yes dear …

June 30, 2019 Sunday Underneath the Mackenzie King Bridge, Ottawa, Ontario  0 nautical miles.

45°25’23.9″N 75°41’28.8″W
45.423317, -75.691328
Elevation: 213 ft

Along the Way

We were out early this morning. Off to the ByWard Market for coffee and nosh.

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Les seaux GADI, Claude Bouchard, artisan http://lesseauxgadi.com/

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USA Embassy

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National Gallery of Canada
Maman is a bronze, stainless steel, and marble spider sculpture by the artist Louise Bourgeois. The sculpture is 30 ft high and over 33 ft wide. It includes a sac containing 32 marble eggs.

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Docktails with boats Late Harvest, Apres Sail, $KID$, Summersalt, yes dear ..

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Neighbors

Ottawa holds a celebration of the Gift of Tulips from the Netherlands every spring. The celebration is in honor of Canada’s role in the liberation of the Netherlands in WWII. The forged friendship has lasted over 74 years. The Shaw Center is desigined n the shape of a tulip flower laying on its side.

Floccinaucinihilipilification

In the winter the Rideau Canal becomes a 4.7 mile (7.8 kilometre) skating rink as it winds its way through downtown Ottawa.

Famous people from Ottawa include Paul Anka, Lorne Greene, Alanis Morissette, Dan Ankroyd, Adrienne Clarkson, Tom Green, Peter Jennings, Rich Little, Sandra Oh, Matthew Perry, Shelagh Rogers and even Tom Cruise.

Drolleries and Yuks

June 29, 2019 Saturday Rivière des Outaouais (Ottawa River), Gatineau, QC  to Underneath the Mackenzie King Bridge, Ottawa, Ontario  3.8 nautical miles.

45°25’23.9″N 75°41’28.8″W
45.423317, -75.691328
Elevation: 213 ft

Along the Way

Locked up. They finally locked us up. We were the first south bound lift of the day. The north bound came through first giving us time to check the 8 step locks out before we took Yes Dear through.

Hats off to Benjamin, the lock master, and his crew.  By the time the lock was ready to lift the first group through there were 8 boats requesting and up passage. He took us and Encore, the first two boats in line and the two largest boats.  He then took the two next boats in line that could also fit in the lock with. Boats 4 and 5 were too large and needed to wait for the next lock up.

The locks are a harsh mistress. Very low cement walls. Hard to protect against. Fenders need to be exactly at waterline with another set at the rub rail. (Thanks again to Lockmaster Vicki on the Richelieu who told us about making the M formation.)

Lock 8, the final lock bringing us a total of 80 feet up in elevation. There were too many people watching for us to screw up. We didn’t want to look like amateurs persevered forever in family albums of trips to Ottawa for Canada Day.

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Hats off again to Benjamin, the lock master, and his crew.  There are no visitor safety rails on the locks and visitors crawl all over the locks for a view and to take a picture. The Benjamin lock attendants not only have to manage the vessel traffic, they need to HAND CRANK the locks and stay vigilant to keep people away from the locks. Benjamin said several visitors fall off each year and have to be rescued. It’s worse in the evening when after the lock attendants have gone home as there is no one to supervise.

We have company coming – first stop go get beer.

Mary was too lost without her camera. So Dale took her to get a second hand camera body that would work with the Nikon lenses until her camera came back from warranty repair. What a great guy she married!

About town with the new camera on a dark and dreary day. Just pictures… I don’t know what many of the buildings are. It’s just cool. (Having too much fun to research and find out 🙂

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The ByWard Market. The big thing to eat here is beaver tails.

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We didn’t stay long. A severe thunderstorm started to roll in. Back to the boat! Everyone got rained on but us (we are under the bridge).

Neighbors

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Floccinaucinihilipilification

The name Rideau, French for “curtain”, is derived from the curtain-like appearance of the Rideau River’s twin waterfalls where they join the Ottawa River. (see yesterday for picture)

June 28, 2019 Friday Rivière des Outaouais (Ottawa River) near Chute-à-Blondeau, Ontario to Rivière des Outaouais(Ottawa River), Gatineau, QC  63.6 nautical miles.

45°26’58.1″N 75°42’26.2″W
45.449463, -75.707280
Elevation: 134 ft

Today’s travels brought us up ~40 feet in elevation. The good news is that there are NO locks or lock pictures today. 😊

Warning… There will be tomorrow.

Along the Way

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Le Chateau Montebello, owned by Fairmont Hotels, is the largest log structure in the world. It kind of reminded me of the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone. (BTW, they both claim to be the largest log structure in the world.)

We stopped here for fuel. By the time we converted liters to gallons and Canadian dollars to USA dollars we figured we paid $6.82 US per gallon. UGH!

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Hexagonal fire place in the main lobby. It was so big you could probably put a whole tree in it.

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Entering Ottawa

OMG it’s a bus! A duck bus tour that includes a look at the Rideau Locks from the water! (You get those pictures tomorrow. Hope it’s sunnier)

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We hit two logs today with our props. They are so water logged they are laying just below the waterline and virtually impossible to see. One log looked like it was run through a chipper. Fortunately we don’t feel any shimmy or vibration on the boat.

Neighbors

Judging from the expressions of bicyclists crossing the bridge, people don’t anchor here very often. A turtle swam by to check us out. There are skunks around here too. Pee Yew!

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Tales from the Loop

Shared by Bill Forrestall on the Great Loop Forum – Thursday, June 20th the Erie Canal in Utica flash flooded. Loopers on the fixed dock in front of the Aqua Vino Restaurant received flash flood warnings on their phones. Not long after that they heard logs and debris slamming into the boat. In a little over an hour the water rose over 2 ft, boats were now floating over the fixed dock. The Restaurant opened their shed and told the boat owners to use whatever they needed.

Wooden ladders were used the to hold the boats away from the fixed dock now underwater and packed with debris. The Canal Authority asked the boaters to move above lock 20 and offered power along the wall. It took some work to clear the debris enough where you hoped there wouldn’t be any prop damage. It was a crazy couple of hours, but no boats were damaged.

Floccinaucinihilipilification

Ontario Provincial Flag

Ottawa City Flag

June 27, 2019 Thursday Montreal Yacht Club, Montreal, QC   to Rivière des Outaouais(Ottawa River) near Chute-à-Blondeau, Ontario 57.7 nautical miles.

45°34’30.0″N 74°27’05.8″W
45.574990, -74.451599
Elevation: 118 ft

On to Ottawa! We should be there tomorrow. Tonight we are up about 100 feet elevation after passing through 4 locks.

You are saved as I didn’t take pictures of all the locks. I took pictures of all the locks in the USA. I’m not going to do that to you in Canada unless they are of particular interest. In reality they all look almost the same.

Fleuve Saint-Laurent (St Lawrence River) Ships Canal
– Saint-Lambert Lock
– Saint-Catherine Lock

Rivière des Outaouais (Ottawa River)
– Saint-Anne-de-Bellevue Lock
– Carillon Lock

Along the Way

We needed to get into the Fleuve Saint-Laurent (St Lawrence River) Ships Canal in order to continue up stream. Luck was with us or more really the Canadian Loopers Renee and Pierre were with us.

The lock master said the lock was really busy and it would be a wait. About 15 minutes later Canadian Looper friends Renee and Pierre on SHORELINE TRAVELER showed up. Renee used her charm (French) and we were let right in (I think they saw the boat coming and made us wait for them).

Although there were only 3 boats, Yes Dear being the largest, we were asked to tie to the wall and have one of the other vessels raft to us. It seems a little funny to have a giant lock and then ask a two of the three vessels raft together. I guess they have their reasons. We had to raft at Saint-Catherine Lock, the next lock, too.  Saint-Catherine Lock was the boring plain old big ship lock.

Ships Canal pictures

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Saint-Anne-de-Bellevue Lock

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Wind surfers, kite boarding and hydrofoil surf boards

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Carillon Lock. This was amazing. It starts with the .5 mile wide dam and hydroelectric plant. I can only describe the lock gate on the right side the picture as guillotine gate. The lock gate lifts into the upper structure, boats pass under it to enter the lock and then it closes. BTW it is a 65 foot lock.

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There is only one other lock designed like this and it is on the Erie Canal.

I really miss my camera.

Good Night

I had 6 pictures of sunset. It was too hard to narrow it down to a single picture so you get two.

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Floccinaucinihilipilification

The first somewhat successful photograph was taken in approximately 1816 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. The Niépce was better known for his invention of propeller and boats.

The first ever digital camera was developed by Kodak in 1975. It weighed 8 pounds and was able to record black and white photos with a resolution of 0.01 MP

Kodak teamed up with Canon to release first ever DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) camera in 1986. It used a 1.3 MP image sensor developed by Kodak and a Canon F-1 film SLR body.

I miss my camera.

June 26, 2019 Wednesday Montreal Yacht Club, Montreal, QC   0 nautical miles.

45°30’44.5″N 73°32’49.4″W
45.512361, -73.547055
Elevation: 23 ft

Along the Way

Montreal is a vibrant city. There is so much building, construction and repair going on it is often challenging to get around. I’m sure our 2.5 mile bike ride to Atwood Market was over 5 miles due to the detours.

Atwater Market is filled with butchers, bakeries, fish stores, cheese stores, farmers stalls and restaurants. First you eat with your eyes, second your camera and third your stomach. (I don’t always have the order right.)

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Mount Royal Cross is on top of Mount Royal in Montreal. Limits on height are placed upon every building in Montreal, with no building allowed to be higher than Mount Royal.

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The marina is kinda behind the tree tops on the right hand side.

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A Good Night

Docktails with other Loopers then off on a date night.

Floccinaucinihilipilification

Montreal Shares The same Latitude As Venice, Italy. With a latitude of 45°N, Montreal lines up with not only Venice, but also Milan, Zagreb in Croatia, and Queenstown in New Zealand is at the opposite end of the poles with a 45°s latitude*.

June 25, 2019 Monday Montreal Yacht Club, Montreal, QC   0 nautical miles.

45°30’44.5″N 73°32’49.4″W
45.512361, -73.547055
Elevation: 23 ft

Along the Way

First task of the morning was to get Mary’s camera to a camera repair shop. I am proud to say we again mastered the subway. The subway trains are like big long slinky tubes. They are not compartmentalized like the NYC subway trains. After dropping the camera off at Lozeau Camera we headed off .9 miles to where we were to meet our tour guide for a ‘Secret Food Tour’.

Outdoor iron staircases is uniquely Montreal. Eye-catching during summer months it has to be a death trap in the winter when covered by snow and ice. It boils down to space. The design of its housing is almost 100 percent efficient; with the stairs outside there are no common areas at all, with all the interior space being used. Eventually the straight staircases were replace by spiral staircase for even more efficient use of space.

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Skate board park. I took these for you Jake and Bre T

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We heard about food tours from another Looper. Mary of course wanted to do it once she knew food was involved. I was surprised to see there were as many tour options as there were.  We ultimately settled on the ‘Secret Food Tour’ https://www.secretfoodtours.com/montreal/

Adam, our tour guide, shared stories and history of Montreal. Not only did we sample the flavors of Montreal, we were enveloped in the soul of Montreal.  A couple of the many stops.

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We sampled Fairmount bagels, hand rolled bagel cooked on a wood fired oven. This was the very first bagel bakery in Montreal. Montreal bagels have sweet flavor. https://fairmountbagel.com Other sampling included pasta sauce, smoke meats, crepes, charcuterie board …. The more I sampled the more I wanted to dine in the whole Montreal experience.

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Once were done with the tour walked back the .9 mile to pick-up the camera following a more interesting route.

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Once again we mastered the subway. Quick walk through Old Town to get back to the marina.

Built in 1655 Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel is one of the oldest churches in the district of Old Montreal. Small model ships hang from the ceiling, offered by sailors in gratitude.

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After a deserved rest stop on Yes Dear we were off for an evening walk on the promenade (which turned into a full-fledged hike).

Recreational marijuana is legal in Canada. It’s sold at state owned pot shops. May as well go check out the SQDC (Société québécoise du cannabis) pot shop as long as were .9 of a mile from it.

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China town

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We definitely got our 10,000 steps in today. More likely were are closer to 20,000 steps.

Neighbors

We spent the remainder of our evening doing laundry. From the laundry area we could watch the lighted projections onto city buildings and the clock tower in the marina, and the light shows on the Jacques-Cartier Bridge and Helen’s Island.

Floccinaucinihilipilification

Montreal has the highest number of restaurants per capita in Canada and the second highest in North America after New York City.

Quebec has language police. After talking to our tour guide I’m sympathetic towards the language police. Their goal is to help keep the culture and language alive. By law all signs must be in French. English on the sign must be no more than half the size.

Sometimes it goes a little too far…

Pastagate – In 2013 the OQLF (language police) tried to force an Italian restaurant to remove the word “pasta” from their menu. Why? Because “pasta” isn’t a French word.

In today’s world the creation of French terms to name today’s realities is a necessity. Things like hot dog and smoked meat are now officially ‘French’ words.

Drolleries and Yuks

Did you hear about the Italian chef that recently died?
       He just pasta away.

June 24, 2019 Monday Riviere Richelieu – Canal de Saint Ours Lock Île Darvard, QC  to Montreal Yacht Club, Montreal, QC   53.2 nautical miles.

45°30’44.5″N 73°32’49.4″W
45.512361, -73.547055
Elevation: 23 ft

It’s a jolly holiday in Quebec – Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day (St John the Baptist Day)

Along the Way

Exiting the Richelieu

Entering Montreal

The river was really busy. At one time there were 29 boats ahead of us, both coming and going. Cigarette boats were going so fast they must have been attempting to break the sound barrier.

The current was exceptionally strong coming into Montreal. At one time were were running only 1.7 kts at 1600 rpm. Normally we should have been around 7.5 kts. The water is high. The depth finder read 9 feet higher than charted depth in sections of the river.

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OMG! Montreal has a beach. The beach is around the edge of the marina.

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Wandering around old town Montreal. There are lot of little restaurants and out door eateries. Montreal has the highest number of restaurants per capita in Canada and the second highest in North America after New York City.

I have no idea what the building are but they are cool. I think we did ourselves a disservice by not taking a city tour. We will for sure next time we come back. **Adding Montreal to the best of the best list.

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Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day Parade. Eight major figures from Quebec history were honoured (made into bobble heads), including Montreal co-founders Jeanne Mance and Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve, playwright Michel Tremblay and singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen.

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This was different …… A bus let a clown off at every block where there was a wooden structure waiting for them. The clowns pulled the structure into the street and put on a 15+ minute performance. We didn’t wait around till the end. I don’t know who picked up the clowns when the were done.

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This should have been surprising to us. After all, Montreal is home to the Cirque du Soleil.

Neighbors

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Tales from the Loop

Water levels are high all over the North East section of the Loop.  The Hudson is high, the Erie is high, the Champlain is high, the St Lawrence is high, the Great Lakes are high …… you get the picture. In many places fix height docks and normally above water structures are underwater adding a new element to boating. A lot of the fuel stations are on fixed docks and due to the high water, they are closed making re-fueling a challenge.

The Clayton Marina in Clayton, New York on the St Lawrence just opened their fuel dock even though it is still 8 inches underwater. Boaters call in advance to fuel up. Eight marina attendants don their rubber boots and wade out to the end of the dock to catch the boat, preventing it from floating over the dock while it is fueled. Your just can’t use floating fenders on an underwater dock. We are not going through this section of the St Lawrence which include the 1000 Islands as we are taking the more northern route up the Ottawa River then down the Rideau Canal.

Floccinaucinihilipilification

During the American Revolution, the United States sent Benjamin Franklin to Montreal to persuade the Canadians to join the American cause against the British. After staying 10 days, Franklin left convinced that it would be easier to buy Canada than to conquer it.

Although Montreal is one the world’s five largest French-speaking cities, most residents are bilingual. Many speak a third language.

June 23, 2019 Sunday Riviere Richelieu – Canal de Saint Ours Lock Île Darvard, QC  0 nautical miles.

45°51’57.6″N 73°08’50.5″W
45.866004, -73.147349
Elevation: 30 ft

Along the Way

Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day (St John the Baptist Day) is a public holiday celebrated on June 24 in Quebec. It was brought to Canada by French settlers celebrating the traditional feast day of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist.

Riviere Richelieu and the park has been filled with people enjoying the 3-day weekend and great outdoors.

We stayed on the Saint Ours park wall with two other Looper boats. We are all heading to Montreal tomorrow hoping the partiers will have cleared out.

Mary celebrated Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day today. No pictures. No blog.

Floccinaucinihilipilification

Saint Ours(Saint Ursus of Toul) was a 5th-century French bishop of Toul. St Ours Day is celebrated March 1. He is celebrated for converting the frankish king Clovis to Christianity.

Drolleries and Yuks

What did the bald man say when he received a comb for a present?
     I’ll never part with it.

June 22, 2019 Saturday Riviere Richelieu – Canal de Chambly Lock 9, Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu QC   to  Riviere Richelieu – Canal de Saint Ours Lock Île Darvard, QC  38.1 nautical miles

45°51’57.6″N 73°08’50.5″W
45.866004, -73.147349
Elevation: 30 ft

Along the Way

It’s a windy cold day. June 22, one would think it would be summer even in Canada.

We are off down, but headed due north, the Riviere Richelieu. The first section is the Canal de Chambly. The Riviere Richelieu has a lot of rapids and steep declines. The Canal de Chambly smooths it all out. We are following the French Canadian we met last night on boat Max IV. They ran point on the bridges and locks.

I wasn’t going to do this. I wasn’t going to do this. I wasn’t going to do this. I am posting pictures of ALL the locks we went through today. All 9 of them!

Lock 8. Locks 1-8 are all pretty much set- up the same way. The locking staff hand cranks the lock doors open and shut. They also hand crank the water intake/outtake doors open and shut. The lock walls are only 3 feet when you enter and typically drop 7-12 feet. Fenders need to be placed in an ‘M’ format (waterline, gunnel, waterline, gunnel, waterline) on your boat to not scrub the wall with your boat.

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Lock 7. The locks were a tight squeeze getting both boats in.

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Back on the river. There was a lot of boat traffic being a Canadian holiday weekend and all. We found the boaters much more courteous than the south Florida boaters!!!

We had to laugh. Most of the boaters were wearing swimsuits. Hearty Canadians. Mary and Dale, we were wearing jackets.

Neighbors

Whew. No more locks until we leave Montreal.

Floccinaucinihilipilification

The Canal de Chambly is a National Historic Site of Canada in the Province of Quebec, running along the Richelieu River past Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Carignan, and Chambly. Building commenced in 1831 and the canal opened in 1843. It served as a major commercial route during a time of heightened trade between the United States and Canada. Trade dwindled after World War I, and as of the 1970s, traffic has been replaced by recreational vessels.

The Canal has 10 bridges—8 of which are hand operated—and nine hydraulic locks.

Canal Length: 7.5 mi
Dimensions of smallest lock: 110 ft × 21 ft  Yes Dear has a 14.2 beam plus width of fenders
Passage time: 3 to 5 hours

June 21, 2019 Friday Gaines Marina, Rouses Point, NY  to Richelieu – Chambly Canal Lock 9, Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu QC   24.1 nautical miles.

45°18’42.0″N 73°15’06.3″W
45.311665, -73.251749
Elevation:  103 ft

Mary spent the better part of 3 hour getting her new Google Fi sim card enabled. If it works as described, we might dump AT&T.   To be determined. So far so good ….

Along the Way

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Canadian houses are not ostentatious like the Florida houses are.

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We tied up to a floating dock just past the lock. Then out for a walk about! The first thing was to get a handle on the signs

Next on the agenda…

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Poutine is french fries, fresh cheese curds and gravy.

The day is still young. Out for a bike ride.

Neighbors

The lock park seems to be the heart of the community. Lots of people use it. Free internet is available in the park. Tonight there was a fire pit on the city side and musicians playing in the park.

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Where in the world are Mary and Dale?

Floccinaucinihilipilification

More votes were cast for 2006 American Idol winner Taylor Hicks than for Ronald Regan’s reelection as president in 1984.

Drolleries and Yuks

What sits at the bottom of the sea and twitches?
     A nervous wreck.

June 20, 2019 Gaines Marina, Rouses Point, NY  0 nautical miles.

44°59’31.4″N 73°21’40.6″W
44.992068, -73.361283
Elevation:  97 ft

Along the Way

Rainy day, bored and waiting for package deliveries.

Haircuts! Mary wanted a haircut! Dale needed a haircut and a bear trim. None of the local saloons had an opening for the next 2 days. Mary was challenged, as usual, by the thickness of the Dale’s hair. Dale was challenged by the length of Mary’s hair, or more really just challenged. For a while Mary’s hair cut looked like nursing home cut by one of the patients.

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Dale didn’t like Mary’s haircut at first, but it’t growing on him.

The packages came! Dale got a replacement phone and Mary got a Google Fi sim card for Canada international calling. We spend the rest of the day trying to make to our phones functional. Dale is working …. Mary’s isn’t.

Floccinaaucinihilipilification

• Hair is the second fastest growing tissue in the body after bone marrow.
• A healthy strand of hair can stretch an additional 30% when it’s wet.
• A strand of hair is stronger than a copper wire with the same diameter.
• Each strand of hair can support up to 100 grams in weight. Multiply that by the average 100,000 to 150,000 strands on each head, and your entire head of hair could support the weight equivalent to two elephants.
• The scientific name of grey hair is canities

Drolleries and Yuks

How does a barber give the Sun a haircut?
Eclipse it.

June 19, 2019 Wednesday  Valcour Island, NY to Gaines Marina, Rouses Point, NY  24.0 nautical miles.

44°59’31.4″N 73°21’40.6″W
44.992068, -73.361283
Elevation:  97 ft

Yup. We are back in spider land now that we are off saltwater. I’m going to have to pull the spider sucker back out.

Along the Way

Lake Champlain has been pure glass for the past two days. This is the first day of wind.  We’re traveling at 7 knots in 7 miles per hour wind.

Floccinaucinihilipilification

The 45th parallel marks the border between Quebec and New York State/Vermont. If you follow the 45th parallel west to Lake Elmo, MN you’d just about hit our old house on 37th Street. Continue to follow it west to St Paul, MN and you’d be awfully close to Larpenture Avenue.

June 18, 2019 Tuesday Crown Point, NY to Valcour Island, NY   45.2 nautical miles.

44°37’47.0″N 73°25’33.4″W
44.629726, -73.425944
Elevation:  97 ft

Dale was good for two things before 10am, making toast and fixing fuses on the chart plotter (not related). Really three things if you want to count making coffee 😊 Thanks Dale.

Along the Way

The Adirondacks became even more spectacular after the Lake Champlain Bridge.  Neat little bumpy mountains.  I could see sitting in an Adirondack chair and watching the world go by.

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Burlington, VT – Lake Champlain is ~7 miles wide near Burlington

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Adding this to Dale’s accolades for the day …. Dale had to change a fuel filter just as we were coming into Burlington. The port engine crapped out.

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Burton snowboards HQ is in Burlington. We had to take pictures of the Burton store. (Jake’s wife Bre manages the Burton store in Minneapolis.) The store is in an old bank building. The Board Room is the old bank president’s office.

Good Night

September 23, 1776 Benedict Arnold and his American fleet engaged the British feet just east of Valcour Island where we anchored. Arnold laid in wait on the west side the island for the larger British fleet to sail south. Surprise did not ensure victory and the British chased them down the lake to Fort Ticonderoga. With American fleet under the protection of Fort Ticonderoga the British retreated to Quebec.

We can hear the frogs singing.

Floccinaucinihilipilification

Lake Champlain is home to the oldest known fossil reef in the world being 450-480 million years old, but there may still be a dinosaur in the lake. Champ is a mysterious creature, similar to the Loch Ness Monster, that many have claimed to see while on the lake. Descriptions of Champ vary, but most suggest a creature between 20 and 80 feet long, with a series of distinct humps and a serpentine body. It’s a is a mystery.

June 17, 2019 Saturday Whitehall City Dock, Whitehall, NY to Crown Point, NY (anchorage Chimney Point, VT side) 32.7 nautical miles.

44°02’02.0″N 73°25’00.3″W
44.033896, -73.416760
Elevation:  95 ft

The Whitehall City Dock had free showers.  Now Dale and Mary can sneak up on each other without smelling the other approaching first.

Warning…. Your are going to get your history lesson today.

Along the Way

Walk about before pulling anchor.

Checking out our final lock. Looking at the Whitehall harbor from the top of Lock 12.

WOO WOO! Locked out! We are officially on Lake Champlain having completed all the U.S. Locks on our Loop, a grand total of 50.

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Today’s run was gorgeous. It’s amazing looking at the Adirondack Montains from the water. The pictures might not give a sense of scale. They are enormous.

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Fort Ticonderoga

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Fort Ticonderoga, formerly Fort Carillon, is a large 18th-century star fort built by the French at a narrows near the south end of Lake Champlain. The fort was of strategic importance during the 18th-century colonial conflicts between Great Britain and France, French and Indian Wars and again during the American Revolutionary War.

May 1775 during the American Revolutionary War Green Mountain Boys and other state militia under the command of Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, captured the Fort from the British. The British recaptured it in June 1777.  The British abandoned the fort after the failure of the Saratoga campaign, and it ceased to be of military value after 1781. After gaining independence, the United States allowed the fort to fall into ruin.

In 1785, the fort’s lands became the property of the state of New York. The state donated the property to Columbia and Union colleges in 1803. The colleges sold the property to William Ferris Pell in 1820.

Pell first used the property as a summer retreat. Completion of railroads and canals connecting the area to New York City brought tourists to the area, so he converted his summer house, known as The Pavilion, into a hotel to serve the tourist trade.

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🙁 I’m having some problems with my camera. Pictures are too dark.

Neighbors

We are currently anchor off Chimney Point, VT across the river from Crown Point, NY. There is the faint, lovely smell of cow manure is in the air.

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The French and the British both built forts at this strategic location on Lake Champlain. In 1734, the French built Fort St. Frederic, with a huge four-story stone octagon, the walls of which were 12 feet thick and cannons lined every floor. The Fort was repeatedly threatened by the British in 1755-58. In 1759, at risk of losing the fort to the British, the French destroyed their own fort and retreated to Montreal. The British immediately started work on their own fort, which was the largest British stronghold ever constructed in North America.

Floccinaucinihilipilification

Lake Champlain Facts and Figures:
– Length: 120 miles
– Width: 12 miles at its widest point
– Size: 435 square miles of surface water
– Depth: average depth is 64 feet but the deepest point is between Charlotte, VT and Essex, NY at 400 feet
– Amount of Shoreline: 587 miles
– Islands: 71
– Surface Elevation: 95 to 100 ft

Lake Champlain provides drinking water for almost 200,000 people.

Lake Champlain is New York’s version of Lake Superior in as much it is glacier formed. At the peak of the Ice Age, Vermont was covered by glaciers. The retreating ice compressed the rocks and allowed the Atlantic Ocean to create an inlet into what is now New England and Eastern Canada. As water retreated and land started to rise Lake Champlain was formed.

The name “Ticonderoga” comes from the Iroquois word tekontaró:ken, meaning “it is at the junction of two waterways”

June 16, 2019 Sunday Mechanicville, NY   to Whitehall, NY 46.8 nautical miles.

43°33’14.8″N 73°24’08.1″W
43.554112, -73.402261
Elevation: 124 ft

What did the fish say when he swam into the wall?
Dam.

We saw a lot of them. Almost every lock has a dam. We went through 8 locks today.

Along the Way

Lock 3 Mechanicville

Lock 3 has a lot of trouble keeping the baby ducks out of the lock. If they get caught in inside the lock master tries really hard to get them returned to the the correct level, but it’s not always possible.

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Lock 4 Stillwater

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Hitting current is like hitting pudding… speed drops

Saratoga Racetrack, as in ‘Your so Vain’ by Carly Simon, is in Saratoga Springs which is west of the battlefield about 12 miles as the crow files. 

River houses

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Lock 5 Northumberland

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Lock 6 Fort Miller

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Lock 7 Fort Edward

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Eeeeew! This is the biggest spider I have seen! Dale and the Lockmaster agreed. He crawled out from under the rope I grabbed. (Mary’s hand in the below picture is at least 6 inches away from it)

Lock 8 Fort Edward – Last up lock – Elevation 140 feet

We were one of the two last boats lucky enough to make it through this lock and lock 9 today. They are being locked (shut down) for the next 3 weeks. Locks 8 and 9 hold the water at the same elevation of 140 feet. One of the culverts supplying water to this section of the Champlain Canal collapsed. Without the supply of water from the culvert the canal is too shallow for boat transit. We saw the water level at 6 feet where it should have been 9-12.

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Lock 9 Smith’s Basin – Elevation 140 feet – Locks quit going up and start going down.

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We asked the Lockmaster if he was responsible for cutting the grass on the lock property. He is. There is a lot of it. 2.5 acres and it takes him 6 hours to cut it. He can only use a 30 inch mower because that is the width of the walkway bridge he has to take the mower over.

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Lock 10 … or lack there of. There is no Lock 10 on the Champlain Canal. The other nearby locks were adjusted to provide the necessary lift. Rather than renumber the lock numbers on the blueprints, which were hand drawn, the lock number was simply omitted.

Foot hills of the Adirondacks. Looks like it could be the St Croix River in Minnesota.

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Lock 11 Comstock. Stay left! The dam is on the right. There is NO guard chain/rope.

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One more lock tomorrow morning and we will be on Lake Champlain!!! No more tight bridges

Neighbors

Tonight we are on the Whitehall Municipal Dock. Free dock. Free water. Free electricity.

Floccinaucinihilipilification

June 15, 2019 Saturday   Waterford, NY to Mechanicville, NY   8.2 nautical miles.

42°54’13.0″N 73°41’02.6″W
42.903621, -73.684067
Elevation: 52 ft

Along the Way

Start of the morning Red and Lorraine took us a safari to buy engine oil.

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As long as we were out morbid Mary begged to see Uncle Sam’s grave. (She just can’t pass a graveyard). Off to see U.S!

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U.S and his wife are buried in a really BIG beautiful, old cemetery. There must be half a mountain in tombstones here. What really caught Mary’s eye was all the relief stone work. (sculpted work which projects from the background surface, on which it is carved.) e.g. pop-up letters on the tomb stones, not carved in. All of the background surface had to be removed and smoothly flattened leaving only the letters or design.

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We were sorry to see Red and Lorraine leave to go home about 2:00pm but we understood they had a six hour drive ahead of them.

Still unsure whether or not there was enough clearance for us to take the Champlain Canal we call the NY Canal system for advice. The Assistant Lock Superintendent of the Champlain Canal called us back! On a Saturday! He assured us all the bridges are currently 17.5 or higher. WOO WOO. Yes Dear is 16.9. We were on our way up the Champlain Canal in less than 45 minutes later.

Lock C1 – Waterville. This lock had the first female lock/dam master we’ve encountered on the loop.

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Lock C2 – Mechanicville. This lock had the second female lock/dam master we’ve encountered on the loop.

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Neighbors

What to our wondering eyes should appear? Canoe Ken! This time he has a woman with him.

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Floccinaucinihilipilification

Uncle Sam facts and figures:

• More than four million copies of Flagg’s Uncle Sam poster were printed between 1917 and 1918.
• The artist, James Montgomery Flagg, used his own image when drawing Uncle Sam.
• Congress passed a resolution in 1961 that recognized Samuel Wilson as the inspiration for the symbol Uncle Sam.

The Champlain Canal is a 60-mile (97 km) canal that connects the south end of Lake Champlain to the Hudson River.

Nauti Words

I just thought I’d toss a few out. It’s been a few days since I’ve talked nauti and I still have a pretty good list left in my vocabulary.

Keel hauling
A severe naval punishment during the 15th and 16th centuries. The victim was dragged from one side of the boat to the other, under the bottom of the boat (keel). Tossed over one side and pulled up on the other, he was usually allowed to catch his breath before suddenly being hoisted overboard again. The Dutch were the first to use this as a common punishment, but it was later adopted with pirates and other navies of the world in the 15th and 16th century.

Keel hauling lost favour at the beginning of the 18th century, to be replaced by the cat-o-nine-tails.

Letting the Cat Out of the Bag
This term comes from the old naval punishment of being whipped with a “cat o’ nine tails.” The whip was kept in a leather bag and when the sailors “let the Cat out of the bag” they had usually done something that would result in punishment.

June 14, 2019 Friday Waterford, NY    0 nautical miles.

42°47’17.3″N 73°40’49.4″W
42.788140, -73.680400
Elevation: 19 ft  No more tides after passing through the lock yesterday!

Woo Woo! Hi to dear friends Red and Lorraine!

Along the Way

A quick walk to the Hannaford Supermarket and back before Red and Lorraine arrived.  The grocery store allows dock people to bring their carts down to the dock and leave them. They come by once a week and pick them up. You need to be escorted out of parking lot by a store employee with an electronic key or the wheels lock up.

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Checking out the Erie Canal boat traffic.

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Off to explore Erie Canal Lock 2. First we had to cross the old, original Erie Canal and locks where boats were pulled by mules.

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This a different perspective a lock than what we usually see from the boat.

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One lone traveler. We nicknamed him Canoe Ken.

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The Waterford Town Municipal dock showed Blazing Saddles on the the bridge wall once it was dark. Of course we had to go down and watch it … until it too cold to sit there.

Neighbors

And look who reappeared! Back down the lock to Waterford. Canoe Ken!

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Floccinaucinihilipilification

To haul one ton of goods from Buffalo to New York City prior to 1825 it cost upwards of $100. That number fell all the way to $10 once the Canal opened. In addition, the time to ship items from Albany to Buffalo was cut by a third, and what was once a two-week trip by stagecoach was shortened to five days.
After only 9 years, the $7,143,789 cost to build the Erie Canal was paid off by its tolls.

June 13, 2019 Thursday Schodack Creek, near New Baltimore, NY to Waterford, NY    45.8 nautical miles.

42°47’17.3″N 73°40’49.4″W
42.788140, -73.680400
Elevation: 19 ft    Tides: none! Tides ended with the Troy Federal Lock

Along the Way

New Baltimore

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We kept hearing boat ‘Table 4 Seven’ get reprimanded for his wake on VHF channel 16. We saw a boat screaming down the river towards us. It had to be ‘Table 4 Seven’ !

Albany, NY

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Capital Building

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Troy Federal Lock and Dam. It has been so long since we’ve done a lock we were like rookies again. The biggest thing is that we forgot to put our life jackets on until we were just entering the lock. Dale brought it in with his usual skills. Tying up to the lock stumped us for a couple of seconds… no ballards, no dropped lines. We need to loop the lines around a vertical pole and slide them up the pole as the water level rose.

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Tonight we are on the Waterford free dock wall just to the left of the boats with several other Looper boats. Docktails were at 5:30 on Looper boat PATRIOT. Thanks for hosting!

Neighbors

Floccinaucinihilipilification

Albany, NY is the home of modern toilet paper: Continuous roll perforated toilet paper around a cardboard tube was developed in Albany in 1871 by Seth Wheeler. Individual square stacked tissue had been used before then.

“Uncle Sam” Wilson was a meat packer in Troy, NY during the War of 1812. He stamped beef for the Army with his initials “U.S. Beef”. Later the caricature of Sam Wilson came to personify the United States. His grave is in Oakwood Cemetery.

Nauti Words

In the state of New York there are lots place names suffixed with the word Kill. It sounds pretty vicious around here. Great Kills, Fishkill, Peekskill, Catskill, Spackenkill …

Kill Kill Kill …
Origin: The word comes from the Middle Dutch kille, meaning “riverbed” or “water channel”.
The term is used in areas of Dutch influence in the Delaware and Hudson Valleys and other areas of the former New Netherland colony of Dutch America to describe a strait, river, or arm of the sea

Towns of Great Kills, Fishkill, Peekskill, Catskill, Spackenkill … are along a body of water.

June 12, 2019 Wednesday Poughkeepsie Yacht Club, Poughkeepsie, NY to Schodack Creek, near New Baltimore, NY    42.1 nautical miles.

42°26’05.9″N 73°46’25.7″W
42.434970, -73.773811
Elevation: 0 ft    Tides: 1.5 ft

Today was the kind of day we dreamed about when we first started planning our Loop. Beautiful weather, beautiful scenery and just putting along at 6-7 knots.

Along the Way

The Hudson is a mighty river.

Rip Van Winkle Bridge work at Catskill, NY

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Olana Estate – Home of Frederic Edwin Church, one of the major figures in the Hudson River school of landscape painting. The house is a mixture of Victorian, Persian and Morrish styles.

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Diversity

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The Kingston area was once known as Esopus; the name of an Indian tribe and was one of the primary communities in New Netherland. The British took over the Dutch colony and changed the name to Kingston in 1664. It became the first capital of the state of New York in 1777. The British burned it to the ground later than year.

Ponder This

Why is it called a lighthouse when it weighs so much?

June 11, 2019 Tuesday Poughkeepsie Yacht Club, Poughkeepsie, NY 0 nautical miles.

41°49’06.6″N 73°56’40.3″W
41.818512, -73.944520
Elevation: 0 ft    Tides: 3 ft

Along the Way

Good deal. We used our senior citizen National Park Senior Passes to get into the Franklin Delano Roosevelt National Park today.

Barn

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The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) building was originally a Jesuit Seminary. Interestingly, the chapel is now the student dining room. (No pictures are allowed in the academic areas.)

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Our incredible meal was followed by a “Table-Side Ice Cream & Voyage Treats”. Homemade, nitro hand-cranked mango ice cream, to die for pineapple upside down vanilla custard, Caramelized Puff Pastry Palmier (elephant ears that looked more like bunny ears) and some sort of mini fruit beverage.

We’ve been living large. The diet starts tomorrow (until we get to Canada for butter tarts).

Floccinaucinihilipilification

FDR’s car had a custom lit cigarette dispenser! HA! He also smoked using a long cigarette holder because his doctor told him to stay as far away from cigarettes as possible.  The cigarette holder wasn’t what the doctor meant.

It is believed that FDR caught polio, age 39, while visiting a Boy Scout Camp. He started to become ill two days after the visit. Four Boy Scouts were later diagnosed with polio.

The Culinary Institute has intercollegiate athletics.

Down the rabbit hole…

A chef is responsible for the soul of the food. I didn’t realize there were so many kinds of chef.

Pecking order

• executive chef – head honcho
• sous chef – executive chef’s #1
• chefs de partie – chef in charge of a particular area or station
  -boucher (butcher) chef
  -poissonnier (fish) chef
  -friturier (fry) chef
  -grillardin (grill) chef
  -garde manger (pantry) chef
  -pâtissier (pastry) chef
  -rotisseur (roast) chef
  -chef de tournant (roundsman)
  -saucier (sauté) chef
  -entremetier (vegetable) chef
• commis chef – junior chef working under a chef de partie to learn a specific station
• kitchen porter (kitchen assistant) – basic food preparation such as washing salad and peeling potatoes, in addition to basic cleaning duties
• escuelerie* (dishwasher)- keeper of dishes HA!  Even the person responsible for washing dishes and cutlery gets a fancy title!
  * Escuelerie derives from the word ‘scullery’, a small room adjoining a kitchen, in which dishwashing and other kitchen chores are done.