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.

Decisions...Decisions...Decisions

After much thought, research and conversation between us, Dottie and I have agreed that we will not be coming back to Oak Park Resort Marina next year for the full season.
Both of us feel we need to do a little more traveling and a lot less sitting around the docks.

So here are our tentative plans:

We should launch sometime in May 2010, and we will stay at Oak Park until after the Memorial Day Weekend.
The month of June will be spent cruising the Erie Canal, and our base will be the
Mid-Lakes Erie Macedon Landing Marina, in Macedon, NY. We will stay there for approximately one month then move on to the Finger Lakes region for a month.

The month of July we will be based out of Hibuscus Harbor Marina in Union Springs, NY.
We would like to spend some time exploring both Seneca and Cayuga Lakes.....the two largest of the Finger Lakes

The month of August we will head north to the Thousand Islands region. While in that area, we will be based out of The Thousand Island Club Marina.

We expect our friends, Craig and Mary Farnsworth, aboard their 40' cat "Rum Tum Tiger" to be there about the same time. Both of us want to do a trip up the Rideau Canal in Canada, and that trip will begin in Kingston, Ontario Canada, just 15 miles from our base.
Toward the end of August, beginning of September, we will return back to Oak Park Resort Marina for haul-out and winter storage.

So far, all of these plans are tentative, and as changes come about I will post them here.

The Weekend we all Hate

This past weekend was spent doing the final winterization of the Lucky Find III. Last year I contracted with Great Lakes Yacht Services to have this done for me, and after watching the excellent skills of Scott, their mechanic, I decided to do it this year myself.
We winterized both engines and generator, the domestic water system, the air conditioning system and the fresh-water washown. After that it was on to winterize the head, shower, and sump. Along with Dottie, we had this done in a few hours and then just decided to sit back and relax.
On Sunday, Dottie and I took off all the linens, towels, electronics and food. Packaged it all up and brought it home. Doug Parkhurst and I lowered the mast, and now she is about ready to shrink-wrap. I did order a new flybridge cover to be made by Cooper Canvas out of Mexico, NY. He promises an October 3rd completion date....we will see about that!

Once the cover is made, we will be able to bring down the bimini and flybridge enclosure and stow it all away. Then the marina will be able to do the shrink wrapping....and that will do it for 2009.

The Season Comes to an End

I can't believe that it is already September 23rd....and that marks the end of the 2009 boating season for us.
Some nights have already been in the lower 40's temperature wise, and today, although, it will be in the high 70's, the Lucky Find III will be brought over to be put on the hard.

We were scheduled for a 2PM haul-out, but the marina had a few cancellations, and so by 9:30 AM we were out and on the hard. Our friends, Doug and Donna Parkhurst aboard the Camelot, came out right behind us and we will be side-by-side in the yard for the winter.

Now, all the winterization chores need to get done. Hopefully by the time we leave to go to the Annapolis Boat Show on October 17th the boat will be winterized, shrink-wrapped and put to bed for a long, cold winter.

Final In-The-Water Chores

We scheduled our annual haul-out today with the marina. We will be pulled next Wednesday, September 23rd at 2PM.
This weekend will be spent readying the boat for haul-out. I changed the oil in both the engines and generator and put in new oil filters. Diesels are new to me, and I can't get over that each engine holds 16 quarts (4 gallons) of oil. I am used to gasoline engines that held only 5 quarts of oil. After the oil changes, I spent some time tidying up the engine room, and then went up above to empty the water tanks. Things all went well, and she looks like it is ready to be put on the hard for the winter.
I am already antsy for next season, and we are not even out of the water yet....but this gives both Dottie and I plenty of time to plan what we will do next year.

All in all, this year was really spent just getting to learn the in's and out's of this trawler. Not much time was spent doing any cruising, but I have to say, I did gain a lot of knowledge....so, at least it was good for something.
We are looking forward to doing a lot more cruising next season, althouh it will only be spent traveling around NYS.

Oswego - Sodus Bay - The last Leg

Saturday - August 15th.

Again we were off the docks by 9AM and headed out into Lake Ontario to make the final leg of the trip. This run is about 30 miles, and the lake was flat making this trip uneventful.
Doug and Donna took off and decided to run their boat on plane....something my trawler was not built to do. They arrived at Oak Park about 45 minutes befor we did, but by noon we were all tied up in out home berth. The end of an almost perfect trip with some good friends.

Trip Summary:

Hours run
Port engine - 2762.7 - 2748.0 = 14.7 hours
Starboard engine - 2730.3 - 2712.9 = 17.4 hours

Miles Traveled Round Trip = 226

Fuel Consumed - 131 gallons

Avg. Speed = 12.9 MPH
Avg. Fuel = 7.50 GPH

A-Bay to Oswego

Friday - August 14th.
Off the dock at 8:30 AM as planned, and a 55 mile run to Oswego. Sunny, warm and no wind....what more can you ask for?
As we pulled out of the marina basin, we got behind a freighter going down the St. Lawrence. We stayed behind the freighter for the next 25 miles until we got out onto Lake Ontario. About half way down the river, Doug took the lead. The river and lake were like glass, making for a very easy run to Oswego....or so we thought!

After rounding Cape Vincent and heading for Galloo Island, my port engine started acting up again. I noticed I was losing RPM's. Exactly the same symptom we experienced coming up this way. By the time we were about even with Main Duck Island, my port engine quit. Apparently the same dirty fuel filter causing the problem, but I had a spare on board and no need to worry. At this point we are about 25 miles offshore, but my starboard engine was running fine, and I figured we could run on one engine to Oswego. We slowed back down to 7 knots, and things were good for the next 5 miles or so. Then my port engine started doing the same....losing RPM's. But before she could quit, I slowed her down to 4 knots, radioed Doug to explain, and we were going to try to make the last 20 miles at this speed. Doug headed off into the horizon, keeping constant radio contact with me. Oswego has three very visable landmarks....two huge smokestacks from their electric power plant, and a huge plume of steam from their nuculear power plant called Nine Mile Point. All three were very visable from where we were, but they were also very slow into coming into clear range....however we made it about 15 mile further, and I tried starting the port engine. It started, and we were back to to 2 engines, although I kept them running slowly until we made it to the harbor entrance of Oswego.
As we entered the harbor, I thought it best to take on some new fuel, so I pulled into the Oswego Marina and took on a 100 gallons....just to be safe.
Doug had already stopped there and refueled himself, and he was already tied up at the west wall in Oswego.
After I fueled, I tied up in front of him and went on to change out the primary filters in both engines. Again, both were really dirty and it looked like oil instead of diesel fuel. I thanked God we made it to a safe harbor, and we settled into Oswego for the night.

We walked over to a restaurant called The Office for dinner.....had a great fish fry and returned back to the boat for a night's rest.
Doug and Donna headed back to the Clubhouse for a few beers, but Dottie and I were exhausted and went to bed.

A Day at the Thousand Islands Club

Thursday, August 13th.
No plans for today except to hang around this beautiful marina and just relax.
Doug and I spent the morning washing down the boats while the women headed off to do laundry. Around noontime Doug decided he wanted to take his boat out for a ride around the A-Bay area. We had lunch on board, and took a tour of the river . We returned to the dock at about 2PM then headed to the pool to sit and relax, and stay cool. The past 2 days have been sunny, hot and humid.
Back to the boats by 4:30PM for a nap, and onto dinner at the marina's restaurant called Joey's Thousand Islands Club Restaurant. This is an exceptionally high end restaurant, and their prices reflect it....LOL. But the service and food were impeccable. We even bought some desserts back to the boat for a late night snack.
After dinner we walked around the marina and just kept oogling the beautiful boats....most of them 45 foot and larger and just great. A few of the boats were over 60 footers, and all we could do was dream. While we walked we discussed plans for the next two days. Our plan was to leave A-Bay at 8:30AM on Friday, spend the night in Oswego, and then on Saturday make the final leg of the trip from Oswego to Sodus Bay.

Cape Vincent to Alexandria Bay

Wednesday August 12th.
Hans arrived at 8:30 AM today to change out the filters. After he changed both primary filters, he then changed out the secondary filters. The crud that came out of the filters looked like mud. He brought along a set of spares, and told me I may have to do this again before our trip was to end on Saturday.

Hans had explained to me back in October 2008 that I may have fuel problems because the when we bought the boat there was 250 gallons of fuel in the tanks, and that fuel was purchased by the previous owner back in September 2006. It was then already two years old.

We left the docks in Cape Vincent at about 10:30 Am and we had a 30 mile run to A-Bay. The St. Lawrence River was calm, and the trip to A-Bay was uneventful. By 1:30 we were settled in our docks at the Thousand Islands Club.
This has to be the most beautiful, well-kept marina in the Northeast. Everything about this marina is first-class, including the boats that seasonally dock there. This marina, although it has an Alexandria Bay address, is actually located on Wellsley Island.
We headed to the marina pool to cool off, and just sat around and talked. By 6PM we were all hungry, so we headed back to the boats to bbq some chicken and have dinner.
While cooking, some friends of ours, former boaters at Oak Park, Dave and Sue Hirst who now live on Wellsley Island, dropped by to visit. They arrived via golf cart, and Dave gave Doug and I a tour of the club, his home and some of the complex. It is all so beautiful.
We returned back to the Camelot, sat around and just talked the evening away. At about 10, Dave and Sue left and we headed off to our boat to watch some TV and go to sleep.