The New York State Canal System is a vital link in a vast network of navigable inland waterways, rivers and lakes in the northeast. The Champlain Canal, only sixty miles long, from Waterford to Whitehall, is rich with heritage architectural ingenuity and friendly residents.

Along with natures beauty and America’s great historic past are the insects. Fifty green flies lies dead and squashed on the pilothouse controls and steps. Denny and Terry have turned into terminators. Die! Die!

On exit from the C4 Lock, music is playing and people are dining and dancing.  A marina and a RV park in one: It is 5PM. We settle down for cocktails on the boat and by 7PM when we head out for dinner, everything is quiet the band is gone and most of the people wrapped up in the arms of Morpheus, but the steak house still creates culinary delights. I thought 9PM for Looper midnight was bad.

Interesting architecture

Sharon and Terry

Us

How high are these upcoming bridges? Check the book! Oh! Wow! the radar arch has to be lowered.  I know it comes down but we haven’t done this before. Thankfully, we are still on a lock wall and Terry is here to help. Out come the measuring devices, hammers and block and tackle. That arch is heavy, where is it going to fall? I mean where are we going to put it down.

Sharon and I know when to take a walk; we need medical supplies. On our return, the deck was a mess but the arch lowered. Good work boys! They were exhausted but smiling. Their prowess was touted with Pappy’s and reexamined all evening long.

The fly bridge is uninhabitable. The cushions were left in the dinghy, the dinghy is holding up the radar arch, the antennae pin down the bicycles, and the antennae tips are nonexistent. When do we get to put the arch up again?

Bourbon Boys

Block and tackle

Radar Arch

This is heavy

Lake Champlain her we come

The last two days have been a whirlwind, Terry and Sharon Kent, long time friends of Denny’s, and now also mine, are joining us for a week along the canals and waterways of New York.

We sailed off this morning still recovering from last night’s party. Travelled the Canal system first through a corps of engineer run lock then through three more locks on the New York waterway run by the state of New York, stopping after the third lock along a dock wall at Mechanicsville. N.Y. The town wall dock was a pleasant surprise with free docking, water, electricity and beautifully kept bath and showering facilities, a small town with all its amenities within walking distance.

Our guests arrived in the middle of a party and the party is still going on, except for one five hour period spent in the urgent care center in Mechanicsville. We did need to Uber there but only because Terry was bleeding too much and had trouble walking. A small toe got in the way of a docking maneuver and became almost completely severed from his foot. Eleven stitches, five injections and lots of medication later we were on our way to cocktails and pizza in the local Italian restaurant. What a Guy!

Sharon at the Locks

Terry Holding forth at the locks

Opening the Lock

Party People

A new water pump, a new accumulator and $500.00 later the culprit was found, a clogged filter. Water is now freely flowing and we have lots of spare parts.

Aggh! What is that? The microwave cut off after three seconds. The breaker popped! Try that again.  Oh! no!, that’s a brand new microwave, “they just don’t make them like they used to”.  Are you sure it’s the new microwave, it has been working just fine. “What else would it be?”

After about five hours of careful consideration, the new electric outlets Denny put in last week are suspect. Let’s turn the breaker for the lights off. Amazing, the microwave works!

We had drinks, dinner and Bocce Ball with more Looper friends last night. Shady Harbor Marina has beautiful facilities and is extremely friendly to Loopers.

Bocce Ball Courts

New Looper Friends

Don and Jan “Time to Breathe

The washing machine dial is blinking red. The code says insufficient water. Try the faucet, nothing coming out, the control panel, everything OK?

Oh no! not again. The sink is full of dirty dishes, the clothes are partially washed and I need a shower.  “I didn’t have a problem when I was by myself on the boat.  Are you sure there is no water coming out of the tap.”  I chose not to answer that question.

It is a beautiful Monday morning. The weekend warriors are gone and we are alone on this calm and beautiful river, which belies the fact that we have a large and urgent water problem. We continue blissfully on past the Catskill Mountains and north. “I checked with Nigel Caulder who wrote the Boat Owners Bible, we might need a new accumulator tank”.

Thud!  Scrape? What’s up? The river is 28 feet deep here.  I was just trying to subvert the current by sailing close to the rivers edge, just a little out of the channel and aground. We added to the muddy waters and dredged our way out.

Back to reality or what I guess is reality in the world of Looper’s at least this Looper boat.

On the Hudson

Shady Harbor Marina

The next two days we wait for friends to come aboard and hopefully repair the latest debacle.

Denny the Deckhand worked the lines and put away the fenders while I piloted the 49 ft vessel from the dock through the busy marina and out to Haverstraw Bay heading for the River. A pleasant reversal of roles!

The temperature is 81 degrees, humidity 58 %. and  the winds 15 mph. The Bear Mountain Bridge is on the horizon spanning the Hudson River Valley in all its glory. The Bridge built in 1924 is the Hudson River crossing for the Maine to Georgia Appalachian Trail. I love New York!

While Denny waited for me at Half Moon Bay Marina he kept himself busy by upgrading the electrical system, doing routine maintenance, removing another strap from the prop and continuing his attack on the Spiders. He is now spraying everything in sight with ‘spider off”.

This morning I watched a spider carefully try to catch a bee in his web.  The bee fought a valiant battle but since I am allergic to bees and abhor spiders I was strangely happy when the entangled duo were swept into the sea by the wind.

tanker being pushed down the river

Pasta Making family reunion

Indian Point Nuclear Power plant

The Bear Mountain Bridge

On To Kingston

Deep Creek Lake Md. is the current site for the annual Perluzzo Family Reunion. This reunion has been a part of my life for the past fifty years; A week of togetherness, cooking, boating, pasta making, game playing and lots of love. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words.

Michael

David and Valerie

Lakeside dock

Boat Captain

My wonderful son

Fun with 5 Crowns

Bocce Ball

I am so happy that both my husband and my son David and his wife Christine made my attendance at this event possible this year.

A picturesque bay, a quiet lagoon a lovely marina, they make up what is Half Moon Bay on the Hudson River. Two other boats flying the looper flag follow us in. Wonderful, cocktails tonight with friends and company for Denny while I am gone! Loren leaves tomorrow; it is his last day with us. He will be missed.

Denny has chosen to stay at Half Moon Bay for the next week doing routine maintenance on the boat, changing the oil, putting new lighting in the pilot house and galley and exercising the dinghy. I am going to my annual family reunion.

My first class passenger status is soon to be revoked.  I have one last week of coddling; my son David and his wife Christine are picking me up in the morning for our trip to northern Maryland and the reunion.

Half Moon Bay

Loren and Denny

Escapdes another Looper

Sailing due north into New York Harbor where small white clouds litter the blue skies and the sun is shining; it is a glorious day! The New York skyline is on the horizon. The seas are amazingly calm and the wind almost non-existent.  For me, a native New Yorker, pure joy

I am shocked by the scarcity of huge sea going vessels. They are certainly there but not in the numbers expected. Just one exception, a massive green boat adorned with shark teeth and speeding in a serpentine path through the harbor thrilling its passengers but not us or the small boat that ran in front of us to get out of its path.

Good use of a horn Denny.

I am in awe of the quickly approaching skyline, looking toward Manhattan and watching for the bifurcation of the island into the East and Hudson rivers We circumnavigated the Statue of Liberty, passed the battery, the world trade center memorial, the Empire state building, the Freedom Tower an on to Grants tomb.

Taking the western route up the Hudson.

Freedom Tower and a 92 ft Viking sport fisher

tip of Manhattan

Verrazano Narrows Bridge

Statue of Liberty

Captain and Admiral

Captain and Admiral

Freedom Tower and a 92 ft Viking sport fisher

Verrazano Narrows Bridge

tip of Manhattan

“Always can find room for a looper”, was John’s friendly greeting.  John is a Looper “Harbor Host” and is exactly what we think a “Harbor Host “should be, he is extremely knowledgable and accommodating! His Yacht Club is on a beautiful calm harbor in New York City.

The Club’s bar is where we met two other Looper couples and learned about the area. Leslie and Mark aboard “Antonia” had a rental car and took us to Frank and Sal’s Italian deli  to get a few provisions and a hero sandwich for Loren, his first.  “Antonia” was one of the fourteen boats we looked at before buying Dream Seeker (six degrees of separation).

Loren chose to stay behind and became a super giant spider killer. He scrubbed the decks and headings industriously. Can we ever get rid of these insidious insects?      Loren has been a great help and proved to be very knowledgeable as well as fun.           We did man overboard drills and I piloted the boat.

The plan is to enter New York Harbor on Thursday afternoon.

First Class passenger

Italian Deli

Captain Denny

Yacht Club