I'm going to start by saying that I'm not a very good story teller, so I hope you will bear with me.
September 4th, we throw the lines and are on our journey from Fifty Point Marina in Ontario .... Got a good start, sacrificed my watch to the water gods (not on purpose)... so they should be happy for awhile.  Beautiful sunny day.

We found Kermie on board, so he now has a prominent position on the pedestal to keep a watch on things.
Our first port of call was Wilson, New York on Lake Ontario  and as foreigners to the US, we have to check in with their customs department each time we touch their soil.  There are videophones at most ports that we use for this check in process.  We started our journey on the long weekend, so getting through to them took some time as one could expect.  The yacht club we tied up at that night offered to take us over to the videophone, so their youngest employee Justin, loaded us into his own little outboard and gave us the tour of the harbour over to the dock.  He told us where the best place to eat was, what was happening over here and there.We took his suggestion for a dinner place at a bar and grill just down from our berth, that was having a battle of the blues bands.  The music was local and fantastic, the evening was warm and we didn't get home til dark as we didn't want to leave.... we were still hearing the music as we slipped off to sleep.

Next day we ended up in  Rochester - a long haul, and the Monday of the last long weekend of the summer.  I don't think any more boats could have crammed themselves into the harbour entrance.  We had to get fuel and phone in to customs, both at the same place.  The fuel dock had just closed, and the videophone was right in the hottest spot one could be in, and it took time again to get through.  While Al is on the phone trying to get through and I was sweating buckets, I was watching a emergency situation unfold.  We overheard that the police, coast guard, emergency personnel all emerged onto the same dock to wait for a boat being towed in which had several casualties, multiple injuries, burns etc... oh dear, and we were right there in the middle of it all as it was about to unfold... 

well, this lady came out of the pub beside us to say she was a nurse and she could help in some way if needed... she didn't realize when she read WestMarine on Al's vest that it was a marine store name and not some government official.... Oh my goodness....As it turned out, the mass casualties hopped out of the boat that got towed and got themselves onto the gurneys,  I'm not seeing too many mutiple injuries here....We finally got our customs business dealt with and headed to the yacht club for the night,  They were having a end of summer bbq on the lawn that we joined in on.  The day ended quite nicely, beautiful night again.

The next stop is to have our mast taken off so that we can travel through the Oswego and Erie canal system.  There are many fixed bridges and locks to go under and through that a mast will not fit standing up. 

She's naked

All wrapped up and ready to be shipped

Again the day was stiflingly hot if that's a word, so hot so that after the mast was off, I walked over the spit and took a dip in Lake Ontario.  Very refreshing....then a nice cold beer, the day was complete.

Now we've begun our trek down the canals, we finally got our cruising permit in Oswego, after an officer came to check us out. We had called in at a fuel dock in Oswego which was also where the videophone is.  The CBP told us to wait there for an officer to come and see us, however the manager of the fuel dock instructed us to move up the river and she said she'd tell the officer where we were....I figured we'd be deported for moving for sure... but it would have been worse taking the rath of the manager of the fuel dock.... cranky!!  The officer did find us in a short time, we visited the lockmaster to get our canal cruising permit and away we went.  We cruised through 3 locks with not too many bruises to our lady, before we called it quits in a wee little place called Minetto.  There we met another couple on their first cruise down south.  They are hauling their mast on a large wooden cradle that's up on their deck.  He listened to a bunch of older sailors from his home club....I don't think his mast is going anywhere.

Lock 08 at Oswego, NY

A few of the canal residents we spotted.  Did I mention that its very hot and humid???

We definitely have found that each day has some new experiences, surprises....

Today we were pulled over after one of the locks by the US Coast Guard for our 'on board' inspection, we passed with flying colours, We also had one of the police boats run a sonar around the outside of our boat to look for, who knows what.  I asked if they could clean off the bottom while they were at it??  They were good natured officers or I wouldn't have been so brave.  We had just gotten underway again when the skies opened and it poured poured and poured more.  We ended up going back to the  dock at the lock we had just exited until it was over, as we couldn't see where we were going very well.  The storm ceased, we carried on to Brewerton, where we are tonight.  Did I mention the heat and humidity and it doesn't cool down at night?  I didn't know that one could have a gloss of sweat over ones entire body. The only relief is going into buildings with air conditioners...not too many close at hand in a boat!!  Ice cream doesn't even help!!

We'll see what new adventure will behold us tomorrow....

Not sure when the next edition will be, certainly depends on how good the internet is that I find.

Hope you enjoy.