09/09 - 09/16 - Erie Canal Cruise

Hi to all:

I am really sorry that we are not with you this year. Sounds like a fine time by all. I am green with envy. At least I am not gaining weight from too much good food. SAFE BOATING!

Fred and Pat and Mr. Grey ( the new cat)
 
Yup, it was another great Erie Canal Cruise / Gathering. I think the hi-lite was the Flat Screen TV’s over the Urinals! (You’ll have to read more for the details)

Saturday 9/9/06 we launched at Seneca Lake State Park with help from “The Last Dance” and “Crescent Girl”. Then, we cruised up the Cayuga Seneca Canal thru Lock 4 to Seneca Falls for “The Official Gathering Dinner”. We equaled the BIGGEST Northeast gathering dinner yet, 16 people with 9 new friends for us. It was wonderful even though the food was mediocre and the service was lousy. But, when ya get so many people who like C-dory’s and C-Dory folks, you have lots of laughs and fun.

Sunday’s weather was super. We cruised 60 miles, thru the Cayuga Seneca Canal then east on the Erie Canal. We lunched at a restaurant on the canal just past Weedsport, and were joined by Terry’s friends. Then went to Brewerton for the evening. Again, we were able to have a dinner with a table just for us isolated from others, so we could make a lot of noise with laughs and stories. Carol & I stayed at a B&B between Three Rivers and Brewerton, so we got to cruise back in the dark. It was our first time locking thru in the dark, FUN.

Monday morning was a mercy mission. We had a flock of C-Brats who hadn’t showered in 2 days. So, they went to a marina that charged $5 per shower, and wouldn’t allow communal showers! We met them there, after judicially waiting for improved ambience. From here, we did Oneida Lake, which is 20 miles long. Unfortunately, the wind was right on our nose from the east, so the waves had built into 3 ft high square waves at the start. It was slow initially, but got better as we went east. Sylvan Beach was deserted but we still found a restaurant to handle us. The canal was pretty boring in the stretch to Rome and thru Utica, so we stopped at the Lock 20 Canal Park for the night. Here we had a Lock Side cocktail party followed up with pizza delivered to us. Again, we were alone and could howl as much as we wanted. We cruised 51.6 mi.

Tuesday we headed east and stopped at Herkimer. As the first to pull to the dock, a local Canal Tour Cruise operator greeted me with: “Wow, three River Horses”. I said: “look up”. When he saw 6 C-Dory’s he ran for his camera. This was Carol & Becky’s first chance to shop since the start ( It was expensive). We spent the night at Little Falls. Although the Canal park is about a 15 minute walk from town, the people here were very friendly and kept offering and providing rides to town. We were given a great 10 cent tour of the local architectural gems. Housing costs will amaze you, here, they are so low! Again, a local restaurant provided a separate room just for the 9 of us to party in. Then they drove us back to the boats! We cruised 26.2 mi.

Wednesday morning was raining when we went thru Lock 17, the deepest with leaky lock walls to pee down on ya. We stopped in Canajoharie for a dockside Lunch in a pavilion and touring for 2 hours. We heard about the flood from all the shop owners, and found out that the pavilion had been under water during the flood. From here we cruised east thru the Adirondacks pass between Big Nose and Little Nose. Dun pointed out the adjacent landfill which he named “Hold Your Nose”. We stopped for the night at Amsterdam, after cruising 42 .2 mi. The local floating dock was no longer secured to the wall! But, we still tied up 6 C-Dorys! Dave spent a lot of time during cocktail hour in “The Last Dance” discussing commandeering the floating dock to take with us to all C-Dory gatherings. Imagine coming to a town with your own Dock! ( Yes, we’d had a few by then!). The crews of Hunky Dory and Crescent Girl then went to a B&B for the night. You won’t believe it. It was a wonderful farm ( still operating). But it was named “Halcyon Farm B&B”. And Carol and I stayed in the Halcyon Room ( cuz I need a KINGsize bed).

Thursday, more rain. So, we didn’t stop for touring. We did pull into a creek and found a Mansion with a dock. Becky ( who still looked good, unlike the rest of us) ran up and asked if we could get lunch there. They said yes without seeing us. Well we tied up 6 C-Dories on a dock meant for 1 boat. This wasn’t your typical C-Dory lunch stop. This was a Fancy, swanky mansion used to cater weddings with manicured landscaping and fountains. There was even a fountain on the dock! When the 9 of us drifted in with our rain gear, they said to wait a minute while they readied our room. They put us into our own little room ( away from normal people). Carol had to explain to some of us that the cloth napkins were really napkins, not towels or handkerchiefs. Ray came back from the head, shaking his head saying: “Ya gotta see the bathroom!” Of course, I immediately ran there. Ya wont’ believe it! They had flat screen TVs over the Urinals. You picked your urinal based on the TV show. I used the one with the John Dailey Show. ( Of note, they didn’t have TVs in the Ladies room, per Carol) We then cruised to the Hudson River, thru the Waterford Flight (what fun). By now, we had done so many locks that we all did them single handed and most were able to avoid the rain under biminis. We couldn’t stop at the Canal Park at Waterford as we had planned; it was full. So, we spent the night tied to the Landisburg ramp dock, right across from the park. We cruised 39.3 mi. Again, the 9 of us dined in an Italian restaurant together for our last dinner, having completed the Eastern half of the Canal, i.e. 225 mi.

Friday we did the rental car/truck trailer shuffle. This was very expensive for Dun & me. Since Pete ( Fred’s companion) drove the rental car, Carol & Becky had a whole day to tour and SHOP in the Troy / Waterford area. With 5 of us helping to load each other’s boats, we quickly were ready to head home. By 8:00 PM Friday night, all were on there way home. ( Dave left Fri AM by boat).

Yup, it was another fantastic C-Dory cruise/gathering.
 
Thanks for the Travelog Rick. I just got home. Since we got back early from the canal trip, we went to the Newport Boat Show for two days, drooling over all the trawlers and viewing the new C-Ranger 25 with John Cameron from Y-Landing Marine (he gave us free tickets-thanks again John). Yes we did have a great trip, although most of us preferred the Western portion last year. I hope you all made it home safely. As the "unofficial" trip photographer, I will edit and post pictures as soon as possible.

Dun
 
Rick, Great travel log. Dun, we will be waiting.

Made it back to Hingham with no problem going about 50 MPH. Was that you Rick who passed us on the Mass Pike going 90 MPH towing Hunky Dory? There is some thing wrong with my trailer. Have to move the wheels to get better balance.

Pete is back in New Hampshire in the arms of his sweety, Cindy. I came back to Nantucket yesterday and jumped right back in to my work mode, paying bills.

Dun, you are right. The western part of the Erie is much better and prettier. Glad you made the Newport Boat Show. Went to it about 14 years ago,dreaming. No need to dream anymore. I think, after our experience with the launching ramp on the Hudson, the 22' C-dory is about the largest cruising trailerable boat out there that can handle most of the inefficient launch ramps out there. (On this one, the lip was about 3 to 4 feet in the water. Then there were pot holes. The boats were not level when they received the boats. Luckily, because of no tide, the ramp was not slick or sandy.). Anything bigger would have needed a Mack Truck to be her out of the water. Also at 5 SMPH per gallon, you just cannot beat the efficiency of the 22' C-Dory, especially with the price of gas.

I talked with a Captain of one of the ferry boats to Nantucket. He has a SeaRay. Gets about 1/2 a Nautical Mile/ Gallon at any speed. He does not go very far on his cruises.

Another SeaRay friend of mine (I have very few) was going to bring his boat out to Nantucket on Labor Day Weekend. He calculated his costs, and if he stayed at the Inn for the weekend instead of coming by boat, the difference in cost would be a trip to Bermuda for he and his wife. We have to be thankful for the efficiency of our boats.

Another observation. Nate Leonard had a cruising model of the 16' C-Dory. That is a sweet little boat. As we get older, and spend less on cruising, and maybe more time launching for the day, or short cruises, that would be the perfect boat. It had a 50 HP 4 Stroke, and kept up with is. It was dry and very sea worthy. Another winner. All Nate has to do is custom it to his liking. We spotted a lot of available storage space covered up with panels. Also his battery is on the wrong side, and a change of configuration of fuel tanks would give him much more storage space under the motor well.

How about another trip?

Fred
 
Hi Guys;
Sorry I couldn't continue the trip with you! Pleased to report that I ran at ~2 gph with the Honda 50. I expected more like 3 gph based on the ratings I saw for the 40hp. That gets me thinking about B&Bs (they become more affordable when not spending as much on fuel) instead of camping every night on board.
Dave, my engine was misfiring on one cylinder in a very systematic way so it was firing most of the time. That created the vibration at certain RPMs and seemed similar to cavitation. Had my engine guy look at it and he was able to tweak it a little but have an appointment to clean it up next week. Probably some varnish from not running in two years. He thinks it will be much smoother and quieter. Lucky it ran at all. I do think some sound dampening on the boat would be good.
Next year I vote for Rideau, even Trent Severn, or Champlain. Will try to join for more of the trip if we know early!

Best, Nate
 
Nate-

On Edit: I misread the gph as mpg in the previous post and thus was confused when I wrote the following:

I'd think with the 50 and a boat the size of the 16, you'd get more like 6-7 mpg, instead of 3.

Reference

Nate wrote:

"I expected more like 3 gph based on the ratings I saw for the 40hp."

Joe.
 
Nate,

Check your engine out. We got about 5 SMG. There is something wrong with your engine. When you buy used, you have to get everything checked out. Happened to Dun, happened to me.

Fred
 
No guys...Nate got it right. He said ~2 gallons per hour, which at an average of 14 miles per hour translates to ~7 miles per gallon. Right in line with projections.

Nate, I had MAJOR problems with varnishing on my Yamaha 80, since the boat sat almost unused for 2+years in the Florida sun and the previous owner didn't stabilize. The mechanic that finally fixed the problem and rebuilt my carbs has me using "Yamaha Ring Free Fuel Additive". At $80 per gallon it's expensive, but the F80 runs like a champ now. You use 1oz per 15 gallons, so it lasts a longtime.

Dun
 
I posted a few pictures from our cruise in Photos. If those C-Brats who were with us want more pictures, let me know and I'll send you a CD.
 
Wow Dun!

Supah photos and captions. As Carol looked over my shoulder she kept saying: "Print that one". You really captured the flavor of our cruise and dining stops. Good Job, Thanks.

Rick from Maine
 
Dear Fellow C-Brats:

Judging from the photos presently in the album, it appears you spent a lot of time eating!

I have posted my photos, including pics of each of the individual boats, at the end of the album. (Most of these, of course, were taken at Seneca Falls.)

Dun: Our address is 18 Autumn Wood, Rochester NY 14624.

Thanks for sharing your trip with us!

Cordially, Wayne
 
Hi Wayne,

Yup, we spent a lot of time eating. What did you expect? Something about Eat , Drink, and Cruise (not necessarily in that order). We continued the tradition established last year. As Bill noted last year, this is one C-Dory gathering that cruised on its stomach. It was fun how all the restaurants accomodated so many of us every day. Carol & I judge our cruises by how many calories we consume per Lock ( or how much weight we gain per cruise). Gathering with C-Brats over food & drink is just about as much fun as one can have.

Thanks for your photos.

Rick & Carol from maine
 
Dear Dun:

As I recall, earlier you were offering photos of last year's cruise. Would you please add those to the CD of this year's cruise, for us?

Many thanks! Wayne
 
Dear Fellow C-Brats:

While y'all were cruising, I was "messing around" on my C-Dory (in the evenings). Yesterday I added photos to our subalbums of my recent projects, as follows....

My wife liked David's enlarged step and urged me to do likewise. My approach is a bit different, but the result is a greatly extended step which is quite easy to achieve in the C-22. (Nate was interested in this idea, which probably would have to be adapted for the C-16.)

Dun came aboard our boat and looked at my Dinette to Sofa conversion. Responding to another inquiry on the C-Brat site, now I have found another use for the sofa "backboard," to create bunk beds in the cabin! I also have illustrated use of the galley top as a "child's" bed in the cabin.

At Seneca Falls, we made use for the first time of curtains for privacy in the cabin, and discovered a few "bugs." That project has now been brought to completion, and we are very pleased with it. Ours is a simple and inexpensive solution. (Ray: you may be interested in our approach, concerning which I would be happy to give you more detail.)

I was very attracted to David's use of cam cleats for adjusting his fenders and Terry's use of Perko fender hangars. I am now trying decide how I want to do something like that.

Thanks for sharing your ideas and inspiration!

Cordially, Wayne
 
Wayne-

Maybe you should go to work for General Dynamics and see if you can improve on the crew accomodations in the nuclear submarines. I hear thre are a lot of challenges fitting hundreds of bodies around those missle tubes, etc.

Great job on the dinette to sofa conversion! Done very well structurally, and also with color and taste!

Joe.
 
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