Kinship Delivery Trip – One woman’s perspective

To quote my good friend Lisa, learning means stepping outside of your comfort zone. Well, I sure did that, and I learned a lot! Doing a two week delivery trip was a great way to learn all about sailing and living aboard a large sailboat, in a very short time. As requested, here is my review of both the good and the bad. It’s just one woman’s perspective, as a recent convert to the sailing life.

First, the good. A huge sense of accomplishment! I am no longer intimidated by the electronic gadgetry – nothing like pea-soup fog to give you incentive to learn to use and interpret the radar, AIS and the rest of the navigation tools aboard. They make it possible to “see” what’s out there when you can’t actually see beyond your bow. Another good, I like living aboard, small spaces are cool, it’s really just like camping, only on water. And it turns out I have a good sailing stomach. I didn’t feel the least bit queasy. In fact, I was the only one aboard who wanted a meal, so I had fun learning to cook in a kitchen in motion. I am a shoe-in for any cruise needing a cook. I managed to produce a pot of home-made soup with the help of a gimballed stove (which keeps the pots on the stove) and a galley strap (which keeps the cook from falling over).

The bad? Four hour watches! The closest comparison I can make is having a newborn, but without the reward of the cute cuddly baby. You only get small snippets of interrupted sleep, and you have to choose between that and other such nice physical comforts as eating, toileting etc. Fortunately we only stood watches for 24 hours.

Overall rating? Amazing experience, and I would do it again in a flash – well, maybe not exactly the same way…I also learned what does and does not work for me, and would avoid the latter in future. Despite some tears and fears, it was a great first step in this new adventure I have embarked on called sailing!

Me at the end of the voyage, looking tired but strangely happy

Me at the end of the voyage, looking tired but strangely happy

Kinship Delivery Trip – All Things Afloat

Ships, yachts, fishing boats, ferries, barges, scows….we saw every kind of floating vessel imaginable. Here is a collection of random boat pics from our trip:

Large container ships

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Fancy yachts promenading in Ego Alley, Annapolis

Fancy yachts promenading in Ego Alley, Annapolis

 

car carrier we shared the C&D canal with

car carrier we shared the C&D canal with

Police boat, taxi service for the Homeland Security officers who came to check up on us

Police boat, taxi service for the Homeland Security officers who came to check up on us

Dole Banana boat

Dole Banana boat

Staten Island ferry

Staten Island ferry

Old-fashioned schooner

Old-fashioned schooner

Tour boats

Tour boats

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Firefighting boat

Firefighting boat

an aircraft carrier that is now a museum

an aircraft carrier that is now a museum

Ship on the Hudson, with a scary kind of liferaft (that orange conical thing on the stern - you get in and are launched off the end of the boat!

Ship on the Hudson, with a scary kind of liferaft (that orange conical thing on the stern – you get in and are launched off the end of the boat!

Pete Seeger's environmental project boat The Clearwater

Pete Seeger’s environmental project boat The Clearwater

You can read more about the Clearwater here

Mother and daughter tugboats, the Margot and the Kathleen

Mother and daughter tugboats, the Margot and the Kathleen

we saw all sorts of barge building, dredging and generally working very hard

we saw all sorts of barge building, dredging and generally working very hard

well-maintained canal maintenance boat

well-maintained canal maintenance boat

Canal tour boat

Canal tour boat

Funny-looking sailboat with its mast on wrong :-)

Funny-looking sailboat with its mast on wrong 🙂

 

 

 

Delivery Trip Part II – The Canal Leg

To get from New York City to Lake Ontario, you take the Hudson river to the Catskills, take down your mast and motor through the New York Canals.

New York State, The Improved Canal System -- from: The Canal System of New York State / Charles L. Cadle -- Re-issued and revised (Albany : J.B. Lyon Co., printers, 1921)

New York State, The Improved Canal System — from: The Canal System of New York State / Charles L. Cadle — Re-issued and revised (Albany : J.B. Lyon Co., printers, 1921)

We covered some 200 miles, transiting 30 locks along the way. We were very impressed – the canal system is super well maintained and staffed, the scenery lovely, and the towns along the way all very welcoming. We maintained a tight 5-day schedule, but decided that the next time, we will allow double the time to really explore and appreciate it.

Leaving New York to sail up the Hudson

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under the George Washington bridge

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Follow the train tracks up the Hudson

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Wow, we’re home already? (Oops, wrong Kingston 🙂

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Pretty lighthouse – how would you like to live on a rock?

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Now the mast has to come down…very old (circa 1880) but very sturdy-looking crane. Even uses the tree as part of the equipment!

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And we’re off to the canals. Matthew realized on the way there that with no mast, we had no more antenna, so how would we radio the lock-masters? Tim to the rescue…throughout the trip we were constantly pleasantly surprised to find everything and anything we could possibly need was on the boat and left there for us by the previous owner – right down to this cute little suction-cupped antenna, just the thing for the job.

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Approaching the locks

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once inside, my job was to catch the line and then keep the nose, and the long bit of the mast sticking out the front, from hitting the walls. Easier said than done when the turbulence starts!

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Lock 17’s door opens over your head…a bit freaky, not to mention wet from getting dripped on.

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Locks were well maintained, fresh coats of paint, landscaped grounds, and dredging operations ongoing to keep a well-marked route with a consistent depth

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Lovely calm evening crossing of Lake Oneida

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Captain napping on the job, courtesy of auto-pilot

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Canal road signs

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Lake Ontario also as calm as a millpond.

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Time to put the mast back up. A slightly more modern crane

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For the Lake Ontario crossing, we put up the sails…

 

 

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just in time for the wind die off….the story of this trip, we didn’t really sail our new boat home, we mostly drove it home!

 

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A few miles offshore the Kingston May-flies came aboard to welcome Matthew back to Canada.

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They covered everything! Disgusting! Lesson learned, avoid Kingston harbour in May!

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We made it home (with a few million stow-aways aboard) tired but happy. Great trip, terrific learning opportunity and overall a wonderful experience.