Voyage – Page 2 – Hydrotherapy Travels

On The Road Again!

After a seven week break from our Great Loop journey, we are now back aboard Hydrotherapy and have resumed our travels North and heading into Canada.

We flew home end of May so that we could be there for the arrival of our newest grandchild. Worth and Erin welcomed their beautiful little girl, Lillian Elizabeth, on June 14th. Grace is a doting and loving big sister and is so proud of her baby sister!

We also were able to celebrate the 5th birthday of our oldest grandchild, Selby and spend time with her little brother Graham.

it was a time to spend with family and see friends whom we had not seen since February, when we began our boat journey.

We also were able to spend a week in Highlands, NC with Lauren and John and Selby and Graham. We had a great time hiking to beautiful waterfalls and vistas and visiting the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains.

We returned to Syracuse on Friday. We had Hydrotherapy buffed and shined and a few minor repairs done there while we were gone. We resumed our journey on Saturday and headed west on the Erie Canal until we turned north onto the Oswego River. It was a time consuming day as we had eight locks to get through. We docked at the Oswego Municipal Marina for the evening and left this morning to cross Lake Ontario to get on the St Lawrence River. We are now cruising into the Thousand Islands…where Thousand Island salad dressing originated!

We loved our time at home with family and friends and now it is time to resume our 6,000 mile Great Loop journey! Tonight we are anchored near Cape Vincent, NY.

Beyond the Locks

The fog lifted and we have enjoyed beautiful weather cruising up the Hudson River from NYC. We stopped at some picturesque marinas as we continued north. Just beyond Troy, NY, we entered the Erie Canal system. This series of locks was originally constructed in the 1820’s for the purpose of moving commerce from Albany, NY to Buffalo. The original small barges were pulled by mules. Now the Erie Canal is managed by the NY State Canal System and is used primarily by recreational boaters like ourselves. Our only previous lock experience was passing through a few locks in the Okeechobee waterway several years ago. The first eight locks on the Erie Canal heading east to west are encountered one after the other, each raising the water level approximately 20 feet. With just two crew members, we had to quickly learn to coordinate manning a weighted rope hanging from the lock wall on both the bow and stern while the lock was filling rapidly with water.

We kept ascending in elevation with the first twenty locks. With Lock #21 and Lock #22, we are now starting to descend again as we work our way west. We are near Syracuse, NY now and soon will be turning north on the Oswego river to venture into Lake Ontario.

Changes in Latitude

We continue to travel north on the Chesapeake Bay. At times we have crisscrossed from the eastern shore to the western shore and back, as we try to visit as many of the notable small towns as possible. We cruised into the beautiful historic port of Annapolis yesterday and enjoyed our walking tour of the Naval Academy today. Once again, we are so incredibly proud of these fine young men and woman who will soon become our country’s military leaders.🇺🇸

It’s remarkable to know that we have traveled over 1,500 miles on the water since tossing our lines in Sarasota in late February. With Sarasota located at 27 degrees N latitude and Annapolis being at 39 degrees N latitude, we have noticed the surrounding water temperature has dropped to 52 degrees Fahrenheit with the air temperature averaging in the 50’s, as well. In fact, for every one degree of latitude change we move 69 statute miles further north. Therefore, we are 828 miles north of Sarasota where spring weather is still trying to break through.

Unlike cruising in Florida, we have not had to run our generator or use our air conditioning for the past six weeks. We are able to keep our refrigerators and freezer cold while underway utilizing an inverter system which converts battery power to 110 volt ac current to supply these appliances. This allows us to keep these essential appliances operating without having to turn on our generator. While docking at marinas, we utilize the dockside electrical power pedestals to supply all the electrical power we need.

We will soon be moving further north to cross from the upper Chesapeake to the Delaware River and Cape May, NJ via the C & D canal (Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River).

The Necessity of Flexibility

Cruising north on the ICW has required a large degree of flexibility. We have had to adjust our schedule numerous times due to strong currents, forceful winds, high seas and even a lack of dock availability. We have even encountered marinas which had no fuel. We have learned valuable lessons in flexibility and adaptability and recognize that our planned daily schedule might need to be revised, altered or simply cancelled.

We arrived at the Norfolk Yacht and Country Club in howling winds, but managed to safely dock with the help of two able dockhands. After spending Easter Sunday and the following day at the beautiful yacht club we chose to leave on the third day when the winds were supposed to be less fierce. As we got into the main shipping channel approximately three miles to the north, we encountered our worst sea and wind conditions to date. We even had some challenges turning the boat around. We called the Norfolk club and asked whether we could return for another night. They were very accommodating and we felt that we made the safest decision. That evening we had dinner with another boating couple who had completed their Great Loop trip in 1988. They have over 50 years of boating experience. They shared their boating wisdom with us… “When in doubt, chicken out.” Our revision to that is, “When in doubt, think it out.”

As we continue cruising on this coast, we have had the opportunity to anchor near Camp Lejeune, cruise past the Norfolk Navy shipyard, and watch patrols of young Coast Guard seamen train near our dock at Yorktown, VA. We are inspired by their dedication and professionalism. In the future, we will be cruising to Annapolis, home of the Naval Academy and up the Hudson River past West Point. We are grateful to these fine men and women for their service.

Anchoring by Camp Lejeune

After a one day stop at Wrightsville Beach, NC we moved north on the ICW to find a quite anchorage to spend one night. Our quiet setting was located adjacent to the Camp Lejeune marine base. We were about to go to sleep when our night was livened up by several Apache helicopters performing night training maneuvers directly over our heads. As we weighed anchor the next morning to head north, we were passed by a flotilla of fast moving navy harbor patrol boats carrying marine personnel on morning maneuvers. We also passed a designated military beach area used for live fire target practice. It is comforting to know our military men and women are constantly training to be ready to defend our freedom and we are forever grateful for their service. God bless America! 🇺🇸

From the military area, we moved on to Beaufort, NC. Having visited both Beaufort, SC recently and Beaufort, NC, we made an effort to pronounce each town properly. Beaufort, SC is pronounced ”BEW-fert” and Beaufort, NC is pronounced ”BOW-firt”. Interestingly, both towns are named after the same individual, Henry Somerset, the Duke of Beaufort, an English noble.

From the eastern shore of North Carolina we are cruising our way to the North Carolina Outer Banks. We will have to monitor the weather which can cause the seas of the Pimlico Sound to swell, making for an unpleasant passage.

Running Offshore in the Atlantic

We enjoyed two days in Savannah where we were able to take the Old Town Trolley tour to remind us, not only of the rich history of the city, but also its contributions to the many cinematic productions filmed both here and in Charleston. In fact, we were able to download and watch the films, Forrest Gump, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Prince of Tides and Conrak which all had ties to the South Carolina low country.

We spent three days at the Charleston City Marina in the heart of downtown Charleston, SC. From there we could walk the riverfront and see the contrast between the historic downtown homes and the modern Medical University of South Carolina. While tied to the floating dock at the marina, we experienced a violent thunderstorm with wind gusts to 60mph. With rain coming at us sideways, it was comforting to see our boat remain watertight and see our dockside fenders protect our hull from crashing into the sides of the dock.

With improvement in the weather forecast for our fourth day, we made the decision to move north to Georgetown, SC utilizing the outside passage in the Atlantic for a change of scenery. Although the wave height was predicted to be 1-2 ft., we found the seas to be rougher than anticipated. We maintained our heading and speed to arrive at the Georgetown marina safely early in the afternoon.

A close friend of ours who has a summer home nearby, met us at the marina and gave us a wonderful tour of her hometown. She even had us as guests overnight in her home. That was the first night we have not slept on our boat since Feb. 22. Now on to North Carolina!