Day on the Cruise: 99
From: Ess-Kay Yards (Marina), Brewerton, NY
To: Ess-Kay Yards (Marina), Brewerton, NY
Statute Miles: 0.00 SM
Time: 0.00 Hrs
Cumulative Miles: 2,093.7 SM
On Board: Susan, Chuck, Maggie, Trooper, Peanut
We stayed on in Brewerton today to get some maintenance items done and to lower our Bimini top on the Flybridge. Ethan from Ess-Kay came aboard about 9 and started the work. We have been having issues with our vacu flush toilet pump coming on intermittently between flushes. Ethan put a vacuum test on the system first to see if it was leaking air.
The remainder of the day was spent in the engine room. He changed the oil and filters on the main engine and the transmission. He also changed out the fuel filters for the main engine and replaced the impeller on the raw water pump for the main engine. He got the tops off the raw water strainers for the main engine and generator engine (which I could not budge) and cleaned these strainers, which were both in need of this maintenance.
It rained over night and early this morning, so we waited until the sun came out mid morning and dried the Bimini top off to take it down. We got up there after lunch, and it was very warm and humid. We unzipped and removed the isinglass side panels and rolled them up. We then unscrewed the bottom of the 4 vertical supports and lowered the huge top toward the rear of the boat. We now have a boat that is about 3 feet lower than it was this morning, and we should be able to pass under the numerous low bridges that we will encounter between here and Buffalo.
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| "Blue Moon" with the Bimini down |
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| Boat looks strange without the top and curtains on it! |
Low bridges on the Western portion of the Erie Canal force most boats to turn North on the Oswego Canal and go into Canada. There are several routes that these boats can take, including one that gets you back into Lake Erie through a Canal West of Niagra Falls.
We will be singing our Erie Canal song as we navigate the low bridges:
"Low bridge everybody down.
Low Bridge, we're comin' to a town"
It was very hot and the work on the Bimini wore us out. At 4:00 we borrowed the marina's courtesy car and rode to Rite Aid to pick up some prescriptions. This car was an old straight shift. I haven't driven a straight shift in years. Glad I learned to drive on a straight shift back in the day, even though those crack of dawn lessons in an empty supermarket parking lot were painful!!!
We then found a Walmart and picked up some groceries. We have gone through bottled water like nobody's business, so we stocked up on this commodity and brought it back to the boat.
One of the interesting things that we saw on the main roads around here were signs for snowmobiles. They apparently let the snowmobiles operate on the shoulders during the winter. Must be a neat way to get around. The lady at the marina said they get 200" of snow a year up here. I could not handle that!
We joined up with Rick and Leila from "Sun Gypsy" and her cousin Ken and his wife Bev for dinner at a local restaurant tonight. Susan had her first experience with Perch, which is big up here, and she loved it. Our waitress goes to the University of Syracuse and plays ice hockey for the Girl's D-1 hockey team. She also introduced us to a vegetable called "salt potatoes".
Bev and Ken fly back to their home in Fresno, CA tomorrow. They have enjoyed their cruise on Sun Gypsy. We enjoyed being with them in Kingston, NY, and now here.
Tomorrow we were supposed to head out, but we have decided to stay one more day in Brewerton to rest up after the Bimini exercise. The weather is also supposed to be iffy tomorrow. This is a nice marina and a good place to lay over.
Thanks for Reading!
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