August 28th, 2003 - Westport Springs

Ahoy Mates;

   The Fist Mate is in the mood for posing today so the first pic shows off the fresh water spring monument at Westport. Can you see the fresh spring water coming out at the top of the marble slab? The second shows the Westport spring gazebo. Some of the best tasting fresh water ever to pass our lips is bubbling up just for us! We took one last walk about town and shoved off at 1000 hours. A cloudy, cool day and we traveled on the big Rideau Lake and the lower lake, all in all a 3 hour lake cruise. Looked but could not find the Murphys Provincial State Park so, we headed on down to the falls. Got in about 1430 hours. Saw a nice stand of white birch trees along the lower lake. Lots of fisherman out. This is supposed to be a good spot to catch bass. The lower lake gets up to 300 feet deep in spots. Got the last floating dock at the basin and we have 15 amp electric and water service.

   Captain's table - Soft tacos and key lime pie for dessert, yum, yum....................Captain.

August 21, 2003 - Got a surprise when we ran into Charlie who slips at our marina in Florida. He was shopping in the Kingston farmers market and there we met, small world. He Summers up here in Canada.

   We got away from the Marina at 1100 hours and we thought about laying up at Lock 43 in Upper Brewers but the wall was full so we are anchoring out as our back up plan. I'm kinda glad we did because the landscape is much like West Point, high hills next to the Bay. Take a look for yourself! The first pic shows the skyline off to our East and the second is a look from the bottom of the Upper Brewers Lock where we wanted to stay, enjoy. We have 6 boats in this cove doing the same thing. We locked through 7 locks today and all are manually operated. No worries about rolling black outs here! The landscape is starting to get pretty as we get higher in altitude. The water is so clear you can see the bottom of each lock and all the fish in it. the lock master said we could drink the water straight from the canal it is so pure but we will pass on that and run the water maker just the same.

   Captain's table - Bar-B-Que spare ribs, Fresh corn, baked harvest apples, parmesan squash, Fresh pineapple topped with cottage cheese with a red cherry on top and a peach dumpling for dessert, yum, yum.............Captain.

August 1th, 2003 - Watkins Glen, New York. Watkins Glen is a neat stop. The folks at the Yacht Club made us feel welcome and treated us like members. We were able to walk the trails along the Watkins Glen State Park Gorge, over 600 steps going up the gorge and the same coming back down. Great views looking down into the cravas and the creek flows into the very canal we are docked. Then we went by car to see the Bath Fish Hatchery. We saw rainbow and brown trout in their stages of growth before release into the lakes. It takes 18 months from hatchling to release. Then on to the Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport, NY to see this guys accomplishments with building motorcycles, aeroplanes and boat engines. They had a nice display of Buick's first cars before getting up with the General Motors folks. On to the Bully Hill Vineyards for lunch on the terrace overlooking Pleasant Valley. We had the best table on the deck and enjoyed the view and food. Wine tasting next - 5 sips at Bully Hill and 5 sips at Pleasant Valley Wine Company were we purchased a case of pink catawba at $5.99 a 750 ml bottle, mmmm delicious and sooooo good. Went to Central Station restaurant in Painted post, NY and then visited the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY. What a place that is! I never saw glass done in so many ways, shapes and forms. Went to the Italian Feast in Watkins Glen and tasted some sausage with a pepper topping and rode a couple of rides. The next day we watched a parade in Watkins Glen and drove over to the Taughannock Falls which has a dead fall of 215 feet and the overlook was 200 feet higher than that, awesome it surely is! The ice age certainly gave us plenty of geological oddities to gawk at. We went back to the Italian Fest and got a half of a chicken and a pork sandwich from Hank's Bar-B-Q pit, yum. good eating. At 2215 hours we had an awesome fireworks display and of course we could see it all from the bow of our boat, yea. Oh, there is a salt mine here! Calgill, Inc mines salt right here at the lakes edge and owns the property the Yacht Club sits on. Ted took me for a motorcycle ride on his 1,350 cc Harley. We rode up along the hill side of Lake Seneca and stopped at  the Wagner vineyards for a taste. They make microbrewed beers also! I liked their sled dog doppelbock beer the best. It is a malty full-bodied lager brewed with lots of Munich, dark caramel and chocolate malts and Northern Brewer and Tettnang hops. The next we all went back with the car and had lunch at their restaurant called the Ginny Lee that over looked the Seneca Lake from high on the Eastern slop and we bought a case of the Sled Dog Doppelbock beer, yahoo! We went back to Central Station for lunch in Painted Post, NY then over to Horseheads, NY to the National Warplane Museum. Lots of planes in mint condition and loads of history. They offer plane rides for $200.00 per half hour, we declined. Ted & Terry got up at zero dark hundred to see us off and a fine cast off it was. Seneca Lake was as smooth as glass and no rain! We got our favorite spot at Seneca Falls and settled in for the evening.

   Captain's table - Ship wreck chili, hot dogs, peach and cottage cheese salad and peach cobbler for dessert, yum, yum.

   Captain Earl

July 23rd, 2003 - New York Canal System -   WE thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Lock 11 in Amsterdam, NY. Cindy Mc Fay is the Chief lock master here and was gracious enough to let us borrow her car for a trip to Price Choppers and to visit the Noteworthy Indian Museum. What a treasure this museum holds. Tom Constantino, founder of the Noteworthy plastic bag company, purchased this building to house his many collections of Native American artifacts found in the Mohawk Valley in Central New York. The museum provides an overview of how the land and its inhabitants changed during the periods leading up to the Revolutionary War. The tour is in English and Mohawk as we stepped onto the "Back of the Great Turtle". Developed from over 60,000 artifacts, the museum quality clay pots, stone tools, beadwork and baskets tell the story of the Mohawk. A story time line, depicted by illustrations and artifacts, traces Native American life in the Mohawk Valley from 12,000 years ago to the present. We saw a carefully detailed scale model of a Mohawk long house during the "Month of the Cold Moon", cooking fires cast a dim light on this moment captured from their daily life. We saw a mock up of a Native Hunter pausing in the snow along a creek with a raccoon pelt over his shoulder along with his bow and arrows in the time period of about the 1400's. Poetry, paintings and Native song playing over loud speakers as we slip into yesteryear. Along with four other Indian nations to the west, the Mohawks formed the League of the Iroquois. This powerful confederacy kept peace in the region. The intrusion of the Europeans brought irrevocable change. Ultimately, the Mohawk were driven from the Valley during the American Revolution because of their alliance with the British. Cohoes Falls, NY is where the treaty with the tribes was signed and we probably walked that ground at Peebles Island last week! There were only to ways for the settlers to move west, the Mohawk River Valley and Cumberland Gap. Oh, we had a bit of a surprise on Thursday morning when Dave and Joy Brady came out of the lock at 0730 hours. They spotted us and pulled in to catch up on things and left for Little Falls, NY and on to Michigan. We have known them for several years and they are live a boards loving every minute of it. We had a good fire works display and box seating on our sun deck because Lock 11 sits high over looking the valley and the fire works were shot in the valley so they popped right about eye level with the Lock. What a treat  to see the good stuff with out leaving our home because it is where we are! I called Pop and wished him a happy 89th Birthday and then we shoved off in the dinghy and went West a couple of miles to Schoharie Crossing. This site is old lock 35 built in 1825 with a small museum of history and talked about the Putnam family that operated a grocery store along the lock. The hay day for all of this activity was in the 1870's then the Mohawk River canals were built and the Erie canals dried up along with its stores along the mule trails.

   Well, we took our last walk in Amsterdam and found a surprise. A wild black raspberry bush full of ripe berries and yes we stopped and picked, and yes, eat em all! Got off to a cloudy day with jackets most of the morning then we got another surprise. Our next stop was under construction so we had to push on and got another surprise. No power and water. So, we will move on to Sylvan Beach on Wednesday. We are right next to I-90 and the road noise is awful. Got a nice shot of Lock 17, the tallest in the system with a lift of 40 feet. Wow, what a ride! Walked to the town post office, Sears for some water filters and got a bucket of Kentucky fried chicken for supper.

   Captain's table - Bucket of crispy fried chicken and cole slaw, yum, yum..................Captain.

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