We Arrive in Buffalo

This will be my final update on this trip.


Sorry no post yesterday.  We got in pretty late and didn't have cell service or internet connection.  We did make it through the Welland Canal on Monday without issue.  It was a long day, as it normally is.  We started off at 6:30 and got tossed around as we made the 3 mile run from the marina to the entrance to the canal.  After getting to the first lock at 7:00, we had to wait until 10:00 to start our passage through.  We traveled all day with the 140-foot Canadian Coast Guard Research Vessel "Limnos".


The passage through the canal was fine, but it was long.  We got to the final lock and thought we were home free, but we ended up having to wait 4 hours to let other commercial vessels heading onto Lake Ontario go by.  We finish the last lock around 6:00pm and headed to the marina.  The wind was blowing pretty hard and there were no dockhands around since the marina was closed.  We made the best of it and got her tied up.  The restaurant on site was closed and we didn't feel like trying to walk into town, so we ordered some pizza and had it delivered to the boat.  By 9:30 my head was on the pillow and the lights were out.

After a good nights rest we left out of Port Colborne this morning at 7:00. What a beautiful morning it was. Bright sunshine, 15kts of winds out of the west and the seas running 2 to 3 feet on the stern. We set the throttles at 950 rpm and cruised the 22 miles from Sugarloaf Marina to the Erie Basin Marina in downtown Buffalo, NY. We pulled up to the fuel dock at 9:15 and spent the next 2 hours topping off the 4 fuel tanks. She was very thirsty!!

What an exceptional trip! We covered 821 miles since leaving Annapolis, MD last Sunday. We averaged 10.5mph and used 2,231 gallons of fuel. We had no weather delays and no mechanical issues during the entire trip. The big Detroit Diesels purred right along the entire voyage. I know Geoff & Celeste Smith got a great boat that will provide them with many years of enjoyment. Thanks to everyone who has followed along and provided encouragement along the way. It is appreciated!

A few final pictures from the last two days:


Entering lock 1 on the Welland Canal on Monday.


We locked through the Welland all day with the 140-foot Canadian Coast Guard Research Vessel named Limnos


Entering lock 4; note the large cargo vessel rising up ahead in lock 6 and one coming down on the other side.


Double lock wall. It makes our boat look like a rubber ducky in a bath tub.






M/V Limnos got tossed around in Lock 7. It actually hit the opposite wall pretty hard.


A large ship coming through the Welland Canal. We had to pull off to the side to let him get by.


The skyline of Buffalo coming across Lake Erie.


All tied up at Erie Basin.

Finished the Erie Canal; Crossed Lake Ontario

Just a quick update...


We pulled out of Brewerton, NY on Sunday morning at 6:30 and finished the Oswego Canal just before 11:00am.  We got out onto Lake Ontario and it was as forecasted; 3 to 5 feet, but it was supposed to subside to 1 to 3 feet later in the day.  By about 4:00pm the seas laid down a bit and we had a pretty good ride all the way to Port Dalhousie, Ontario.  We covered 177 miles in 12 hours.  The reason for the long day was the forecast for Lake Ontario on Monday.  They were calling for building seas 3 to 5 with winds 20kts.


Good thing we covered the lake yesterday.  We got up this morning and I checked the forecast; small craft advisory with seas 4 to 7 feet.  We pulled out of Port Dalhousie to make the 3 mile run over to the Welland Canal.  We got the crap kicked out of us this morning.  There is no boat that likes 7 foot seas.  Anything that was on the counter was on the floor very quickly.


We picked up our third deckhand at 7:00am to transit the canal.  Unfortunately, we have a large cargo ship in front of us and are tied up on the wall waiting until around 10:00 to begin our passage.  We don't expect to complete the canal until around 6:30pm tonight if everything goes perfectly.  So we will tie up at Sugarloaf Marina in Port Colborne, Ontario for the night and make the short trip across Lake Erie in the morning to Buffalo.


I'll try and update again tonight with a few pictures of the canal.

Autumn on the Erie Canal

Sorry I didn't post yesterday.  The internet was painfully slow in St Johnsville and I didn't want to deal with it.  Yesterday we traveled 70 miles and went through 14 locks.  Waterford to St Johnsville is a nice run on the Mohawk river, but the best of the Erie Canal was coming today.


We had another terrific day on the water. We left out of St Johnsville this morning at 7:00am and covered 7 locks and 82 miles. We had a speed restriction of 10mph all day on the canal except for Lake Oneida where we were able to get up on plane.

We are in Brewerton, NY, just outside of Syracuse. The leaves are just starting to change and with a good strong wind today, we had lots of leaves blowing off the trees as we traveled through the canal. I needed a rake to clean the boat tonight instead of buck of soap and a deck brush.

We expect to make at least Oswego tomorrow, but more likely we will get out onto Lake Ontario and try to go all the way to Rochester, NY. That will leave us a shorter day on Monday. The boat continues to run great and we have had no issues (knock on wood).

Here are a few pictures from today.


Inside lock 16 this morning.


A train going by as we pass through Utica, NY


A beautiful autumn day on the Erie Canal

Radar Down

As anticipated, we had a very late start today. It is a good thing too, because we had so much fog this morning we could not have left early anyway. We couldn’t see out more than 25 yards.

The great folks at Coeyman’s Landing Marina were able to remove all the items from the radar arch (radar, 2 GPS and a TV antenna) just after lunch time. After a pump out and paying the bill, we got back on the water and underway around 1:45 this afternoon.

We traveled up to Troy, NY where we went through our first lock. We said good-bye to the saltwater and tide at this point and traveled 2 miles to the entrance to the Erie Barge Canal.

We tied up tonight at the Waterford Visitors Center where we put a 65 foot boat in a space for a 60 footer. No problems, but it was a tight squeeze. It was the last available space so we didn’t have much choice.

We will get an early start tomorrow and begin our journey through the “Flight of Five”. The Flight of Five is a series of 5 locks that must be completed all at once. It takes you from Waterford up 150 feet onto the Mohawk River.

More to come…


This red marker was about 10 yards from our boat.


A nice summer cottage backing up to the Hudson River.


The famous "split" between the Erie and Champlain Canals.


It was a tight fit.


We only have inches between our bow and the boat in front of us.


There is at least 6 feet of our boat hanging off the back of the dock. I'm just glad we fit.

Stopped to Remove Radar

We put another 95 miles under the keel today. We departed out of Haverstraw before 7:00 and rolled into Coeymans Landing Marina today at 4:00. We did the entire day at just 10 mph and burned 152 gallons of fuel (.63 mpg; 16.4 gallons per hour).

You just could not have asked for a nicer day on the water. We had bright sunshine with a cool crisp morning. We did not move from the pilothouse to the flybridge until almost 1:00. Passing West Point this morning was stunning. It was just a peaceful, beautiful backdrop to gorgeous autumn morning.

We saw a good bit of traffic heading south; mostly trawlers and sailboats. However, we did pass a very nice 90-foot Azimut on the river today. Other than that, we just enjoyed the relaxing trip up the river.

We have a bit of work to do in the morning. We need to remove the radar and mast light in order to reduce our height to clear the bridges on the Erie and Oswego Canals. So we will have a late departure tomorrow.

Glad to see the positive comments on the forum. I’ll try to post some more pictures again tomorrow.


We cruised the whole day between 950 and 1020 rpms


"Boating in the Mountains"


West Point

Atlantic City to Haverstraw

This morning we pulled out just before 7:00am and are heading north to New York City and the Hudson River. We had another very good day on the water. It was gray, overcast with light rain off and on until noon today, but the seas were not bad at all. We had south wind most of the day and seas around 2 to 3 feet. On this boat, it was like a day in the park. It didn’t feel much different from the previous day which was dead calm flat.

The gray skies began to clear just as we came into NY Harbor. And by the time we got up the Hudson River to mid-town Manhattan the sun was beginning to peak through the clouds. We had a beautiful ride up the river today. We can only imagine how beautiful the color would be if it was October 16th instead of September.

We rolled into Haverstraw Marina today around 3:30 after 144 miles. We took on 488 gallons (.3mpg – ouch). We had to dock twice today which is beginning to be a theme on this trip. After getting all the lines adjusted and set up, we went to plug in the power and the pedestal was dead. So we untied and moved over to the next T-head and did it all over again.

By 5:00pm it was time to get the boat washed and do all of our engine room checks and top off the 275 gallon water tank. Washing a 65-foot boat is no small undertaking. Everything is running great and tomorrow looks like another good day to be on the water.

I took a few interior pictures since several of you asked to see what it looked like. If you check out YachtWorld the listing may still be up with lots of great pictures. Here are a few more from today.


Coming into NY Harbor on a very overcast day.




The lower helm in the pilothouse


Lady Liberty






Skip has the forward V-berth. This cabin is massive.


Lower helm


The salon looking aft.


The salon and galley looking forward.


The boat is so large it is hard to get it all in the frame.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith Go to Buffalo

I need to catch everyone up on my most recent delivery which started 3 days ago. Geoff Smith who is the owner of Smith Boys, the Sea Ray/Meridian dealership in Buffalo, NY asked me to help him get a 1994 Sea Ray 65-foot Cockpit Motor Yacht from Annapolis, MD up to his dealership in North Tonawanda, NY. Obviously I was excited at the opportunity since I knew nothing about this boat and didn’t even realize Sea Ray made 65-foot CMY.

On Saturday I drove up to Annapolis and jumped on board Sea Sextion (the previous name from an OB/GYN doctor). This has to be one of the most spacious boats I have been on. It is a 4 cabin boat with a salon that goes on for days. It has an extremely large and functional galley that opens to the salon and a pilothouse which is perfect for those cold mornings. The flybridge is large as well with a davit and space for RIB.

With any boat that is 20 years old you would expect a few issues. Sea Sextion was no exception. We were having some issues getting the boat started which is powered by twin Detroit Diesel 12V92 producing 1040hp each. We finally identified dead batteries at the DDEC system (not the starting batteries). DDEC is the electronic control system that monitors all the engine functions.

Once we had that figured out, we were ready for a short sea-trial and to top off the fuel tanks. Unfortunately, we never got the first line untied. We discovered a blown hydraulic line to the power steering ram. So the listing broker took off to the parts store. He was smart enough to get a spare in case it happened again. Which it did… two more times. Long story, but after a few choice words by everyone involved the steering system was ALMOST back together by 11:00pm that night.

We started on it again at 7:00am on Sunday morning. Now we needed to bleed all the air out of the system. So with a team of three, 1 to crack the hydraulic lines at the upper and lower controls, 2 to move the steering wheel lock to lock to move the air and fluid through the system, and 3 to continue to add hydraulic fluid to the system and pressurize the system with a bicycle pump we were able to get the system fixed.

At 12:00 noon on Sunday all systems were operational and it was time to get ready to get underway. At 12:30 we pulled off the dock, cleared under the very narrow Spa Creek bridge in downtown Annapolis and started our journey north on the Chesapeake Bay.

This boat has a dry weight of 70,000 lbs. She is a big, honking boat to say the least. At cruise speed of 1800 rpm she burns 80 gallons an hour at 18kts. So needless to say the cost to operate is much more efficient at 10mph burning 16 gallons per hour. So we have been running the boat mostly at displacement speed with the occasional jump up on plane to make our destination.

On Sunday we traveled 60 miles from Annapolis up to Chesapeake City, MD on the C&D canal and tied up around 5:30. We stayed at Schaeffer’s Marina and had a great meal after a long two days mostly in the engine room. The owner Geoff Smith was not able to travel with us, but his wife Celeste is going to be on board for the first 4 days. So far she is loving this boat just as I am and my first make Skip Stokes. The boat has hydraulic stabilizers which have made for a very smooth ride.

On day 3 (Monday) we departed Chesapeake City and continued down the Delaware Bay past Cape May and made it to Atlantic City. You could not have asked for a nicer day on the water. We had sunny skies, temps in the low 70’s and flat calm seas both down the Delaware and out the inlet in Cape May all the way to Absecon Inlet in Atlantic City. We got in at 4:00pm after 116 miles and took on fuel and got the boat cleaned up. We tied up at Kammerman’s Marina for the night and went over to Back Bay for dinner and cold beer. Tomorrow it is on past New York City and to Haverstraw, NY.

A few pictures:

A crowded Spa Creek departing Annapolis


Tied up on the C&D canal


Sunday night there were lots of people enjoying the outdoor dining at Schaeffer's Marina


A little fog as we pulled out of the marina Monday morning


The owner, Celeste Smith, enjoying the view from the Flybridge as we motor down the Delaware Bay