M/V ILLUSIONS                                CT TO TX CRUISE

TRIP 1 LOGS
Mystic, CT to Cleveland, OH
July 4-20, 1997

Mystic, CT to City Island, NY, Sunday, July 6, 1997

     We flew to Providence, RI with my son, Chuck, on July 4, 1997.  We spent July 5 provisioning the boat and turning in the rental car, getting fuel, etc.  Our first day of travel brought us to City Island (in the Bronx), NY in our new boat-the 1995 Carver 440 Aft Cabin.  We ate too much at a nice Italian restaurant named Artie’s and later sat on the aft deck to enjoy the cool breeze and listen to the jets approaching LaGuardia.  We had arrived there at 2 pm after leaving Mystic, CT at 7:30am.  By 3 pm we had checked in and gone for a walk around the island-saw the Harlem Yacht Club, for example. The boat performed well coming across Long Island Sound.  These were our first diesel engines, and after having two other twin-engine boats with gasoline engines, I decided I liked the diesels.  Chuck & I figured out how to use the autopilot, and it helped a lot to have it.  That was our first boat with electronics, too. 

   This would be a better cruising area if it were only warmer!  There are a lot of places to go.  We saw a lot of boats.

      We planed to pick up my son, Daniel, at the airport or have him meet us in Manhattan on the following day.  We were very excited about seeing the Statue of Liberty from our own boat! 


City Island, NY to W Haverstraw, NY, Monday, July 7, 1997

       

     On Monday we left City Island at a leisurely pace since our plan was to pick up Daniel in Manhattan.  He had a camping trip over the July 4 weekend & could not go with Angela, Chuck, & I to Rhode Island on the 4th.  We went under the Throgs Neck Bridge about 10am and proceeded down the East River.  The currents at Hell Gate were everything we had read about-like a feeding frenzy of a large group of fish. Water seemed to be moving in several directions at once.

      Once past this point the river was quite impressive with the tall buildings of Manhattan on our right.   We passed Roosevelt Island on our left and pulled into NY Skyports Marina for fuel and to wait for Daniel.  We filled up with diesel at $1.40 / gal.  Lots of surge moving us up and down @ the floating docks there. We went to lunch at the Delano Drive restaurant and met Daniel there (his flight from Houston to LaGuardia landed early at 12:20).

      

    

    

     We left the fuel dock about 2pm and went down the rest of the East River past Governors Island and on out to Ellis Island. The architecture there is so attractive and reminded us of the IMAX film we saw in Galveston last year-Across the Sea of Time.  (Angela & I saw it 5 times.) We spent a longer time  looking at the Statue of Liberty since it was so awesome that we could be there looking at it from our own boat!  The view of Manhattan Island from there was great; we got some good pictures and video.   The weather was good, a little hazy, but looks great on the video.  Glad it wasn't raining  or other bad weather. We stopped briefly at the Battery to see the beautiful buildings and boats. What a place! 
         
     We went up the Hudson River and were surprised at how large Manhattan really is.  Also the NJ side is really quite high.  The river is very wide and got wider at Haverstraw.  We pulled into our marina about 6pm and ate at the restaurant there-outside because their air conditioning was broken.  It was cool outside. Angela has been cool every night and has learned to wear long pants and bring a jacket.  Chuck and I are slower to learn so we were cool.  The high for the day was about 80 and the low last night was about 70. 
                                     
W Haverstraw, NY to Troy, NY, Tuesday, July 8, 1997

     This marina was expensive and generally nice-floating docks made of aluminum, which appeared to have seen some hard use.  Also it was noisy-you could hear someone coming down the dock long before they got to you.  There was a large ship tied up at the entrance taking on some crushed rock perhaps.  There seemed to be some mining & quarry activity in this area.

      

     We left about 9:30am so we could check out the marina store, which opened at 9.  Going up the Hudson River was awesome-it was very beautiful.  Some of the hills were 1500 feet high!  The depth of the river had been 60-100 feet, but we came to one place where the depth was 175 feet! 

     Eventually the river narrowed and we found markers indicating that the channel was on one side of the river.  There was a shallow area (flats) in the middle with a good but unmarked channel on the right of the flats.  At least one of these did not rejoin the main channel so through travelers would have to back up and change sides.  The flats have depths of 2-3 ft.

     The weather was very pleasant-high about 80, low about 65.

     We pulled into Troy about 5pm in about 19 ft of water. It's easy to see the head of navigation above Troy without the Federal Lock, which is in sight of the town docks.  We bought 214 gallons of diesel & got a discount of 6.5% due to being a member of BOAT US.  The floating dock was shaky but okay.  We ate at the restaurant on the river and it rained hard at the end of our meal.  The young men went to the store after dinner.

     At one point during the day we thought we were experiencing a reduction in RPM on the starboard engine.  I had been told that's what would happen when the Racor filter became clogged and needed changing, so we stopped and changed the Racor filter.  This was good experience but proved to be no help.  The tachometer continued to act up, but the engine seemed to be performing fine. Eventually the tachometer quit, so we had to adjust RPM by the sound of the engine.  The Glendinning engine synchronizer was broken at the time of the survey and no repairs had yet been made.  As of that fill-up, we believed our statistics were:  296 miles in 21.2 running hours, 14.0 mph, 378.8 gals of diesel, 1.28 gals per mile, 17.9 gals per hour.

Troy, NY to Fultonville, NY, Wednesday, July 9, 1997

    

  We covered 50 miles in 8.3 running hours including 12 locks on the Erie Canal.  It was raining and cool for most of the day, a soft rain with little wind.  The beginning is called the Waterford Flight-the world's largest series of high-lift locks, five in 1.6 miles.  These locks were built in 1905 and provide a total lift of 169 feet-twice that of the Panama Canal.   We didn't buy fuel that day but kept our speed at or below the10 mph canal speed limit, which did bring about an improvement in our mileage.  Also, after a while we improved our locking techniques and turned off the engines in the locks.  The canal was beautiful, with flowers everywhere.  The lockmasters were generally nice if often close-mouthed (almost never a response to a radio call, but they do get the lock ready for you).

     We tied up at the Poplars Inn and Resort, which was overstated in the cruising guide we were reading--no fuel, no water, no electricity.  According to the motel clerk they were flooded out two years ago-hard to picture the water being up that high--12-15 feet above its current stage—particularly since the system has so many dams, spillways, and overflows.  We picked up a few groceries (these young men eat everything that doesn't move) and turned in after a great dinner a la Angela.

Fultonville, NY to Ilion, NY, Thursday, July 10, 1997

     We added another 2.3 miles (per the cruise guide) for yesterday's travel, bringing our total for the day to 52.3 miles.  Today was a slow day; we only covered 38.7 miles for the day.  We stopped at the St Johnsville Municipal Marina and filled up to check our fuel consumption.  At the slower speeds on the canal we were averaging 0.88 gals per mile, a nice improvement, especially since we ran the generator until 11pm at the Poplars.

     We used the pay phone at St Johnsville to call the office and home answering machines and to return a few calls.  (We had a cell phone, but it's expensive and sometimes doesn't work.  We were using it to transmit these logs via email messages, though.) Daniel and Chuck went to the store twice, including once with Angela.  It's a pretty little village with blooming flowers everywhere.

     We ran the generator all day to make ice, etc. but eventually stopped at the Ilion Marina early and went to the store again.  We hoped to get a little more efficient at this store business, but in the meantime we were getting lots of walking exercise.  We grilled steaks at the marina's outdoor grill (ours is in TX), and enjoyed another good meal on the boat.
                      
     The day included 6 locks, 13-18.  No. 17 was the highest lift in the system at 40.5 feet.  At one point we had to wait for the lock to open, so we tied up to the approach wall and walked up to the lock.  We were rewarded with a close-up view of a section of a much older Erie Canal lock made of stone.  It was very interesting.  A note about the charts we had -  no mileage was indicated on the charts.  The cruising guides referred to everything by mileage.  It kept it interesting.

    

 

Ilion, NY to Brewerton, NY, Friday, July 11, 1997

     That day we covered 61.9 miles in 6.4 running hours.  We filled up with diesel at a nice marina- ESS-KAY YARDS.   We had used 66.7 gals since our last fill-up, for an average usage of 0.77 gals per mile.  Since  Mystic, CT we had used 503.9 gals in 41.7 running hours covering 451.6 miles, for averages of 10.8 mph and 1.12 gals per mile.  This was an improvement over our previous gasoline engines.
  
     On the Erie Canal we passed through Locks 19 & 20 going up to the summit elevation of 420 ft at Rome, NY and 21 & 22 down to the level of Lake Oneida, 19 miles long to Brewerton.  The weather had been perfect, and the flowers and trees very attractive.  We would have enjoyed going to the Canal Village at Rome (circa 1840), but there's no good place for a "canal boat" to tie up!  There is very little traffic on the canal, pleasure or commercial.  We heard that the NY State Thruway took over the canals about 2 years prior and they were trying to make enough money to pay for the canal, but they were not succeeding so far.  It's sad to think the canal might be shut down, but one of the operators expressed concern about it.

     We only went to the store once on Friday; that was an improvement.  If we didn't stop eating like we had been, all of us were going to gain weight!

     We planned to drive up to the 1000 Islands on Saturday (got a rental car Friday night) to see some of that area while Chuck was here with us (he flew out of Syracuse Saturday night).  Then Sunday we planned to go to Oswego on Lake Ontario.  By the next Saturday we planned to be in Cleveland, OH, and fly home on Sunday, July 20th.

At Brewerton, NY--Side trip to the Thousand Islands Area, July 12, 1997

     On July 12, 1997, Saturday, we stayed at the ESS-KAY Yards and got a few repairs done.  Those were nice people there-George, his daughter, Kim, and her husband.  Slip rental was $1 per ft and diesel was $1.24, the best we had since Mystic, CT.  Our forward bilge pump was out on the survey, and we thought to fix it plus the tachometer if possible.  Also we had one bilge blower go out and developed a leak in the vacuum system in the aft head.  The mechanic fixed all but the leak in the vacuum, but the mid bilge light was on that night, indicating the float switch was up and the pump not pumping.
 
     We drove the rental car to Alexandria Bay, NY where we caught the 11:30am boat run by Uncle Sam Boat Tours, and they provided us with a 2.25 hour narrated tour of the 1000 Islands area.  At the end of this  trip, they dropped us off at Heart Island, home of Boldt Castle, which was fascinating.   We toured the home and the island for about an hour and then went back to the mainland on their shuttle.  We drove to a Burger King for a late lunch and then took Chuck to the Syracuse airport.  His flight left at 5:40pm; we got there at 5:10pm-plenty of time, I'd say.  He got home all right.

     Then we went to the laundromat and washed some sheets and towels while we had the car.  About 9pm I took the car back to the airport and took a cab back to the boat.

     The day was topped off by yet another fine meal at the hands of Angela.  We put things away and filled in the empty spaces left by Chuck, and made plans to get up early the next day (we always made these plans but never did they exactly work out) for our last day on the Erie Canal.

    The Thousand Islands area was great!

Brewerton, NY to Oswego, NY, Sunday, July 13, 1997

     I was trying to type this while on Lake Ontario on Monday.  It was a little rough, but not bad.

     We left the ESS-KAY Yards about 8:30am and arrived at Oswego at 2pm.  We covered 32.6 miles in 5.6 running hours.  The trip included one lock on the Erie Canal, No 23, and 7 locks on the Oswego River/Canal, which dropped us 118 feet to the level of Lake Ontario.

     After having lunch and getting everything connected, we decided to go see Ft Ontario.  It is where the cruise guide says it is but you can't get there by the direct route we took (shown by an arrow in the cruise guide).  We had to come back and head away from the fort, a detour that I thought we could avoid by going up on some rocks and dirt to a road.  Daniel and Angela did fine, but I lost my footing and landed on my knees.  My new Indian name is Wounded Knee, and Angela has been singing a song about it ever since it happened.  She claims, and I doubt, it was a popular song, on the radio and all, when she was a child.  I've never heard of it and think she made it up.

     When we returned to the boat, after stopping at Eckerds for some more first aid stuff, we relocated the shore water hose; and the fitting on the boat came off in our hands. So we switched to water from the tank.  Later we discovered water in the middle bilge and the bilge pump out.  We worked with that for a while and then had a late dinner.  The water may have come in through that defective fitting since (a)-we're not sinking, water's not rising, (b)- the water does not seem to be from any of the holding tanks, including the fresh water since there is a monitor on that tank, and (c)- I can't think of any other place it could have come from.  We tried to get a mechanic, but it was too late.  We pumped some of it out with a bucket and hand pump.  We proved that the forward and aft bilge pumps do work, but there is no communication of water between these compartments at this water level.  It was the same the next morning, too.

     The problem was the shore water connection in the boat.  We replaced it at the next stop and had no further problem with it.  We planned to go to the Niagara River the next day and stay at a marina in Youngstown, NY where we could hopefully get a new bilge pump installed and go see Niagara Falls.

Oswego, NY to Youngstown, NY, Monday, July 14, 1997

      We left Oswego at 8am, a little apprehensive over the prospect of running all day in Lake Ontario.  We had heard it's just like the ocean, and it was windy on Sunday.  When we got out past the breakwater, there were some swells and some chop, but nothing to indicate we couldn't handle it.  It was overcast, although the weather forecast was god for Monday, changing for the worse on Tuesday with a frontal passage and 40% chance of rain.  As the day progressed the water got calmer, and we did see some blue sky.  Generally it was hazy.

     We got offshore 2-3 miles, which allowed us to see the shoreline but not some of the lighthouses along the way.  Our course took us further off the coast to a maximum depth of 265 ft.  We saw Rochester as we cruised past.

     About 3:30pm we rounded Marker 3 into the Niagara River.  Where traffic had been almost non-existent up till then, we found ourselves in the midst of boats, generally small to mid-size sailboats, coming and going.  Also, it was windy!  The water had been getting more of a pretty green for the past few hours: now it seemed almost tropical.  The river was wide and sailboats were moored, primarily on the USA side, along the bank for a few miles.  We had to wait for a couple of hours while our mechanic finished a sailboat and moved it out; then we got a berth.
    
Day in Niagara Falls, NY (docked @ Youngstown, NY), Tuesday, July 16, 1997

    We got off to a slow start today but were waiting for Daniel's Texas Driver’s License to arrive via FEDEX.  It came in about 1pm.  We believed we would need it to transit the Welland Canal since that is entirely in Canada.  Also we were trying to get some maintenance done--we needed a middle bilge pump replaced, and we had some other plumbing problems that we hoped John, at Williams Marine, would fix while we went into Niagara Falls for tourism.

     The Budget rental car lady brought a car to us and arranged her own ride back to her office-very nice.  We found out there is a West Marine in Buffalo, and we went there to get some halogen bulbs and some round fenders recommended to us by John.  After shopping we ate @ McDonalds (Angela agreed to give them another chance, since there wasn't another place nearby to eat).

     On our way to see the Falls, I called John.  He said we should buy the bilge pump at West Marine since he could not get it anywhere closer.  So, we turned around and went back.  We then decided to bring these parts to John, who said he would install them that night if a rainstorm (forecast) occurred, or in the morning if the weather was nice enough for them to go racing that evening. Apparently Tuesday was racing night.  So it was 6pm when we left the boat again to go see the Falls.

      The Maid of the Mist operates 4-5 boats every 15 minutes for a 30-minute tour, $8 per person, including a special printed souvenir poncho to protect you from the mist.  We did the tour and really enjoyed it.  It was light there until well after 9pm.  We then went into Canada and had dinner at a restaurant overlooking the falls and saw them lit up at night.  That was pretty. 

     We got back to the boat about 10:30pm or so.  John and his friends had been sailing; no repairs had been done.  He said he would see us at 7:30am.  We called it a night.

    

     The Niagara Falls were really something to see.  There's a lot to do in this area.  There is more activity on the Canadian side.  The USA side seemed a little down and out.  I would have enjoyed going to Lockport, NY for a visit to the Erie Canal exhibits they have there--maybe next time.

LEAVING LAKE ONTARIO!  07/16/97 (Letter from Daniel)

      Hi Ya'll!  I hope things are going great and you are doing well.  We are doing great.

     This morning we left Niagara River . . . Oh well first I should tell you that last night we went aboard the Maid of the Mist and experienced NIAGARA FALLS!!!  It was awesome!   You'll be pleased to know (or possibly frightened) that we probably took about 3-4 rolls of film while we were there.  The water was beautiful.  It had kind of a light green color and man were the currents strong.  We definitely would have gotten drenched if it hadn't been for our beautiful blue ponchos!  After we left the Maid, we crossed the border into Canada and had dinner (buffet!) right across from the Canadian Falls.  What a view!!  We sat outside and I'm surprised we weren't charged extra for such a great view.  The buffet was only okay, but the nightlife on the Canadian side was amazing.  It reminded me of Las Vegas with all of the lights and cool stores and tons of people walking around.  The American side of the Falls is much less impressive - like a small town that was once prosperous and now stagnate. 

     We only stayed in Canada long enough to have dinner and then drove back to our boat.  Oh yeah the lights they shone on the falls after dark were really cool.  All different colors - it was a very romantic place.  I can see why it is a honeymoon hotspot.  Probably not as good as Hawaii but hey!  

     We left early this morning.  Left the Niagara River, back into Lake Ontario for a few miles and entered the Welland Canal that will take us into Lake Erie.  We've been a little bit anxious about going through here because we'll be sharing the canal with enormous commercial ships.  Right now we are tied up to a wall awaiting permission to enter lock number one (like boat elevators) - they said right now we've got an hour and half wait.  We are only allowed in when and if they have an opening!  Still in the first lock is the first huge ship we've seen.  I'm sure it is carrying some type of commercial product but it is the size of a large cruise ship!  It's big.  There are 8 locks that we must go through and they will raise us about 350 ft.  We've been told it could take us from 12-48 hrs to get through the locks in only 29 miles distance!  We'll see, there doesn't seem to be a lot of commercial traffic waiting to go through but if one shows up, they go first.  I think they pay like 16,000 dollars for that privilege and we pay $80. 

     Today will be a long day but we're up to the challenge!

     Talk to you soon,

     Daniel with Dad & Angela

Transiting the Welland Canal, Wednesday, July 16, 1997

     We got up early to meet John at 7:30am, but he didn't show.  Eventually we decided we could replace the shore water fitting on the back of the boat, and we did.  We wanted fuel, but time was passing, so we pulled out around 8:30am.  The Niagara River was so green!  On that morning there seemed to be very little current, no wind, and no waves in the lake.  We went out into Lake Ontario to about 60 feet of depth to be sure and miss any shoals, and then we came around to the Welland Canal.  Actually, we cut in to St Catharines Marina to get some fuel because I had heard of some long delays going through the canal.  We bought 536.65 liters @ 0.659 $CAN = 353.65 $CAN, which I have converted as follows: 141.77 gals @ $US 1.75 = $US 247.56.  We knew it was high so we didn't fill up.  The depths in this marina were a little on the shallow side.

     We got over to the calling-in place and tied up beside a sailboat whose occupants arrived there at 7am.  It was then around 10:30am.  The couple on the boat had hired an extra man to assist them, since Seaway Welland requires a minimum of three people going "up".  This fellow was not only knowledgeable but friendly and helpful, too.  I would not hesitate to recommend him to anyone who needs help getting through the Welland Canal.  (Recently he contacted me and gave me his email address and name, which are: yachts4u@ican.net (Rodger St.Amand) ).

     We got into the Lock No 1 about 12:30pm and finished Lock No 8 about 8:30pm, which was a pretty good day, I was told.  These locks raise large "lakers'' about 327 feet to Lake Erie, which has a surface elevation of 572+/- feet above sea level.  Each lock is 80 x 730 x 27' deep(+/-).  The average lift in the first 7 locks is 46.5 feet, and No 8 is a guard lock with only 1-4 feet of lift.  Each of these first 7 holds 20 million gallons and empties in 10 minutes!  The resulting turbulence is the reason for the three-person minimum.

    

    
 
     The experience was awesome, especially at Locks 4, 5, and 6, where the locks are in tandem to allow us to go up the Niagara Escarpment.  The canal is only about 27 miles long, and the first 7 locks are in the first 9 or so miles.  Then there is a long, empty canal to Lock No 8. 

     The cost to transit the Welland Canal was $80, US or Canadian, your choice.  Since we knew this before we got there, we had arranged to have Canadian money, which was much cheaper.  They wanted cash, and we had it.

     Our marina was Marlon Marina in Port Colborne, Ontario.  Chris was our host, and he was very nice.  The slip fee was 41.80 $CAN for the night, a good price.

     Dealing with the Canadian officials was very pleasant.  We checked in with Customs at the small-craft waiting area and were given a Report No.  Roger, the hired hand, assisted me in calling Immigration on their toll-free number on the pay phone there.  Both calls were free.  We were boarded between Locks 1 and 2 and given an inspection. 

     The Canadians we met had a good sense of humor, too, that we appreciated since this canal was so intimidating in some ways.

Layover day at Port Colborne, Ontario, Thursday, July 17, 1997

     We decided not to go into Lake Erie this day.  A fisherman returned from his outing with a report of 4-ft seas.  The winds were forecast to die down on Friday, and we planned to get out early and cross as much of the lake as possible in the early hours, before the wind came up.

     We decided to replace the bilge pump, since we had been unable to get a mechanic to do it, and since it seemed within our capabilities to do so.  Angela had been using an electric drill, left with the other tools by the previous owner, to put screws in for new lights in the galley.  We like a lot of light, and the lights in the galley seemed too dim for our tastes.  Angela and I changed out one, and she changed the other two.  We put in halogen light fixtures we bought at West Marine in Buffalo.  The new bilge pump would need new screw holes as it was a different brand.  We were pleased to change out the pump and see it work properly again.  Also, we realized what caused it to go out--it's the float switch that sticks in the up position.  Then we needed to repair or replace that.

     Angela was great mechanically on that trip.  She super-glued the broken piece of counter top back into place.  She found the problem with two loose closet doors and tightened the screws that we didn't know were there to eliminate the looseness.  We both adjusted the door and drawer closures on July 5 and again on the 17^th  so that they could be opened with less than two hands and a screwdriver.  Angela found some non-skid fabric at West Marine and covered all of our shelves and some counters with it.  It really helped to keep things from sliding around and turning over while underway.  Angela directed (and did most of) the cleaning of the boat inside including vacuuming, cleaning shelves and counters and window ledges, cleaning showers, sinks, and toilets, etc.  We felt like the boat was really clean and appreciated clean sheets and towels, etc.  That's another thing we did on this layover day-a little laundry, including the two throw rugs in the galley.

     One of the things I liked about this trip was the increasing sense of confidence I felt about solving mechanical problems.  Chuck and I repaired a light in one closet, which required us to "never give up", as Winston Churchill once said.  When the hose connection on the water hose broke, we went to the hardware store and got a connection and repaired it.  Later, the hose sprung a leak about two inches from the end, so Daniel and I cut off the end and moved the connector, repairing it.  We successfully changed one Racor filter and were prepared to replace more if need be.  We added an electrical connection in the salon, and I got into the back of the TV and VCR and connected the camcorder for viewing and recording video tapes.

     We cleaned the sea strainer for the air conditioner water pump because the water flow seemed to decline and we observed a lot of grass in the Niagara River.  It needed cleaning, too.  I checked the oil levels in all three engines daily for a number of days, then not as frequently.  In short, we became familiar with boat, inside and out, including the engine room and bilges, and became comfortable with operating and maintaining it.

Port Colborne, Ontario to Cleveland, OH, Friday, July 18, 1997

     As planned, we got up early and left the marina at 7:05 am.  I set out on a course of 219 degrees, which would bring us to the southern shore of Lake Erie just east of Erie, PA, a possible port for the night if the weather turned nasty. There were thunderstorms forecast for late afternoon when a cold front was expected from Michigan.  As we were leaving port a large "laker" came in to begin the process of locking "down" the Welland Canal.

     The water was somewhat choppy with the swells we associate with offshore cruises.  It was Daniel’s birthday (age 23!), and he sent and received email on the bridge, probably too much as he began to feel queasy.  He took a couple of pills (like dramamine) and spent the rest of the day mellowed out, but not sick.

     We passed Erie, PA about 10:30am, as expected, since it is 60 miles from Port Colborne.  The deepest water we passed was 165 ft deep.  We ran along the coast the rest of the way into Cleveland, watching the weather and the fuel supply.   Also, I called all the marinas in the area to get a good slip rate for leaving the boat until August 3, when we planned to continue the cruise with Trip 2, Cleveland, OH to Chicago, IL, or somewhere near Chicago, I hoped.
 
     We pulled into the Edgewater Yacht Club and the surprises started.  Yes, we had a slip.  But after giving us 100 gals of diesel, they decided we couldn't have any more because they were low and their regular delivery had not occurred this week.  We got 50 more gallons for the starboard side, but no more.

     Then we went to our slip and watched some incompetent line handling by these young folks.  We sent them on their way after finding out they only had 30-amp power-we had requested 50 amp, 220 volt and were told by Eric that was no problem.  These guys acted like we should not have relied on Eric?!

     We turned the boat around and tied it into the slip.  It was very windy and choppy, which did not change over the next 36 hours.  We hooked up our 30-amp cables and promptly started blowing circuit breakers, first on the boat and then on the dock.  We found out how to reset the dock breakers, adjusted our loads, and called US Customs.

     The lady on the phone wanted to know if we had a form which I had never heard of, and I told her so, plus I could not understand her accent.  Later I read in a book that we were supposed to get a Form I-68 from a Customs port before leaving the country so we would have it when we got back.  I think there is a $25 fee.  The lady assured me she would send an application to me in Houston, and she told me to call Immigration.  She gave me a number and said they were closed now, call them tomorrow.  Then she gave me a number she said was their answering service or machine.  I called this number and gave the person our particulars, including our cell phone number.  I called a taxi to go to the airport for a rental car.  It was 8:30 or 9pm at that point.

     The taxi got us about halfway to the airport when the phone rang.  It was a man with Immigration who said he was on his way to inspect our boat.  I told him we were on our way to the airport.  Could we get our car and then meet him at the boat?  He said we weren't supposed to leave our boat (no one had said anything about that yet, including him) and they could confiscate it!  I reminded him we were US citizens just returning from 2 nights in Canada and asked him if he wanted us to return to the marina.  He said he did.

     We met him just inside the gate, a brown-skinned man who said he was born in Panama.  Angela was born in Paraguay so they spoke Spanish with each other.  He checked her passport but did not ask Daniel and I for any ID.  He was driving a Chrysler New Yorker and was dressed in fancy clothes and jewelry--silk shirt with pleats, etc.  He showed us a badge quickly and said he didn’t have a card with him.  Said he wasn't even on duty but got the page to take care of us and had a date later on, or something like that.  Said he wasn't really going to inspect our boat and delay us any further--he knew we had things to do and all. Said we had to have a Customs decal on our boat and it had to be renewed each year.  Said everyone had to have one, whether or not the owners plan to go out of the country.  Said the requirement was not new; it had been in effect a long time.  Said they had been making raids and had confiscated some boats.  Said he really didn't want to take our boat since we probably worked hard to pay for it, etc. He got my name and address written down on the back of some piece of paper, said there would be a charge for this inspection, higher than usual since they were closed.  When we asked him how much, he seemed not to know but "around $40".  I asked him if they would send an invoice to me in Houston at the address he had written down, and he said yes.

     When I compare this experience with our dealings with Canada, I can only say the paper pushers are ruining this country.  The Canadians were efficient, pleasant, helpful, and had a sense of humor.  The USA experience coming back in was an ordeal.

     After all that our cab had disappeared in spite of his promise to come back after a coffee.  It took 30 more minutes to get a cab--$20 to the airport.  We took Daniel out to eat @ Denny's--the only place open, and he got a free desert for his birthday.  When we got back to the boat it was well after midnight, so we turned in.

Layover Day at Cleveland, OH, and prepare to go home, Saturday, July 19, 1997

     We spent a lazy day writing email and packing and readying the boat.  (Angela particularly worked on email.  She had written a long message on Friday, to go to her family in Paraguay, but lost it when the battery gave out on the computer.  So, she redid it on Saturday.  Angela was starting to use the computer then.  I started trying to learn something about it in 1996.  Being able to send email via the cell phone was interesting.)

     Lunch was enjoyed on the patio by the Cuyahoga River at the Watermark Restaurant, a place Angela and I had been before.  The cold front had come in and the weather was almost Fall-like.  The high for the day was 75.  It was warm in the sun, but a cool breeze could always be obtained by getting in the wind.  The sunset on Lake Erie was pretty. 

     I wanted to pass on some statistics in which I think our boating friends will be interested.  On our previous boat we averaged 2 gallons of gasoline per mile.  Since I could not fill up in Cleveland, I made an assumption, which turned out to be very close.  I expected to buy 400 gals of diesel in Cleveland, so I used that as the fuel required to calculate these statistics.

     For the day, Friday, we ran 173 miles in 11 running hours, 15.7 mph.  We were told the run from Port Colborne to Cleveland was 160 miles in a straight line, and we didn't go straight to Cleveland.  The water was choppy and there were whitecaps, but we ran at cruising speed, 2400-2500 rpm, almost all the time.

     This trip--Trip 1, we're calling it, from Mystic, CT to Cleveland, OH statistics:

813.2 statute miles
74.7 running hours
1046 total gals of fuel, including the assumed 400 gals
1.29 gals per mile
10.9 mph
14 gals per hour

     We flew to the NE on July 4 & flew home July 20.  We saw the sun rise on the 20^th.   We had no running hours on these days: July 5, 12, 15, 17, and 19.

     We used the generator almost all the running hours.

     The overall cruise we planned to call the CT TO TX CRUISE, with four individual Trips.  Trip 2 was planned to take us to the Chicago area.  Trip 3 was planned for the Chicago area to Houston or some intermediate spot, in which case a Trip 4 would then be required to get us home to Houston.  The route planned was the IL River to the Mississippi River to the Atchafalaya River to the GICW and west to Houston.

     I appreciated all the advice, assistance, and mostly encouragement we received from friends who generally said, "go for it" in this adventure.  Certainly this was the best vacation of my life, and I have an even greater desire to "go cruising".  The trip was a learning and growing experience for all of us.  We enjoyed each other's company, ideas, and humor.  My sons are funny; they should be in a stage act of their own.  I'm sure they would do well.  We returned home with a renewed vigor and appreciation for life and a good attitude about the world and the future.