Day 14: August 1: Where did July go? Oh how the weather shifts, day to day we wake to entirely different temperatures. From the high 80's to 90's that had us drinking water and juices throughout the day to the last few days waking up feeling chilly each day brings something news. The 70 degree temperatures we have had for the past couple of days certainly feel like fall is knocking at the door a bit early. Despite the cooler temps it is a glorious morning. As predicted, the skies are clear and there is no wind to speak of. It's a perfect day to head across Lake Ontario. We were thinking we might transit to Sackets Harbor which is about 34 NM from Oswego. We spoke to harbor hosts Bill and Susan Farington a few days ago and they noted that this was a pleasant stop; it's a small town with easy access to groceries and restaurants. However we changed plans because we thought it best to take advantage of the good weather and get further across Ontario to Clayton, NY which is about 52 NM away. So we said goodbye to Oswego and headed out through Lock 8 at about 9 a.m. I snapped another picture of the lighthouse with some folks fishing out front. A perfect way to start a lovely morning.
Clayton, NY is a typical example of a river village set on a peninsula in the 1000 Islands Region. The Thousand Islands are a group of more than 1800 islands in the St. Lawrence river straddling the borders of Canada and the U.S. We are hoping to spend a couple of days in this area before heading into Canada.
Lake Ontario was incredibly beautiful and calm just as I had hoped. We set our course which had us arriving in Clayton around 4:15. I researched anchorages and found some good reviews from boaters who had anchored in Clayton Harbor; so that is where we intended to stop for the night. With the automatic pilot, the 6.5 to 7 hour trip would be a piece of cake. I actually decided to settle in with the book I'm reading (Ghost Ship: The Mysterious True Story of the Mary Celeste and her Missing Crew) rather than stand at the helm the entire day like we did while were the rivers. John gets to take a break when cruising these long distances as well, not having to adjust the heading like we do on narrow rivers and while locking through.
About an 1.5 hours into the trip we suddenly started veering to starboard. At first I thought it was the water playing tricks on my eyes but John noticed too. Before long we were doing a complete circle. We tried a number of things such as resetting the system, deleting the course and re-establishing it etc. to get back on course but the boat just wouldn't respond; it just kept going off course, doing circles or turning back and forth. The autopilot system wouldn't respond at all. John ended up on the phone for about 2 hours with the folks who installed our new Garmin system. The representative tried to walk John through many steps attempting to diagnose the problem. If there was one bright spot, it was that the lake was extremely calm so we weren't floundering around in uncomfortable conditions. This is a picture of John as he crawled under the helm to check wire connections.
We finally made the decision to head back to port, traveling through Lock 8 again, tie up and see what we could figure out. At this point John was thinking the problem was with the hydraulic steering pump.
After letting the engine room cool for quite some time John ventured down where he confirmed his suspicion that the motor was the problem. Specifically, the bolts that hold the motor to the pump in place had backed out and the drive shaft was only partially engaged. He said that for some reason it had some loose over time obviously undetected until now. He worked on taking it apart completely in order to be able to put it back together correctly until about 10:00 p.m before calling it quits for the night. Tomorrow is another day.
I wanted to be sure that folks know I do have an important role to play when John is in the engine. I act like any good first mate, jumping in and out to fetch tools, check on switches, run up and down to the flybridge etc. I'm not just a pretty face you know! 😉😉😉
Day 15: August 2: Back to the engine room bright and early. After a few cuss words John said he had managed to put everything back together. We checked the signal running from the system on the flybridge to see if the pump was responding to commands, enabling it to turn the rudders. With our marriage savers on (we call them our ears), John remained in the engine room and I headed to the flybridge to listen to directions. The pump seemed to be working but we had to check it out while UW so we made the decision to head out onto the lake, locking through Lock 8 for the 5th time!
It didn't take long before we knew we had not been successful. The automatic pilot simply did not respond when engaged. Rather than return to the wall on Oswego where we wouldn't have much help, John decided to head to Sackets Harbor because he saw there was a marine electronics store that deals with Garmin. Navy Point Marine described as a full service marina is also located there. I
t was a pretty decent day so we figured we would try to make some progress crossing and then try to find some help. Manually steering our boat in choppy water for 5 hours is a bit of a challenge because the rudders are small for the size of the boat. When working, the hydraulic steering pump can turn the rudders much more efficiently and quicker so the captain isn't steering back and forth constantly.
As with any large body of water, there isn't anything to see along the way. Getting closer to the harbor, we passed by several islands with such names as Calf and Horse until we finally arrived in the harbor. Speaking with our son AJ we found out Horse Island played a significant role leading up to the May 29, 1813 Battle of Sackets Harbor. Take a look at the picture of the antique looking house with Old Glory flying proudly. I'm wondering if this house really is old or new construction made to look historic.
We had read there was a wall folks could tie up to; we were hoping to do that so we could get off and get the lay of the land and speak to folks at Navy Point Marine. As luck would have it the wall is under construction of some sorts and off limits. So we anchored at the mouth and John took the dinghy in to look for help. From what we were told the person to speak to is Peter for help with electronics. John found him and was told to bring the boat to the dock in the morning. We are hopeful!
With nothing left to do we settled in for the night. Soon the water became so still. We listened to the gentle splash against the row of houses perched along the shore. From somewhere in the distance, church bells were playing a lovely tune. To top it off we were blessed with a beautiful sunset; for the moment things were okay. As people always say when you have a boat know everything is always broken, you just don't know it yet!
Breathe and go with the flow.
Wow! What perseverance you two have!
ReplyDeleteARRRGGGHHHH
DeleteHere’s to getting that issue resolved!
ReplyDeleteAt least you managed to finally break off your relationship with Lock 8!!!🤷♂️😬 Doug A
ReplyDeletethere's always a positive!
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