Launch Day, 2012

BARRETT'S MARINA, GENEVA, NY - Today is splash day.... We were in the water by Noon today. Fran Barrett launched the boat and set it in her slip for us. When we showed up, the Lucky Find III was all ready to be re-commissioned and put everything everything back to normal....we will keep you posted.

The Great American Loop Begins!!

Our 2012 Trip:

This year we are planning to begin our Great American Loop Trip. Although this trip usually takes between 6 months and a year to  complete, we have set no final return date as of yet. We will end the 2012 season in September in the NYC area, then in the spring of 2013 head further south....maybe making it to Florida, maybe not

Please check back later into the season to get an update on our itinerary and also we invite all to follow along with us as we depart on our trip of a lifetime.

Where did 2011 Go?

We apologize for not adding to our blog in close to a year, however, our blogging will continue in June of 2012.....See you then!

REASONS AND EXPLANATIONS WILL BE POSTED AT THAT TIME

Yacht vs Boat - A Lesson in the English Language

The english language is a rich and colorful language, and that is one of the reasons it is so difficult to learn. Only the english language has numerous words that have the same meaning. It is a real expression of how we feel, and not a language to be used sparingly.

Back in the summer of 2010 someone asked about our "yacht". It was a person in their late 40's maybe early 50's. I just looked at them and said "Yacht?? We don't have a yacht, we have a boat". They asked if I could explain the difference.

A boat is a vehicle to carry people or cargo for pleasure or for business. It is kind of a general term to mean the vehicle used to convey someone or something over water.

Roman Abramovich's 538' Eclipse - ranked #1 as the largest privately owned yacht in the world

A yacht is a boat specifically built for the conveyance of people for pleasure in luxury. Over the years, pleasure boats have gotten larger and larger, and in the great marketing scheme of things more luxurious. Back in the 1930's & 40's any boat built for pleasure over 34' long was considered a yacht. Then in the 1950's & 60's it was boats over 45 feet long, in the 70's, 80' and 90's you did not get into a yacht unless it was over 75 feet long. Today, the modern classification of yachts is as follows: Personal pleasure yachts are 75 to 100 feet, mega yachts are 100 to 200 feet and super yachts are over 200 feet. Pleasure boats are measured by length, whereas ships are measured by gross tonnage.

And yes, even by today's standards, 200 feet is not a large private yacht. It is not unusual to see yachts ranging from 250 to over 450 feet. The M/Y Eclipse above is an example.

People that own yachts don't go boating....they go yachting. I compare those terms with the more common eating out and dining. Most of us eat out once a week, we rarely dine out and if we do we usually mean a 4 or 5 star restaurant. "We'll be dining out this evening". Who you kidding, we are eating out at Denny's.
Yachting is really for the more affluent and wealthy familes of this world. Actually 95% of the owners of mega & super yachts only board their boats once or twice a year for a week or so. Those boats are specifically purchased as a charter vessel....meaning that they are rented out, some for a mere 200-300K per week including crew.
See, there again another word for the rich....we rent a boat when we go away on a vacation, maybe for a day or a half-day of fishing or just playing around. The rich charter a yacht for a week or two.

That is another sign of a yacht...a crew. Usually a crew consists of a paid professional captain and at least one stewedess, who also acts as the chef. Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, owns 4 or 5 yachts. On his 416' M/Y Octopus, (pictured above) he has a permanent crew of 60 and a annual maintenance expense including salaries, of $20 million. Now...Thats a yacht, with both fore and aft choppers, 8 tenders (boats) and a slew of other toys. BTW, in 2007, Octopus ranked as the 3rd largest yacht in the world, in 2009 it is ranked as number 11. It doesn't take long to get outdone in the world of the Rich & Famous.

Our 27 year old boat, the Lucky Find III is a 38' trawler built back in 1984, and has a NADA book value equal to that of the price of a used two or three year old Cadillac....but remember, it's a boat, not a yacht.

Spring is just around the corner

Well, if it's not just around the corner, it's certainly not too far off. We set our clocks ahead one hour in just two weeks, and the calendar says spring arrives at 2AM on the 21st of March, which is just 3 weeks away. Of course, calendars are not written for upstate, NY.!...LOL

This has been one, long, cold and snowy winter. Temps remained under 20 for almost 2 months straight, it snowed 15 days straight in December, and every other day since then. But, by all counts, supposedly the accumulated snowfall is over, and we have just a few snow shower days left. We shall see about that,

Actually the winter was not wasted. Dottie and I decided on a few projects that we need to get done before launching the LF3 in April. You can check out our progress on these projects by clicking on this LINK.

I will keep this blog updated as we progress through Spring & Summer......although it may not be too timely.

The best-laid plans of mice and men often go astray

Well, as the saying goes...."The best-laid plans of mice and men often go astray"

Dottie and I, being in our late 50's have been planning the Great Circle Route cruise for 2 years now. We bought the boat, the charts, everything we would need to make this a memorable once-in- a- lifetime cruise. Dottie even retired back in February 2010.

Our 27 year old daughter, Natalie, the youngest of 3, was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis back in 2007. We were able to cope with this terrible debilitating disease. She really never had any outward signs of MS and looked to be the the normal 27 year old young woman she truly is.

On February 20th, 2011...a day we will remember forever, our daughter had a ischemic stroke. Unknown to any of us, including her doctors, we all thought it was an MS "episode", she was admitted to the hospital and treated for the MS.
However after 3 days of treatment she was not really coming around, so the hospital did more tests and brought in more neurologists and neuro-surgeons. The result of the test proved it definitely was a stroke.
Natalie cannot speak, nor can she walk and right arm and leg is completely motionless. Her prognosis is good....they say because of her young age her speech will be the first to come back, then her leg and finally her arm. She goes to physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy thre times a week now and you can see the progress in her speech and leg.....but nothing in her arm or hand as of yet.

So to sum this all up, we have put our plans for cruising on hold for now....our daughter is back home living with us, and it is a full time job for Dottie and I to take care of her. All three of us are determined to make this better, but we are told it takes quite a bit of time and a lot of work.

That is where we are right now.......

The End of the 2010 Season

Like all good things, even the boating season in upstate, NY has to come to an end.

The Lucky Find III was hauled out of the Erie Canal on Monday October 25th. We were not present for the haulout as we were attending the Great Loop Cruisers Association Fall Rendezvous in Rogersville Alabama. But there was no need to worry, because the staff of Ess-Kay Yards in Brewerton, NY assured me they could do it....and do it well.....and that they did.
We came home to find the boat inside one of their storage buildings....all set to spend a long, cold winter indoors.

This will be the first time since we owned the boat that she will be stored inside, instead of outside wrapped in plastic. I am anxious to see just what the difference is.

Trip Specifics

I guess the most boring, and sometimes most surprising, is a look at the ship's log for a breakdown of time and expenses to spend a complete summer away from your home port.

All in all it was not as expensive as we thought it would be.

We left Oark Park Marina on Sodus Bay Lake Ontario on June 11, 2010, and we returned to Ess-Kay Yards in Brewerton on September 5th 2010. We were out a total of 87 days or just about three full months.

TIME
Days Out: 87
Days Actually Traveling: 11
Time Underway: 44.6 hours
Mileage Traveled: 377 miles, and never more than 55 miles from home.....LOL
Average Speed of 11.5MPH, or 10 KPH not including lock-through times.

LOCKS
Number of locks transversed: 36 at an average of 20 minutes for each lock means we spent 12 hours going up and down locks with no horizontal gain.
This recalculates our actual average forward speed to 8.5 MPH or 7.3 KPH.

FUEL
On June 11th we departed with 126 gallons of diesel on-board.
We took on fuel on 2 different occassions.
July 8, 2010 we took on 50 gallons at Ess-Kay Yards in Brewerton at $2.96 for a total of $148.36.
August 17, 2010 we took on an additional 80 gallons at Stiver's Seneca Marine at a $3.75 for a total of $300.00
Currently we have 95 gallons left on board, so total consumption was 161 gallons at an average cost of $3.35 per gallon or a total of $539.35

Consumption averages as follows:
3.67 Gallons Per Hour for both engines (1.84 per engine)
2.35 Miles Per Gallon
We are both very happy with these results.
The Lucky Find III is truly an economical vessel to operate.

Transient Dockage
90 days totaled: $1170.00
Average of $13.00 per day

TOTAL EXPENSES
Dockage: $1170.00
Fuel: $539.35
NYS Canal Pass: $75.00
TOTAL: $1,784.35
Daily Average: $19.83 per day
Number of friends we made along the way: PRICELESS

We did have a few other expenses along the way, such as a new VHF radio and antenna, new air horns and a new set of MarQuipt Boarding stairs, but we would have had those expenses anyway, either sitting at the dock in Oak Park Resort Marina or traveling. So I did not take those into consideration for this trip.
Also, we had paid Robb Lubin of Oak Park Resort Marina for our summer dockage a total of $2,200.00, and he was nice enough to give us a credit on all the unused dockage for this year. So, all in all, it really did not cost us anymore to take this trip. Thanks Robb!!
We will winter the boat at Ess-Kay Yards in Brewerton, NY this winter, and hopefully in 2011, we will travel eastbound on the canal to the Hudson River and on down to NYC.
We currently have a scheduled haul-out date of around the first week of November.

MORE TO FOLLOW, ALONG WITH DAILY UPDATES

Plan - To Return to Ess Kay Yards - Brewerton

Our final plan in this trip is to return to Ess-Kay Yards in Brewerton on September 8, 2010.
We will then spend from that time to October in the water, relaxing at the dock and we will "winter" the boat there till April of 2011.

The boat was hauled on October 24th.

Entering Seneca Lake to Watkins Glen - Watkins Glen Yacht Club - August 17th to August 31st

On August 17th we left Seneca Falls and headed down to Watkins Glen. Weather was sunny and a bit cool, but the trip down was beautiful.
We refueled at Stiver's Seneca Marine taking on 80 gallons of diesel, and by 11AM we were heading down Seneca Lake to the Glen.

We arrived at the Watkins Glen Yacht Club at 4PM, settled in and got to meet their Commodore and Harbormaster. The harbormaster was a woman by the name of Robin Kettering, and she and her husband Ken made us feel right at home.

The guest dock was new, and we were the only ones there. It was so nice and inexpensive that we decided to stay about three weeks. All the folks we met over the next 3 weeks seemed so nice and friendly. They all made us feel as part of their yacht club.

Finally on August 31st we said our goodbyes and headed north, back up the west side of Seneca Lake to Geneva and then on to Seneca Falls.

Village of Seneca Falls Wall - Seneca Falls - August 13th to August 17th

More to come later, as time permits.

Village of Clyde Dock - Clyde - August 9th to August 13th

More to come later, as time permits.

Village of Newark Dock - Newark - August 3rd to August 9th

More to come later, as time permits.

Village of Fairport Wall - Fairport - July 21st to August 3rd

More to come later, as time permits.

Village of Newark Dock - Newark - July 14th to July 21st

More to come later, as time permits.

Village of Clyde Dock - Clyde - July 9th to July 14th

More to come later, as time permits.

Cooper's Marina - Baldwinsville - July 8th to July 9th

More to come later, as time permits.

Ess-Kay Yards - Brewerton - June 10th to July 8th

More to come later, as time permits.

AGLCA Rendezvous - Winter Harbor Marina

Fuel Polishing

The reason for coming to Ess-Kay was to have our fuel polished. When they were ready to accomdate me, I drove the boat over to their service dock. They hooked up the polishing system and 2 hours later, I was good to go. Ethan and Craig went out of their way to make sure every bit of fuel was pumped out of the tanks, filtered and returned to the tanks.
There was no way to tell how much gunk there was, so I hope this system got most of it out.

Ess-Kay Yards

We cannot say enough nice things about this marina and it's owners Kim & Ethan and their 2 daughters.
This boatyard caters to transients boaters....in a big way. They were all out there to greet us when we arrived a few days ago, as they do with each and every boat, they tied us off and made us feel right at home.
There is not as many ammenities as this place as there are at others, but what they do have here is clean, it works, and the grounds are well-maintained. There is a full ship's chandlery, a 75ton travel lift, indoor storage and mechanic's area and a picnic area. They offer a full range of services, specializing in mechanicalwork, and they also offer both gasoline and diesel fuel and a high speed pump out machine. They also have a courtsey car available to all transients. Their prices are fair & reasonable, and they accept all credit cards, etc.

The main portion of the marina is called the basin, and it holds about 30 boats with drafts less than 4 feet.
The outer docks, where we are located, is right on the canal. There are 9 of them, and usually about 7 out of 9 are trawlers doing the Great Loop. Our dock is about 55 feet long and has a depth of about 6.5 feet. We have a wonderful view of the canal and we watch boats coming and going from all parts of the U.S.
Just a 1/4 mile east of us is Oneida Lake and a 1/4 mile west is the famed Winter Harbor Marina.
All I can say is, we really like being here at Ess-Kay, and we have not made any immediate plans to leave.

Canal Trip

Well, after a month of just sitting at the dock we decided we had to make a change. We need to move, to travel a bit and see what other areas have to offer.
We knew from last season that we were going to have to get our fuel polished and the closest marina to us that does that type of work is located in Brewerton, NY on the Erie Canal.

We left our dock at 9AM today and arrived in Brewerton at 6PM. The weather was great with bright sunny skies, temps in the high 70's and winds less than 3 knots.
The trip to Brewerton started out on Sodus Bay to Lake Ontario, then we head east for 30 miles to the Oswego river and Oswego canal. The canal has 7 locks as you proceed south for about another 30 miles, to the Three Rivers Junction. All lock-throughs went well and the boat ran like a charm.
I attribute that to the fact that the waters were so calm that it did not stir up the gunk from the bottoms of the tank.
At Three Rivers Junction we headed east again for 6 miles and passage through one lock to the Ess-Kay Yards marina.

All in all, we covered about 70 miles in 9 hours and burned about 15 gallons of fuel. Not bad for twin engine diesels.

Low Water - Change Dock

The results of having a mild winter are in....we are 22 inches below normal at the marina for this time of year and each day it gets a bit worse.
I boarded the boat today, and sure enough we rocked just a bit and then we heard this slight thud....the boat was on the bottom.
The marina was good enough to offer to tow me out of this slip and move the boat out further on the dock to A-39. There is now 4 feet of water under the boat, and with a draft of 4'6" we are in 8.5 feet of water.

So far so good.

Launch Day

Well, as of 2PM today the boat is back in the water and at home in Oak Park Resort Marina, dock A-11.
The launch went fine, the engines fired right up and all systems checked out good. Today the weather was impeccable for this time of year....a slight breeze with tems in the high 70's.
Most people would be very happy on the day their boat gets launched, but after reviewing all the plans we had to forego, lets just say we are content to be back....for now

Final sanding

Today the weather was cloudy, cold, windy and gray....but we managed to spend the day at the boat and get the remainder of the sanding around the window frames and door frames completed. Once the shrinkwrap is removed we will be able to begin putting the Bristol Finish on the trim. All of the trim requires 4 coats of finish, but this stuff lets you recoat every two hours without sanding between coats. Hopefully within one full day we will be able to get 3 coats on the wood, then wait 24 hours, final sand and put on the finish coat.

It all is really beginning to look like new...another week or so, and this project will be behind us.
Although there is a ton more trim to be done, the doors, frames and windows are the major pieces that make the boat look a world of difference.
The balance of the trim will be completed as the season wears on.

Coating the Doors

Dottie applied her first 3 coats of Bristol Finish to the doors today. They look really great. Such a big difference in the clarity of the grain within the wood, and the color is the real traditional amber of finished teak.

Wednesday the doors will get their final sanding and on Thursday the final coat will be applied.
We will bring the doors up to the boat on Saturday the 27th, and after they are re-attached I will remove the shrinkwrap so that dottie may begin coating the rest of the trim work.

I will post some pictures when the job is complete.

Another project about to begin

Today is Thursday the 18th of March and I just returned from the marina. Another beautiful spring day, I brought up the new air conditioning unit that I purchased at the Annapolis Boat Show back in October.
Todd Walker, who is our marina handyman / fix-it guy will begin installing the new A/C the first week of April. I just wanted to get it out of the box and my barn and set it on the boat for now.

Spring Update # 1

It's been a week already and most of the sanding of the teak is completed. We took home the two doors and are refinishing those in our barn / garage. Today was an excellent day to do that....weather was sunny, calm and in the mid 60's.
Both doors have been sanded, stripped, washed and bleached.
We will begin coating all the teak with a product called Bristol Finish starting this Monday.

2010 Season is underway

Although our marina contract calls for the season to be May 15-Oct 15th, Dottie and I have started our spring rituals of commissioning and projects.
Today and the rest of this week they are calling for temps in the mid-60's during the day. To us, that is spring weather so we have begun sanding and refinishing teak. Our generation of trawlers came with plenty of exterior teak, and we decided to re-finish most of it this spring.
The method in which our boat is shrink-wrapped allows us the opportunity to stand-up and walk all around our decks. So, most of this work will be accomplished prior to the removal of the blue plastic shrink-wrapping.
Actually this is Dottie's project and today she began sanding the cabin house trim. Once that is all done, she will move on to the doing the 2 doors, door frames, then windows and screen frames.

The best laid plans....oft go astray

As the old Proverb goes:
The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men Oft Go Astray
and so did our tentative plan as was outlined in our closing post of the 2009 season.
Our plan was NOT to stay at Oak Park Resort Marina this year and do a bit more traveling. We spent the past few months planning and discussing where would go this upcoming season. I even went to the Florida Keys for 6 weeks to search out different marinas and places to lie on the hook. In all of our discussions and planning we forgot one little detail.
Although, not little at 90lbs, Toby our Golden Retrevier,


never crossed our minds. You see, Toby gets sea-sick, and like most cruisers we just forgot about his illness and figured we would bring him with us.....but that can't be done.
Toby will turn 10 this July and for the past 8 years he has spent his summer weekends in a kennel. He is so adapted to that kennel that he even know which is his cage and his run and goes right to it the moment we bring him there on a Friday, and he must know the sound of our car come Monday mornings because he is up and ready to go home every weekend. The first time we brought Toby aboard our boat, he got sick within minutes and after a visit to his vet, we were told it is simple sea-sickness. The vet told us to give him a Dramamine or Bonine and that should do it, but neither did the trick. Actually both meds made him even worse on the boat, and the vet said our other alternative was a injected drug, but that the drug may cause his disposition to change. We did not want that and decided that Toby was just not a "boat dog". The three of us learned to live with that fact.
So, after returning from Florida last week, I signed a contract with the marina and once we get launched, we will be residents there for the summer of 2010....again.