The Funny thing about "Odds"

What would you say the odds are of us cruising along the Hudson River,  running over a submerged 2x6 plank of wood, only to have it lodge itself between our keel and our rudder*?

One in a thousand?  One in a million?

Either way, I think it's pretty damn rare.

Well, that happened to us about an hour ago.  I wish I was joking.

I was at the helm, when all of a sudden there was a muffled 'thud'.  We'd heard it before (you cannot avoid the debris you cannot see) so we weren't alarmed.  Then I noticed our speed was down.  Significantly down.  I didn't even need to look at the instruments to know.  Going 1800 RPM's usually got us going nearly 8 knots (with the current), and now we were going barely 5.  Not to mention the propeller was making a whizzing sound, as if it was working harder.  Houston, we have a problem.

At first I thought we had done something to our propeller.  Lucky for us there was a marina just to our right.  Right then and there I made the executive decision to pull in and haul out the boat.

I mean, you have got to be kidding me, right?!

So Scott took the helm and I went to the back of  the boat.  There was a significant current, so Scott did a circle to get back to the marina.  And that's when I saw it.  A 2x6 plank of wood pop up from the water.  And I just knew that's what our problem was.

"Try throttling up again" I yelled to Scott.

He did.  And sure enough, we moved along at our expected 8 knots - like buttah.  Hallelujah!

I mean - what in the heck are the odds of that?


We can't wait to see the fun surprises the Big Apple has in store for us.

Although, we did accidentally buy some lotto tickets in a bar when we thought we were playing Keno - who knows, maybe we'll strike it rich?

Stay tuned,

Brittany (& Scott)

*At least we think this is what happened.  It's so bizarre it's actually comical.

Gray Sky Morning

We are usually sunny day types of people, but boy oh boy did the gray overcast of yesterday morning make a beautiful backdrop for some lovely photos or what?!

Scott thinks this place would make an awesome concert hall.  I have to agree.

I mean, are you kidding me with those colors?!

Beautiful.

How amazing is that contrast?

Love,

Brittany (& Scott)

We ran aground...or rather, a ROCK

Whoo hoo!  Still afloat!

When things go "bump" on a boat it's usually not a good thing. I might go so far as to say it's never a good thing.

It's a really, really bad thing when they go bump, bump, BUMP and your boat lurches forward, then up, then to the side, and then back down again.

For those of you who love the "adventure" (aka us making mistakes) side of our journey, here's another one for the books...

This post is almost hard to write, because we made such a critical mistake, such a naive mistake, such a stupid mistake - that it is actually embarrassing.  What is more sobering than the sheer embarrassment of it all was the possibility that we could have lost our boat.  I mean, we haven't even made it to the Ocean yet!

As you know, we have been traversing the Erie Canal.  Today we actually entered the Mohawk River, which signals the end of the canal and will eventually dump us into the Hudson River.  As I wrote earlier, there has been a tremendous amount of debris in the waterway.  The fact that we are now in a natural river coupled with the torrential rain we saw last night made the debris (logs, trees...etc) that much worse.

Scott was at the helm and we were just enjoying this absolutely gorgeous day and the beautiful scenery the Mohawk River has to offer.  What happened next happened so fast I'm not sure I can describe it accurately or do it any justice.  I was looking down at my computer, loading more photos when all of a sudden the boat came to a lurching stop and listed about 30 degrees to starboard (right).  We had hit something, and this was no log.  Scott starts yelling, "Oh my God, oh my God" and then the boat goes UP...yes UP and then back down to starboard again - this time literally throwing me across the cockpit (I am happy to report both the computer and the camera are fine!).

Then, it was over.  Smooth water.  We had hit something, hard, and gone up and over it.  Insane.

The whole thing lasted maybe 3 or 4 seconds.  And every.single.second was terrifying.

Scott kept saying, "Oh my God, honey...are you okay?  I am so sorry, I am so sorry...are you okay?"

"I'm fine" I told him, heading down below, "I'm going to check the bilges (the areas of the boat where water would go if it got into the boat)".  I was certain we punctured our hull.

Thankfully, they were (and still are) bone dry.  No hole.  Phew.

What had happend was this:  Scott saw a red buoy up ahead (from our direction, you are supposed to pass these buoys to the left side of your boat, right side of the buoy) - to the right of that buoy (where we needed to be) he saw tons of debris....tree trunks, huge branches...etc.  So Scott decided to cut the corner a little to avoid damage to the prop.

In the words of his favorite screen siren, "BIG mistake. BIG.....HUGE."

Instead, we hit a freaking gigantic underwater rock.  The whole thing was totally and utterly surreal. I was physically shaking for at least two hours after the incident while adrenaline surged through my system, and we're still suffering from the "hangover" of doing something so stupid.

In retrospect I am pretty sure we went up and over the cement block that anchors the buoy down, or perhaps there really was a huge submerged rock that we went over?   We'll never know.  But whatever it was, it was solid.  And if we had gone over it in a fin keel boat, we almost certainly would have ripped the keel off.  We were going 6 knots.  How much do we love our full keel boat?  A LOT.

The thought is sickening.

We made a big mistake.  And we're better for it.  I will say this, however: it was the ONE chance Scott has taken.  He knew he was taking a risk, but he had calculated it.  Typically, he is 100% by the book and makes no exceptions.  It absolutely could have been me at the helm.  We are human.

Needless to say, we won't be (knowingly) taking any more navigational chances.  But I'm sure we'll mess up a whole lot more, so don't you fret!  We are learning, and that's the name of the game.

On the plus side - seriously, how gorgeous is where we are tied up right now?!

PS.  We are hauling the boat out when we get our mast stepped.  Rest assured we'll let you know the damage to the hull!

Is it just me?

What's in that there forest I wonder?

...Or does this remind you of the movie "Deliverance"*?  I for the life of me cannot get that damn banjo tune (go to 2:24 to hear it) out of my head.  Creepy.

In all honesty, it is a beautiful misty morning up here in the North East.

Love,

Brittany (& Scott)

*If you have not seen it, I do not recommend this movie.  Is HIGHLY disturbing.

Water Logged...

Sticks and stones may break my bones...and my propeller!

Navigating through this mess at 8am before our breakfast was a treat.  Holy moly!  Some of this debris was ENTIRE TREE TRUNKS.  I stood up at the bow, giving Scott hand signals to direct him so we could weave ourselves through this maze.  For non-boaters, hitting a tree trunk with your propeller is an easy way to damage it.  We tried to avoid this as best we could and aside from hitting a few submerged "water logged" branches, we were successful!  It rained all night last night, which is why all this nastiness washed into the canal.

I am happy to announce we are in the clear now - the sun is shining and it is going to be 70 degrees....yes, 70 degrees today! Scott is tuning up the Ukelele and we are just cruising along.

Thank you Indian Summer!

Love,

Brittany (& Scott)

Potential Crisis: AVERTED!

I have already said it and thanked the Universe for it - Scott and I have been pretty dang lucky this trip.

What could have happened today is proof positive of this luck.  And a good lesson to be reminded of...

We were motoring down the Erie Canal, just as calm and peacefully as ever.  We had just crossed “Cross Lake” and were entering (what we thought was) the canal from the other side.  I was reading, Scott was at the helm.

“Oh look, we have an early waver!” Scott said, “A nice older lady in blue”.


Wavers, refer to the people along the canal that, obviously, wave to us.  Not everyone is a waver we have learned.  We’re not sure why - but some people just don’t wave back - aside from making the initial waver feel like an idiot, it seems pretty rude.  But we continue to do this.  Naturally, we are always happy to meet people on the banks that actually wave to us first.  Hence "early waver".  

I look up from my book, and sure enough there is a nice lady in blue...waving both her arms...over her head...frantically.  And yelling something.  Huh.  Pretty zealous this one, I thought.

“I think she’s trying to tell us something” Scott said.  

Ya think?

Scott slowed the engine and I turned down the stereo.

Hmmm...looks as though we've run aground, but we have not!  

We couldn’t make it out, but it sounded like she was telling us to...turn around?  That we would ‘hit’?  Scott throttled back some more.

She now had both her hands cupped around her mouth acting as a megaphone, “You missed the turn, TURN AROUND, you will RUN AGROUND”.

We looked at each other like “Huh” and then looked at our chartplotter.  We were thoroughly confused.  Everything looked fine on the plotter.

This can never be a paperless world.

Not wanting to risk running aground or ‘hitting’ whatever it was that we would hit, we turned around.

“Do you think she was just crazy or something?” Scott asked.

“Maybe?" I thought, "But I think we should call the next lock operator and ask him, maybe he can tell us something...” I suggested.

While Scott called the lock operator, I checked the paper charts we had. (Phew)

The lock operator, though very kind, offered little clarification other than “Was it woman or a kid?” after Scott told him of the waving person on the bank.  Apparently kids are real tricksters around here?  Who knows.

Then we saw it, right there on the paper chart.  The “State Ditch Cut” that was NOT on our chartplotter.  That was where we needed to go.  We had missed the (non-descript, unmarked) turn about a quarter mile back.

Had we continued on our merry way, and had that lovely woman in blue not come out to 'wave' at us, we would have run aground in 3 feet of water.  While running aground in our boat wouldn’t be the end of the world, it would be a real pain in the ‘A' and definitely cost us some time.

Bullet:  Dodged.

Thank you wonderful lady in blue for coming out of your home to wave at us - you were, by far, the best, most friendliest waver yet!

Lesson(s) learned:  

1) ALWAYS have paper charts.  Yes, even if you are on a relatively straightforward waterway that seems fool proof.

2) Wavers might not just be "waving" hello, they might be warning you of something.  Waving with two hands over head is indication of urgency (and the international "distress" signal), so pay attention.

Love,

Brittany (& Scott)

Images Along the Erie Canal

There is so much beauty along this canal....so I thought I'd share some with you!

Rasmus tied up at lock 35

Little town, tucked behind the tree line.

Art decorates some areas of the canal...

As does graffiti....that Tanushka, what a lucky girl!

Gorgeous and oh-so-peaceful!

We've gone through SO many bridges and become so used to them, we keep telling ourselves not to forget that bridges are NOT okay when we get our rig back up!!

Sun peeking through!

All sorts of interesting homes, boat houses and structures along the canal.

Yeah, this is our view 90% of the time.  Pretty awesome.

Coming up to a quaint little town, just before a storm rolls in.

Love,

Brittany (& Scott)

Lockin' Through

Seriously, locks are friggin' cool.  For example - we began today at about 590 ft. above sea level (or something, we don't have our charts with us at the moment so I don't know for sure) and we ended today at around 460.  That is...neat.

Locks are intense.  Locks are rugged.  Locks are hard-core.  Locks are...cool.  Nothing like starting out at "x" feet, and then ending at "x minus 50 feet" (and they said I wasn't good at math!) in a matter of 15 minutes.  I mean, that is just. plain. cool.  Or maybe I'm just easily amused?

Here's what they look like, from our perspective:

See that green wall behind us, we started at the TOP of that! This was lock #2 in a 2-fer.

The doors ahead...where we are going...

Once you get to the proper level, the gates open.  I don't know why, but I *always* think of Wizard of Oz when this happens.

Bye bye lock!  Thanks for dropping us a solid 50'!

We've got 30 more locks to go!  Thanks to my dad for getting us our super awesome industrial Easystow fenders so we don't scratch up our boat!

More tomorrow!  For now, there is wine to be drank...or drunk....whatever...

Love,
Brittany (& Scott)

The Erie Canal!

The Erie Canal is FULL of History.  

It was an incredible feat at the time, and provided a much needed "Gateway to the West" for the East Coast.  Huge barges were used to move goods along the canal, pulled by horses and handlers.  The canal meanders through gorgeous Upstate New York and is just full of beautiful vistas and panoramas.  In between the stretches of vast land, orchards, and farms are little towns and villages that feel as American as apple pie and baseball.  You can literally pull up and dock nearly anywhere and just step off of your boat and into the heart of a little "one horse" town.  Lovely.  

The days of the barges are gone, but the history is still here.  Now, the canal is mostly used for pleasure boats and cruisers - and for us, ironically - it is the passage to the East! 

Yesterday Scott and I found this old book in the Lock Masters office and poked through it.  So very cool.  I love older books and illustrations.  The pages even smelled all musty and library-like, not enough books smell like that anymore. 

This morning, we went down our first lock - a 50 footer in Lockport!  We are moving along nicely, and just enjoying this very calm and slow paced motor along one of America's most historic waterways.  

This is the life!

Love,

Brittany (& Scott)

On the Road Again!

Stepping the mast.  

On our way!!

The engine is purring like a kitten again thanks to our new transmission (which, ZF said they did "nothing" to aside from change out some clutches and some seals...hmmmmm) - either way, the tranny must have been the problem* because the dreaded clunking has ceased!  Hip hip, hooray!

We woke up bright and early and motored over to Rich Marine where they stepped our mast...and at a discount!  Thanks RM - we owe ya' one!

Anyway, we are en-route to Lockport, NY - LET THE LOCKING BEGIN PEOPLE!

Love,
Brittany (& Scott)

*Although the fact that there is not a single "A-ha!  That was the issue!" moment, we are a little apprehensive.  ZF claims there was nothing out of the ordinary with the trans, other than the slightly over-warn clutches.  Nothing, they claimed, that would warrant the noise.  Nothing like a problem that somehow got fixed, despite not knowing what exactly was wrong.  Who said sailing around the world would be care-free anyway?  Psh.