Day 93, Monday September 23

Day 93, Monday September 23

We have gotten the news today that the canal will be re-opened on Oct. 4^th for 3 days before shutting down again for 3 weeks.  This is a relief although it means over a 2 week delay of our trip. .  It is much better knowing a date for opening as we can now plan.  Otherwise we were considering renting a car to go pick up the stuff we had delivered to a marina near New York City.  Now we know we will make it there and they will hold it for us.  Julie had ordered the charts for the New York to Annapolis leg of the journey which are sitting north of New York at a marina and if we had trucked we would not even need them.   Dawson has ordered 3 new halyards that are also sitting at the marina north of New York city.  Those we would need to retrieve as it is almost a $1,000 worth of lines.  Making it to the Annapolis boat show is in jeopardy.  We have started ordering stuff that we need, as to make the show now will require leaving the boat somewhere and renting a car.  Not a big problem, but accommodations could be a challenge.   With the boat we have accommodations, without the boat we need a hotel room.  Now we can start stocking up on supplies.  We did not want to stock in lots of extras if the boat was being trucked.  Everyone on the dock is happy about the news, although we wished it was opening a week earlier.  Airtime from Sarnia will be able to catch up with us too which will be nice.  We met Airtime this summer at Matheson Island.

Julie with new portable 12v sewing machine

We spent the afternoon walking to Wal Mart and Lowe’s and bought a new sewing machine as the one we brought on the boat is not working properly.  A piece of the tensioning system is missing.  Julie made 2 winch covers and the quarantine flag with the new machine, so already it has paid for itself.

By 5:30 it is, happy hour on Ocean cowboy.  Happy hour is always accompanied by snacks and hence dinner ends up getting cancelled again as we are

too full to eat.  Ocean cowboy has the best cockpit for socializing.  We have not been able to put the enclosure up on our boat with the mast being on the deck so the evenings get cool.  Ocean cowboy which is a 44 foot CSY has lots of room as it is a centre cockpit and the enclosure keeps it nice and cozy. Vince and Debbie have also joined us off of Tenaca as well as Mike.  Vince and Debbie are moving east along the canal tomorrow but we will most likely see them in the next port.  They can provide a report of crowding conditions further up the line.  We are staying until Friday as our solar panels are expected then.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson