Jefferson Beach to the Erie Canal

It’s been a while since we last posted and a lot has happened. One of the surprising things is the lack of internet access. We are at the public library in Lockport NY posting this. We have been posting on Facebook right along. It’s easy; take a picture with your phone and put a message with it and post. Quick and easy but not as nice as  the blog.

Canada on the left and the Motor City on the right



Ambassador Bridge



                                               Heading into Lake Erie.........no wind.

The plan was to arrive in Put-In-Bay about 5pm and look around for a day or two. So much for plans, our motor quit on us just before 2pm!  (Not part of the plan!) So there we were, a U.S.  documented sailing vessel in Canadian waters with no wind and no motor, 84 degrees on the deck and a whole lot hotter in the engine room. I'll let Diane tell the rest of this story, and save you all from my salty language.

So on to leaving Put-in-Bay at 1am in a lightening storm with 40 plus mph winds. That's what you do when your 3/4'' dock line cuts through at the mooring ball in a surprise sudden storm. We kept sailing until 7pm when we pulled into the Geneva State Park Harbor. It's a nice place on the east end of Ohio. We would recomend this place, nice clean and freindly.

The next day we sailed past Pennsylvaina and on to Barcelona Harbor at Westfeild NY. A quiet little harbor that was very shallow. We dropped anchor half way into the harbor with a less then 2 ft under our keel. A nice place, but too small for Sinbad in a blow.

On to Buffalo the next day.

We spent a couple of days at the Erie Basin Marina. Nice veiw, freindly people but the young workers (the only workers) have had no training on boating. Made us miss East Tawas State Dock. On Monday we went about a mile south to RCR Yachts and they pulled and droped our masts onto Sinbads deck. Good place, very professional. Would recomend them to anyone. We stayed the night in their well and left for the Erie Canal Tuesday morning. 

We are tied up at Lockport NY after 3 locks & a lift bridge

We walk back to the 2 Erie Canal locks and took this pic

Happy Sails..........rr

We left Jefferson Beach in Lake St. Clair about 6:30 am, no wind but that was ok because we needed to motor the length of the Detriot River.

Ready for an Adventure

We motored into St. Clair Shores, Michigan, just ahead of a squall.  We got the boat all secured before the rain came, and I enjoyed a rain shower on the afterdeck, managing to get all the shampoo out of my hair with rainwater.  Nice!  We had dinner plans with Randy’s sister and her husband, Judy and Don.  We had a lovely dinner at the Beach Grill, and another farewell . The next day, Monday, we visited my Mom and brother George, with more leavetaking to tug at the heartstrings.  By Tuesday, we were ready to head downriver and across Lake Erie to Put  In Bay, a lively little harbor in the Lake Erie Islands of Ohio we were looking forward to visiting as our first stop outside our home waters.  I told Randy that I was ready for an adventure to clear out the cobwebs.

We motored in sunny, hot, calm conditions until around 1:30, when the engine changed pitch and then stopped.  Randy went below into the engine room and for the next five hours he sweated and labored, huffed and puffed, cussed and swore.  After checking fuel filters , etc. he replaced  the fuel lift pump, but to no avail.  I stood watch throughout the airless afternoon, hand steering and working every faint puff of wind to make our way toward Put in Bay.  I managed to gain three miles in 5 hours.  The sun was going down, and the Chief Engineer was exhausted and discouraged, so we lowered the outboard motor down to the dinghy and tugboated Mighty Sinbad into the harbor, arriving well after dark. We prepared for all the possibilities (anchoring, docking, running into things) and managed to snag one of the mooring balls. Then, exhausted, went to sleep.  In the morning, Randy declared “it’s gonna run”..  he forgot to bleed the  injector pump.  Once done, the motor fired right up!

The Chief Engineer has requested that in the future I be careful when wishing for an adventure!!

Here's the Rennaissance Center in Detroit...

And downriver Zug Island, looking like The Dark Lord Sauron's Workshop

and here's Randy in Put-In Bay, OH, enjoying liberty after his engine room marathon.

Please excuse the long delays between postings...we have found wifi to be much less "accessible" than we expected.   All the Best, Di

We Finally Made It!

Well we finally cut the dock lines. On Friday 8-19-11 we started our new lifestyle. No cars, no houses, just our 42 ft Whitby sailboat and lots of stuff on board. Way too much stuff.  So over the next few weeks we will be leaving some of our treasure on the dock as we depart.

We left East Tawas State Dock about 9am on Friday. Lake Huron was flat with a whisper of a wind, so we motored into Port Sanilac and dropped the hook just before dark. On Saturday we weighed anchor at 6:15am and motor sailed to the Blue Water Bridge.

Here are a couple of pics,

                                                            Old Port Huron lighthouse

Our trip down the St. Clair River was fun. Lots to look at with all the boats, nice homes and big freighters. Here are a few more pics.

We tied up to the gas dock at Jefferson Beach just before 5pm. Another easy day on the water. My sister and brother in law (Judy & Don) came by and took us to dinner. Life is good!

Sunday was another day at Jefferson Beach. We walked to West Marine and bought more stuff and then took a taxi to Diane’s mom and spent the day with her. We got a ride back to Sinbad with Diane’s brother George and we are heading down the Detroit River on Monday.

Diane and her mom Helen

Happy Sails...........rr

Salute to all you cruisers!

I take my hat off and salute all of you cruisers who have gotten your boats ready and sold your house along with all the treasures that you had hidden in your basements. Many a time I’ve read about how hard it is to clean out your house and sell everything you own, while fixing up (pouring money into) your boat so you can go sailing. Every time I read about it I thought," Quit your whining, you’re going sailing! How bad can it be?" Well, I found out how bad it can be, but I’m not going to tell you about it because you will just think “Quit whining, you’re going sailing!” I will say that the boat and the house being 2 ½ hours apart make it rough. (had to whine a little)

We have been slow to post anything in the month of July. Our last post was July 12^th , about bringing Sinbad up from Bay City to East Tawas. That trip actually took place on June 27^th.  So the posting is definately going slowly. There is a lot of work going on, but…….there has been some play time in the mix. Diane and I just took off boat work for a day of sailing, Larry & Dee came sailing for a day, Judy & Don on another day, and we had the weekend wedding of Sean & Kelly.

So July has been lots of work and a good share of play. Here are some pics:

 

 This is Scott & Jeanie who own  Joie de Vivre (another Whitby 42). They drove all the way from Toledo Ohio to drop off their supports for transporting our masts on the Eire Canal. Thanks! Way too Cool! Joie de Vivre is currently in the Chesapeake and we will catch up to Scott & Jeanie at the Whitby rendezvous in October.

The Pirate Queen of Tawas Bay trying out Sinbad's new wheel.

...One of those days when I was cussing about boats, the plumbing in boats and everything about boats in general.  I didn't like boats or the people who built them. So I went to bed with our boat looking like this.... then put it all together in the morning.

Sailing with Judy & Don

Oh, did I mention that the house part of all this (sell the house & treasures... go sailing) is slowing me down?

Happy Sails.............rr

Splash Day 2011

Sinbad on training wheels! That's what Barry Lancuski called this picture he shot. Barry was part of the "Motley Crew" that help launch Sinbad and take her up to East Tawas from Bay City,  Michigan in the last week of June. The Motley Crew are three friends that were born with fishing poles in their hands and who were truly surprised that they didn't break out with a rash when they stepped on board a sailboat. Pictured above is crew member Greg Coulter with me in Sinbad.

                                            The rest of the crew........Larry Mitchel and Barry.
When Sinbad splashed into the water I scrambled below to make sure no water was coming in. Thankfully there wasn't. When the boat was on the hard I repacked the rudder post, replaced the raw water hoses on the engine and drilled a couple of holes and mounted a new dyna plate below the water line for the SSB (some day we will buy one). All were spots for water to enter the boat if I screwed up.

The engine fired right up and again I hustled below to make sure nothing was leaking. No leaks.....cool! Not only had I replaced the raw water lines, I had replaced the transmission heat exchanger, all the engine coolant hoses and rebuilt the coolant heat exchanger. Life was good!

Time to head down the river toward Saginaw Bay.

Not a lot of wind that day- we sailed along at 4 to 6 mph. You can see that the crew had no trouble getting comfortable. I did hear a occasional " Where are the rod holders? We need a line in the water! "

Then came the rain. During the last hour or so we got a little wet. All in all it was a good day to be out on the water. Thanks to the Crew we made East Tawas State Dock safe and sound!
Happy Sails..........rr

"Oh, my Limoges!"

 In "Out of Africa", Karen Bliksen cried out when her crate of delicate fine china fell and smashed to bits on the road to her new life as a coffee planter in Kenya. However, it was the last time that china counted for much in the landscape of her life....

Randy and I are going totally bonkers with stressful multitasking at the moment. I am still employed, with only 18 days to go! Randy's working five days a week on several major jobs on Sinbad.  We are within 2-3 weeks of  completing liquidating our households: both of us are renting and selling our homes, giving away truckloads of clothing and furnishings, getting rid of our cars, and making all sorts of arrangements to manage our financial affairs via the internet.  This is a fairly clinical description.  It is really more of a massive farewell to our lives as we've known them until now.  We are saying farewell to friends and family, some of whom may come to visit us in faraway places, others who surely will not. We are passing along all the things we've collected over a lifetime; keepsakes and souvenirs, pictures of our school days and those of our children and parents, favorite dresses and fancy shoes, Randy's guns and bow and deer hunting gear, our skis. Realizing that we won't be skiing again, or sitting quietly in the woods with the snow falling,waiting for deer to silently appear, or contentedly planting in the garden. Both of us have had pangs of regret for these things passing  from our lives.  But we've decided to trade "things" for "experiences".  We are working with determination to  finish our refit, to modernize Sinbad into the well founded cruising vessel and comfortable home from which we will see the world.  We think of ocean passages, with days following nights of disciplined watchkeeping, watching the Milky Way float through the velvet night sky for hours until dawn fades it to pale lilac. The solitude broken suddenly by the gasping breath and the shining eye of a dolphin swimming just below my elbow.  The first sighting of a Bermuda Longtail, harbinger of landfall. The carnival feeling of arriving in a foreign port, with the smells of hot earth and spicy greenery fresh in our nostrils. The cheerful camaraderie of other sailors, (especially other Whitby folk!).

Soon enough we will be older and living again on land. But for now, "we do it for the stories we can tell" !

Cheers, Di

The Raw Water Pump

In this picture the raw water pump is the hunk of brass with the dirty hoses connected to it. It's the pump that takes the water from outside the boat and pushes it through the three heat exchangers on the engine. I never checked this pump (with its replaceable impeller) when we bought Sinbad. I had a lot on my plate and what the heck, let sleeping dogs lie, there was a good flow of water coming out the back of the boat. The time came for me to check it out- not easy. The cover plate to the impeller is on the left with tiny screws and the oil line from the heat exchanger blocks the way for using a screw driver! The newer model pumps are turned   90 degrees so they face outward and are easy to get to. For just $600 bucks (that is 0.60 boat dollars) I could make life easier for me in the future.......not going to happen.

(Boy digital cameras are nice! They beat a mirror when it comes to seeing what you are doing!)
Here's the old impeller (black) inside the pump after I got those (pain in the butt) screws out.
 So I'm looking at the picture of the impeller thinking that I've seen worse.....maybe put the cover back on? Well the "lazy me" lost that argument and I pulled the impeller. Glad I did- I found that part of a blade was missing. I figured the missing part would be in the heat exchanger and I was right. Easy job, the heat exchanger is in the top left center of the first picture.

In this picture the new impeller is on the left and the old is on the right with the piece out of the heat exchanger in front of it. So I put it all back together and quit for the day!

Happy Sails...............rr