Saturday, July 6, 2024

7/4/24 - Kingston to New Hamburg NY (Whites On The Hudson Marina)- Independence Day and conclusion of this years journey

 While drinking our morning coffee we checked the weather and saw 95-99% chance of rain at 12-1pm.  Our original plan was to hang out in Kingston till about 11 before leaving as Whites would not be ready for us until 1pm.  With the impending rain we decided to go ahead and head for Whites about 9am. Renee drove the car down so Emile and Falicitas could get a boat ride. More nice homes , beautiful mountain views , some threatening clouds, and a few sprinkles but not a bad cruise.  Renee was waiting at the fuel dock when Erik arrived.  Since no one was at the marina yet we tied off at the fuel dock as there was no obvious open slip available(or big enough) for us.  Erik made omelets, bacon, and toast and Renee had stopped at Half-moon Cafe for coffee and a couple pieces of chocolate and cinnamon “Babka” to share ๐Ÿ˜‹❤️. Shortly after brunch Don arrived and guided us to our spot where we would be leaving Happy Destiny until they haul her out.  We walked the marina a little, began packing some things, took the enclosure down, and napped a bit until dinner time.  We headed to Poughkeepsie for dinner and had a very good dinner with VERY large servings at the Palace Diner.  Then drove into town and watched the fireworks. Fortunately the storms held off and we had a wonderful, but long day.


Heading off for a final cruise of the year
Kingston morning walk

Kingston

CIA from the Hudson River



Mark, we found you a boat!

Mountains and rocks along the way

More mountains and rocks

Final destination



Friday we were up early and packed everything up and got our girl ready to be stored till next year.  We sadly got on the road leaving our home away from home…until next year when we will continue to trudge our road(and waterways) of happy destiny!

Happy Destiny all buttoned up ๐Ÿฅน





Friday, July 5, 2024

7/3/24 Shady Harbor to Kingston - Familia and Our encounter with the C.I.A

 

 It was great to see Falicitas and Erik’s dad ๐Ÿ˜Š
They traveled from Ohio to spend a couple days aboard and bring us our vehicle as we are nearing the end of this years trip ๐Ÿคจ

Early start today meant getting moving shortly after the first cup of coffee.  Erik caught some sunrise pictures and topped off the water tanks.  While walking Riva, someone showed up in the ship store so we went in and browsed while waiting for the guy to get there that could fuel us up. 185 gallons of gas later ๐Ÿ˜ฌ we were shoving off headed towards Kingston.

Early morning pics at Shady Harbor Marina
“Can I get back off the boat to pee on more bushes?”

The views were beautiful as we continued on the Hudson River.  Lush green hillsides were surrounded by the shadows of the Catskill Mountains.  

Many gorgeous estates…many of them yellow ๐Ÿค” 
Passed by the town of Coxsackie ๐Ÿคท‍♂️ 
Derived from a Native American word meaning “Owl’s hoot”

 
Catskill Mountains and lighthouses 

After a few hours we arrived at Rondout Creek and the Hudson River Maritime Museum.  Just as we arrived and got tied up Erik’s dad and Falicitas also got there from Ohio.   

Museum explorers 

The museum was well done having lots of river and riverboat history; nice stop particularly given that it was complimentary with our paid dockage.   Next door was a wooden boat building and sailing school both associated with the museum.  The reminder of the afternoon was spent relaxing, making a quick run to the store and napping before dinner plans.  

Museum shots

We had made reservations at the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) to have dinner at their Italian restaurant, Ristorante Caterina de Medici.   The CIA sits on a beautiful campus right on the Hudson River in Hyde Park which was about a 20 min drive from our marina.   It was founded in then1950’s in Connecticut  and moved to its current location in 1970 (the year that we were born!).  The student staff were all friendly and willing to share their experiences at the school.   The atmosphere was very nice and the food was delicious but a bit pricey for our taste ๐Ÿ‘….   A fun and worthwhile experience though!  

Culinary Institute  

Familia

Beautiful evening 

By the time we made it back to Kingston and the boat it was after 10pm and we were all tired from the cruising, driving and activities of the day so bedtime was in order shortly.   



Wednesday, July 3, 2024

7/2/24 Waterford to Shady Harbor - Yes we moved!!!!

Spent the day waiting for Steve to arrive with the starter.  We sat drinking coffee watching all of the other boats head out and up ErieCanal.  Erik decided to move the boat so we could access the water so he could try cleaning the boat some.  Erik washed the outside of the boat and Renee worked on the inside to prepare for our guests, Erik’s dad and Felicitas. Renee biked to the hardware store to pick up a few things. 


After lunch and a short nap we took Riva for a walk down the waterfront and Steve showed up!  Before long we heard the wonderful sound of the engine firing up.  Steve was very fair with the bill and it was less than expected.  Renee made some calls and we shoved off pretty quickly to try to get to shady Harbor before they shut down the fuel pumps.  

Turning off of the Mohawk and onto the Hudson River the Catskill Mountains said hello

Erik gave the now running motors lots of petroleum as we cruised down the Hudson at nearly 20 mph almost the entire ride.  We had one last lock to go through shortly after turning onto the Hudson River.  

Last lock through of our journey this year
Hudson River Federal #1

The capital city of Albany

Started seeing multiple large vessels 

We did not make it in time to fuel up tonight but we will be first in line in the morning.  We walked Riva and explored a little then made some taco salad for dinner.  After dinner we went to the pool for a quick dip.  It was not near as hot as it had been but nonetheless we jumped in the cool refreshing pool for a few ๐ŸŠ‍♀️.  
Showers and a load of laundry, followed by a few phone calls and ice cream ( of course), before calling it a night.๐Ÿ’ค

You made the blog Mark!
๐Ÿ˜


Our resting spot at Shady Harbor Marina 

Tuesday, July 2, 2024

7/1/24 - Layover day 4 Waterford - We have A running engine!!!!

Like the turtle swims…
So our the days of our lives 

The day started as they do when we don’t have anyplace to be, drinking coffee and finishing blogs.  Erik made bacon, fried eggs, and toast for breakfast to fuel what would likely be our slow and easy day.  Our fresh water holding tanks were getting very low and there is no water at the slips on the wall here in Waterford as they are currently still working on dock upgrades to electric and water.  We did discover from one of the visitor center staff that there was one single water spigot up on the wall about 225’ from our boat.  The most strenuous activity of the day consisted of rounding up hoses from fellow boaters to reach that spigot.   Two young women aboard a sailboat who are on a trip up to Maine had and let us borrow two long hoses they had aboard.   Those in conjunction with two others from another sailboat out of Quebec and the two we have aboard made the stretch and we now had full tanks.   

We did ride across the Hudson a short distance to the grocery store to get a few provisions to make it through the week.   Staying close to the boat was the goal for the day since we were not certain when the mechanic might get parts necessary for either of our non functioning motors and show up to work on them.   At about 1pm Erik called him to check in and was informed that the igniter for the one engine had arrived and that he would be out later afternoon to install that, hopefully giving us one running engine.   Carousing the wall throughout the remainder of the morning and good part of the afternoon we chatted with multiple other boaters from around the country and Canada.  Many of them had their own tales of delays and mechanical issues to share as well; turns out we don’t have the only boat with things that break.   Some time ago a fellow mariner shared with us that “everything on a boat is broken, you just don’t know it yet!”……touchรฉ! 

Around 4pm Steve showed up with igniter in hand and after a quick 15 minute install the port engine fired right up; music to our ears!   He stated that the starter for the other engine was shot beyond rebuild and that his source for starters is reliable and will have a new one to him by tomorrow afternoon.  If all goes well there is a likelihood we will be up and running on both motors by the end of the day tomorrow ๐Ÿคž.  

After a dinner of leftovers we were visited by the gentleman from the farmers market whom had taken the aerial drone shots of us and the area on Saturday.   He brought down to us nicely matted prints of  two of the pictures.   They will make a good addition to some spot on our dirt home wall to remind us throughout the year of our beloved Happy Destiny ๐ŸŒž.   

Happy place wall decor for home 

The remainder of the day was spent with more relaxing through the beautiful evening reading, listening to music and visiting with another fellow friend of Bill who came by and sat aboard with us for a while.   God willing, we hope to be back on our way and cruising down the Hudson late tomorrow or a Wednesday morning.   This remains to be seen but what we do know is that the sun will rise and we will roll, or in this case float, with whatever the outcome is!  

Color us happy
๐Ÿ˜Š 

Monday, July 1, 2024

6/30/24 - layover day 3 in Waterford- Farmers market, more waterfalls and friends of Bill

Local setting up his stand for the farmers market
He was selling hot dogs 
Looks like a player…anyone want to buy a weiner? 

We awoke to another drizzly morning with chances of rain continuing through the morning.   Most of the rain skirted us which did allow for some vendors of the Waterford farmers market to come out and display their wares.   We had a mostly relaxing and lazy morning carousing the market directly on the wall where we are docked and came away with a few goodies.  Maple glazed cashews, a dozen farm fresh eggs and a nice bag of veges for salads and shish kabobs made their way aboard.  

                                                  Breakfast sandwiches with a little live music 



Around 11am we headed off on our bikes into the adjacent town of Cohoes to visit the Waterford Historical Museum and the Cohoes Falls View Park.   Learned some more interesting history of the area and saw some nice sites.  Our ride was followed up by yet more relaxation and a nice nap.  

Cohoes Falls View Park
We got scolded for “missing” the NO dogs allowed sign ๐Ÿ˜ 

Cohoes Historical Museum

Harmony Mills Lofts apartments 
In the late 1800’s through early 1900’s this was the largest cotton mill in the world 
Pic doesn’t do justice to how big it is
It stretches multiple blocks with spectacular views of the falls below 

Cohoes Falls 


We cooked up chicken and fresh vege kabobs on the grill for dinner and as we were starting to eat a guy approached the boat inquiring whether we were friends of Bill Wilson.  A nice conversation of recovery gratitude and life ensued.   We strolled the docks for a while striking up conversations with several loopers who had come in the evening before and/or earlier in the day meeting people from Georgia, Florida, New York, Minnesota, New Jersey, Canada, and the UK.  Neat to converse with folks from so many different places.  At a Lyle after 7pm we headed back off on our bicycles to attend a meeting where we again saw Mitch (fella who we had met earlier on the wall) as well as several folks we had met at Friday evenings meeting.  Can’t go wrong with discussions of gratitude and waiting for miracles!  

Afternoon entertainment was this photo shoot next to our boat of a scantily clad lady 
๐Ÿคญ

Back at the boat around 9:30pm and still not overly tired (chill days, naps and evening coffee probably played in) we found an action movie on Netflix that we laid in bed to watch until after the witching hour when we fell peacefully asleep.  

A guy at the farmers market had a drone and took and shared these shots with us
We are buying a couple of matted prints from him
He’s supposed to deliver them to us tomorrow

Sunset as we were crossing the bridge from Peebles Island on our way home


Sunday, June 30, 2024

6/29/24 - layover day 2 in Waterford NY - uh oh and double uh oh

Well….owning and cruising aboard a big 38 year old boat don’t always go as planned; today was one of those days.   We rose to a windy and rainy morning.   After relaxing for several hours and watching the weather maps we decided at about 9:30am that it looked at the maps and forecast and decided that we would move onto the Hudson River and head toward Kingston with a possible stop in Troy across the river to carouse what was said to be a good farmers market.   

Pre shove off checklist completed and port engine running we were that close to departure…uh oh, starboard engine would not start.  It wouldn’t even turn over.   An advantage to having twin engines can be redundancy.  If one fails we normally can at least limp along on one for a bit.   In todays case the redundancy of the twin engines turned out to be that Erik would manage to mess up the other engine while in the process of pilfering parts from the port to test components on the starboard by process of elimination.   

Battery switched out ✔️  ballast resistor switched out ✔️ coil switched out ✔️ solenoid switched out ✔️ unfortunately none of these tests made the starboard engine run.   Double uh oh….in the process of changing components back Erik managed to cross two of the multiple wires to the coil and ballast resistor causing a short which now had the port engine also inoperable ๐Ÿ˜–.  While Renee rode to the hardware and auto parts store to get some 20A fuses Erik stayed back and continued getting things back together correctly.  We were now down to believing it was likely the starter that was bad on the starboard and now no idea what we had done to the port ๐Ÿคช.   With a sore back from bending over engines all morning and into the early afternoon Erik conceded that we need the help of a REAL mechanic,   A fellow boater who was heading out, up the Hudson, recommended Lock 1 Marine in town saying that their mechanic (Steve) was very good.   A call to Lock 1 and speaking with co owner, Larry, had Steve headed down our way to the wall.   He was very nice and obviously knowledgeable.    After an hour or so of diagnostics he confirmed that the starter (likely original…38 years of starts isn’t too bad!) was shot.   With another hour or so of testing and diagnostics it was determined that the igniter on the electronic ignition of the port engine was bad; likely toasted by Erik’s accidental wire cross and short.   After removing the bad starter Steve left us stating he would need to get the starter into the shop to see if it is rebuildable on Monday or whether we will be able to get a replacement new one.   He was very uncertain where/when he would be able to procure the igniter needed for the old school Mallory distributor system ๐Ÿค”. 

We know it was a challenging day when our photo roll consists 99% of engine and component pics
๐Ÿค“

Discouraged and tired but trying to keep our spirits up we made multiple calls to cancel upcoming slip reservations at Shady Harbor and Kingston.  We also got on the horn with Erik’s Dad who was scheduled to be leaving McConnelsviile with Felicitas tomorrow morning early to head to Kingston to meet us and spend a few days aboard before bringing us home.    Unsure of timing and where, if anywhere, we will be going from here dad agreed to hold tight and wait to hear from us on Monday.    

We paused, had dinner, and then loaded up our dirty clothes and towels to bring up to the nearby laundromat.   While walking through town with Riva waiting for the washers to finish we did get a message from Steve stating that he found the needed igniter for the ignition online and that it should be here on Tuesday….maybe.  ๐Ÿคž.    So, here we are in Waterford for what will likely be at least 3 days, maybe more.   Bottom line is that there could be worse places to be “stuck”!   There are many things we can see and do here still and friendly people have been welcoming.   We will definitely make the best of things and figure/revise the plan as we go through the next few days.  

Lots to see and do in this beautiful area

“Plans are nothing; Planning is everything”…Dwight D Eisenhower 


6/28/24 Layover day in Waterford - Yes Darling!❤️

A fun evening at a great show!

We began the day going for a walk/hike on the “flight trail”.  The trail started at lock #2 and we followed a short path to a road.  We ended up following several roads and saw very little of the locks, canals, or views we had expected.  We gave up on the hike as the sights were not getting any better and headed back to the boat to make some lunch.  Erik had a meeting/call he had to be on at 2 so we doddled around the boat for several hours on odd jobs and relaxation till his meeting.  

Couple additional looper boats came in in preparation for their rise up to the Erie Canal

Beautiful flowers and girls adorn the sidewalks along the wall where we are docked!
Hydrangea is apparently the bush of Waterford….tons of them everywhere 

Some sites from our walk 

We had an early dinner grilled on the boat and took Riva for another walk before heading out on our bikes to attend a 6pm meeting held at the combination library/senior center across the canal in Cohoes.  It was a good meeting with about 30 local folks, some of which we stood around and chatted with after the meeting for a while before heading one block over to the historic Cohoes Music Hall for an 8pm show.   Erik had found online yesterday that there was a production, ‘Yes Darling’, that looked pretty entertaining.   The show proved to be just that…very fun and entertaining with outstanding music and talent from the small cast.  It was a comedic and somewhat improv musical show that did not disappoint.  Renee was fortunate enough to be seated directly next to a very drunk and belligerent lady who felt the need to sing loudly and shout out random noises continuously for the first half hour or so before she was first escorted by the theatre staff up to the balcony and then about 15 minutes later escorted from the theater by the police.  The  shows stars did well in utilizing their improv skills to handle teh interruption.  In the link below is a video of a previous show that is slightly different but the same basic content….very good stuff!   You have to go to the 24th minute on the video to get past the pre show silence and to the actual show.  Take a watch if you want some laughs.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiAT8GkfwPI  

 Gorgeous old theatre 
Signs inside indicating some of the many famous acts that have taken the stage over the decades 

The show lasted over two hours and we rode home in the dark after the show not arriving back to the boat until about 10:30pm where we took Riva for a quick walk and bathroom break before heading off to sweet dreams of today and thoughts of what tomorrow may have in store! 

Friday, June 28, 2024

6/27/24 - Amsterdam to Waterford - Locked Down

Waterford NY claims to be the oldest incorporated village in the US

Awoke to our usual coffee, Erik up before sunrise,Renee slept till after 6 ๐Ÿ˜Š. Erik made omelettes and toast for breakfast while our dock neighbors all shoved off heading west.  We called the lock about 8 and he said he could be ready for us in about 5 minutes. So off we headed for our first lock of the day.  The first of 10! The locks were 5-10 miles apart most of the day.  Again we were passing several loopers as we traveled eastbound.  The locks started off as about 8-10 foot drops at lock 11 and then gradually increased to about a 20 foot drop at lock 7.  Unfortunately, the wind was increasing too ๐Ÿ˜–.  


Some of the many AGLCA member boats we passed or encountered today

We arrived at a guard gate a little after 1pm.  This guard gate was closed and there was a pretty serious dam and waterfall the other way.  The wind tossed us around while we tried calling the guard gate on the radio and phone, then lock 6 with no answer. Finally a car drove across the guard gate and down by the wall in front of it.  When we saw he had a blue shirt on we assumed he was with the NY canal system.  After taking our boat information he said he would open the gate then drive to lock 6 to meet us there and lock us down.  We waited a few minutes for him to fill the lock then headed into the first of 5 locks (this system is also referred to as ‘flight of five’ just as the old, now not used, series was called way back in Lockport).  Each lock would be about 33-34 feet of a drop and now the wind was gusting and pushing us all over in the locks.   We have both commented that of all of the 100+ locks we have navigated in our travels some of these on the Erie Canal are the most challenging.   The main reason, in our minds, is that the majority of the ropes that are used to hold a boat to the lock wall while descending/ascending are not secured at the bottom of the wall.  With some of these ones today being 30+ ft drops by the time we were toward the bottom it would be difficult to keep the boat snug to the wall with such long ropes only secured at the top.  Long story short is that our arms, backs and shoulders got quite the workout today.   

Riva got a little surprise shower as we passed through the just lifted guard gate

Top left: awaiting the gate to open at the top
 Bottom left: view from inside lock at top of the flight
Top right: about midway down in one of the short channels between locks
Middle right: 3/5 way down in the channel
Bottom right: 4/5 way down in the channel

The system is really quite incredible.   Each of the five chambers dispels over 3 million gallons of water in less than six minutes as it lowers vessels down to the next river level.    There are short channels of only .25 - .5 miles between each of the five locks.  It took less than 1.5 hrs from the time we pulled into the chamber of the uppermost lock until we were down to Waterford NY at the confluence of the Hudson River.   165 feet lower in just 1.5 miles!   The other stressful part of the afternoon was that our starboard motor was acting up and stalling at idle speeds (we need to get this addressed….likely a timing adjustment needed).   It made for a couple of dicey moments both while exiting one of the last locks and especially while docking at the bottom in Waterford.   The engine stalled (could only be re started from lower helm with parallel switch engaged ๐Ÿคช) just as we were pulling up to a very high concrete wall with the wind roaring and pushing the boat in different directions.   We bumped the rub rail on the wall before managing to back off of it, restart the stalled engine from below and come back for a second attempt.   Fortunately, there were several Army Corp of Engineer guys on the wall who saw us struggling a bit who came over to assist in catching and securing lines.   We were HAPPY to be tied off and able to relax and take a breath!

        Doors opening and preparing to exit after the first 33’ drop of five…welcomed by beautiful view 

After checking in at the visitors center and walking Riva we took a walk up into town where we had our first full look at the Hudson River, saw a few historical sites and had a nice dinner at McGreivey’s (very yummy).  Even though we had split an appetizer and main dish we still did not have room for dessert…no fear…we got the bread pudding “to go” to enjoy later.  We dropped off our leftovers off at the boat and snagged up Riva to venture out to attempt at hiking off some calories at the nearby Peebles Island State Park.  We enjoyed the 2 mile loop of the entire island that had great views of the confluences of the Hudson, Mohawk and Erie Canal including some more tranquil waterfalls.   At the conclusion of the hike as we were preparing to exit the park we had a good conversation with a local young woman walking her two dogs (Riva was ecstatic!) who gave us good advice on what to see in Waterford and the surrounding area.   

 We will soon be in tidal waters
Sign talks about the Hudson being the river that flows both ways

 Views from hike at Peebles Island State Park
Last pic is a cheat on this blog and is the sunrise over the Hudson tomorrow morning 

Back at the boat we enjoyed a nice sunset, coffee and our bread pudding before retiring for the day.  We had a wonderful time exploring the entire Erie Canal and many of its offerings and are looking forward to a full day here in Waterford tomorrow followed by a trek south on the Hudson River over the last week of this years trip.   

Sunset on the Watertown free wall
Good nigh!
๐Ÿ’ค 


Thursday, June 27, 2024

6/26/24 - Little Falls to Amsterdam NY - ‘Power Down’ and Ski Club

Erik’s new routine is to find new ways to get Renee and Riva out of bed.  This morning he unplugged the boat and everything went off.  Once out of bed, Renee saw he was moving the boat so the loopers in front of us could get out easier.  We drank coffee and watched everyone else shoved off, one after another.  Most often loopers move in “floatillas”. This makes it easier to get through locks and such. Shortly after a quick breakfast of cereal Renee called the lock and he said he would be ready for us in about a half-hour.  We disconnected electric, untied and shoved off to head for our first of six locks today.  The first was a big drop of about 41 feet, and was different in how the lower gate lifted on big chains instead of doors opening.

First lock!
As we started to drop in the chamber a weep hole in the lock wall was spewing water onto the gunwales and into the galley window that we’d left open…oops

Shortly after the first lock we had planned to stop at a historical site that supposedly had a dock.  Unfortunately the dock was not in the water so we were not able to stop at Herkimer Home.  This was the home of a notable revolutionary war General, Nicholas Herkimer, and was built in 1764 https://parks.ny.gov/historic-sites/herkimerhome/details.aspx . We were bummed that we were not able to stop and see it ๐Ÿ˜Ÿ Maybe next time!

View of Herkimer Home from the river

Beautiful fluffy cloud day


We had debated on stopping in Canahoharie which was only about 20 miles from our days starting point but instead decided to motor on to Amsterdam which was a slightly larger town.  Our thinking is that this will give us two nights in Waterford (at the confluence of the Erie Canal and Hudson River) which we’ve heard really good things about.   The cruising was smooth and uneventful for the most part as the lock masters at each of the locks would call ahead to the next one to let them know they had a vessel heading eastbound their way.  The majority of the lock doors were open and ready for us to enter as we approached.  All of the lock masters along the canal have been very friendly and helpful; always nice to see folks enjoying their work.  We did have a minor snafu while exiting the last of the locks of the day for our trip.  Erik let go of the rear rope that he was holding that keeps the boat stationary against the wall as he always does and went up to the helm to start the engines and exit the lock.  It was rather breezy so the rear of the boat quickly began to drift off the wall when, of course, the starboard engine failed to start.  Ugh….he managed to keep the boat from turning sideways in the chamber working with the one engine and utilizing steering wheel/rudder but this is much more challenging than utilizing both engines and the controls only (think zero turn mower).  Renee went below and after a couple moments was able to start the engine from the lower helm by utilizing the battery parallel switch.  We need to investigate further why the starboard engine starts much harder than the port side (particularly when hot); Erik believes it is an engine timing issue.   With both engines now running and the boat righted we were back on our way headed the final few miles to Amsterdam.   

More of the many loopers we passed today
ALL still gong the wrong way ๐Ÿคช 

We were securely tied up on the free wall at the top of the lock at 3:15pm concluding the 39 mile days trip.  This free wall again had power so we plugged in and turned on the AC before unloading the bikes to head off into town.  We rode over to the Riverlink Park, below the lock, which had been our other option for mooring for the night.   Here we would have had to pay $1 a foot though so we decided the free option was for us leaving more money for ice cream! ๐Ÿ˜‚. Had we been a day later we would have been able to see the water ski show that is put on every Thursday evening.  Instead, we were impressed and entertained  by watching a youth ski club have their turn on the water.  Speaking with the grandfather of one of the young ladies, we found that the club is made very reasonable for the kids. They only have to pay $50 a year to cover an insurance policy and everything else is taken care of for them. They ski multiple days a week. The club is largely funded by donations from the community….very cool!   They were a good number of kids, probably about 15, Who were all taking turns getting pulled behind two different boats. For the first half hour or so it was apparent that it was the beginners taking their turn. Soon, though, many of the more advanced skiers had their turn on the water. It was very gratifying and entertaining to see these youngsters showing off their talents. Some were skiing up to four at a time behind the boat, others were doing trick  skiing and knee boarding, yet others were actually even even going over ramps…how fun!  We both decided that we wanted to join the club but alas at 29 years old we’ve both long since aged out of the age requirement ๐Ÿ˜ 

      What a great program Amsterdam has for their youth…hard to be on a cell phone while in the water 

                                                                               Fly high!

When we made our way back to the boat there were now several other boats that had come in to tie up on the free wall.   A couple were loopers but the most intriguing one to us was a fellow Marinette.  It was a 1989 Marinette 32 Sedan (exact same model and year as our previous boat ‘Aquqholic’).  However, ten years ago the owner  had repowered his boat by removing the two big old Chrysler 318’s and replacing them with a single Honda 60hp outboard.  In speaking with the owner he shared that he cruises at about  7-8mph while achieving 3-4mpg….quite impressive.  Could be a struggle in the maneuvering department or if ever going against a strong current though.   He left Maryland on the Chesapeake a couple of weeks ago and is headed to Toledo Ohio on the far western basin of Lake Erie for the annual Marinette Rendezvous; a slightly longer journey than we will be making this year but in the opposite direction and with ~1/4 of the fuel bill.  Not to shabby a way to go! 

     Trains roaring by along the Erie Canal have been a very regular occurrence almost all of our journey

‘Power Down’
❤️ 



   Speaking of powering down…
After another fun but exhausting day Riva and Erik had no problem doing just that!


7/4/24 - Kingston to New Hamburg NY (Whites On The Hudson Marina)- Independence Day and conclusion of this years journey

 While drinking our morning coffee we checked the weather and saw 95-99% chance of rain at 12-1pm.  Our original plan was to hang out in Kin...