Lake Ontario!

July 6 – 9

Left Oswego at 9:40 this morning and ran up the east side of Lake Ontario for 4 hours to Sacket Harbor. Below is the iconic lighthouse at the entrance to the Oswego canal.

With Saltaire. Had to get this photo for John and Debbie.

Got this shot leaving the marina headed out on the lake. This area gets a wee bit of snow so they stockpile salt. A LOT of salt.

You can see the Whisky Business icon in the lower right of our chartplotter heading due north or straight up.

When we got halfway across we saw 400 feet of depth. If Debbie had thrown me overboard there, my body would never be found.

We had light rain and fog crossing but uneventful. Then the flies found us. Way out on the water we were inundated with these little black flies. If fly killing ever becomes an Olympic event, Debbie and Dave will certainly be vying for the Gold Medal. You should have seen ’em. Dave with his purple flyswatter and Debbie with her pink fly hammer swinging away. We even deployed fly paper strips and trapped a brazzilion of ’em.

Arrived in Sackett’s Harbor and they placed us in a slip that was at the end of a fairway. A little wind too made it a real challenge to get in. Add a stern tie and the gauntlet was thrown down. With the aid of WB’s back up camera it was a piece of cake.

This morning we made the run over to the Saint Lawrence River with Clayton, NY in our sights. No flies today.

For the last 5,000 miles we have been running in dirty water. The inland rivers are muddy. The waters in the Gulf and Atlantic Ocean are tannic and the Chesapeake and Erie Canal are not much better. Now that we are back in fresh water on Lake Ontario the water is as close to crystaline as we will get. Look how white our wake is. Until this point it has been brown since leaving Louisville.

Some pretty shots on the way to Clayton.

Counted 80 of these huge electricity generating wind mills in this area.

Saw this great big house that had completely fallen into disrepair. At first we thought it had burned, but apparently just neglect. This photo doesn’t do it justice, it is really big and 3 floors.

At first we thought this was one of those big ferries, but actually a cruise ship.

See the boats in front of the cruise ship? This is where tragedy struck. Those boats are in the marina where we docked. While manuevering at the entrance to the marina, Saltaire lost their starboard transmission as there was no control. Or so he thought. John was able to safely get to a wall and after Whisky Business was secure in her slip Dave and I went to discuss the issue with John. Not sure how much help I could be cuz I know nothing about transmissions. He told us that after securing the boat he went to the engine room and had Debbie put the boats starboard transmission in gear and sure enough the propeller shaft was turning, but no thrust from the propeller. I had heard of a similar situation on the original Mint Julep, a Jefferson owned by our friends Bob and Pam Shircliff. Their shaft broke inside a device called a coupling where the shaft meets the transmission. I suggested perhaps he had lost his propeller. No way. Water here is pretty clear so John puts on his dive mask, lays on the swim platform and takes a peek under his boat. All he sees on the starboard side is the strut and a ragged 2 inch end of a propeller shaft. No propeller. His wife Debbie remembers a “bump” right outside the marina. Diver coming at 10 AM this morning to search for the prop. There is a boat yard right next to this marina for haul out. At one point on our trip across the lake we had both run up our speed to blow out our turbo’s. Really glad it didn’t happen out there.

Found it. The 2 1/4″ thick stainless steel shaft had corroded inside the propeller! Crazy!

The nuts that hold the propeller on the shaft are still attached to the shaft that was left after breaking off.

Clayton, NY.

To relieve the stress we go to a nearby restaurant frequented by some friends of the Neal’s to celebrate Debbie Neal’s and Ringo’s birthday. After giving the bartender my boat card and asking for a couple of Manhattans’ she tears up my “Manhattan instruction manual” and tosses it back at me. Apparently she had been warned about this. Very funny, we all got a kick out of it. And the manhattans were sublime. Pictured below are manhattans 3 & 4.

“YA CAN’T HAVE ANY PUDDING IF YA DON’T EAT YER MEAT!”

C’mon y’all. Pink Floyd? The Wall? Haley pleeeeaase tell me you get this! I would make my daughter listen to Pink Floyd when I would drive her to school. Hmmm, was that on 8 track or cassette???

Beautiful sunset.

On Tuesday we took a river tour with a trip to the Boldt Castle on Heart Island. George Boldt had this thing built at the end of the 19th century for his wife. He had 300 workers building this castle for 4 years when his beloved wife Louise “mysteriously” passed away. He then cabled the workers and told them to cease their activities and the island and castle lay dormant for over 70 years until in 1977 the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority purchased the property and began restoration. Mysteriously passed away? I read on one site that she had a “heart condition”. I think the heart condition was a byproduct of a bullet. Rumor has it she was messin’ around with the chauffer.

On the trip up the river the definition of an island was explained to us. To be an island, the piece of land must be at least 1 square foot, stay dry all year and have at least 1 tree growing on it. This is an island.