Blog

On Monday morning we left Toronto behind us, crossed the end of Lake Ontario & docked at Port Dalhousie, Ontario.  From there we visited Niagara Falls (had been 25 years since our last visit) & the quaint town of Niagara-On-The-Lake with it’s beautiful historic homes & interesting downtown.  Friends had recommended visiting it & they were right.  The next morning we got in line with 2 other cruisers (after a 6 hour wait) & started our trip through the Welland Canal system which connects Lake Ontario with Lake Erie.  With it’s 8 locks it lifted us 326 feet with an amazing triple lock in the middle.  We were dwarfed by huge freighters going in the opposite direction.  A unique & educational engineering feat.  We finished at 10 PM & tied up along the village dock in Port Colborne, Ontario.  The following day we did a long crossing on Lake Erie & ended up in Mentor, Ohio at their Yacht Club.  Tomorrow we plan, weather permitting, to cruise on to Cleveland, Ohio.

We had a great sense of accomplishment as we left the Erie & Oswego Canals behind us and did an overnight in Rochester, NY with it’s great lighthouses.  We cruised across Lake Ontario to Toronto, one of our favorite cities.  While our Captain & 1st Mate left for his high school reunion in Iowa we enjoyed our time alone, docked right on the restored harbor front.  The Rogers Center & CN tower, once the tallest building in the world, lay just to our north & the entire inner harbor & boating activity to our south.  We had 2 old friends, Rick & John, on board for drinks followed by dinner at their favorite restaurant & a private party for a friend’s celebration in the heart of the nightlife district.  We enjoyed museums, shopping, long walks with Dylan & Dugan, the beaches & great sightseeing.  Tomorrow we leave for Niagara-On-The-Lake, Niagara Falls & the Welland Canal.

We spent the afternoon in Troy readying Tally-Ho by taking the mast & bimini top down to get her overall height under 20′ to accomodate the low bridges on the Erie Canal.  Early the next morning we enountered our first lock.  After that the canal split with the north route going to Lake Champlain & west (our route) going to Lake Ontario.  Our Captain, Steve, was very apprehensive about the low clearance, even after 4 measurings.  As it turned out, we had a couple feet to spare.  Interesting things along the canal, including a volkswagen bug on top of a smoke stack along with the usual array of odd houses, etc.  Dylan & Dugan got used to the locks going up during the 1st half & coming down the last half.  Quite an engineering feat with no 2 alike.  It was an amazing experience.  Toward the end the canal split again with us taking the Oswego canal to Lake Ontario & the Erie Canal continuing to Buffalo.  Even though our crew was very efficient it took all 4 of us at times to “lock-through”.  We put the boat back together in Oswego, right on the shores of Lake Ontario, with a beautiful historic lighthouse on the harbor point.  Tomorrow we start our 2 day run to Toronto, Canada.

Monday morning Trip’s brother, Rick, & 2 of our friends, Jeff & David, joined us on board for our 3 day Hudson River adventure.  It was exciting to see NYC fade away in our wake & move on to the rock cliffs of the Pallisades & the mountains beyond.  We docked at the Hyde Park Marina & had a wonderful tour of West Point Academy.  Later that evening we celebrated Jeff’s birthday with a fun dinner on board.  Tuesday we toured the Franklin D. Roosevelt mansion, museum & presidential library followed by a wonderful lunch at the Culinary Institute of America & a tour of the Vanderbilt mansion.  We continued cruising up the winding Hudson to Kingston, NY & docked right in front of the Hudson River Maritime Museum.  Wednesday morning we toured historic downtown Kingston (1st capital of NY), had a scenic luncheon on board & dropped our guests off at the Albany Yacht Club.  We continued a short distance to Troy where we will lower our overall height to under 20′ by dropping the mast & the bimini top to continue westward on the Erie Canal.

After leaving Cape May we had scheduled another stop in New Jersey but with calm seas running on the outside we decided to just push on & enjoy an extra evening in New York City.  It was amazing cruising into the city, passing the Statue Of Liberty & seeing the NY skyline from the harbor.  We docked at the 79th Street Yacht Basin, a great location to enjoy the Upper West Side.  We shared an evening with 2 old friends, Robert & Brandon for a great dinner & a night out on the town.  We had fun shopping, walking D&D in Central Park & catching up on the sights & magic of the city.  Our last evening we endured gale force winds on the Hudson & hosted a cocktail party (the show must go on) on board with old NYC friends, Gray, Brian, Pat, David, Wiggy & Cole as well as family,Diane, Rick, Rady, Catherine, and Bridgette.  And now we work our way up the Hudson. . . .

We left Annapolis the day after Memorial Day & headed north, under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, past Ft. McHenry & ended up in Baltimore a couple hours later.  We docked downtown at the Inner Harbor Marina, right across from the old schooner, Constitution.  Beautiful backdrop for Tally-Ho.  After checking out the sites with Dylan & Dugan we had great old friends from our horsey days in northern Virginia (Stephanie, Andrew, Cathy & Arnold) on board for drinks & dinner.  The next morning we headed to the mouth of the Chesapeake & took the C&D Canal across to the mouth of the Delaware Bay, stopping overnight at the Summit Point Yacht Club half way.  The next day it was on to Cape May where we visited our old friend Curtis & his partner, Will.  Curtis gave us a tour of all his projects in Cape May & we caught up over a delicious dinner at his hotel, The Virginia.  We were docked right downtown by the old fishing boats.  Great area.  Check out the photo of Captain Alan docking the boat along the boardwalk.  The next day was a long one as we decided 1/2 way to push on to New York City.

We really had a great time catching up with friends & family in Trip’s old “stomping grounds”.  We saw Trip’s sister Kate, husband Jamie & our 3 neices, Mimi, Bridget & Meredith & nephew, Chase, for several fun times together.  We also had a cocktail party (of course we did) & included old friends of Trip’s from his days growing up here as well as some of our Washington, DC & Virginia friends including Chuck & Georgette, Alan & Keith, Ellen & Derrick, etc.  We probably ate crab, in some form or another, almost every day.  Crew, Steve & Summer, were fun to watch at their first crab feast.  We docked right behind the Annapolis Yacht Club, which put us a couple blocks from downtown & all the activity.  Great people & boat watching!   A week culminating in an amazing Memorial Day celebration at the Yacht Club, all viewed from the fly on Tally-Ho.  Now off to Baltimore!