I finished up my Charleston, SC to Montauk trip on Thursday and flew back to Wilmington, NC. David Bonfili contacted me a few weeks back about helping him move his new 441 from Gananoque, Ontario to Pittsburgh, PA, a trip of over 2500 miles. We were supposed to start the trip around May 24th, but David called to see if I could help him get the boat through Customs on Monday.
I was glad to help since I had finished the trip to Montauk a few days early. I was supposed to fly out of Wilmington to Watertown, NY on Sunday afternoon, but my flight was canceled by the airline. I spoke to David and we were able to figure out a work around. I ended up driving back to Raleigh to catch a flight and making the trip to Watertown. I got in a about 10:30 pm and David and his brother were there to pick me up.
We stayed near the airport that night and drove about 1 hour in the morning to get to the marina and David’s new 2011 441 with Zeus pods. I was extremely impressed with the boat. The original owner had made some very nice upgrades. We took it for a sea trial and all checked out okay. By about 1:00pm, we were underway and heading from Canada back over to the US to clear the boat through Customs.
We took the boat over to Alexandria Bay on the Saint Lawrence River where we were met by Customs. They didn’t do much, but it was required and needed to get done. By the time Customs showed up and cleared us and the boat in, it was too late to make any progress towards Pittsburgh. So we just stayed tied up in Alexandria Bay and topped off the fuel tanks for our run across Lake Ontario in the morning.
Long story, but due to some cost considerations, and the help of the selling broker, we decided to move the boat over to Toronto where the boat would need to sit for about 3 weeks while I finish other delivery trips I have committed to. In the mean time, it will allow David time to change all the fluids and get the boat in tip top shape for our 2500 mile, 14 day run to Pittsburgh.
We had a bit of rain go through overnight, but the forecast in the morning was for calm winds and waves on Lake Ontario of one foot or less. Well, both of those predictions were correct. The Lake was slick as glass and there wasn’t a breadth of wind. Which can only mean one thing… FOG! Have I mentioned before how much I hate fog!
I hate fog. David and I had a ton of it. And not just in the early morning… we had fog in the early morning, mid-morning and late morning. We had fog before noon, at noon, all through lunch and afternoon. We had thick fog all the way up to when were to arrive in Toronto. I have never seen anything like it. Luckily during all of that time, the Lake was like glass. We couldn’t see a darn thing, but it was smooth as a baby’s butt out there.
By the grace of God, about 15 minutes before we were to come into the inlet to Toronto Harbor, the fog lifted. The angels sang. We both breathed a big sigh of relief. We couldn’t have seen 100 yards in front of the boat all day. All I can say is that David must be living right. We covered 188 miles across the Lake in pea soup thick fog.
We tied the boat up, got cleaned up and waited for David’s brother Bob to arrive by car to pick us up. We went out and had a nice steak dinner in downtown Toronto. Then it was back to the boat for a goods night sleep. We got rolling this morning around 6:15. David and Bob dropped me off at Smith Boys Marina in North Tonawanda, NY, for my next trip: a 45 Formula to NYC. More about that a bit later.
I am looking forward to jumping back aboard “Obsession” in a few weeks with David and helping him get his new boat home to Pittsburgh. As I have said many times, the 441 is a great boat. I think it has one of the best overall combinations of comfort and performance. I will pick this thread back up towards the end of May when we start the trip to Pittsburgh.
David aboard his new 441
We needed to take the boat back to NY to clear Customs. Alexandria Bay served us well.
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