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I paused our blog in August when we returned home. We brought ‘Interim’ back to Mamaroneck and then brought her back to Kingston, NY for the winter. Before to long Bill and I flew to Scottsdale, AZ to visit my Aunt Flo. She is 93 years old and we decided to visit her and then travel around Arizona and New Mexico.

After spending hours trying to plan the road trip I suddenly realized that I had little experience at this type of traveling. When we went to the Bahamas we were up at dawn, traveled approximately 50 miles, dropped the anchor, had dinner and then to bed with few stops to sightsee and visit along the way. Now we had lists of places to visit and no idea how to plan to see them. On this road trip we got up in the morning, had breakfast and then got in the car and traveled fairly long distances before we stopped at the next site. Surprisingly we saw almost everything on our list - Monument Valley, Mesa Verde, Canyon de Chelley, Sedona, the Navajo Nation, Gallup, Sante Fe and Albuquerque. On the way I did some shopping and bought a few treasures, naturally including turquoise stones.

We were still quite restless so I persuaded Bill to paint the living room, kitchen and hallway. He kindly agreed and then we began the process of choosing a paint color. It is one of my weakest skills, causing headaches and stress. However, we found a paint color and Bill did a wonderful job - quite professional. Of course we finished painting and putting our stuff back in place just a few days before Thanksgiving. We hosted our family and thoroughly enjoyed the day - especially watching our newest member,15 month old Alexis, unknowingly become center of attention. On Friday we had friends over for a leftover feast.

I also have just really processed the fact that we will be spending the winter in New York with the waters of the Bahamas very far away. However, I don’t mind the cold and snow as long as I can be warm and toasty at home.
‘Interim’ is spending the winter all shrink wrapped in Kingston, N.Y. In June we plan to leave from Kingston and head towards Canada and the Trent Severn Canal. The Trent Severn Canal will take us to Georgian Bay in Lake Huron.

August 22

How quickly plans change. On Sunday, August 22, we saw our friends Nancy and Wayne enter the first lock on the Erie Canal to begin their trip home to Trenton, Ontario. It started to rain and in a very short time the gentle rain turned into a monsoon. I went back to ‘Interim’ to keep dry. But first I visited the farmers market that was set up right in front of the Waterford Visitors Center. Hardy souls all - both buyers and sellers. I bought a few items and settled in for a day of reading and puttering around inside the cabin. It poured pretty much the entire day but seemed to ease up in the evening. As a reference we were docked on the Mohawk River. However, our lines were stretched to the limit and the water was churning under our keel. At times it was quiet but then we would get a surge of turbulent water running under the boat. It was difficult to sleep but we seemed OK.

We woke up to a raging river with logs, trees and all kinds of stuff heading our way (our friends saw an entire garage float by) . The Erie and Oswego Canal locks were all closed due to the rising river. We also kept watch on a depth marker on a nearby bridge which also showed the rising of the water level. All of a sudden out of the corner of my eye I saw a dock (over 60’) that had been installed only 2 weeks ago break free and start racing towards all the docked boats. I yelled to Bill, he raced up and everyone seemed to mobilize. Two very brave boaters seemed to grab on to the dock and it actually stopped moving just inches away from our bow. It was then tied up and for the next hour or so over 15 very capable yachtsmen (including Bill) captured the dock and moved it to a safe spot. The rain was still coming down but not as hard and everyone was breathing a little easier.
We were expecting Bill’s brother and Sophie, his wife for lunch and with all the commotion we didn’t even know that they had arrived and were helping out as well. It was great to see them.

Everyone was referencing this storm to ones that occurred in 2005 and 2006 when there was major flood damage, locks were closed and people were evacuated. I, then asked someone what would happen if the waters continued to rise and overflow the banks. He told me that all of the boats (there were over 15 at the dock) would go through the Erie lock at Waterford and tie up between lock #2 and lock #3. . With all the locks closed they could control the water level and keep us safe (in 2006 the boats were kept there for quite a long time but the lockmasters were able to arrange for hoses for water and electric hook ups). Fortunately that didn’t happen. However, we couldn’t leave Waterford until Wednesday and as of yesterday our friends, Nancy and Wayne were still in Amsterdam, NY at lock 11 and I just received an alert that the canals were still closed.

We left Waterford on Wednesday and headed to the last lock of our trip. Bill calculated that we went through 103 locks. WOW. We started the locking experience at the Federal Lock in Troy, NY and now we are ending this part of the trip at the same lock. Only this time we weren’t newbies and handled the lock easily.

The trip to Kingston was easy - still cloudy and cool but very comfortable with a flat, calm Hudson River. We arrived at Kingston in the early evening and our slip and masts were waiting for us.

Thursday August 26

Up bright and early with the sun shining and cool temps. We find out that the yard won’t be putting our masts back today but we are scheduled for tomorrow. We call Dan and Deb and arrange to meet them for lunch. Finally, we did a complete clean up and Bill is beginning to get the boat ready for the masts. We meet Dan and Deb for lunch and Bill finally has his mega burger. Lots of conversation about “what to do with the masts”. Bill and I had merely touched on the possibility of not putting them back but at lunch that was a major part of our discussion. After lunch, we stopped to talk to Dave, the rigger we met in June. He was clearly of the opinion that all the rigging needed replacement -go figure it’s only been 36 years. Lots of possibilities were discussed and for the first time this seemed to be a real issue. Back on board Bill and I put our thoughts on the table and possible options.

Well, by bedtime we had agreed that we were not going to put the masts back and would explore keeping ‘Interim’ in Kingston for the winter. However, we needed to get facts and figures.

So>>>>> ‘Interim’ will not be a sailboat any longer.

We will have a mast on the aft deck built from our mizzen mast to hold radar, horns, lights, etc. that will be hinged to come down for low bridges.

We will bring ‘Interim’ home to Mamaroneck and sometime at the end of Sept. bring her back to Kingston for the winter.

But for now, we will leave Kingston tomorrow. Stay overnight in Haverstraw and if all goes well be home, in Mamaroneck, either Sunday or Monday.