up the Erie Canal at the Schenectady Yacht Club, a place we thought we might go before the lock masters convinced us that Lock 3 was the safest place.  The raging Mohawk River took most of the docks where they were tied, and they reported sleeping on the floor of the yacht club throughout the night with Irene pounding outside thinking their boats (Nordic Tugs) would be dashed down the river.  They held by one line.  But, the crews were visibly shaken from the experience.  Last Friday, one of the Erie Canal tugs escorted the three to our location.  So, we’ve welcomed them to the Lock 3 Yacht Club and safety.  The question being–when will be all be released?

Link to the flooding up here as reported from the Schenectady Gazette

http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2011/sep/08/0908_mohawk/

Locks are Locked Again

Bruce, Lockmaster at Lock 3, wishes the Muriel June safe travels through the Champlain Canal locks

While Texas is burning up, northern New York and Vermont are still drowning.  On Friday, we drove up the Champlain canal checking each of the 12 locks. They had cleared most of the debris and were almost ready to open.  That was Friday.  For the past three days, it has rained, and rained, and rained.  So, rivers that pour into the Hudson are now swollen again and filled with mud and debris.  The Champlain locks are again closed.  Of course the Erie will not open this year, and the Federal Lock to the south is still closed because of the massive amounts of water.  So, here we sit and wait for clear skies and open locks.

We met Bruce the lock master on lock 3 of Champlain today.  He was a retired Army enlisted man who had been with the 10th mountain division.  He was very helpful telling us what to expect once the canal did open.  He also loved telling us about his Army time at Ft. Devons, MA and Ft. Benning, GA both places where Alan was stationed and then most of his time serving in Alaska.  At lock 12 the lock master was scrambling to keep the levels reasonable.  Water was pouring down the mountain and he was manipulating flood gates that he’d never operated before which caused some of the marina below his gates to fall apart.

The Red Cross has set up a regular station down at the visitor center in Waterford where homes are again under water. Today as we drove in, U Hauls were backed in the streets and people were pulling out their furniture from their homes.  I think they’ve given up for the time being.  Red Cross was serving hot meals to the residents there who had no power or water once again.

Sadly, they are predicting three more days of heavy rain as Lee heads our way.  Sure wish we could send it all to Texas!

To see some pictures of how the locks look click on this URL http://www.tug44.org/flood/hurricane%2DIrene%2D2011/