Engine Failure Temporarily Halts Ocean Flyer!

OSWEGO , NY TO ALEXANDRIA BAY , NY

MAY 25 TH THROUGH JUNE 5TH

Thursday, May 25 th

At port in Oswego , NY

Today was overcast and dreary with cool temperatures—almost 60 degrees. Our spot in the marina was beautiful but we quickly learned that the marina had no water on our dock. A storm had come through the month before and some water pipes were broken. While we were in Oswego , they remained broken. This normally wouldn't be a big problem but Ocean Flyer was quite dirty from its many locks and consecutive days in the water.

We decided to take our usual walk into town to check out the library, the supermarket, the post office and whatever else. Oswego , located on the southeast shore of Lake Ontario , is somewhat larger than most of the towns we've been visiting and has some visible industry. There were pubs everywhere and many nice restaurants along the Oswego Canal . There was also a very practical pedestrian walkway across the canal which gave us an aerial view of Oswego , the canal, the Oswego lock and Lake Ontario . We watched and took some pictures as both a large and small boat made their way through the lock. The water beyond the lock is Lake Ontario.

We were now on Lake Ontario and very shortly after leaving Oswego the fog lifted and blue skies came through—it was wonderful. I also got a picture of Jean, from the bow of the boat, while she was busy being ‘captain'.

Lake Ontario is unique among the Great Lakes , with four canals that radiate from its shores: the Oswego and the Welland from the south side, and the Rideau and the Trent- Severn on the north side. Lake Ontario also receives discharge from the other four Great Lakes via the Niagara River and passes it to the St Lawrence River for its ultimate flow to the sea. The shoreline of Lake Ontario is remarkably smooth, so most of its harbors are man-made. Except for the cities of Oswego and Rochester , the New York side of Lake Ontario is mostly rural, with rolling fields and orchards reaching back from the lakeshore between small villages. The Ontario side, by contrast, is the site of Canada 's most heavily urbanized corridor, although between the cities are stretches of placid farmland.

It was an easy crossing—the waters were calm and waves were only one foot. There was scenery along the entire route, including many islands and sandy beaches. After less than three hours on the water we made our way into Sackets Harbor . Coming into Sackets Harbor you know that you're going to like this little town.

The entrance is very picturesque with lilacs lining the cliffs along the harbor and beautiful houses on both sides of the water. The marina was in a great spot—just one block from town. As we came into the marina we could see Main Street , some historic houses and, across from us, the town dock. We were settled in by 1:20 pm , all lines tied and ready to explore Sackets Harbor . Since this was the holiday weekend and the weather was now perfect, there were boaters everywhere. This marina houses a large number of sailboats and their owners were busy cleaning and prepping for the weekend's journey. It was nice.

By 6pm we had waddled back to the boat and had a light dinner—thank goodness!

Monday, May 29 th

Sackets Harbor , NY to Clayton , NY

Today is Memorial Day and also my mother's birthday!!!! She's a young 86 years old and happy and healthy living in Weymouth , Mass. Happy Birthday Mom!!!!

We've got another beautiful morning and another short travel day. Clayton is only 45 miles away, so we're in no rush to leave Sackets Harbor . We're off the dock at 0940 in clear weather, with blue skies, calm waters and a temperature of 72 degrees.

Today marks our entrance into the Thousand Islands region of the St. Lawrence River . It was the French who named the region, although the Indians called the 1000 islands the “Garden of the Great Spirit”. There are actually more than 1800 islands that make up the region. To become an official part of the count, an island must be above water 365 days a year and it must support two living trees. Some tiny islands even support cottages or have a bridge linking them to a larger island. The islands are quite unique and offer a wonderful experience that spans both the U.S. and Canada . Each island has its own individuality with features such as stately granite cliffs, soft sandy bays, tall dark pines and vibrant maple trees.

There's so much to see in that there are tiny islands everywhere. There's also beautiful land along the shoreline so that, at various points, you can easily see the houses and boat houses that you're passing. It's very picturesque. You could spend years in these waters, in a small boat, just exploring each little inlet and town. There are many towns that we're not even planning to visit.

We found our way to Clayton , NY , another cute town and also home to the world's largest museum for antique wooden boats. We stopped at the fuel dock at 1215 en route to our docking space. Alas, the fuel dock did not have any diesel fuel—only gas. Our dock space was down a narrow fairway that Jean had to back down with boats tied up on both sides. We had everyone watching us and quite a few cheers when people realized that we were two women!!!!!! We had help from other boaters as we ‘tied up'. This marina gets some ‘rocking' due to passing ships on the St. Lawrence. Everyone on the dock was very helpful in letting us know where to put fenders, etc. We were completely settled by 1240pm and eating lunch on the aft deck.

Clayton is rich in river history. It's a quintessential river village—a jewel of a peninsula surrounded by the magnificent St. Lawrence River, nestled along the northern edge of upstate New York and minutes from the Canadian border. Downtown Clayton has been designated by the U.S. Department of the Interior as a historic district. This district is architecturally and historically significant as one of the most intact and cohesive collections of late 19 th and 20 th century commercial buildings in northern New York . There are 31 buildings in the historic district, all built between 1854 and the 1920's.

We made our way into town looking for the usuals—the post office, library and supermarket. Our first stop was at The Antique Boat Museum which we quickly realized would require many hours to get through—we'll come back tomorrow. The rest of downtown was very charming with beautiful views of the waterway and several small islands. We walked around for a couple of hours, found a market with some swordfish for dinner and found some other cute shops. We're back on Ocean Flyer by 5pm and reading our books. Life is good.

Since neither one of us was particularly hungry, we decided to ‘waive' dinner and have the swordfish tomorrow. We noshed on popcorn and low fat ice cream sandwiches. YUM!!

Tuesday, May 30 th

At port in Clayton , NY

Today is gorgeous with blue skies and temperatures in the low eighties. We got up early and were at the Boat Museum shortly after it opened. The Boat Museum is absolutely tremendous. It's actually seven separate buildings, each with its own boats and exhibits. In Nautical Quarterly , it has been said that this museum houses “the largest and most impressive collection of inland recreational boats in the world”.

The buildings themselves are even beautiful—built in the post and beam style. Our first stop was a guided tour of La Duchesse , a 110 foot houseboat built in the early 1900's. The houseboat was built for George Boldt, of the Boldt castle fame (we'll be going there later this week). After being neglected and sinking sometime before World War II, it's now been mostly restored and had been given to the Museum by the current owners (the McNally family).

The interior of La Duchesse was gorgeous—several different types of mahogany including a light shade which looks like oak. The living room had a beautiful fireplace which was original to the boat's construction. The piano has a story in that in was originally on the boat but removed from it and kept in a warehouse for a long time. Mr. McNally later found the piano and had it restored by the Baldwin people, and placed it back on the boat.

We headed back into another building which housed an early sea plane land-based trainer and some vintage wooden boats. One interesting thing we learned is that many of the boats had airplane engines in them. Several of the best boatbuilders bought surplus airplane engines after the War and used them in their boats.

The main building of the Museum, as well as all other buildings, are beautifully constructed. They have very high ceilings, made of wood and have oversized windows placed perfectly to catch the light and to maximize the views of the St. Lawrence River . You find yourself getting caught up in the buildings as well as the boats. The high level of craftsmanship is very evident.

We spent almost the entire day in the Museum and on its property—it was wonderful.

This town also has another museum which caught our attention. The Handweaving Museum and Arts Center was very interesting with examples of historic and exotic fabrics on display. There was a “floral” exhibit with a large number of fabrics, from everywhere in the world, showing their particular weave of flowers. The fabrics were stunning. The Museum offers classes on painting and weaving and also maintains a library and a permanent museum collection of over 20,000 handwoven textiles.

We walked back into town and on the way back we took a picture of a boardwalk which winds its way around the perimeter of town.

Dinner was very special. Our swordfish was great and we coupled it with green beans, mixed with bacon, onions and mushrooms. We added a wonderful salad and some garlic bread. YUM!!!!

Wednesday, May 31 st

Clayton , NY to Alexandria Bay , NY

Today's journey to Alexandria Bay was only 12 miles so we were in no rush to leave Clayton. The skies were blue with a temperature of 70 degrees. The people at this marina have been extremely friendly and helpful to us. It's been a very pleasant stay for us. We did a few things in the morning (I went back and bought some more swordfish) and we re-checked our e-mail. We were then off the docks at 1130 and headed for Alexandria Bay .

On our way out of the marina we saw this tiny island with a beautiful, old stone turret on it. It was a good day for a picture so….

This part of our journey has been very picturesque. There are islands everywhere with beautiful houses, boathouses and lighthouses galore.

There are huge new houses alongside elegant historic houses. In the early 1900's this part of New York was the summer home to many wealthy businessmen who loved the St Lawrence and the rural setting of this area. Some of the very large, elegant and historic homes are a testimony to that period. There are also cute little cottages on small lots of land.

We found our way to our marina in Alexandria Bay and, after fueling, were settled in and tied up by 1pm . This is the first time that we've stayed at a marina which is really a resort hotel with some boat slips. We continue to be ahead of the crowds—only us and one other boat at the marina. We had lunch on the aft deck and then made our way into town looking for the usuals—supermarket, library and post office.

From our marina we could see the famous Boldt Castle directly across the American Narrows channel of the St. Lawrence. Work on this castle was started in the early 1900's by George Boldt as a gift to his beloved wife, Louise. While the castle was still under construction (four years into the project) Louise died suddenly and the work on the castle was completely stopped. The property stayed in an incomplete condition for 77 years when restoration work was begun. The castle is now owned and operated by the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority.

At one point, I looked over at the Castle and saw these two huge tankers passing each other with the Castle in the background. Wow!!!

We decided to visit the castle on Thursday and continued on with our tour of town. We were back on the boat by 5pm and ready for dinner. We had chicken, with leftover green beans from the other night and a nice salad. Not bad.

Thursday, June 1 st

At port in Alexandria Bay , NY

Today's weather was just miserable—pouring rain and some more pouring rain. We had heard it raining through the night and had hoped that today would be clear but….no such luck. We decided to postpone the castle tour until Friday when the weather was predicted to be better.

There was some clearing of the weather in the afternoon so we headed back into town. We found a small grocery store, a few more little shops and did some more touring. From one of the streets in town, I was able to take this picture of Ocean Flyer at the dock.

For dinner we had steak, red bliss potatoes and a mixed greens salad. It was a pretty quiet and gray day. Early in the evening we realized that we had another boat problem. At about 8pm both the carbon monoxide detectors and the TV and stereo systems started beeping. We had quite a cacophony coming from every part of the boat. We also realized that we could not get the beeping to stop. After some careful review of different owner's manuals, Jean pinpointed the problem as a low supply of DC power on board. Jean shut off the breakers for the beeping equipment and at 11pm we headed to bed, not really understanding the problem but knowing we had one. What a blah, and now, crummy day.

Friday, June 2 nd

At port in Alexandria Bay , NY

Jean couldn't sleep at night trying to determine the root cause of the problem. At 2:30 am she was reading more manuals and at 4:30am she was in the engine room doing something. I later found out that, in addition to problem solving, she was taking this neat picture of the Castle just as dawn was breaking.

I awoke to her announcement that she knew the root cause but that we now needed a marine electrician. Jean had discovered that the boat's battery charger wasn't working. This is a big problem because we need DC power to flush our heads, run fresh water and turn on many of our lights. So at about 7:30am we walked over to a nearby boatyard and made arrangements for an electrician to come by and troubleshoot our problem. An electrician arrived within a couple of hours and confirmed Jean's diagnosis. We then ordered a new battery charger, paid for overnight delivery and made arrangements for an electrician to install the new charger on Saturday. With all that taken care of, we decided to go over to Boldt Castle for the rest of the day.

Boldt Castle is the grandest of all Guilded Age mansions. Not only is the castle spectacular but the grounds are equally impressive. The restoration work is taking place in stages and is being done in a careful and authentic manner. George Boldt, a wealthy hotelier, and his wife Louise had the castle designed for them and construction began in the early 1900's. It was to be built in the style of a Rhineland Castle to remind George of his German/Baltic heritage. Four years into the project, his wife died unexpectedly and he stopped all construction and never returned to the castle.

We took a ferry over to the Castle and once there, we took a short shuttle boat ride from the Castle to the Yacht House. The ferry ride over was on Uncle Sam's ferries which is a large commercial operation that takes people on the 10 minute ride every half hour. Surprisingly, we were the only two people on the ferry. We used this opportunity to take some pictures of the Castle from the water.

 The property, now known as Heart Island and adjacent to one end of Wellesley Island , was bought by George Boldt from a man named Hart. The island had a “cottage” (actually a huge home) on it which the Boldts rented for their summer vacations. Later, the Boldts decided to build their own castle. The cottage was then moved to Wellesley Island and became the Thousand Islands Country Club. The Boldts also changed the spelling of the name of the island and even had excavation work done on its water line to adjust the shape of the island to be a heart. Throughout the estate, you can see heart designs—in the landscaping, in wood carvings, in wrought iron railings, in stone reliefs and in granite designs. There are hearts everywhere.

The estate has not only the Castle, but many other gorgeous buildings. Across from the island, sitting connected to Wellesley Island is the Boldt Castle Yacht House. The Yacht House has four huge bays, each 128 feet long. The center bay has a ceiling height of sixty four feet which the Boldts needed for their steam engine boat. The fourth bay was designed solely for use by La Duchesse , the 110 foot house boat we saw at the Antique Wooden Boat Museum in Clayton. On the lower level there was also a workshop to build boat launches and to perform boat maintenance. The Boldt Yacht House now houses antique boats from the Boldt collection as well as boats on loan from the Antique Museum . The upper level of the yacht House contained living quarters for the men who maintained all of the Boldt boats. At one time, the Boldts owned more than 40 boats!

 After touring the Yacht House we went inside the Castle. It was gorgeous and only the first floor has been restored with plans for the other sections to be done on a multi-year schedule. The reception room and dining room were just magnificent and the dining room contained the Boldt's original dining room furniture. We went into the Library which was my favorite room—with a huge fireplace and built in bookcases throughout.

 The ballroom's restoration was in progress as was the kitchen's. We headed upstairs— there are six stories in total—up a grand marble staircase topped with a magnificent stained glass dome. There are 6,000 pieces of glass in this dome and it has been restored completely.

 The bedrooms and baths are completely gutted, right down to the original brick and plaster. Throughout the castle, melodious, symphonic music was playing with a great sound system. It was wonderful.

We made our way back outside to take some pictures of the Castle's architecture.

 We then made our way over to the Castle's power plant. This building was made to look like a small castle in that the Boldts wanted every building to be aesthetically pleasing—even the utility areas.

We wandered around the Italian gardens and then headed to the ‘bird house'. This building housed the water tank but had a dove cote in the uppermost level. The Boldts kept exotic doves in their dove cote. I used this setting to take a picture of Jean.

There's a gazebo on the property where you could ‘sit' and reflect. Today, the gazebo is used in private weddings of which about 60 take place every year.

One of the last structures we visited is actually the first structure that the Boldts envisioned for their guests. It's a beautiful arch—under which their guests would come, in their boats, to be greeted at a small dock. It's a beautiful granite structure with three bronze harts—male deer—affixed to the top.

The grounds were just magnificent and the tour of the Castle was a lot of fun. The weather was perfect and the views were equally perfect. Jean took my picture here just to prove that I really did survive the canal locks!!

We were back on our boat by 6pm after stopping in town for dinner. We decided that we wanted some pizza. So…pizza it was, sitting outside at a waterfront restaurant and knowing that life is good.

Saturday, June 3 rd

At port in Alexandria Bay , NY

The weather has turned to rain once again and it's pouring. It's very nasty outside and I don't think it's going to clear. We waiting for our new battery charger to be delivered but…it's getting late so we're getting worried.

It's now 5pm and the battery charger arrived and the electrician came by to install it. Thank goodness. The weather never improved—it just rained all day. We were ‘stuck' in waiting for the boat to be fixed but everything's fine now and we're set for our departure in the morning. Beginning tomorrow, we'll be entering Canadian waters.

Dinner was light, which is a good thing. We had chicken sandwiches and a salad.

Sunday, June 4 th

Alexandria Bay , NY to Alexandria Bay , NY

As I mentioned earlier, today was supposed to be a great day. First, it's Jean's birthday. Secondly, we were headed up the St Lawrence River to Singer Castle (in U.S. waters) for a morning tour and then onto Gananoque , Canada , our initial entry into Canadian waters. We were looking forward to the castle visit, the trip itself and to Gananoque. Well…..

The Castle visit was excellent. We docked right at the Castle, with some help from the dockhands. The skies were overcast and the waters a bit choppy so it definitely helped to have the dockhands available. Singer Castle is smaller than Boldt and built much more like a real castle. It was made of granite and had many knight –related memorabilia throughout the castle. It was designed by Ernest Flagg who drew his inspiration from Sir Walter Scott's book , Woodstock.

 The Castle sits on its own island which is 7.2 acres in size. It was built as a hunting lodge by its owner, Frederic Bourne, who was also the president of The Singer Sewing Machine Company (and hence the Castle name). The grounds are also lovely, complete with a boathouse and power plant. These buildings are not as elegantly designed as those at Boldt Castle , but, by any other standards, quite nice.

The Castle is known for its inner sanctums and hidden passageways. Frederic Bourne had an entire system of passageways built behind the rooms so that his servants could take care of him, his family and guests without being seen. It was amazing to see just how many stairways and passageways were behind bookcases, doors and other panels of the Castle. In the gentlemen's lounge, there were oil paintings that had secret hinges on them so that you could ‘spy' on guests if necessary. This lounge also had Pullman seats built in at some of the window areas—a gift from the president of the Pullman Company. The Castle was definitely more rustic and authentic in feel than the Boldt Castle .

 We had a great tour. We were the only two people on the tour and then later left for our short journey to Gananoque. By now, it was noon and the skies had cleared to a beautiful blue and we were commenting on how great the trip was going. We were also commenting on the beauty of this area and how hard it is to describe it properly in this journal. We kept passing small islands, lighthouses and beautiful houses.

Well….We heard a loud noise and then the starboard engine just failed completely. Jean was unable to get it restarted so we headed back to Alexandria Bay where we were familiar with the dock and the neighboring boat yard. We called ahead to say that we had some ‘boat trouble' and there were two dockhands to assist us at the marina. Jean did a great job in covering the 10 miles on only one engine especially since we passed several tankers and other boats.

Back at the marina, Jean went down to the engine room and quickly realized that we had a BIG problem. There was engine oil leaking everywhere and coolant mixed in with the oil. We immediately started to empty the engine of all remaining oil and to clean up the mess. The cleanup took us hours and it was oily, messy and generally miserable. This was a horrible birthday!!!!!!!

Jean made some phone calls and determined that we probably had experienced a ‘catastrophic engine failure'—either a cracked block or a broken crankshaft. This was sounding worse with every new piece of information that we received. So…..since it was Sunday and we couldn't do any more than we had already done…

We found a restaurant for Jean's birthday ‘celebration' and lamented our troubles with some alcohol for Jean and dessert for both of us. This is a horrible situation. We were back on the boat by 8pm not knowing when we'd be able to continue on our journey.

Monday, June 5th

At port in Alexandria Bay , NY

Here's the latest. Jean confirmed with a Caterpillar ‘expert' as well as with David Grisham (our Californian guru in Jacksonville ) that we are going to need to rebuild the starboard engine. Jean spent this entire morning on the telephone trying to piece together just how we go about doing this. You need two major components to rebuild this engine. First, you need a highly specialized boat yard that has experience in taking engines out of boats. This is no small feat. For this boat, the salon floor will need be cut open and the engine raised from the engine room below. Once it's raised, somehow…the engine will be removed, by taking out some windows, and exiting the boat that way.

Secondly, you need a qualified Caterpillar mechanic who can get access to the parts that we need to rebuild the engine. This is a horrible mess.

So anyway…we've been very fortunate to find an excellent, experienced boatyard that's 100 miles (backwards) from Alexandria Bay in Brewerton , NY . For the first 65 miles, we'll drive the boat ourselves, on one engine, limping along, back down the St. Lawrence River and back into Lake Ontario . We'll spend the night in Oswego at the same marina that we stayed in on the journey here.

For the next 35 miles, in which we'll be again retracing our steps back through the dreaded Oswego locks and Erie Canal locks, we'll be towed!!!!! No one thought that it was safe to go through the locks without full control of the boat. At least, in the direction to Brewerton, we'll be going up in the lock where it is easier to manage the lines. But….when we're back underway, I'll have those same two nightmarish locks to go through all over again.

In order to drive the boat the first 65 miles, we needed to have the starboard propeller removed. This was important in order to preserve the starboard transmission and to prevent the boat from wanting to go ‘right'. Three divers came by this afternoon and removed the propeller. They had a wonderful aluminum boat, Sea Hunt , named after its captain, with Ed Duda as the diver. They did a great job.

So please stay tuned but…..we are expecting a delay of some significance and are planning to return to Cape Cod during the interim. We will keep you apprised of our progress. We're both pretty despondent. So……

Thank you for following us so loyally and thank you for your e-mails.

Stay tuned for periodic updates on the repair of the boat and our ability (or inability) to restart our journey.

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