Doing DA stuff

[DesertAlbin736]

See! This is why AOG is such a great group! Louma, your tips are the most valuable I've seen yet! I haven't gotten so far as to purchase any guide books yet, but will the closer we get to making an actual commitment.

Here are the videos I was talking about:

Alaska to Nova Scotia in a Fleming 65, Part 1, Alaska to Galapagos Islands, Panama Canal to Caribbean & US East Coast to NY City. There some short commercials embedded in these YouTube videos, but can be skipped after the first 4 or 5 seconds. Just a note on the beginning of part 1, we did an Alaska cruise on a Princess line cruise ship back in 2007 & part of that went up Tracy Arm close to the glacier. Also took a seaplane flight excursion over the Mendenhall glacier. When folks ask me about cruise ships, & I say if you only ever take one cruise ship cruise in your life, forget the Caribbean, do Alaska.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZr8ebckJPI

Part 2, NY to Erie & Oswego Canals to Lake Ontario to St. Lawrence River & Gulf to Nova Scotia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqo_9O7S3pA

Part 2 covering Erie Canal to Montreal is what we're most interested in. The part about downstream of Quebec City, around New Brunswick & through the Maritimes is interesting, but not on my bucket list, at least with the boat we have now. Conditions there can be a lot hairier than I'd ever want to contemplate with an A25. Obviously that Fleming 65 couldn't even think about doing the Lachine Canal. Can you imagine the fuel bill for the 12,000 miles from Alaska to Nova Scotia with a side trip to Galapagos in a boat like that with big twin diesels with fuel economy measured in gallons per mile! But it videos are very well done. I'm pretty sure this guy was the founder & CEO of Fleming Yachts.

So, are these are the low bridges over the Lachine that you're talking about?

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Will have to get a precise "air draft" measurement & see what our minimum clearance is. Probably around 7 feet with the antenna down & the stub mast lowered or removed.

I've considered the Rideau canal as an option, and may yet still go that way depending on how we progress time wise. I would however like to be able to stop at Gananoque & see Stephen Duggan (sunsetrider). I suppose we could go to Gananoque & double back to Kingston and the Rideau. All options are on the table! The only hard schedule date would be to make it down the Champlain & NY canals back to Lake Oneida to haul out with at least a couple weeks to spare before they close the canals on October 16. We would not be going as far as Quebec City, at least not by boat. Only to the turnoff onto the Richelieu at Sorel. Looks like it might be worth a bus trip down to tour the old Quebec city. We all learned about the Plains of Abraham & the colonial wars in history class. Must brush up on parlez vous Francaise!

We did do a quick drive though to Ottowa with our camp trailer in September 2017 on our way to Maine, but it was a rainy day so we didn't do a lot of walking around.

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We are definitely, how shall we say, "Canadaphiles", everything about the country, the scenery, the people, everything. Well, maybe with the exception of cold winters.

[tribologist]

More DA stuff! Towed Driftless to Haverstraw marina north of Tappan Zee and we are now heading south on the Hudson. We cannot make it through East River and Hell Gate this time due to timing of currents so we need to do another trip.

[tribologist]

GW bridge and manhattan! Staying in Elco marina inside Port Elisabeth Harbor.

[tribologist]

Made it past Manhattan and Liberty island. Very cool. Elco marina is a little like Millers planet in Interstellar.. Tugfest every night!

[tribologist]

Heading back north. Timed the tide pretty good. Doing 11 mph just north of GW bridge. Was very tempted to take East River and harlem river. It was full flood that time but Elisabeth talked me out of it We had a nice day in NYC. Rented bikes and rode in central park, visited metropolitan, went to a Swedish bakery Fabrique, BonBon, the Swedish candy store and then we ended at Starbucks flagship store next to Chelsey market. Thought first it was gimmicky but we actually really enjoyed it. Another great thing with the trip was to sit and watch the activity in the harbor. They unloaded and loaded three container ships right in front of us during our stay. Its an exiting sight to see a swarm of tugs do a 180 on a big ship.

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[Louma]

Desert Albin, glad to hear that the info helps. About the bridges on Lachine Canal, the last one before the downstream lock is the lowest one at 8 feet clearance. You should have no problem going under it unless you have a very high custom arch/radar over the cabin. Anyway the lockmaster can/will check your clearance when you get in the canal.

You are right, downstream of Quebec City can be hairy. Tides, currents, fog, cold water (very...)...whales...But I know of Albins going down to the Saguenay River without too much problem. Definitively worth a trip, at least by bus, to Quebec City. Easy to get a few days tour from Montreal. Going to Gananoque from Kingston is easy, less than 3 hours at 6 knots. Go down Gananoque, spend a day or two there to explore the Thousand Islands (nice docking available at Parks Canada docks (BTW included in Rideau Canal mooring pass...), then back up to Kingston and Rideau Waterway and Ottawa!! (in Ottawa you can dock downtown with the mooring pass).
More questions? just ask!

[DesertAlbin736]

Desert Albin, glad to hear that the info helps. About the bridges on Lachine Canal, the last one before the downstream lock is the lowest one at 8 feet clearance. You should have no problem going under it unless you have a very high custom arch/radar over the cabin. Anyway the lockmaster can/will check your clearance when you get in the canal.

We don't have any custom arches or radar above the wheelhouse, just the stock stub mast which can easily be lowered or removed. The roof hatches (when closed) & solar panel only add a couple inches to our "air draft" above that of the the original as-built stock height. I'm thinking we would probably leave our hard shell dinghy at home, remove the davits, and take along a small 8 ft Sevylor inflatable donut dinghy that can pack up in a small valise since the hard dinghy would likely bang against lock walls & the only time we'd need a dinghy would be if we anchored out on any of the lakes along the Rideau canal system, Lake Champlain, or Oneida Lake in NY.

In any case, if we do take the Rideau Canal to Ottowa we'll have to look you up.

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[Louma]

We have a small arch and radar dome over the cabin and our air draft is about 7'-10'', so you will have no problem. Will be happy to greet you in Ottawa if you come this way next year.

[tribologist]

Lake champlain canal this weekend.
Launched in Schuylerville, did not know it was only 2-3ft deep between ramp and the channel. I was slowly motoring out, turning on plotter etc when i hit bottom... we staked us past it and continued up to Fort Edward’s and tied up at the dock there and took an Uber back to get the car and trailer and took that up to whitehall where the lake starts. After dinner in Whitehall we tried book an Uber... there were none.... after some desperate calling we fond an old fashion cab company in Glens Fall , Carol’s, that was kind enough to send a cab. Was actually not much more $ than an Uber. Today we Left Fort Edward’s in the morning and took us up past the last lock in the canal and then halfway to the main lake. We stopped for the night at Chipman point marine. Nice stop. The “office” is an old magazine from 1812. Nicest family imaginable running the place. Very nice ride up with a special treat on one of the markers. The leaves are turning but it is not fully there yet. Might go to lake George later.

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[DesertAlbin736]

Very cool!!!! FWIW, Schuylerville is literally just 25 miles from the house where I lived during the last couple years of high school and where I was right before moving to Arizona in '77. In fact my 50th HS reunion was just a couple weeks ago but I didn't go. I like the picture showing beginning of fall colors. If our plans for next year pan out (still just an idea subject to change) we would be right where you were about this time next year, on the back side of the triangle loop. I wish it could be a bit later in the fall during peak colors, but we'd have to allow enough time to get back to Oneida Lake before the canals close in mid October.

The Chipman Point office being this building?

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Keep these stories coming! I'm interested in any & all info on stuff like this, where good marinas are, pumpouts, fuel docks, etc. Meanwhile it's just now cooling off enough out here to be able to go do stuff outside. By "cooling off" I mean highs around 90 degrees to upper 80s. At least we're done with the 100s. We had the same issue with 2 to 3 foot shallows at the ramp last time when we launched at the Seneca Lake State Park in '15.

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[tribologist]

I should have taken more pictures at Chipman point. That was a very special marina! Check out Chicago tug’s blog http://chicagotug.blogspot.com/2015/07/ ... a.html?m=1

The office is in a three story magazine on the water made from natural stone. Pat that owns the marina live on the top floor.


The road down to the ramp was steep enough to make me hesitate using it to launch, they take the travel lift down it with sail boats hanging in it!

[DesertAlbin736]

Chicago tug blog link duly noted & saved to my growing list of relevant favorites. Especially helpful are the photos of the signs with various distances N & S from Chipman Point. Means in a pinch I could have enough fuel range all the way from the Canadian Border to Troy, a total of 181 miles, or conservatively 14 gallons of diesel. But that would be cutting it close to hitting my 5 gallon reserve on one fill up, so somewhere along the way I'd want to refuel before turning into the Mohawk River & Erie Canal. I generally don't like to let fuel level go below 9 or 10 gallons from full which gives an upper estimate of MPG at 13 and range of 117 to 130 miles. Also averaging 30 miles per day, not counting weather or mechanical delays & extra overnights to explore, should allocate at least 6 days underway from Canadian border to Troy. Adding 2 or 3 days for the 77 miles on the Richelieu from Sorel to the upper end of Champlain conservatively allow at least 10 days to 2 weeks for the 258 miles from the St Lawrence to the Mohawk River.

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