Doing DA stuff

[DesertAlbin736]

DA - When I read about your adventures I envision that the entire lower 48 as being in your backyard. And Canada is just around the block!

Thanks, I appreciate the compliments! I suppose we could include Alaska, but no plans to trailer or transport the boat up there on a ferry. Going all the way up by boat could be done I suppose, but would be beyond what we want to do with a boat this small. Right now the idea of the "Triangle Loop" is just an intriguing idea that we may or may not end up doing. The fact of the matter is that going out & buzzing around on our local lake during the cooler times of year is kinda boring. Where are the seals? The Orcas? The otters? The 12 foot tide swings? All we hear is burros braying back in the coves. Mostly the only times we do go out on the lake anymore is to join in on overnight raft ups with our sailing club friends.

Meanwhile you've got access to Long Island Sound, Block Island, Cape Cod, etc.

[hetek]

True, DA.

Technically, many of us are located on the "Great Loop" route at some point or another, or darned close to it. And to show that you are my hero, it's on MY bucket list!

Yes, in my Albin 25! Maybe not all at once, but it's on the list.

Hey, without a goal where are you? Seriously, you have shown that the old adage "Have trailer, will travel" holds very true!

That is an old adage, isn't it?

And now tribologist is making me jealous! And here it is, August, and I'm still soaked in varnish.

Darned you Albin for putting so much wood in our boats! It is looking gorgeous though.

[tribologist]

Doing more DA stufff! Heading up back to Utica to get a few more days on the Eire canal. Left to late to drive all the way to Utica, NY so we stopped in Amsterdam. Got the last room within 50 mi. Match perfect with a -71 Albin!!!

[dkirsop]

Where is the orange shag carpet?

[hetek]

A heart shaped tub! And all those mirrors!

I thought that was only in the movies. ... The kind they used to show in Times Square.

Made me chuckle this morning. Enjoy the cruise!

[tribologist]

Certainly a flashback!! I used to look for motels with “Color TV” signs back in the 90’ies when i was here as a grad student. We made it to Oneida lake. Very neat part of the canal. 13+ miles dead straight.

[tribologist]

Headed out early on Oneida lake. 60 miles to where the car/trailer is and the locks close at 5pm. About 3 hours car ride after that.

[DesertAlbin736]

This thread should be changed to "Doing Tribologist Stuff". Keep these posts coming! Each one gets me more & more psyched to do the Triangle Loop next year! Tonawanda-Oswego-Lake Ontario-St Lawrence River-Champlain lake & canal-Whitehall-Waterford & back to Tonawanda. How about an Albin flotilla next year? That would be something, two A25's only one hull number apart, meaning our two boats were being built on the Kristenham factory floor at the same time. Let's get Kerrye in on this too. You could put in at Waterford or Utica, meet up with us at the Three Rivers Point Erie-Oswego canals junction & "loop" in clockwise direction. For that matter we could cut off quite a few water miles by making the Oneida Shores County Park at the west end of Oneida Lake our launch point & meet up there. That would cut out roughly 300 round trip canal miles for us while adding roughly the same miles to the road trip, making the one way distance from our home to Oneida Lake about 2,400 miles. We'd miss out on the western half of Erie Canal, but we've already done the portion between the Cayuga-Seneca Canal junction and Fairport, NY. Let's face it, much of the canal is going down a "green tunnel" with not much to see. At least not compared to this...

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We could meet up with 'Sunsetrider' at Gananoque in the Thousand Islands region of St. Lawerence Seaway. The lower part of the Hudson river between Whitehall & Waterford literally passes by within a few miles of where I used to live before moving west to Arizona. For example, Mechanicville, NY is only 10 miles from where home was during my last couple years of high school in the late 1960s. Never in a million years back then could I imagine doing something like this by boat.

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[DesertAlbin736]

Doing more DA stufff! Heading up back to Utica to get a few more days on the Eire canal. Left too late to drive all the way to Utica, NY so we stopped in Amsterdam.Got the last room within 50 mi. Match perfect with a -71 Albin!!!

Surprised you didn't consider finding a campground or RV park, or for that matter a truck stop, to camp in the boat. On this last trip up to Washington, other than a few nights visiting siblings in Oregon, not once did we stay in a hotel in a round trip of over 3,200 miles. Mostly campgrounds except for one night where we "boondocked" behind a Denny's in Tremonton, UT north of Ogden. Saves a lot of money since camprgounds are usually half or less the cost of a hotel room, & often have full restrooms & showers, sometimes free if you "boondock". Plus you can cook on your boat and/or outdoor BBQ just like being on the water.

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[tribologist]

Sounds like a plan!!! Let me know if you are getting hot on it. We will for sure tag along for a few days to a week+ depending on timing. We are really looking forward to the thousand island area.

The Eire canal is part green tunnel but the Lake Champlain canal was mostly going through peoples back yard and the locks often had power plants and other neat stuff around them. I been on a short cruise with a tour boat up in the thousand island and that part of the river is fantastic!

The NY canals closes mid october so it has to be before that. For us it would have to be before school starts if we would do more than a few days around a weekend.

The Eire canal booklet has a A25 on the ”speed limits” page so we are endorsed by canal company.

We did consider the option of staying in the boat. The original plan was to stay on it at the Ilion RV park/marina but we were to tired to finish the drive that night.. There is a truck stop at that place. We actually showered there last trip up since we stayed at a free dock in Fultonville.

I need to find a shower solution. Putting two solar showers on the engine overnight? Making a shower pan to go under rearmost floor behind engine or lift up the board in front of the engine, stick a plug in the drain that goes under the engine and have a small bilge pump there pumping the water to the sink? I was just looking on some small propane portable showers on amazon that seems pretty good.

Ulf

[DesertAlbin736]

Sounds like a plan!!! Let me know if you are getting hot on it.

It's still a year away, but will keep doing research & planning. Have more boat projects to do over the winter (too hot out to do anything now), things I didn't get to this past winter/spring including refinishing some interior woodwork, maybe painting the inside of the wheelhouse, pulling & inspecting/cleaning the fuel tank, fixing or replacing leaking fresh water tank, plus basic engine PM's, mostly minor stuff.

The NY canals closes mid october so it has to be before that.

Nancy also mentioned over on the Cruising forum (see another thread on the Albin Cruising forum about the BC Albineer rendezvous we went to & all the Albin 25's lined up on the Ladysmith Maritime Society Marina guest dock) that the canals close on October 16. That will affect our scheduling for sure. Drat! I was hoping to be able to see peak fall colors.

The Eire canal booklet has a A25 on the ”speed limits” page so we are endorsed by canal company.

Exceeding speed limits is something we sure don't have to worry about, ha ha! We did see an Albin 25 at the Mid Lakes marina along the Erie Canal at Macedon in 2015 & met the owner. Other than the two we saw on blocks in the back lot at the Sound Marine Diesel shop in Connecticut it was the only A25 we did see on that entire east coast trip including Rhode Island & Chesapeake Bay. Can you post a picture of that page or a link to it if it's online? Looking at the canals.ny.gov site (which doesn't show that picture on speed limit page), looks like marinas with fuel docks selling diesel are few & far between.

Previous owners had two 5 gallon jerry cans for extra fuel mounted on racks on an extended length bowsprit. I thought that was insane, so I removed the racks & shortened the bowsprit. But I still have the jerry cans, and if I can figure a way to transfer the fuel safely without spilling it would add another 120 NM range between fuel stops. Would probably stow them on the foredeck lashed to the bow rails. This photo by the way shows our boat exactly as it was when we first bought it. This was in the Wahweap marina on Lake Powell, the first chance we got to splash it on the way home from picking it up in Idaho. Unfortunately it had a problem with the arrangement of the raw water strainer which also had a cracked sight glass & didn't allow the raw water pump to prime properly, so we only got as far from the ramp as the marina & had to pull it & take it home, so we never did get to cruise on Lake Powell. Powell is hot in the summer & cold in the winter without a stick of shade anywhere.

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Compare that to how our boat looks now five years later.

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Anyway, check out this cool video. This is one stretch we'd be going on. Methinks I need to invest in a GoPro camera?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJfAAOeysCo

The canal.ny.gov mentions a ban against draining gray water into Lake Champlain. Apparently that means we'd have to close off our galley sink drain & use a pan & drain dishwater into the toilet & holding tank?

I need to find a shower solution. Putting two solar showers on the engine overnight?

I've given some thought to that idea too. One idea was to get a circular aluminum or galvanized steel drip pan of the type that are made to go under hot water heaters, which are available at Lowes, Home Depot, Ace, etc. Rig that with a drain hose or PVC tube & elbows to drain into the bilge through that rearmost floorboard, and rig a solar shower & shower curtain in the cockpit area, or as you say a small portable camp shower or even a garden tank sprayer. Another option we considered was using a hoola hoop as a circular shower curtain rod & rig on top of our davits over the swim platform. Ended up doing neither. Up in the PNW it's so cool one can get by without taking showers every day, & marinas with pay showers such as those at Sidney, Ladysmith, Montague Harbour, Port Browning and other places in the Gulf Islands as well as Friday Harbor, Roche Harbor, Deer Harbor, Fishermans Bay and others in the San Juans, Bellingham & Blaine on the mainland on the US side are plentiful & within an easy day's run from anywhere.

[Nancy]

DA, there is no problem draining gray water into Lake Champlain. You absolutely cannot use a macerator, though. In fact, macerators must be disabled. There are plenty of pumpout facilities.

[tribologist]

The 5mph from E-21 to Sylvan Beach is taking you right by the sheriff... if the marine ones are anything like the highway ones...,

[DesertAlbin736]

That is definitely an A25. I stumbled across a video about a Fleming 65 motor yacht doing just what we're thinking of & it mentioned the St Lawrence river currents, at least near Montreal & beyond, were running at 7 knots. Meaning boats like yours and ours could make 13 knots over ground downstream, but could not go upstream at all. That could make turning into marinas & the Richelieu River heading for Champlain very tricky. If you missed the turn you'd be screwed & swept downstream toward Quebec City with no hope of clawing your way back. So would the best tactic be to turn upstream before getting to the entrance to the Richelieu & go full throttle & let the current push you downstream at 1 knot to the confluence then make you turn into it? Could be very white knuckle!

[Louma]

''That is definitely an A25. I stumbled across a video about a Fleming 65 motor yacht doing just what we're thinking of & it mentioned the St Lawrence river currents, at least near Montreal & beyond, were running at 7 knots. Meaning boats like yours and ours could make 13 knots over ground downstream, but could not go upstream at all. That could make turning into marinas & the Richelieu River heading for Champlain very tricky. If you missed the turn you'd be screwed & swept downstream toward Quebec City with no hope of clawing your way back. So would the best tactic be to turn upstream before getting to the entrance to the Richelieu & go full throttle & let the current push you downstream at 1 knot to the confluence then make you turn into it? Could be very white knuckle!''

Hello, don't worry about the St-Lawrence, you will have no problem at all with the currents, at least down to Quebec City, as long as you know a couple tricks...
We did the trip Ottawa to Quebec city and return a few years ago. Through the Ottawa and St-Lawrence rivers. There are two areas to watch for currents. The first one is below the Old Port of Montreal, a very strong current along the west (Montreal Island) side of the St-Lawrence. The trick is to go up along Ile Ste-Hélène on the East side then turn right to cross with the current. Easy, many boats do that.

About getting to Montreal Old Port from upstream, best option is Lachine Canal, much easier and nicer (and faster...) than the Seaway Locks in Ste-Catherine and St-Lambert. Only caveat is the bridge clearance is only 8 feet. But we can make it with our Albin 25 by lowering the antenna and anchor lights. When you get out of the canal you are directly in the Old Port, in Old Montreal. Options to stay there are the ''Port d'escale'' marina, which I do not really recommend as it can be noisy. Other marina just below (you will ride the strong current down to there...) is Yacht Club de Montreal, nice installations , a bit pricey. Cheaper option is to stay just above the last lock of Lachine Canal. Showers available at Parc Canada O'tentik camping site there https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/lhn-nhs/qc/canallachine
The Lachine Marina just upstream of the canal has also nice installations and a pool.

The other strong current area is upstream of Quebec City, the Rapides Richelieu near Portneuf (nothing to do with the Richelieu River). To navigate these rapids upstream you have to time well your departure from Quebec City with the tide, so you are there with the rising tide. But, going downstream, if you turn right on the Richelieu River at Sorel you will not even get close to this section of the St-Lawrence. When you are in this area, good idea to spend a couple days in the islands in front of Sorel, a bayou like country! Nice little municipal marina in Berthierville. Also two marinas in Sorel, an a couple in Contrecoeur going down from Montreal.

One option you might consider instead of coming down directly on the St-Lawrence from Lake Ontario/Kingston, is to do the Rideau River Waterway to Ottawa, then the Ottawa River down to Montreal. Longer but much nicer. If you rush it you can do Kingston-Ottawa in 4 days but I recommend to double that. You can do Ottawa to top of Lachine Canal in three to four days. Not that the Parc Canada lock pass (and mooring pass) cover the Rideau Canal, Carillon Lock on the Ottawa, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue lock in Montreal, Lachine Canal and Richelieu locks. Good info on the Rideau Waterway at http://www.rideau-info.com/canal/index.html

Doing the St-Lawrence Seaway locks can be a pain sometimes. We heard people saying they waited up to 12 hours at the locks... commercial traffic has priority. Also, there is a fixed schedule for the Beauharnois Locks and bridges. You have to spend the night at the Valleyfield Marina and leave early to catch the bridge opening and be there in time at the first lock (unless you do like us and squeeze under the bridge going backward through the waves...a few inches clearance, scary...)

Do not hesitate to ask if you have more questions about this part of the country!