Two Days into One

Two-fer...

Well, this is a first.

Greg and Bonnie, the owners of Bonnie Lee, jumped aboard the 541 in Phoenix, NY yesterday. We pulled off the dock at 8:40am and transited the entire Oswego Canal. We covered all 7 locks by noon. We stopped in Oswego and took on about 400 gallons off fuel before heading out onto Lake Ontario. We covered the entire lake, which was flat calm, and pulled into the entrance to the Welland Canal at Port Weller at 7:00 pm. We tied up to the wall and expected to settle in for the night and transit the canal first thing in the morning.

Well, sometimes the plan changes. Greg called into Canadian customs and we cleared into Canada. He then immediately called the canal to see about tomorrow morning to run the canal. They said if we left right away, we could run the entire canal without any stops. Too good to be true...

So we untied the lines and headed into the first lock at around 7:30 pm after a 10 and half hour day running the Oswego Canal and Lake Ontario. No rest for the weary. We got stopped at Lock #2 for about 30 minutes for some commercial traffic to pass. Then it was game on. We transited the rest of the Welland Canal in record time. We finished the canal and tied up in Port Colborne, Ontario at 1:00am. We were dead dog tired, but we compressed a normal 10 to 12 hour day into 5+ hours.

Anyway, we got up this morning and make the easy run from Port Colborne to Buffalo in just over 3 hours. Boat ran great and we had an easy ride to our home port. Another trip in the books. We covered just over 1,900 miles from Ft Lauderdale where we started the trip back on July 6th. It is good to be heading home.


Lock 1 on the Oswego Canal


Another flat calm day on the canal.


Lock 1 on the Welland Canal.


Greg Hewitt at the helm of his 541 on the way out of the Welland Canal to Buffalo.


Greg & Bonnie heading into Buffalo.


The Bonnie Lee III tied up at the Buffalo Launch Club in Grand Isle, NY.

Onward to Phoenix... New York

We did another 6 locks and 83 miles today on our way to Phoenix, NY. Today was almost all no wake speed of 10mph with the exception of Oneida Lake. We were off the dock in Little Falls at 7:30 this morning and waiting at lock #18 at 8:00am when they opened. We finished on the Oswego Canal at lock #1 in Phoenix, NY.

While the day was great and the weather almost perfect, it was sad that Ray had to head back to Detroit today. He has a commitment on Friday to take his son and some buddies on his boat to Put-In-Bay on Lake Erie for the weekend before heading back to college. Ray was a great asset on this trip and we had a ton of good times and laughs over the past 7 days. I can't begin to thank him enough for his help and friendship through the years.

Tomorrow morning the owners, Greg & Bonnie Hewitt will jump back on board and finish the trip with me from Phoenix to Buffalo. We will complete the Oswego Canal in the morning and then head across Lake Ontario to the Welland Canal on Thursday. On Friday we will transit the Welland and continue on to Buffalo and finish the trip. A few pictures from today.


A great start to the day.


Lock #19 on the Erie Canal.


Lock #20


We had been locking "Up" all the way, this was the first lock where we started heading back down.


Lock #23. One of the nicest on the Canal.




Tied up the small town of Phoenix, NY. Just a beautiful day to be on a boat in Middle America.

80 Miles and 16 Locks

Sometimes words are simply inadequate. We had a beautiful day on the Erie Canal. We covered 80 miles and 16 locks on a day that was more like Autumn than August with temps in the low 70's. Simply spectacular.


We came off the dock in Waterford about to enter the first lock on the Erie Canal.




The redneck hardtop.


Redneck Ray?




How about having the Erie Canal in your backyard?


Video coming into Lock #3 this morning.

Fast Jimmy

The dynamic duo had another interesting day aboard Bonnie Lee. We departed out of Riverfront Marina this morning just before 7:00am. We went about a mile up the river to the Newburgh Yacht Club to take on a few gallons of diesel so we could make it up to Coeyman's Landing Marina about 70 miles north. We put only 35 gallons of diesel in as the price was a bit high at $3.50/gallon. We probably had enough to make it up to Coeyman's, but better safe than sorry. We pulled into Coeyman's at 10:30 this morning.

We needed to stop at Coeyman's so that they could remove the radar from the hardtop as well as change out the transmission fluid and filter on the new Zeus transmission. We figured we would probably end up spending the rest of the day there to get the work done and would overnight. Boy were we wrong. Coeyman's was flawless today. I have to give a huge shout out to Jimmy the owner who took down the radar and changed out the transmission fluids. He did both jobs in just over an hour. Unbelievable! He had all the parts and fluids. We were in to the marina at 10:30am and he was finished at 12:45. We paid the bill and were back on the water at 1:00pm. I still can't believe it. He did a great job, very neat and clean. I would recommend the service yard to anyone.

We finished the Hudson River today and are now at the first lock on the Erie Canal in Waterford, NY. Just as we were coming out of Troy Lock on the Hudson River the skies opened up and it rained sideways. Mix in with that some hail and we had a real rodeo on our hands. It rained so hard I couldn't see a bridge about 100 yards in front of me. It literally just disappeared in the rain. We put skyhook on for about 8 to 10 minutes until the rain slowed enough we could see to move forward. Since the radar was now off the boat we were literally blind.

Anyway, the rain did finally stop after about an hour and we tied to the wall in Waterford at the welcome center. We are now all staged and ready to start our passage through the Erie Canal tomorrow. All things considered, we had another great day. Ray is really looking forward to the canal and all the locks tomorrow since it will be all new to him. He has been a great help on the trip and we are having a blast telling boat stories.


This is my first attempt at posting a video. This is how our day started as we ran up the Hudson River. Just a little bit windy but really beautiful.


This is how our day ended. Heavy rain, hail and winds gusting to likely 35kts.

Cape May to Newburgh, NY

Another perfect day aboard Bonnie Lee. We pulled out of Cape May at 8:00 this morning. The winds were calm, the seas were flat and there was very little humidity in the air. Ray and I had a beautiful ride up the Jersey coast to New York City. The New York skyline was as beautiful as I can ever remember. There were lots of small pleasure boats out in New York Harbor as we began our ride up the Hudson River.

We pulled into Riverfront Marina in Newburgh, NY tonight a few minutes after 5:00pm after cruising another 205 miles today. Ray's sister Terry met us tonight for dinner. She came with home made chocolate chip cookie for her big brother. THANK YOU TERRY!

The new transmission seems to be working perfectly and all systems have a green light. Tomorrow we run up to Coeyman's Marina where we need to have the radar removed to reduce our height enough to clear the low bridges on the Erie Canal.


Perfectly flat sea conditions coming out of Cape May this morning.


Barnegat Lighthouse


Lower Manhattan skyline

On to Cape May, NJ

So far, "knock on wood", the dynamic duo are having a great trip. We pulled out of Coinjock yesterday morning at 6:30 and started heading north. In the back of my mind I was hoping to get to Cape May, NJ, but things had to go right. Fortunately for us, everything did go right. We covered 230 miles over 12 hours and pulled into Cape May last night at 6:25pm. We didn't have any issues with the bridges and locks around Norfolk which helped. Then we got really good sea conditions. Seas started out flat coming out of the Chesapeake Bay and end up around 2 to 3 feet near Chincoteague Inlet and Ocean City, MD. Not bad at all and the boat continues to run very well with the new transmission.

Today we will head up the NJ coast to NY and then start our trek up the Hudson River toward the Erie Canal. We are not sure where we will finish the day, but we will put as many miles under the keel as we can.


Bonnie Lee getting ready to go back in the water after the transmission was replaced.


On Thursday the generator crapped out. She needed a new impeller as you can see many of the fins were missing on this one.


We saw this mega yacht as we came through Norfolk yesterday.




Saw this ship getting ready to enter the Delaware Bay.


Bonnie Lee tied up in Cape May, NJ at South Jersey Marina.

Back on the Water with Bonnie Lee

This is going to be a quick post, but I wanted to try and get everyone up to speed on this trip. I didn't mean to leave this trip in "limbo", but that is exactly what has happened for the past two weeks.

A quick recap: We lost the starboard pod/transmission on the trip from Charleston, SC up the east coast. We limped in on one engine and ended up in Wrightsville Beach, NC back on July 11th. From there it has been a long road to get the boat repaired. Long story short, the boat has a new transmission on the starboard pod and I picked the boat up yesterday, July 30th. This morning I departed out of Wrightsville Beach with an incredibly talented and resourceful first mate by the name of Ray Batt. Ray was kind enough to help me on very short notice to get the boat up to Buffalo. We ran the boat 232 miles today up to Coinjock, where Ray had the pleasure of partaking in the tradition of the famous Prime Rib. Boat ran great today without issue. We are hopeful for another good run again tomorrow. We might make it up to Cape May, NJ if the weather cooperates.