Waterford to Catskills

We left Waterford at 8AM this morning. And passed through the Federal Lock – a long discussion between the state of NY and the the Federal government as to who should pay for it and operate it. Finally the deciding factor is that the Hudson River is tidal at Trop therefore all tidal waters are Federal jurisdiction not state.

Motored by Albany NY  - the state capital – very impressive buildings 

including the one with the Uhaul truck on the roof!

Some of the homes that we passed along the way have amazingly huge lawns – kind of like painting Mercier bridge – you start at one end and before you finish it is tie to start all over again!

The ride was fast as we had the dropping tide in our favour and we clipped along at 9.0 to 9.25 knots over the bottom even though our speed through the water was only 7.2 knots. Having the tidal flow in your favour is ALWAYS a good thing!!

The lighthouses on the Hudson River are identical in design to the lighthouse on Valour Island and the one that was on Colchester Reef.

We arrived at Riverview Marina at 1:30 PM and they wanted to get out mast up immediately – OK .. lets get it done! One day ahead of schedule – all is good. It was so hot and sticky but we struggled to do everything correctly to make sure that the mast went back up without breaking or damaging anything. It wasn’t  pretty but the got the job done and by 4PM the mast was vertical and standing by itself. It was crazy to see it when they picked it up by the middle and it was curved by a couple feet at each end!!! Sorry we don’t have any pictures as we were so busy making sure everything was good. No time for pics!

The wiring at the mast base still needs to be connected – Ambition’s rat nest!

This is not Shelburne so  few extra hands would have been a major help but we got the job done - Maryse was stressed and I was concerned  (that is British for "alarmed" LOL) –  our very dear friends are taking care of more important stuff than worrying about masts – big hugs to Liliane and Guy - we missed sharing this part of the trip with you but hope to see you in Annapolis guys - love you lots!

We finished the day BRUULEEEE!!! A big day indeed to get the mast back up and standing by itself in a couple of hours. Tomorrow we will get the boom back on, connect he VHF antenna and anchor light and then we can push off the dock heading for New York City.

Lake Champlain to Waterford

After all our goodbyes and dinners with family and friends it was time to drop the dock lines and start our next voyage south. We left Plattsburgh City Marina Monday Sept 19th late afternoon, there was only one or two other boats on the lake - it is fun to have it all to yourself sometimes. We anchored in Sled Runner Bay ready for an early start in the morning.
Ugh ... a 5AM alarm clock - the is almost just like work! The anchor was up and were putting along by 6AM - hot coffee and tea in the cockpit as the sun came up - the lake is covered in a light fog. Winds are calm and no waves make it a wonderful ride as the boat is very rolly with the mast down.

Quaker Smith

Towards Willsboro

View through all the tie down straps

Not much of a view towards the stern!

The day turned spectacular on the lake - we passed under the NY version of Champlain Bridge and the monument alongside. This really marks the end of the sailable part of the lake because it starts to get skinny south of here.

Champlain Bridge

Fort Ticonderoga

Further South Fort Ticonderoga 

We arrived a Whitehall early afternoon so rather than stop there for the night, we pushed on further through lock 11. A couple of pictures of the canal as well as lock 11.

We got to lock 9 about 15 minutes before closing time at 6PM but our VHF calls to the Lockmaster went unanswered. We were hoping to pass through the lock and tie up on the south side as the guide book says it the better of the two. Rather than "portage" Ambition around the lock, we tied up to the north approach wall. A super quiet night and very scenic. When we got up in the morning we could not even see the bow of the boat due to the morning fog.

We were blessed with some fantastic displays of nature in the fog as well as what spiders on speed can accomplish in one overnight!

Well at least nothing will fall overboard! The spiders have made sure to tie everything down in every possible direction!

Speaking of spiders - take a look at this monster! Just to put him in perspective ..... he is on a piece of 2 X 10!!!! He covered way more than a third of the plank!!! Maryse was so very grateful of me pointing this out to her right after breakfast!

The got strong enough to burn the fog away by 8:30 and we headed into lock 9. We mentioned to the lock master that we had wanted to spend the night on the south side but just missed him last night. He responded that perhaps it was good fortune for us as they have been visited recently by a black bear on the south side - the trees have had the back clawed off .... OMG!!! And I thought the monster spider was a threat!

The rest of the locks all the way through lock 1 to Waterford was uneventful and beautiful. We are so fortunate for the great late summer weather we are enjoying.

Now  you can appreciate when we said it was calm ... IT WAS CALM ...not even a ripple in the water made these two photographs really beautiful. Almost mirror images in the water.

Here is the technique we use in the locks - tie a dock line from the mid cleat around the post or wire imbedded in the wall. Then just use the boat hooks to push the boat off the wall - I do cheat sometimes and use the bow thruster to move the bow where I want it! The fender boards save the fender covers from getting all dirty from the lock walls. Remember your work gloves to push off the wall sometimes :-)

Once empty - this is what a typical lock looks like - we drop down in this case about 16 or 18 feet. We didn't have to share a lock once on this trip. It is rather impressive when you think that each cycle of flooding and emptying a lock consumes about 1 million gallons of water! Ambition thanks you!

Day ONE of the Voyage South

This week is the real start of our next adventure south. Maryse has done a super job loading on board all the supplies we will need for the trip as well as becoming very skilled at canning  lots of comfort foods in Mason jars. Ambition is now stuffed full and ready to go. Warm clothes for the first leg of the journey and bathing suits and shorts for the WINTER months - I know - that was mean! 

At Shelburne Shipyard, Ms Belinda has done a superb job of putting together all the pieces of our electronics suite for navigation and entertainment. All is calibrated and now there is absolutely no reason for us to get lost! Our navigation suite is made up of a Garmin 7612 chart plotter at the wheel which provides all our charts covering Lake Champlain to Florida Keys, Bahamas, Dominican Republic and all the Caribbean islands to Grenada including Bermuda. We also depend on our Garmin Wind, Depth, Speed and Autopilot - the last being critical for us, as 99% of the time the boat runs on autopilot - it does a much better job following a course than I can steer and MUCH less tiring! At the navigation table inside, there is a second Garmin chart plotter that mirrors all the information from the wheel and also doubles as a back up unit. 

To keep all the electronics up and running we use both solar panels and a wind generator to keep the batteries full. Of course the engine produces electricity when we are not being sailboat and Ambition also has a 8Kw generator that produces the same power as if we plugged into 120V at the dock. 

We are participating in the ARC1500 Rally - a group of about 30 boats that will leave Portsmouth VA around November 6th together and all arrive in the British Virgin Islands about 10 to 12 days later. As part of the Rally regulations we have dramatically increased our inventory of safety equipment and supplies. We use a SSB Radio (like a ham radio) to receive our weather information from our weather router (a weather guru!) and to communicate with other boats and cruising nets - kind of like a voice Facebook! If you wish to follow our progress we broadcast to satellite every four hours our current position, speed and direction. This web site will display the information for you on a Google map - https://share.delorme.com/ambition 

On Thursday morning this week Ambition was docked at Shelburne Shipyard and she looked like this:

By early afternoon Rick and his fantastic team had converted Ambition from a sailboat into a powerboat and now she looks like this: 

I really do prefer the Before vs the After pictures but the latter is necessary to squeeze under the bridges as we make our way from Lake Champlain through the canal that takes us up and over the Adirondack mountains and join up with the Hudson River just north of Albany NY. We will be converted back to a sailboat just a little south of Albany.  

We are almost complete with our lists!!!!

Ambition is almost ready for her trip south. Waiting on our rebuilt hatches to come back so that the 5 plywood panels can be removed - will make her just a little bit more like a sailboat. All the safety gear is now on board. Shelburne installed a Garmin chart plotter at the wheel.... a beautiful 12" unit ..... WOW!!! The older 7" unit is now at the navigation table below, as a back-up and also as a repeater for all the other instruments up in the cockpit.
Our appointment to take the mast back down and store it on deck has been booked - a SURE sign that the next voyage south is about to begin ..... we are really getting excited for the blue waters and sandy beaches of the Caribbean.

Maryse is doing a great job finding spots to store what seems like SO MUCH stuff on board the boat. Making room for food, supplies, endless amounts of safety gear a few bottles of wine and a beer or two for the captain! Oh yes ... room for ALL my spare parts and tools!

I still have to complete my installation to be able to send and receive emails by SSB radio at the blistering speed of 54K and how to send updates of our position and speed from the inReach satellite tracker to this blog.

More prep pictures coming soon.....

The seemingly never ending "To Do" list

Ambition has been back afloat since the end of May. Sailing however has not been what has been keeping us busy - our to do list of repairs and replacement of parts has been slowly reduced. And a boat is never without its surprises either! Our fridge and freezer installed a year ago stopped functioning properly and without a good local technician, I ended up becoming a refrigeration technician on Saturdays as I tried to follow troubleshooting tasks provided by the manufacturer by email. A little picture for you - kneeling on the base of the aft cabin bed with my head down in the hole - working by flashlight and voltmeter and little wires - could use at least two more hands to hold stuff - holding the voltmeter probes like little chopsticks - the flashlight falls into the bottom - so forget the voltmeter because you can't read it without the light - stretch down to get the flashlight and my glasses fall off and slide underneath the air conditioning unit - reposition to reach my glasses and kneel on top of a screwdriver. Oh yes ..... I am really loving this new technician experience!  A very typical boat project.
At any rate, after three Saturdays, many adjectives and a dozen emails  - come to the conclusion that the installer in Florida installed the thermostats in the wrong position causing the faulty operation. We are back to having frozen margaritas again!

The other main task is to get Ambition ready for a mid September departure - yes we are heading south with her again into warm winter water. The first week of November - weather permitting we will be heading offshore from Portsmouth VA to the British Virgin Islands. We have signed up to travel with the ARC 1500 Rally. We are replenishing our spare parts inventory and also dramatically upgrading our onboard safety equipment to meet the Rally requirements.
Survival At Sea conference and Hands On Learning sessions have been completed as has the Red Cross CPR and First Aid courses successfully passed.

We also have squeezed in some sailing days on Lake Champlain. We are always impressed with how well Ambition sails even in the lakes light winds considering her weight.

Spring has arrived!!!!

Ambition spent her first winter in Canada and she certainly hopes it will be her last! While spending a few months at Marina Gosselin she enjoyed a few months in the shop for some long awaited additions, improvements and repairs. The largest change was the addition of a SS arch integrated with the stern rails. That gave us the chance to add two 175W solar panels, a Wind Kinetix 400W wind generator which is planned to make us completely energy autonomous.  The Fusion sound system bluetooth and controlled via the NEMA200 network / Garmin chart plotter for tunes throughout the boat. New SS hand rails on the deck to replace the teak ones that had passed their prime - one less major maintenance item behind us. The lifelines have been upgraded to no-covered SS wire - the old ones were starting to corrode - this will make sure that we are safe from an accidental overboard situation, if one of them broke under our weight. Tons of small gel coat cracks have been patched - it is always difficult to know which cracks let water in the deck core and which ones don't - check - no chance of water infiltration. The lexan hatches had started to leak and crack after years of being baked in the southern sun and heat - replacements installed and looking so clear! The Icom SSB is back in working order with a new antenna tuner so here is hoping that this will have solved our reception problems and we will be able to receive the radio calls, weather reports and emails via Pactor modem.

A couple of photo's of Ambition back in the water and her mast set-up on deck. Next stop is Shelburne Shipyard to have the mast made vertical for a summer of sailing. We can't wait to actually have Ambition sailing again - it has been almost 12 months since wind moved her effortlessly along.

 Old Fort Montgomery built to protect Canada from invasion from the south but strangely enough today is sits in the USA!