What Next in New Baltimore?

I will start this post with one story from Waterford I forgot to include (I wonder why?). We were tied up in Waterford, where David and I had walked across the Mohawk and Hudson rivers to get groceries and another phone card for our U.S. phone. It was a lovely walk, crossing Peebles Island, which is a beautiful park, and doing our shopping in the nearby town of Troy.

When we returned, I realized we were a bit short of wine, which isn’t sold at grocery stores here in New York State. I used my trusty Google maps to locate a liquor store a few miles away and was told that most of the way I could ride on a nice bike path that followed the old Champlain Canal. The skies looked threatening so, having learned from our Amsterdam experience, I popped my trusty poncho into my knapsack along with my phone.

I wasn’t any more than 5 minutes away when it started to rain. No problem. I stopped, put on my poncho over my knapsack and headed down a side road toward what I thought was the historic trail. In my pocket the Google map lady kept telling me to turn around, as I was clearly heading in the wrong direction. She kept saying: “head southeast”. Well, now in the pouring rain, I didn’t have a clue what direction I was going and it was too rainy to pull out the phone and look at the map. So I turned around and headed back the way I came. I spotted an intrepid fisherman and asked if he knew where I could pick up the old Champlain trail. He gave me a puzzled look and my heart sank. He said he had seen it once but couldn’t remember where.

At that point, I had a decision to make. I could see Peapod from where I was and know I could get back there. However, I also knew I could get to my destination using the main road through town instead of the bike path. As anyone who knows me will testify I am nothing if not determined and goal oriented. And this was about our wine supply! So with the rain coming down harder by the minute I set off for the main drag.

There was a lot of traffic – trucks and buses – so I stuck to the sidewalk for safety. Of course, there wasn’t a soul walking so this wasn’t a problem. All the sane people had long since sought shelter from the storm! I finally arrived at my destination just as the thunder and lightening struck. I dashed into the shop looking like a drowned rat and shocking the proprietor who was not expecting any business given the raging storm outside. We had a nice chat and he recommended some wine, which I purchased a stowed in my backpack. We hadn’t heard any thunder for a few minutes so I decided to set off for home.

Well, no sooner did I leave the shop the rain came down in sheets. The roads and driveways were flooding. I walked my bike back to the sidewalk, ankle deep in water. Good thing I was wearing water sandals and the water was very warm. I set off down the sidewalk where I encountered raging streams running down every hilly side street to the main road. I had to take off my poncho hood to be able to see around me but at this point, having wet hair was the least of my worries.

Soon, every vehicle that passed me was sending up sheets of water, which I tried to avoid by pulling over onto people’s lawns next to the sidewalk. The highlight of the afternoon came with little warning as a giant 18-wheeler thundered around the corner and created a wall of water I couldn’t avoid. I held my breath, closed my eyes and just stood there as the waterfall hit me with such force that the water went down the neck-hole of my poncho and drenched me to the skin!

There was nothing to be done but to grit my teeth and keep going with thunder and lightening moving off into the distance. By the time I arrived back at the boat the sun was shining! Needless to say, David was worried as were some of our boat neighbours who had seen me leave. Once I dried off and changed my clothes I was ready for that glass of wine!

Back to Shady Harbor Marina (L 42^o 27.6’N  Lo 73 ^o 47.1’W). In my last post we were expecting our replacement thruster propeller to arrive on Monday and to be heading down the Hudson that afternoon. As with all adventures, things didn’t actually turn out that way. We did get a parcel on Monday with two propellers – one ordered as a spare. Before lifting us out, the staff had to removed a big tree branch that had been stuck in the dock pilings.

Ready for lift

Big bad stick

It was a somewhat hairy lift-out with problems caused by strong tidal currents and low water pulling the lift straps back toward the main propeller shaft. Lifting the boat with the straps on this shaft would be a disaster, as the weight of the boat could bend or break it. Then we would have even bigger problems to deal with! After four tries, they got her lifted and it only took David and the mechanic two seconds to determine that the parts we ordered were the wrong design. Apparently a previous owner of the boat had done a “mix and match” replacement of part of the thruster so that the original documentation we had on part numbers was incorrect. As it turns out, what was likely a small stick of dead wood had sheared off all three blades on the prop!

Straps finally in place 

David inspecting the damage

Prop with no blades!

This was disappointing but the boys crawled around in the bow, photographed the internal mechanism and got on the phone to the supplier. Well, the part we needed was very old and not available. So David got on the Internet and scoured the world. He found a prop that looked right – in Norway! This part “might” be available in 10 days and “might” be the right thing. We now had a decision to make – order the parts or install a whole new bow thruster, a costly alternative.

That night, we broke down and went out to dinner at the marina’s fine restaurant. It was a rare extravagance for us but we felt we deserved a break.

Relaxed captain

Spoiling ourselves

We did the math and realized that just staying in this marina for another 10 days would add up to half the cost of a new thruster. We could carry on down river and get one installed in New York City, which made me very nervous given the heavy currents and high traffic in that harbour. So we made the decision to spend the extra money on a new unit for which parts would be readily available. 

In the meantime, we have been busy. We cleaned and waxed the topsides, removing years of dull white powder caused by oxidization of the fibreglass. This involved using a toothpaste-like substance that contains a rubbing compound, and considerable elbow grease. It took two full days of hard work (and joint pain) but was something that really needed to be done. Now it will be easier to keep the boat clean, as tree sap and bird poop will easily wash off instead of baking on in the sun.

I did some touch-ups on the teak and David installed our new bronze nameplates.

Handyman Dave

New name!

We also had front row seats for the super-moon, went for a nature hike in a 40 acre preserve where we saw bald eagles and found an eagle feather, did laundry and swam in the marina’s lovely salt water pool.

Super-moon

Nature trail

Tidal flats

Eagle feather find!

Beautiful pool

We also explored more of the area where we found an old family graveyard with birth dates in the 1700’s. Life expectancy was indeed short in those days with many tiny stones for children and those for adults only 50 to 60 years old. We also were startled by a unique porch sculpture that was so realistic we both thought it was a real person!

Family graveyard

One of the older residents

Spooky sculpture

The thruster was due to arrive on July 16^th. That morning we decided to borrow the marina’s courtesy car (a wonderful service) to drive to Albany for provisions. We found spare parts for our galley tap which was a bit leaky and a few other hardware items at a fabulous Lowes store. We got groceries at Shop ‘n Save which is a great supermarket compared to the few we’ve seen in Canada.

My chauffeur awaits

We also found a very knowledgeable wine merchant who warned us of the perils of buying some of the U.S. brands we have been seeing. It seems that to satisfy the American palate for sweetness, the winemakers are adding large amounts of sugar – just what we are trying to avoid! There are no labeling requirements here, unlike in Ontario where we can see the grams of sugar per litre for almost all of the available wines. He advised us to stick with South American and Spanish wines, recommending a nice assortment for us to try. We shared our concern about labels such as “Skinny Girl” which are packed with sugar and represent the ultimate scam for folks who are watching their waistlines!

This morning, July 17th we said farewell to our Monk “twin” who has been tied up behind us for a few days. It was fun comparing notes and touring each other’s boats, as each Monk was custom built and therefore unique. I got some great new ideas for garbage and paper towel management - small but important things when you are a "live-aboard"!

Monk "twin"

I also took a picture of a very old sailboat being restored after 9 years out of the water. She’s in pretty bad shape except for new green paint on the hull. In fact, his neigbour in the next slip reports that she emits a nasty odour ("it stinks!"). If you look closely you can see a large scratch near the bow. There is also another one just like it on the starboard side where the owners banged and crashed into the dock as they were trying to get into their slip. This particular captain scoffed at David when he offered a warning about the strong current (some sailors don't like "stinkpot" owners!). Without asking for help, he subsequently ruined his nice new paint job.

New scratch

This was the second episode of “bumper boats” we’ve seen since we arrived. The river currents are very strong and if there is any wind you need to be a very skillful helm-person to avoid trouble. The first incident earlier this week resulted in two “innocent” boats being damaged as a bozo tried to manage a boat that was clearly out of his league for size. It’s scary, as you never know the capabilities of the folks around you. When anyone is docking near us we always run out to help – partly out of good manners and partly out of self-interest!

Back to the thruster repair saga. Well, we were told it would arrive this morning, which came and went with no sign of the UPS truck. Sean, the mechanic was so confident it would be coming by early afternoon that he took us up in the lift to get a head start, removing the old thruster and preparing for the wiring job.

 

Back in the lift

By 3:30 I was getting worried and suggested to David (Mr. Nice Guy) that we should perhaps rattle some chains. He and Sean went to the office to investigate and discovered that the thruster had indeed been delivered - to the billing address instead of the shipping address. A dockhand was immediately dispatched by car and by 5PM the parcel arrived.

Thankfully Sean was determined to work till the job was done and left the boat at nearly 8PM with everything in working order. Of course it was more complicated than either of them had predicted as the thruster was wired for a more modern boat. The boys needed to do a lot of “fiddling” with wires to get it working and listening to their dialogue (i.e. cursing) would have been funny if I hadn’t been so worried about the outcome.

Anyway, between them they figured it out. The marina has offered us a docking rate discount for our “inconvenience” but I think they should have offered David $90 an hour for labour – their standard rate!

So, if nothing else goes wrong we will be off tomorrow moving as quickly as we can toward NYC. No offence to the community, but we're hoping this is our last beautiful sunset in New Baltimore. Stay tuned!!

New Baltimore sunset