It's ours now!

[motthediesel]

We,ve been looking for a while, and traveled to New England to see a couple of boats, but we wound up with this one, less than 30 miles from our dock.



Interestingly, this is the "Fortunate" which was based in Maine, and was featured in some older posts in this sub-forum. It's an '85, still has the original Lehman/Peugeot with 1800hrs, and has been kept in very good condition. The owners we bought from had steamed it back to their home in Ontario from Maine, quite an adventure!

We'll be making some changes to make it our own (including the name) and I plan on being a regular poster here. I want to equip the boat with a good stock of engine spares, so I'll be rooting around to see what we can use.

Tom

[Pitou]

Congratulations. I remember Fortunate as we met her Maine owners on our first cruise to Maine. They were good people who really cared for the boat.
Enjoy!

[DesertAlbin736]

Congrats! Was that supposed to be a picture posted but only shows up as a minus sign? Is it this boat by chance?

https://www.chesapeakenauticalcruises.c ... o-7146754/

If we end up doing the Triangle Loop next summer we'll have to look you up. Welcome to come along if you're up to it.

triangleloopmap.jpg

[tego]

Welcome! You apparently got a very good vessel. We love our Albins on here, wherever we're at. The PO's probably took very good care of that engine, if the rest of the boat is any indicator. You shouldn't need many "spares". Hope to see you on here a lot. Keep us posted. Ben "87 27FC #302

[motthediesel]

You can't see the photo? It shows fine for me, but maybe there's a problem with my privacy settings on Google photos?

Yes, that is the boat we got. It was the first one we tried to look at in August, but the broker told us it was "sale pending". So we drove around looking a boats in Mass and Maine, but none of those panned out. Later I noticed that the Ontario boat was still listed on Kijiji (the Canadian equivalent of Craigs List) so I contacted them directly, we saw the boat, and after a bit of back and forth, we came to an agreement.

If you are in the Alex Bay/Kring point area on your trip this Summer, by all means, stop in. We can't ramble much at that time of year though, as we run a seasonal resort business here.

Tom

Congrats! Was that supposed to be a picture posted but only shows up as a minus sign? Is it this boat by chance?

https://www.chesapeakenauticalcruises.c ... o-7146754/

If we end up doing the Triangle Loop next summer we'll have to look you up. Welcome to come along if you're up to it.
triangleloopmap.jpg

[DesertAlbin736]

"If you are in the Alex Bay/Kring point area on your trip this Summer, by all means, stop in. We can't ramble much at that time of year though, as we run a seasonal resort business here.""

That would be fun. Looks like a lovely area. If you have to be stuck somewhere working in the summer there are worse places. Which resort is yours? What are the river currents like in that area? Is is possible for a 6.5 knot boat to go upstream on the St. Lawrence from Alex Bay back to Gananoque & Kingston? We did visit another AOG guy in Gananoque in 2017, by land on the Ontario side from Niagara Falls with RV camp trailer. If we were to decide the whole loop was too much it looks like there's a decent launch ramp at the end of Crossman Street next to the Otter Creek Inn in Alex Bay. Or maybe other better ramps that have truck/trailer parking options? From there we could go counter clockwise downstream on the St. Lawrence to the Beauharnois Lock & up the Ottowa River to Ottowa & back down the Rideau to Kingston & back to Alex Bay. That would be somewhere in the range of what, 380 to 400 statute miles instead of 750? Time is not much of an issue for us, just glad to get out of the AZ summer heat. We're only just now dropping out of the 90s to mid 80s. Next week should be in the mid 70s. No rain in sight, sunny every day. Had my fill of NY winters down in Saratoga County before moving out West 42 years ago.

[motthediesel]

Our business is just a little cottage rental place, but it's been in our family for over 65 years and we love it. https://www.pinebayfarm.com

The best public big boat ramp in the Alex Bay area is at Keewaydin State Park. https://parks.ny.gov/parks/24/details.aspx though the Crossman Street ramp is good too.

I'm not sure about rig parking at Keewaydin, but the Village of Alexandria Bay does offer free rig parking at the municipal arena across from the high school, and that is walk-able to the main village dock, and even closer to the Crossman ramp.

You will not find many places in the upper St Lawrence area with currents above 3 knots. There are some narrow channels near the Canadian Span of the Thousand Islands Bridge that run pretty fast, but nothing dangerous. I've sailed through there many times, so a power boat has it easy. That area is the heart of the Thousand Islands, an archipelago of granite gneiss and pine trees, stunningly beautiful, and not to be missed.

And yes, I do belong to the Chamber of Commerce, but that is my honest opinion ;<)

[DesertAlbin736]

Will definitely have to pay a visit. At this point our plans are still general in nature, leaning more toward launching on the Erie Canal system at the west end of Oneida Lake, but who knows. Plans always subject to change. Glad to hear about the currents. Always a concern when considering river cruising in a slow boat. Our lone experience in the Thousand Islands region was when we visited Stephen Duggan, aka 'sunsetrider' on AOG, in Gananoque. He took us out for a spin around that area in his A25. That whet our appetite for a return, in addition to our previous experience on Erie Canal and all we've read & heard about the Rideau and Lake Champlain. You only live once, and already we've had our boat on the Salish Sea in the Pacific NW four times, plus once on Block Island Sound, Pawcatuck & Thames Rivers in New England, and Chesapeake Bay. Avidly following stxray's journey south on the ICW, although I doubt we'll ever do that one.

20170902_135316.jpg

20170902_150428.jpg

Our 'road warrior' rig.

20190615_114110.jpg

[sailonset]

Hi Mott (or is it Tom?),
Did you look at Moby Dick in South Portland the day after I was there? Sorry to have grabbed her; didn't know anyone else was interested. She was the first FC I looked at and everything seemed to fit together.
Best,
dge

[motthediesel]

Yes, we did indeed look at “Moby Dick” one day too late! She seemed like a fine craft, and we wish you all the best with her. We were especially impressed with how quiet and smooth that Yanmar engine was.

Still, we’re not sorry for the way things turned out. Getting that boat trucked home from Maine would have been expensive for us. Oddly, the boat we bought here on the St Lawrence also came from Maine — Georgetown, just a little North of you. The folks we bought it from actually had steamed it home from there by way of the Hudson and NY Barge Canal — quite an adventure!

Good luck with Moby D!

Tom