Homeward Bound Adventures on SankatyBy Judy Ann RitterAs a good friend of mine says "when you go on an adventure, you cannot predict which way it will go." There are so many challenges and variables to contend with, adjustments are inevitable.I have been in a depression, motoring day in and day out. The constant hum drum of the motor ten to twelve hours a day is really getting to me, and I long for silence or the look of the billowing sails and peaceful travel. So, number one adjustment is to stop hurrying and enjoy our surroundings.We had a wonderful visit with Mark's cousin Andreas and family; Katerina, Lucas, Bettina, and Melissa. They made us feel at home and we were able to be part of a lovely family for a little while.
Chesapeake Bay is mostly a blur, as we sailed so many hours a day and didn't stop long enough to enjoy the towns.
We did stop once we reached Sandy Beach, NJ to visit with the director of the Mariners web site, Peter Vehslage and his wife, Carolyn. We met Peter's folks, Stan and Sue and spent a lovely day visiting Barnaget Lighthouse and an evening of bridge. Its funny although we just met, Stan and Sue felt like old friends, and I missed them as we sailed out of port the next morning.
We continued North and soon swooped into New York Harbor and sailed past the Statue of Liberty. I thought how immigrants must have felt on their long journey to America. It left a lump in my throat.
Through all the excitement, we forgot to stop for fuel and as we entered the Hudson River, the sun was sinking in the sky. Soon it was dark and the lights from the Tapeenzee Bridge loomed in the distance. Suddenly the motor stopped runing and we suspected an empty fuel tank. As we floated on the Hudson River, we literally had no contol of our Sankaty. The current pushed us up river and we set the sails quickly and prayed for a little wind so that we could retain some control of the steering. We tacked back and forth across the Hudson and while we called Boat US and asked them to bring us some diesel fuel. We have their insurance and they brought it to us, but it took another 1 ½ hours to get the motor started because it had been pumped dry and the pipes needed to be bled. We now think that a piece of rubber hose that we found a year later was actually the root cause of the lack of strong enough fuel pressure keep the engine running.
After we got the motor started and waved a fond farewell to our rescuers, Mark went below to get our bearings on the computer and left me in charge of steering. By now it was pitch dark and off in the distance I could see a blinking green light. The current was strong, the boat was going fast and I don't see well at night. Needless to say I hit the green marker light and when we surveyed the damage that night, we saw nothing, so I slept well. Next morning my breath caught in my throat as Mark pointed out what we hadn't seen in the dark the night before. A big chunk of the rub rail was missing. Our Sankaty has teak that is pealing and a banged up rubrail. She looks like she has gone through a war.
Torrential rains pelted us for the next three days, but we finally reached Castleton on Hudson Yacht Club where we exchanged mast lowering services with three other sailers. At this juncture we heard that the Erie Canal had closed due to a broken lock caused by the rains. Upon calling we discovered that the locks would not be fixed for at least three weeks.
We had to regroup and decided to go up the Hudson River through Lake Champlain into the Richelieu River into the St. Lawrence Sea Way to Montreal, Canada. From there we would continue down the St. Lawrence River to Lake Ontario where we could meet up with the Trent-Severn Canal which would take us into Lake Huron's Georgian Bay. From there we would sail through the North Channel Islands, said to be the most beautiful cruising area in North America into Lake Michigan via the Straits of Mackinac.
We spent four days in Burlington, VT on the shores of Lake Champlain, waiting for electronic charts to be mailed to us. We walked the quaint little streets and found the New England Culinary School and Restaurant, which served gourmet food at reasonable prices as students served as waiters and chiefs. Rain from the torrential downpours got into the gasoline tank of our 2 1/2 HP Nissan outboard. Several times we floated to shore in our dinghy at the mercy of the wind as we tried to start the choking motor starved of fuel. Finally Mark tipped the outboard motor upside down on the shore to poured the contents of the fuel tank into a glass jar and immediately you could see the water collecting on the bottom of the jar. After pouring in just the top of the jar's contents into the outboards fuel tank our problems went away.
The scenery in Lake Champlain is reminiscent of the Thunersee in Switzerland. The Adirondack Mountains of New York dot the western shore and the Green Hills of Vermont loom on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain.
We went through several locks on the Richeleui River to bring us down to the level of the St. Lawrence. We spoke to attendants with intriguing French accents. They were very friendly and seemed genuinely happy to practice their English. I also learned a tiny word here and there of French.
Once we hit the St. Lawrence, we slowed down as the current was against us. Sankaty crawled at a slow 2 knots. We stopped in Montreal for four days to relax from the long days of motoring through the canals and locks.
Montreal is an ethnically diverse city in the French section of Quebec, Canada. The restaurants and entertainment is international and that is what I like best about it. Food is not just for nutritional satisfaction but almost every meal is a party. We went to a special breakfast place. I ordered eggs Benedict. When they brought me the plate, I didn't know whether I should eat it or take a picture. A Granny Smith apple had been cut in special wedges and piled to interlace to create a tower. Fresh strawberries were sliced and fanned out to accompany slices of peaches and fresh pineapple, home fried potatoes and eggs Benedict completed the plate and all I ordered were the eggs.
We also had salmon and walleyed pike for supper that was sooooo good that I though it had just been caught.
In a cabaret we saw a musical tour of songs from 1930 through to the present. The artists were able to take us back to our teenage years waiting for that special someone to ask for a dance. The accompanying
Dinner gave you lots of choices. Mark had lamb loin appetizer with roasted red peppers and I had a salad with mantole shrimp, which means little bay shrimp as it turned out. Mark had the salmon and I the steak in mushroom sauce. For dessert I had the chocolate dream cake and Mark the apricot mousse hazelnut cake, but we each ate half of each for variety.
The LaRonde Marina where we stayed in Montreal is next to an amusement part. Every year they have a fireworks of nations contest and we were lucky enough to be there for the Japanese entry. From where our boat sat we could see the whole show for free. The fireworks were choreographed to music and the depth of color was like nothing I had seen before. The reds and oranges were brilliant and contrasted to the turquoise blues, lavenders, and sparkling golds. I'm anxious to see if our fireworks will be like these or if Japan is far ahead of us in the art of making fireworks science.
