Just completed close to a 1,000 kilometer trek back to Toronto. Continuing up the Hudson River to the now familiar Hop-o-nose Marina in Catskills, New York. Very friendly, professional staff and ownership. The only place I would recommend on the Hudson for stepping your mast and storing your wooden mast supports, or even building them right on site. We had left ours here for safe keeping in the barn. I found them just as we left them. I was on my own now for a couple of days, and it took me about 1 day to set up my mast supports, take down my sails and boom, disconnect all the mast wiring and electronics. Then the very capable and always willing to help staff stepped the mast down for me in no time. I was ready to leave the next morning.
My next stop was Albany, NY. This is where the new crew would be meeting me to assist in navigating the Erie and Oswego Canals back to Lake Ontario. The crew this time around was my mother in-law, Mary Hook and her sister Judy Horvath. I had pretty much tapped out all willing and able crew personnel from the Black Diamond crew bank. So these ladies were nice enough to volunteer their services. We had successfully made it through 33 locks, escalating a total of 460 feet above the Hudson river, and then back down about another 100 feet to Lake Ontario.
At first I wondered if these ladies could handle this, but Judy was one of the best fore deck hands for going through the locks you could ask for. And my mother in-law, well you could not have a better cook in the galley stirring up your favorite meals one demand. All in all, I think we enjoyed the trip, the weather was perfect for the whole trip through the canals. We made a few stops in a couple of towns. But mostly kept a steady pace back to Toronto.
We arrived in record time of 5 days from Albany to Toronto. On day 4 we started at about 10am, and went straight through for about 8 hours to Oswego, and just kept on going without stopping from Oswego at about 6PM straight across the lake to Toronto in 19 hours for a total of 27 hours non-stop motoring. It took us 22 hours last summer to cross the lake, this time in 19 hours. This record time was due to a 20 to 25 knot wind on our back, 6 to 8 foot seas pushing us along from behind, hitting speeds of 8 knots under power. I felt like I was back in the Ocean, it all looked to familiar. However the seas were 4 degrees celsius, almost freezing, and it was a cold windy ride home right through the night and most of the next day.
The next couple of days I plan to step the mast back up, unload some cruising toys, clean her up, and on Friday night we are entered into the Susan Hood Race. This race is from PCYC Mississauga, to Burlington to Niagara and Back to PCYC. This is a 75 knotical mile non-stop, over night race, starting at 8PM and finishing sometime the next morning.
Cruising the Caribbean and then without missing a beat, arriving just in time to hit the Toronto Racing scene. I love this sport!
