Mechanical difficulties

Well as all our boat owning friends know, when you have a boat; things tend to break now and then.  After a great trip across Lake Ontario Captain Keith checked the engine room as he always does and found we were taking on a small amount of water.  He traced the problem to a leaking shaft seal.  For our non boating friends, simply speaking the shaft is a metal pipe that extends from each engine out the bottom of the boat to the propeller.  This is how the engine turns the propeller.  The hole through which the shaft exits the boat has a special seal that keeps water from coming into the boat.  Ours was leaking, so Captain Keith spent a large part of Sunday morning and much of Monday trying to fix the problem.  He put a new seal on the affected shaft and tightened everything.  Unfortunately he also found a bad bearing also on this shaft.  We determined that it could not be fixed until we have the boat pulled out of the water so the whole shaft can be slid out of the way.  Finding someone to haul Southern Style out of the water up here proved to be quite a challenge, but we hope to have someone to do it in Ontario on Friday.  So we are spending a few more days in Clayton, NY.  And what do boaters do when their boat is broken and they are waiting for repairs?  They shop, eat, and drink.  Oh wait.............. maybe boaters do those things whether the boat is broken or not.  Anyway.........

Tuesday morning we biked to Bella's for breakfast.  The French toast was awesome.  The Bloody Mary was also not bad.

We went in and out of several shops.  Captain Keith purchased a nice necklace for me that I spied in the jewelry store in town. I even found some thread I needed for a recent quilt project in one store.
On the way back from shopping we biked through the downtown park and watched some big ships pass on the St. Lawrence.

Muskie statue

Adirondack chairs in the Park

The Thunder Bay passing Downtown Clayton

After getting back to the boat, I decided to do some kayaking.  The water is so clear and pretty.

My view up the St. Lawrence

No tree, not an official island

Later in the afternoon once I returned from kayaking, Captain Keith and I biked to the Clayton Distillery and did some taste testing.  We came home with two bottles of liqueur.

Clayton Distillery

Bottles of Moonshine

Pengi displaying our purchases

The evening was capped off with dinner at the Wood Boat Brewery.

Tomorrow we are scheduled for a boat ride on a tour boat up to Boldt Castle.  Hopefully we will also hear about our scheduled haul-out.

Oswego Canal across Lake Ontario to Clayton, NY

Saturday June 16th we left Phoenix, NY and went through the Oswego Canal and onto Lake Ontario.

Dam on the Oswego Canal (top side)

Dam from the bottom side after coming through lock

Leaving last lock and going out onto Lake Ontario

Lake Ontario was slick cam (smooth) for the crossing Saturday

Lake Ontario is the eastern most and smallest in surface area of the Great Lakes.  It serves as an outlet to the Atlantic Ocean via the St. Lawrence River.  It has a maximum depth of 802 feet.  It is deep and the water is cold (just like Pengi likes it).

Depth going across Lake Ontario (511 feet)

Water temp 58 degree F

Wind Turbines as we entered the St. Lawrence River

The St. Lawrence is known as the Thousand Islands region of New York and Canada.  This is because of the many islands that are located throughout the area.  There are actually 1,864 offical islands in the Thousand Islands.  To be an official island, it must be above water 365 days a year and it must support at least 1 living tree.  The smallest island in the group is Tom Thumb Island which has only a few square feet above water all year and 1 tree.  Most of the islands are privately owned, accommodating a range of strutures from grand mansions that harken back to the region's gilded age as a playground for the wealthy to modest fishing and hunting camps.

Around 2 PM Southern Style pulled into the Clayton, NY municipal marina.  This is a brand new marina, and it is very nice.  The marina and downtown are right along the St. Lawrence and the views are wonderful.  The town is also great as there are multiple shops, restaurants and it is very nice to bike as the streets are wide and traffic even on the weekend was not bad.  We plan to have 2 full days here both Sunday and Monday before leaving on Tuesday.

Southern Style docked at Clayton Municipal Marina

View from our dock of the St. Lawrence River

This is the brand new 4 Diamond AAA rated hotel at the marina

Feeding the locals from the swim platform

Big ship traffic is common along this river

There are also beautiful wooden lake boats

Clayton, NY is also the home to The Antique Boat Museum.  This museum houses the largest collection of wooden and classic boats in North America.  Many of the boats are still seaworthy.

The museum has pleasure boats, canoes, kayaks, and speed boats

It even has dozens of old engines 

This one is a 15 HP outboard diesel (weighing 200 lbs)

How would you like that on your dinghy?

One particular boat the museum houses is The La Duchesse.  This is the houseboat built by George Bolt, the wealthy hotelier of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel Company.  He commissioned the 106 foot, two story vessel in 1903.  He kept it at his estate on Heart Island in the Thousand Islands.  When George Bolt died in 1916, ownership of the La Duchesse went to his daughter who sold it in 1922 to Edward Noble, famous as the founder of Life Savers Candy Company.  His plans to use the yacht did not come to fruition, and she fell into disrepair and eventually partially sank in 1943.  It was Andrew McNally, of the McNally maps that bought La Duchesse for $100 and began her restoration.  Under McNally's care she underwent several restoration projects over the years.  One large project was in 1957 when her hull was changed from a wooden hull to steel.  McNally's family used La Duchesse as a summer home until his death in 2001 at the age of 92.  He gifted the yacht to the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton and she now stays here where she is meticulously cared for as a museum exhibit.

Hallway on second floor of the La Duchesse

Staterooms and bathrooms to each side

George Bolt had the doorknobs cast with the family seal and a capital B

Entertainment deck on the aft of the second floor

Original wood floor still present

Our visit to the Antique Boat Museum was fun and one could spend hours if you wanted reading all the information.  We biked around town and then headed back to the boat to relax a bit.  Dinner was at Channelside with fellow looper Herb and the dock master Justin and his wife Debbie.  We of course had to have Thousand Island Dressing on our salads (more on that later).

Thousand Island Dressing

View from the restaurant deck

After dinner we went back to Southern Style and watched the last of the sunset

Schenectady, NY to Phoenix, NY

We said good-bye to our friends the Terrys and the Toneys on Monday

All of us on the boat wearing our Southern Style T-shirts

Left to right Keith, Gail, Lacey, Ron, Robin, Davis

Drone footage credit to Davis Toney

The rest of the day Monday was spent relaxing and doing some laundry (exciting I know).  On Tuesday morning June 12th we left for more locks and travel along the Erie Canal.

At the top of one of the locks

A dam along side of the lock

Do not turn this way

Lock just past a railroad bridge we had to go under before entering the lock

This is a guillotine lock we are going into

Here is the guillotine door coming down

Here we are in the lock as we go up

Its a long way up there

Sign at the lock in Little Falls , NY

The guillotine lock was our last before coming into Little Falls, NY on Tuesday around 6PM.  This is a small town like many along the Erie Canal.  They have a concrete wall with power that boats can tie to for the night and a small visitor's center.  It was very peaceful here.

View from the wall in Little Falls, NY Tuesday evening

 We ate on board since it was late when we got in and took off again in the morning on Wednesday June 13th to continue along the Erie Canal.

This was us in another lock with a tour boat

Here is a dredge that had to move to the side for us to have enough room to pass

Wednesday June 13th we left Little Falls and continued on the Erie Canal to Utica, NY.  There is a wall at the restaurant "Aqua Vino" that we tied to.  The restaurant is very good.  We had dinner there Wed. night. 

Tied up at Aqua Vino in Utica, NY

The plan was to leave Thursday morning and continue on, however the weather was cold and cloudy with a gusty wind so we decided to spend another day in Utica.  By Friday morning June 15th the sun was back out and the wind calmed down, so off we went.  Friday was our last day on the Erie Canal.  We locked through Lock 22 and then out onto Lake Oneida.  Crossing Lake Oneida was a little choppy but not bad, and it only took an hour as we decided to run at 20 knots across the lake.  Back into the Erie Canal on the west side of the lake and through Lock 23 ended our trip on the Erie Canal.

Good thing we know where we are going, sign not too obvious in the trees

We turn right here toward the Oswego Canal

A sharp right turn brought us onto the Oswego River and to the town of Phoenix, NY.  This is at the south end of the Oswego Canal which we will start tomorrow.  This will take us into Lake Ontario and then up the Saint Lawrence River.  We plan to spend about a week in the Thousand Islands.  Weather and boat permitting we should be in Clayton, NY on the Saint Lawrence tomorrow afternoon.

Docks in downtown Phoenix, NY

Southern Style on docks in Phoenix, NY

River Otter I saw along the docks in Phoenix

He had a fish in his mouth

Tomorrow we head to the Thousand Islands