Erie Canal Adventures

May 24, 2017, continued

At 2:00, we were still getting 8 knots SOG. Amazing. At this rate, we should be at Hop-O-Nose by 3:30. It'll be so fabulous to have an early arrival!  

Today we had a big powerboat approach us and slow down!  What?!  That is unheard of in the Caribbean. We were so appreciative that we thanked him over the VHF radio. 

There are many absolutely beautiful homes along the Hudson.  They're lovely with their big sweeping lawns, the mountains behind them, and the water in front.  

We arrived at Hop-O-Nose just after 3:00pm.  William, Brian, and Tim met us at the dock.  All nice guys, and very helpful. 

Carey and I got right to work.  (No rest for the wicked!). We removed the jib and Code Zero sails, as well as the Code Zero hardware and lines, and fished most of the lines.  By then it was getting dark, so we had quick showers and went to the restaurant here for dinner.  Unfortunately, the food wasn't great.  Maybe we've become spoiled from all of the great meals we've had recently. Or, maybe not.  

We finally fell into bed, exhausted. 

Thursday, May 25, 2017

We got up early and got right to work.  It was a dull, overcast morning.  We took off the boom and boom vang and secured them on the port side (man, those things are heavy and awkward!), fished all of the remaining lines, marked the turnbuckles, found and installed the mast cradles, and filled the water tanks. Just as I turned off the sprayer nozzle on the hose, water started spraying all over the place. Once I had found the source (a hole in the hose), I was able to direct the geyser outward and get Carey to turn off the water. By that time, the cockpit and I were soaked. Grrrrr.  We have no idea how the hose got a hole it.  We carefully roll it up in a neat coil and store it after every use.  Oh, well, one more thing to fix. 

As we were working away, a beaver swam by our stern. So cool!  I'm happy that we are still seeing uncommon animals and birds. 

It drizzled off and on all morning, then started raining in earnest at 11:30.  We had gotten most of the outside prep work done by then, so Carey worked on disconnecting the mast wiring after lunch, during the downpour.  It was after 2:30 by the time he was finished.  I called Sean to ask if they take down masts in the rain and he said, "Sometimes in a light rain, but not in this."  Bummer.  

He arrived at our boat minutes later to ask us to move to the well by the craneso that we'd be ready to go first thing in the morning.  Tim and Brian came down to help us move.  Poor guys, they looked so wet and bedraggled.  Not frail, though.  These are big guys, with arms bigger than my thighs!

We were moved within minutes and tied to the new dock.  For dinner, we ordered from Pomodoro, an Italian restaurant, and had it delivered!  No wet walks for us!  (Unfortunately, Uber taxis are not available in this area.). It was so chilly that Carey set up Mr. Heater to warm us up.  I'm very thankful that we decided to bring Mr. Heater, just for days like this.  

Friday, May 26, 2017

We got up at 6 am today. We are supposed to be getting our mast taken down at 7 am. However, it's been raining all afternoon yesterday, all night, and still is this morning.  I'm doubtful if they'll do it. Grrrr.  Since we're out of the ocean we thought we wouldn't have anymore weather days unable to move!  We may be stuck here an extra day. Fingers crossed they can do it anyway. We'll see.

Oh, happy day.  Sean, Tim, Brian, and William arrived at 8:00 and got right to work. It was still raining, so we donned our foul weather gear again and joined in.  All went well, except William dropped a screwdriver in the creek while he was taking off the back stays.  Oops, I guess that'll come out of his wages!  (Once something goes in the water there's no getting it back, so we are VERY careful when using tools or attaching any kind of hardware.) 

Once we had the mast down and semi-secured, they had us move across the creek so another sailboat could come into the well near the crane and have their mast taken down.  We finalized the tying and securing ourselves, and then at 11:45, we were ready to go.  We motored out of Catskill Creek and north into the Hudson River.  We are heading for Troy and hoping to get through the Troy Lock before they close at 5:00. It's cutting it pretty close, so we'll probably have to stop in Troy for the night. 

Going up the Hudson was quite calm except for two power boats that roared by leaving big wakes. They just about swamped the catamaran in front of us and had us rolling around, too. Grrrrr.  We thought we had left those idiots in the Caribbean. It's a little hair-raising with our mast  in the cradles. We just hope it's secure enough to withstand a few rolls and bounces. 

Poor RC Wings has a yellow moustache from the brackish waters in the Chesapeake and north to the Hudson. She also has some rust from all of that saltwater we had subjected her to.  Pretty soon we'll be able to clean her up again and keep her pretty in our lovely Great Lakes. 

We were thrilled when we made it to the Troy Lock at 4:30.  That meant that we would get to Waterford, the first lock on the Erie Canal. Yahoo!  Oh, wait, that was short-lived. The Troy lockmaster wasn't answering his radio.  I tried hailing him on the lock channel 13 as well as the regular channel 16 at least 10 times, but no answer.  Then, I phoned a number for the lock--answering machine. The voice said that someone would call back immediately. Well, that didn't happen. Throughout this whole time, Carey was on the helm trying to stay in position without getting too close to the lock (they don't like that).  Finally, I heard water bubbling. Something was happening in the lock. I tried hailing him again on 13 and, woohoo, he finally answered and said the lock was ready for us, just wait for the green light. It was a good five minutes before the lock doors opened and the light turned green. We motored slowly in, looped a dock line around a pipe that is recessed in the wall, watched the doors closed, and rose with the water level.  Easy, peasy.  Once out, we turned into the Erie Canal and stopped at the Waterford wall. 

Yahoo, we are in the Erie Canal!  

We went to McGrievy's again for dinner, just like last September.  Quite an interesting dinner. Our waitress, Laurie, was having a bad day (she brought me the wrong meal), but she made up for it with a free glass of wine, a free dessert, and free skin care tips (she puts Preparation H on her crow's feet). She was grateful that we were so nice about it.  We were happy to get free stuff.  Haha.  The food we had was good, just not what I ordered. 

We walked back to the boat and chatted with a couple on a catamaran that we had met in Catskill.  They were just completing the Great Loop.  While we were chatting, we saw a beaver swim by.  Then, it was time for bed.  Early to bed, early to rise. 

. 

Saturday, May 27, 2017

We were up at 6:00, ready to catch the first lock opening at 7:00.  Locks are supposed to operate from 7am to 5pm each day, and some (like the Waterford locks) are operational up to 8pm.  Apparently, this lockmaster didn't get the memo. We idled out front, called on VHF 13, and still the lock gate wasn't opening.  Finally, at 7:20, we saw a white car pull up.  It was 7:25 before the first gate opened.  She apologized for her tardiness.  She said it wasn't her lock, so she had to go get the keys. 

At 7:40 we were through the first lock, E-2, and at 8:00 we were through the second, E-3.  We completed all five in the Waterford flight by 9:00. It's a lot more work going up the locks than down.  The water gushing in shoves us hard against the wall.  Since our boat is moving up along the wall, our fenders would be scraping along the sides if we didn't hold it off as much as possible.  Carey was on the helm for these locks, so I had to wake up my muscles to push us off.  He used the bowthrusters to keep us straight in the lock.  So far, we haven't had to share a lock with any other boats.  That makes it a bit easier.  By 9:30, we had seen two other boats on the canal. 

The lock numbers are coded by canal.  For example, the Erie Canal locks start with E, the Oswego Canal locks start with O, Cayuga-Senaca with CS, and Champlain with C.  Makes sense. 

We've seen several herons on the canal this morning, as well as a kingfisher. 

The Erie Canal is free this year to celebrate their 150th anniversary. Bonus for us!

We were through Lock E7 by 10:35 and headed for Schenectady Yacht Club for diesel and a pump out.  The guy was very helpful there.  Great stop. Ahhhh, it felt so good to be filled up and pumped out.  We left the Schenectady (don't you love that name?) fuel dock at 11:40 and carried on. We are still seeing logs, branches, bark, and twigs in the water, so we avoid them whenever we can. 

After lunch, we went through Lock E8. There is a dam to one side of it, so it's quite turbulent.  While Carey was trying to keep the boat straight, I was trying to raise the dockmaster on the radio to get him to open the gates.  Eventually, he answered and said that he didn't have any starboard ties. Yikes!  I started crawling around and under the mast and stays draped across our deck to move all four fenders and one dock line to the port side.  Carey was doing spinneramas in the turbulence until I was ready.  We entered the lock and were followed in by a tug and a large 50 foot powerboat. Although it was only a 15 foot lock, it took forever to fill. My muscles were getting a good workout all day from pushing us off the wall. 

Once out of the lock, we slowed down and let the powerboat and then the tug go by.  They move faster than us, so it's only polite. Even though we didn't go that route, they suggest this etiquette on the ICW.  The other boats are then supposed to go by you with as little wake as possible. Both boats did this, so everyone was happy. 

We continued to lock through throughout the day.  At 4:30, we arrived at Lock E12. The dockmaster knew we were coming, but the gates weren't open.  I called on the radio and he opened one half of the gate.  Huh?  I called him on the radio and he said the other gate wasn't working, but they'd been letting boats through all day.  We should be fine.  Gulp!  Okay, if other boats could do it, so could we.  Carey motored toward the half gate opening, which looked incredibly narrow.  The gates are 22 feet wide.  We are 14 feet wide, which only leaves 4 feet on each side.  It felt like inches!  Just to make it a bit more difficult, we had to deal with the turbulent waters in front of the gate.  We had to move fairly quickly so that we'd keep our steerage, but we needed to squeeze through this narrow opening.  Yikes.  Carey did a great job and got us in without a scratch.  Once our racing hearts calmed down, the ride up the lock wasn't that bad.  

After the stress of the day, we thought we deserved a treat, so we stopped at the Fonda free dock (where we stayed last September) and walked to McDonalds, across the bridge in Fultonville. We haven't eaten McDonald's in many, many months.  

Yes, the Henry Fonda clan is from Fonda, NY. 

After a walk to McDonalds (yes, as yucky as ever), we came out and could hear the roar of race cars across the canal.  Yup, it's race night in the big town of Fonda.  It was so loud we had to yell at each other to be heard.  From what we could see of Fonda/Fultonville they are sad little towns, so we decided to pack up and move on to the next nearest dock, which is in Randall on the wall before Lock E13.  

On the way there, the water was an absolute mirror.  So beautiful. If you fell in, you'd be falling into the sky.  

The wall was on the port side, so I had to move all of the fenders and dock lines again. Grrrrr.  When we got there, the wall was very high.  (When standing on the deck we were looking straight at the wall on one side and the dam on the other.)  I had to climb a ladder recessed in the wall to get up to tie us off.  It took a while, but we finally got it tied up to our satisfaction. 

The strange thing was that we could still hear the raceway!  Later, we kept hearing trains go by very close. Oh, well, who needs sleep anyway?

Sunday, May 28, 2017

This turned out to be a very quiet place to spend the night (other than a few trains).  Either that, or we were exhausted.  Since we had tied up to the wall right in front of Lock E13, we were able to go through at 7:00 this morning.  From then on, almost all of the locks were ready for us (the lockmasters call ahead to tell the next lockmaster that we are coming), either open or ready to be opened.  Once again, the water was a perfect mirror.  Beautiful, but distracting!

We got to Lock E17 at Little Falls just after 11:00.  It is the highest lock (40 feet) on the Erie Canal, and it is believed to be one of only two locks in North America where the entrance gate is lifted ABOVE the boater.  This means that it drips on us as we enter.  Unfortunately, this lock only has ropes on the south side, so that meant I had to shift all of the fenders over again. Aaarrrggghhh!  I'm certainly getting my exercise this trip.  (Carey prefers to be on the helm when going through the locks, and he's well-practised, so I do all of the grunt work.  He has also been on watch for much of the canal trip, so I can't complain too much.)

We had to wait for Lock 17, and then we couldn't tell when it was open.  After the dockmaster told us we could proceed, we entered the lock at 11:15. 

Just to prove that I could do it, too, I was on the helm for Lock E19 in Frankfort.  We saw a Nav Alert saying that there was a reduced channel depth between E19 and E20.  They were right!  As I was leaving the lock, I saw 7.7 on our depth gauge, and further along the canal we were seeing just over 7 feet to 9 feet.  Sometimes, it went up to 12 feet which made us feel better.  There is so much debris in the water, as well as overhanging trees about to fall in, that when we meet other boats we can't give them a lot of room.  We usually slow down and just eke by each other.  We are in the Mohawk River for this part of the canal route. 

We arrived at Lock E20, Whitesboro, at 3:25 and immediately radioed the dockmaster...several times.  He didn't reply for another 20 minutes!  We sat out there, idling, fighting the current and the wind, until he finally woke up. Grrrrr!  When he finally did reply, he said he had no starboard ties.  Yikes!  I ran around like a lunatic, again, moving fenders.  Most lockmasters are fantastic, but when you get one who just doesn't care, it's really irksome. (He had had a phone call from the previous lock to expect us, plus he should be looking for boats approaching his lock.)  He filled the lock quickly, which makes it more difficult on us, too, but at least it sped up the process.  While we were in there, we saw the tiniest ducklings trapped in the lock--with no mama duck.  As soon as the gate was opened they skedaddled out of there. We (and the ducklings) got out at 3:55. 

We arrived at New London, NY, Lock 21, at 6:10 so we tied up for the night. 

Monday, May 29, 2017

We were ready to go by 7:00, but the dockmaster needed "10-15 minutes to get things fired up".    We were through two locks by 7:55.  Both of these locks were going down, which are easy-peasy compared to going up. 

It is pouring rain and I look and feel like a duck.  I have my yellow foul weather gear on and water is dripping from my bill (of my baseball cap).  It's hard to see where we're going so I hope there aren't any other crazy ducks out here.  Carey has his foul weather gear on, too, because our canvas leaks a bit. We'll do some waterproofing when we get home. 

We reached Lake Oneida at 8:30.  The wind was blowing so we were a little concerned that it might be rough.  That's a concern when we have this very heavy mast propped up on wooden cradles on our deck.  We didn't want the cradles to break and lose our mast in the lake!  We were lucky, though, because the swells and wind were on our stern, making it a relatively smooth crossing.  (We had a bit of a rough crossing in the fall on our way east.). 

We were able to turn on the autopilot for the crossing, so we could eat breakfast together for once.  

Yesterday, the last lockmaster mentioned that sailboats sometimes have problems with reception on their radios and that's why he couldn't hear us for 20 minutes.  I think he meant transmission, not reception, and, upon reflection, he may be right.  Our VHF antenna used to be 67 feet in the air and now it is 15 feet high.  I guess we'll just have to keep calling until someone responds.  

We were across the lake by 11:00.  We were surfing across the lake, but it was just fine once we  went under the bridge on the west side of the lake.  

This section of the canal, for the next 22 miles, is lined with cute (and expensive, I'm sure), private cottages and docks, so they want boaters to keep their wakes to a minimum and speeds slow.  No problem for us. 

We reached the fork in the canal that goes north to the Oswego around 11:45, but we continued east.  We are on the Seneca River now and it winds around a lot, but it doesn't have nearly the number of downed trees in the water.  We have seen herons, swans, eagles, kingfishers, Canada geese, osprey, and jumping fish.  Plus, Carey saw his first squirrel since last September, and I saw a robin. 

The sun came out after lunch, but then storm clouds gathered again around 2:00.  A brief shower while we went through Lock E24 in Baldwinsville, and then the sun struggled for dominance with the clouds for the rest of the afternoon. 

People are fishing EVERYWHERE along the canal!  

We arrived at Lock 23 at 6:45 and tied to the cement wall.  We like to keep going until we reach the "Stop Here" sign. 

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

We got an early start again and we're on the way by 7:00.  Carey startled two blue herons off our boat this morning when he climbed into the cockpit.  Then, as we entered Lock 25, a heron was standing just on the edge of the wall, no more than ten feet from us. I've never seen a wild heron up close before. Amazing creatures.  

The bridge after Lock 26 is very low, 16 feet, and the water is higher than usual, so we're a little worried about making it under.  We left the radar on the mast and it sticks up an extra foot above the mast.  We have measured our height and believe that we are 14 feet high. I've been trying to measure the clearance we've had on other bridges. We should make it unscathed, but it's too close for comfort!  

Our chartplotter chart ended after Lyons, Lock 28A.  It's kind of disconcerting when your chartplotter says you're going over land. Yikes!  

The sun came out before noon and everything started to dry up. Suddenly, it was quite warm. 

I called RCR Marine in Buffalo to let them know we would be there soon, and to schedule them to step our mast on Friday. However, they said they wouldn't be able to do it until Tuesday.  Then, I called Wardell's (first come, first serve, do-it-yourself, and expensive) and Rich Marine (too busy with their local boats) and then Smith Boys.  Jim, at Smith Boys, called me back and said they could do it on Friday. It is expensive, but so were the others, so we are going with them.  Now, we just have to get there!

When we got up to Lock E29 in Palmyra, we called and called and called on the radio. I tried yelling, but to no avail.  Finally, we tied to the concrete wall and I ran to the lock, up the stairs, and to the far end where I found the lockmaster eating his lunch.  He said, "Isn't your radio working?"  As we were locking through, 25 minutes after arriving, we asked him to test it by calling us.  Turns out that it was HIS radio that wasn't working.  Grrrrr.  

When we got to Lock E30, the lock was right ready for us.  Also, the huge Genesee beer barges were docked just on the other side of the lock, which means that we wouldn't have to try to pass them along the canalway. The lockmaster said that the trail of barges is 485 feet long!  Wow!  Genesee Brewing is floating 12 massive beer fermentation tanks 225 miles across New York (from Albany to Rochester) via the Erie Canal.  The tanks were manufactured in China, so they've come a long way already. We've been noticing lots of tourists watching us lock through today, even in the rain.  We thought it was us, but I guess they wanted to see the barges.  Haha. 

I switched all of the fenders and dock lines back to the starboard side again, because it's easier to see from the helm.  We entered Lock 32 at Pittsford and their south wall had been refaced, but their north wall was a mess of chipped concrete with stones jutting out.  Since we would have to keep the boat off the wall as much as possible, we switched places--me on the helm and Carey doing the grunt work. It worked well and we saved our fenders from being chewed up.  At the next lock, a bunch of kids were there with their parents.  I chatted with all of them and enjoyed answering their questions as we were rising in the lock.  

Today, Carey saw two deer in two different places.  He gets a kick out of spotting wildlife.  

At 5:10, we came around a bend and saw a huge barge being pushed by a tug coming at us.  Luckily, there was a small cutout to the right, so we slowed down and let him pass.  There was absolutely no room for us to go by it, as it was a very narrow area.  Then, it left a bunch of swirlies in its wake, which tugged us this way and that.  I was watching the concrete walls on both sides, while Carey tried to regain control of the boat.  Yikes, too much excitement for the end of the day.  

We arrived in Spencerport at 6:30 and decided to go out for dinner.  We ate Irish, which wasn't all that great, and then we went grocery shopping.  We were out of everything, but since we had to carry everything back to the boat, I was conservative.  We ended up with about 14 bags of groceries.  Luckily it was a short walk back to the boat.  After storing everything away, we showered and crashed for the night.  

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

In the morning, we asked the Spencerport bridgemaster to lift his bridge for us.  He lifted that one and then, because he's a roaming operator, he opened the next one for us, too, when we got there.  Then, we had another set of lift bridges in Brockport.  These two were very close together, so we had to wait for the roaming operator to stop traffic, lift the first bridge, let us pass, lower it, then drive to the second one, stop traffic, and lift it.  We had to idle for a while, but not too long.  

Just after that we saw a mink swim across the water, jump up onto the rocks on the bank, and run along beside us until he found a hole to dive into.  Carey also saw a groundhog on the shore. 

Peter Leubner, our Jeanneau Service Manager on Lake Ontario, said they have lots of water on the lake this year.  They are flooded, as the lake is 30 inches or so above normal levels.  Crazy!  Jeanie says the St. Clair River is high, too, which is great for them to have lots of water at the dock.  It's been pretty low the last few years.  We are finally out of the flooded section of the canal, so the bridge heights aren't as scary. 

At about 10:15, we reached Albion lift bridge.  The lockmaster called us to ask us to hold up because a tug was pulling a large barge through, eastbound.  He had to open the Ingersoll Bridge for the barge first, then open the Albion Bridge for the barge, while we waited.  The problem was that we had rocks on our starboard side, and we didn't want the barge's wash and wake to push us into them. Luckily, we spied a short concrete wall just before the bridge.  We tied up there and waited for the barge to crawl through.  Once it passed and the water calmed down a wee bit, we threw off our docklines and moved through the bridge. The bridgemaster had been holding it open for us, so we had to move quickly.  Then, we had to wait again, because he had to lower that bridge and drive to the Ingersoll bridge to lift it.  We were through both bridges by 10:40.  Boy, we are never short of adventures!  

By 3:00, we were through the last locks on the Erie Canal, the staircase locks--E34 and E35.  We found these the toughest locks in the whole canal!  They are fairly high, at 24' and 25', the wind was really blowing us around, and the walls are really rough and grab the fenders.  However, we made it through without too much excitement. 

We are planning to stay at Tonawanda tonight and head for Buffalo (only 10 miles away) in the morning.  That'll save us a marina fee for tonight. 

We arrived in Tonawanda at 5:30 and took more than a half hour to tie up, because the wind was shoving us against the dock and the dock had posts.  It's a beautiful dock, but it's more suited for boats with rub rails.  They charged us $35 to tie up here, which included electric and water. Not bad, but we prefer the free docks.  

We celebrated the completion of the Erie Canal by having Surf and Turf at the Remington Tavern and Seafood Exchange which was a one minute walk from our boat. They were having a special for $27, so we both went for it.  Great restaurant, with great food. 

When we returned from dinner, we noticed an official looking boat docked behind ours.  We didn't think anything of it, until there was a knock on our hull.  The Border Patrol was here to check out our paperwork. We handed over our cruising license and then chatted with them about our trip south and our ocean passage.  They were great guys, and they offered some advice about how we could get to Smith Boys Marina tomorrow and then back to Buffalo, without going into the Niagara River.  There are so many low bridges around here, that you have to plan carefully wherever you go.  Our paperwork checked out and they said we didn't have to call Customs, because they had taken care of it.  Wonderful!

Since we weren't able to find a fuel dock recently, we decided to use one of our jerry cans of diesel to top up our tank.  I think we needed it.  However, there were a ton of little bugs out, so we decided to do that task in the morning.  Instead, we hooked up to shore power and went below to relax for the evening.  

Thursday, June 1, 2017

For the first time in a long time, we allowed ourselves to sleep in this morning.  After breakfast on the boat we emptied our jerry cans of diesel into our tank, and added a jerry can of fresh water to our water tank.  

I called Jim at Smith Boys and asked for directions to the marina and to our assigned slip.  It turns out that they are not in Buffalo, but on Tonawanda Island.  They have no fuel dock, but they do have laundry facilities.  They should be able to step our mast on Friday morning.  

Around 11:00, we motored north up the fast moving Niagara River to Smith Boys Marina on Tonawanda Island.  When we docked, there were sandflies everywhere!  Ugh.  They'd had a hatch, and the dock guy, Wayne, said that they are worst when it's windy, because they are blown out of the trees.  These insects, also known as caddisflies, are especially frequent near bodies of water.  They have aquatic larvae.  These are the same insects that were bugging us at the dock last night. 

As we were approaching our dock, we saw a couple walk out to the end of the pier.  Then, the man called out to us.  What!?!?  It was Diny and Bob, come to welcome us to "almost-Canada". What a great surprise!  They met us at our dock and took us out for lunch.  Later, we all walked back to the boat, through the swarms, and hid in the cockpit with the canvas zipped closed to get out of the bugs.  Some of them eventually worked their way inside, of course.  It was so nice to catch up with Diny and Bob, so we tried to ignore the pesky flies.  Our surprise visitors left at 5:30.  I couldn't believe how fast the afternoon had flown by. 

I decided not to do any laundry, because I didn't want to fight my way through the bugs.  Carey and I had a late supper and an early night.  

Friday, June 2, 2017

After breakfast, Carey swept as many sandfly bodies away as possible.  Then, we moved the boat to the dock near the crane.  Since Wayne and his two helpers were scheduled to start work at 9:30, we decided to go early to prepare for the mast being stepped.  We moved the boat over to the dock where the crane sat, then we took all of the straps and ties off of the mast and boom, and added water to our tanks. (Grrrr, a leak in the second hose!)  

The Smith Boys team finally arrived at 10:00. That's when the circus began. They had no idea what they were doing. They stepped the mast and then it was noon before they could attach the forestay.  I would definitely NOT recommend Smith Boys to step the mast. They are SeaRay dealers and seem to have limited knowledge about sailboats.  At one point, one of the workers, who was hanging over the bow, dropped a thick steel pin for the jib furler.  Replacing that piece would have been a nightmare, but he realized that it was caught between his boot and the side of the boat.  He very carefully reached down and retrieved it.  Phew, that was lucky!

Once they left, Carey and I got the rest of the jobs done ourselves.  First, though, we had to move the boat back to its original dock.  The Smith Boys didn't help with this endeavour, even though they had tied the bow dock line to a different dock across the water.  We had to move the boat backward, then retie the dock lines, before we could leave the dock.  Then, the strong current and wind made it difficult to get back to the first dock.  However, once we had tied up again, we attached the boom and boom vang, tuned the rigging, fished all of the lines, connected the wiring in the mast, and stored the wooden mast cradles.   All of this was accomplished while batting away a million bugs!  

Swarms of sand flies drove us crazy all day!  They crawled all over us, inside our glasses, flying right into our faces and up our pants legs and everywhere else.  Aaaarrrrggghhhh!  We just wanted out of there!

Tomorrow morning, we will put up the jib, and possibly the Code Zero sail before heading out.  It was too windy and buggy to get it done today.