We Are Through!

 (And UP YOURS, Justin Trudeau)

•  Through Canada’s Welland Canal between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. 
• Through with delivery captains. 
• Through with death trap loaner Jeep’s
• Through with crapy marinas in New York
• Through with partial air-conditioning.
• Through waiting for PW Trudeau to wake/wise/sober up.

 Our voyage along Lake Ontario’s southern shore was wet but peaceful.    After departing Oswego, we made stops in Sodus Bay and Rochester.    Sodus Bay is a well-protected and picturesque harbor, and we found a delightful little marina where Dockmaster Rick made us (and especially  Admiral Maggie) feel right at home.  (His was the best equipped and maintained marina shower/bathroom accommodations on our Loop so far.  Tell all your friends.)
  Our accommodations on Rochester were not so nice, with a persistent north wind pushing waves up the river mouth that rocked and rolled us all night. But we were able to trek to a nearby shopping center for groceries, adding to our growing collection of tote bags, as we once again forgot to take our own bags. (Need to work on that.)

Commodore Kathleen had finalized plans for a delivery captain to meet us in Youngstown, NY (on the Niagara River) to take possession of Irish Lass and pilot her thru the Welland Canal on our behalf.  (See our June 19 post for a description of this COVID-paranoid requirement for the Canuk border. )   At his request, we headed for the Youngtown Yacht Club.   It’s a nice place but caters to sail boaters and proved to have a hyper-sensitive  shore power system that the Lass could not connect to.  So we were doomed to spend two days running our generator a lot and feeling like the big out-of-place country cousin.  Youngstown, NY, however, proved to be a charming town with a great community vibe.   Admiral Maggie enjoyed their park, and we found some live music, a Rite Aid, and a nice Presbyterian Church.

Captain Dave and his crewman arrived about 7:00 PM on Sunday.   They were to sleep aboard for a 6:00 am departure in order to be cleared into Canada and first in line when the Canal opened on Monday.   He had promised us the use of his car to make the drive to Dunkirk, NY 0n Lake Erie, where he would deliver the Lass to us.   Turns out his car was in the shop and in its place he brought his crewman’s 200,000-mile soft-top Jeep YJ Wrangler, complete with rust holes, dangling wires, and an interior that looked like the aftermath of a Hezbollah rocket barrage.   Plus, it had a Millennial Anti-Theft device (i.e., a manual transmission) and a custom sponge for soaking up the rainwater that tended to accumulate under the driver’s feet.   

Wanting to keep our schedule (and a bit against our better judgment), we turned the Lass over to Captain Dave, loaded up The Admiral and our gear and headed out on the 80-ish mile drive south thru Buffalo and west to Dunkirk.

The term “death-trap” only begins to describe our trip.   It was raining.  Night was falling.  The jeep was uncontrollable at anything over 55 MPH.  And so noisy, Kathleen had to shout navigation instructions to me, when she wasn’t praying or wiping the inside of the windshield for me.   The outside mirrors were useless.  The front-end hopped sideways with every significant bump and we were never quite sure what gear we were in until I let the clutch out.  (I finally solved this last issue by resurrecting my long-dormant clutch-less shifting skills).   What a nightmare.

Welland Lock #4

Proving that the Lord looks out for fools, we arrived at our Dunkirk hotel about 10:00 PM, thankful to be alive.  On Monday, we stayed in touch with Captain Dave by text and phone as he took the Lass thru Canadian Customs, navigated the 8 locks of the Welland, cleared Customs back into the US, and crossed Lake Erie to Dunkirk.  With waits for bureaucrats, border guards,  and commercial lock traffic, the transit time was over 18 hours and the Lass arrived in Dunkirk just after midnight.

While we waited on Monday, we took the Death Trap Jeep to a grocery store near the hotel.  After loading for more tote bags (yes, we forgot, again), a case of water, and a case of pop aboard,  the Jeep refused to start.  A call to Capt. Dave’s crewman revealed we may have upset the wiring for the fuel pump by doing something unusual, like maybe setting the parking brake.  Fiddling with loose wires got us nowhere, so we stuffed the keys under the sponge, told Capt. Dave’s crewman where he could find the Jeep and humped our groceries back to the hotel aboard shank’s mare.  Here endeth the lesson….

Tuesday found us back aboard Irish Lass at the (crapy) marina in Dunkirk, arguing with the marina staff about broken shore power connections (which they fixed) and our missing mail (which they finally located stuffed behind a file cabinet), and retrieving the new AC units we had delivered there.  After cleaning up the mess left by the Welland transit (and by Capt. Dave and crew),  We met for Docktails with a group of Loopers that Commadore Kathleen had rounded up.  An enjoyable evening of sharing and Loop stories, (and a uniform opinion that this was a CRAPY marina.  Tell all your friends.).

Out with the old!

On Wednesday, we awoke early  to wait for our newest BFF, Riley from TMS Thermo Mechanical, who was coming to install the AC unit in our main cabin.  Riley proved to be very young, rail-thin (a good thing for a boat tech), and supremely competent.  He had the old Cruisair unit out and the new Marinaire unit installed in a matter of a few hours.   We have reveled in cool comfort ever since.  Thanks, Riley.  You’re the best!

In with the new!

On Thursday, Commadore Kathleen proclaimed a “vacation day”.  With a car from Enterprise, we backtracked toward Buffalo intent on seeing Niagara Falls.   Niagara Falls State Park is beautiful, and the falls are truly awe-inspiring.  (75,000 gallons per second X 1 million years = more zeroes that I want to think about.)   The US side was moderately crowded, the Canadian side sparsely attended from what we could see.  And their side seems to have more of the big hotels and tourist infrastructure.  (Frankly, outside the Park, the US side feels a bit like the Fremont St district in Vegas.)  Still, a great day with another bucket list item checked off.   

Thursday night we were “entertained” by a Randy Bachman-wannabe fronting an adequate rock band on the adjacent Dunkirk city pier.  Nice for a while, but never were we so happy for a thunderstorm that cut them off before it got ugly.

Thursday morning, we made an early departure, shaking the dust of Dunkirk, New York, Canada, and canals off our sandals and heading west.  This writing finds us waiting  out a storm front at the Wolverine Marina in Erie, PA,   a place that is thankfully everything that  Dunkirk was not and chock full of fellow Loopers "in the same boat" (so to speak).

 
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