Sackets Harbor,NY to Clayton, NY

Friday - June 22, 2018 - 3 nights

Oh what a day! Must say for the most part our travelling days have been good but today is exceptional, no wind and beautiful sunshine. Today's run will be relatively short just 36 nm, 2 1/2 hours and we'll be able to again cruise at 16+ knots. Once away from the dock in Sackets Harbor we experienced something I have never seen before....perfectly calm water in the wide open body of water. Even on the calmest of days in New England waters there is always some type of ocean swells, though gentle they still carry the boat up and down, frankly a motion that sometimes does not necessarily agree with Lou Ann.

About an hour into our run we started to make our approach to the mighty, Saint Lawrence River and

Captain Rene

Seaway. This river stretches from the eastern shore of Lake Ontario to the Atlantic Ocean and is the main shipping channel that connects the rest of the World to all of the Great Lakes. Today's destination is Clayton, NY and the 1000 Islands. Our plans are to stay 3 nights at the new municipal dock located at the edge of Clayton's waterfront Main Street. Once tied up and checked in it's off the boat in search of the Antique Boat Museum. This would not be our first visit to Clayton, as we took our 18 foot Chris Craft on a trailer here 20 plus years ago with friends Terry & Lori. Must say that both Clayton and the museum have changed a lot.

Antique Boat Museum

The museum has expanded and added new exhibits along with La Duchesse, an elegant barge built for George Boldt, manager of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in NYC. La Duchesse has a colorful past with several different owners, the last of which is the Rand McNally family. La Duchesse was willed to the museum along with the necessary funds to restore and maintain this truly unique barge well into the future. We truly enjoyed a private guided tour with an outstanding docent. She said she was looking to plan a trip to our Mystic Seaport.

Salon on La Duchesse

Dining Room on La Duchesse

Returning from the museum we walked down the main street taking in all the little restaurants and shops including a stop at the local bakery for a fresh cookie.You know me, I love my cookies! For some reason we decided to have a pizza for dinner so we stopped and ordered one for pickup at dinner time. Shortly after getting back to the marina, Bella Blue, docked right next to us. These are the same Loopers, from Texas, we met in Atlantic City and Staten Island. Apparently on their run from Oswego, NY to Clayton they either hit something or had some type of engine issue as they limped into the dock at 8 knots. We invited them over for docktails, to sooth them and to hear the tales of the sea and before you know it's way past the time to pickup our pizza. LouAnn, runs to the pizza shop only minutes before they closed only to find they made the wrong one, it all got sorted out and finally had our pie late but oh so good!

The next two days called for showers so we decided to do the tourist thing and take a boat tour through the 1000 Islands with a stop at Boldt Castle. Like we haven't spent enough time on a boat. We chose to walk to the sightseeing boat and get a bit of exercise since it was only 2 miles away. What we didn't plan on is the steady showers all the way to the boat, so we where a couple of drenched rats when we boarded. Never the less, we enjoyed the cruise and narration through the islands and narrow passages ending with a stop at Boldt Castle. Last time here, 20 years ago, there where only a few rooms open to the public and all unfinished and truly trashed by locals. Not much to look at. Today the state of NY has done a magnificent job of finishing  many of the rooms as they would have looked had the castle been finished. Oh, George Boldt, was building the castle for his beloved wife " Louise" (Lou Ann get it) when she died.  He ordered all construction stopped and legend is he never stepped foot on the island again.

Grand Foyer of Boldt Castle

Boldt Castle

 

Boldt Castle

Have to say, if you are looking for a nice few days away try this 1000 Islands area as it is truly beautiful. By the way, there are more than 1800 islands. To be consider an island it must remain out of the water and have at least one tree. Wow, feels like I am back at TOD selling tours!

As I recall the last day in Clayton we attempted to flush our fresh water tank.  Lou Ann thought that

since there was slime in the water filter we should use baking soda and vinegar to scrub the bottom of the tank.  Since we had done this in our Viking and it worked well, we gave it a shot.  Lou Ann poured 3/4 of a big box of baking soda down the fill tube.  It all went in will except that the tube is about 12 feet long and somewhere about 4 or 5 feet the baking soda decided to clump up unbeknownst to her.  She pours in the vinegar and all it does is bubble and shoot back out of the tube.  She sheepishly came and said what had happened.  No problem, I can fix it just get a snake and put it down the fill tube.  Nope, packed in there hard.  After discussing the situation between ourselves and the Harbor Master, I decided that I would go to the hardware store in the morning and buy a small hose and a fitting to put on the end and make a jet stream of water.  The harbor master said he had a hose he would bring over and hopefully it would work.  Well voila!!!!! It did.  Thank God, we did not want to pull up the new rug to have a new hose installed.  After the clog was fixed, we got the boat back together and headed for Kingston, Ontario.