May 31, 2018, Day 1

Velomer floats patiently at slip H17 at Port Harbor Marina in South Portland, Maine ready to cruise.  All mechanical repairs are completed including a new starter, starting battery and cables, relay switches.  Her engine hums.  The new West Marine 8.5 foot dinghy rests on the swim platform on new weaver davits, the new 8 horsepower dinghy engine safely secured on the motor mount installed just yesterday.  She is fully stocked with ample tasty and healthy foods plus three cases of our favorite wine, Sauvignon Republic available only at Trader Joe’s, and an adequate supply of dark chocolate.  Her interior has been upgraded with new cushions, decorative pillows, new mattress, towels, and curtains.  Her fiberglass exterior shines with buffed polish.  She is now our primary and only residence.  Even the weather reports are favorable.  This is the moment we have been planning for the last several years.  In boating lingo, we are “all in.”

Our dear friend, Kath Greenleaf, picked us up earlier this morning at Autowerkes, the foreign car repair and sales business, where we drove our trusty Volvo.   We consigned our car to Autowerkes to sell on commission.  Our car was our last attachment to the “dirt.”  Kath drove us back to the marina where we said our tearful goodbyes.  Back on the dock we stood admiring our vessel.  We agreed that I would take the helm guiding Velomer out of the slip, out of the marina and into Portland Harbor.  I took my place at the helm on the flybridge, checked the gauges, and turned on and tested the bow thruster.  All was A-okay.

Bob took his place on the fordeck.  He shouted, “Bow line off” ”. This was my signal to slowly move the gear shift forward.  Bob climbed aboard Velomer while Dick, who lives aboard Merlin across the dock from Velomer, held Velomer to the dock with the breast line.  Dick passed the stern line to Bob who shouted to me, “Stern off.” He released the breast line.   Then untethered, Velomer inched forward out of the slip. I moved the bow thruster lever to port and turned the wheel to port as well.  I slowly gave her some throttle while continuing on the thruster.  Velomer glided to the left slowly easing her way out of the slip and into the fairway between H dock and G dock.  She moved effortlessly with grace and deliberation.  We were off.  I steered Velomer out of the marina, through the mooring field and entered the main channel of Portland Harbor. 

Once in the main channel, I went to engage the auto pilot and pressed the correct button.  A message came up on the screen “auto pilot data not available.”  I did what I always do in this situation.  I called Bob.  He came up to the flybridge, looked at the screen.  We have learned from past experience that the most effective approach is to troubleshoot the simple solutions first.   Sure enough when Bob went to the electric panel in the salon of the boat he found that the breaker for the auto pilot was not on.  Once the breaker was turned on, the auto pilot engaged.  However, the sounds coming from under the dashboard in the flybridge sounded more like dying dinosaurs than an auto pilot.  Not good.

The weather reports indicated seas of one to two feet with a period of nine seconds.  Not as uneventful as a flat calm, but comfortable cruising conditions.  Our general rule of thumb is to divide the period by the wave height and any quotient of two or greater is acceptable although two is marginal. So nine divided by two is 4.5, so this was a go.  Once outside Portland Harbor the weather conditions changed a bit to seas of two to three feet with periods of six seconds.  We’re now at quotients of two and three.  A little rough but nothing we can’t handle.  Plus, we figured that things would calm down once the tide changed.  The tide changed all right, but conditions never really calmed down any.  At the peak of discomfort, waves were three to four feet with periods of three to four seconds.  Wind also picked up to gusts of 20 mph to make for choppy seas.  

Moving about the boat became challenging and we found ourselves braced in our seats on the flybridge with our feet tight up against the dashboard.  The only way to describe the experience is to imagine yourself on a huge trampoline with lots of people bouncing on it and you are trying to stay upright.  We are both very fortunate in that we don’t easily get seasick. 

We arrived at Isle of Shoals protected harbor by 5:00 pm exhausted but none the worse for wear!  We were able to pick up a mooring, toast our safe arrival, witness an outstanding sunset, and throw together a dinner of leftovers.  By 9:00 pm we were snuggled in bed enjoying the comfortable gentle rocking of the boat by Mother Nature.

TENNESSEE RIVER AND IT'S TIME TO REBOOT

Now we've transited the big rivers with their monster tows and tight corners: Illinois (333.4 miles), Mississippi (221.5 miles), Ohio (58 miles) and Cumberland (32.6 miles), VELOMER (and her crew) is (are) enjoyed a long awaited break for resting and refitting at Green Turtle Bay Marina at the entrance to the Tennessee river at mile 24.5.  We have a plan, subject to change, to go as far as Chattanooga at mile 454 prior to the next cruising phase of this amazing adventure south along the Ten-Tom Waterway from Pickwick Lake at mile 207. We will be reverencing our course when we depart Chattanooga to get back to the Ten-Tom Waterway but will be going downstream as far as Mobile from this point.

It is just now we can take some rest and fill in the blog after the last 645 miles.  We did the commercially active, and I mean ACTIVE, rivers without incident, other than a brief kiss of soft bottom at an anchorage we decided was too shallow for out draft.  Leaving Chicago, we decided to take the Calumet River Channel south to the Illinois River as we had take the Architectural Tour on a tourist boat in Chicago.  Seeing the huge skyscrapers from the Chicago River and hearing lots of useless information about the architects of these monsters was nevertheless, a really fascination days trip and I would heartily recommend this to any one with a few hours to spend in Chicago.  We learned about the corruption and graft that early nineteenth century city of sin is famous for, including some tidbits about Al Capone, the reasons Chicago got picked for the 1890 Worlds Fair and why this place is known as the "windy city". Its not because the wind howls off Lake Michigan, and it often does, but the cacophonous and disingenuous political speak of the city fathers.

VELOMER departed Hammond Marina in Chicago on September 9 after an 18 day stay that allowed us a trip to Colorado to stay with Phoebe and Erik and the special g-kids we have missed so these past few months.  They were finishing their rafting season and I believe they did enjoy us being there to play with the kids while they closed shop after a record breaking season 4.  I know we did.  hanging out with these 4 year old twins returns us to a simpler time and perhaps one that is honestly more about what life should be.

So off we went to explore the rivers for awhile.  We will be on rivers and some lakes for the next few months as we travel south attempting to stay ahead of the fall frosts and winter snow to Mobile and the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico and saltwater again.  Our boat insurance carrier, Boat US, requires us to stay north of the Gulf until November 1 but as we are getting a late start, we will not have that as an issue.

First stop was Joliet, the famous locale of Joliet Jake from the movie Blues Brothers.  There really is a large prison here which we spotted as we tied to the wall in the downtown. The locks on the Illinois River are huge an the tows immense compared to anything we've encountered as yet. The locks are 600 x 110 to accommodate tows that often have to lock through in two pieces.  Soon after we departed Joliet, we were delayed at the Dresden Lock for 4 hours, while we anchored, to allow a tow to lock upstream.  We waited a few days at Heritage Harbor Marina in Ottawa for Jim and Gwen t catch up after they had some repairs in Chicago.  Our time there was put to use biking into town and touring the Heritage Harbor Condo development project (build it and they will come).  As often happens, we met some great people, one of whom gave us his car to play tourist and get in some hiking at Starved Rock State Park and get our laundry done in town. This town is almost within reach of Chicago and will no doubt be a fine populous community in a few years, assuming the economy does not tank again.

After Ottawa and meeting up again with Chimera II, we went down river to Hamm's Marina in Chilacothy, Ill, a slightly bizarre place with decrepit river boat casino paddle wheel and old barges beached like rotting carcasses around the entrance and in the embayment where we spent one night.  I had never seen a shower set up like those we encountered here, a switch on the wall turned on the shower, no volume or temperature contols just water on or off.

Pioria was next and a few days visiting this fun town at the City Museum featuring local history and a great display of vacation photos and the Caterpillar factory museum where the largest machine I've ever seen was on display along with memorabilia of the WW II era female baseball team the movie League of Their Own was modeled after.  The real players did not look much like Madonna and Genna Davis though.  I had an interesting and unexpected  dip in the river whilst assisting a larger boat to land at the dock here but will let that pass for now.  Perhaps PM will write about that event but it is perhaps better left in the dustbin of this adventure.

Tall Timers had voracious mosquitoes, Big blue Island was out frst anchorage, Alton marina saw us entering the mighty Mississippi and Hoppi's Marina, which is just a couple of old barges tied to the river bank, was everything the cruising guides say it was including the infamous Fern who provided us with local knowledge for our transit down the Mississippi to Cairo Il. and then up the Ohio River to Peducah, KY and the entrance to the Cumberland River and finally to Green Turtle Bay Marina at the confluence of the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers.  This time on the rivers was past, and we all felt it was time to rest, navigating in and among large tows, 4 wide and 10 long, on the Ohio River and through the not to be missed at least once in a boating life Lock 52 south of Peducah was exhausting but we had it in the books.  Perhaps we will not pass this way again but we will forever remeber this time as the most requsite of courage and endurance.  We are awsome on VELOMER.

I LOVE THIS LIFE.

Hard Aground - the Next Chapter

PM's Perspective

Much water has passed under Velomer's hull since my last entry.  Antsy to leave Buckhorn at 3:30 PM on Thursday, July 17, the furthest we could cruise safely before the locks shut down for the night was Bobcageon, 18 statute miles away.  I called the lock master at Lock 32 in Bobcageon to find out if there was room along the upstream lock wall where we could dock for the evening.  He responded that there was no room at the present time but that the situation changes moment to moment so we may be able to find space.  He also stated that if we arrived later than 30 minutes before the lock closed for the night at 6:00 PM we could tie up at the blue line.  FYI, the blue line is literally a blue line painted along that portion of the lock wall where a boat wanting to go through the lock on the next opening ties up to let the lock master know his/her intention.  Amazingly, by the time we arrived in Bobcageon, a perfect sized space along the starboard side of the lock wall had opened up.  The folks on the boat docked ahead of us assisted our landing.  An extra bonus was the electric post right by our area of the lock wall where we could plug into power, an unusual occurrence along the lock walls.

The next morning, we breakfasted at the Smart Egg and walked around town visiting Bigley's, a huge shoe and clothing store directly on the waterway, and stocking up on dark chocolate at the local

Traveling through the Trent Canal
on a rainy day.

grocery.  We left Bobcageon by 10:30 AM headed for Kirkfield, the site of the second lift lock and the point along the Trent Severn Waterway where we start locking down.  The day went very smoothly and delightfully uneventful save for the occasional rain shower.  We arrived at Lock 36 about 3:00 PM.  Entering the pan of the lock felt like we were about to fall off the edge of the earth, an eerie feeling but with sweeping views of the surrounding countryside.  We descended 49 vertical feet marveling at the mechanical engineering feat of the lock.  At the bottom, we pulled to the starboard side to tie up at the downstream lock wall for the night.  As we tied up, we encountered a couple who were disembarking from kayaks heading upstream.  Not to be one to pass up an opportunity to engage in conversation, Bob started talking to the couple and invited them in for some hot tea as they were both shivering from the cold and damp.  As we discovered, they are from Campbellford and are actually friends with the OPP officer who took our grounding report. Talk about a small world!

Hole in the Wall Bridge

The following day we cruised to Orillia, the port on Lake Couchiching.  Our journey took us under the Hole in the Wall Bridge as we entered Canal Lake, across Lake Simcoe and through the Narrows, the site of Ojibway fishing weirs.  We stayed at the town marina for three days enjoying what the area has to offer including biking trails, the OPP museum, art museum, and Champlain Park.  We shared the marina with at least three other loopers so we were beginning to feel that the grounding did not delay us all that much.  We may have been bypassed by the folks we were traveling with before the grounding, but plenty of others were available to share the experience as we journeyed on.

Over the course of the six days away from Buckhorn, Bob began to notice the bilge pump going off more than usual which concerned him.  He investigated the hull and found seepage along the rear head intake.  He suspects that the grounding caused numerous hair line cracks in the fiberglass that are pathways for water to seep in.  He was able to minimize the seepage with gobs of life caulk but was not able to stop it entirely.  Bob called Boat US to inform them of the additional damage yet to be repaired.  They said that subsequent repairs are often indicated after such a hard grounding and that these repairs can be done later after we returned to the US.

Our time in the Trent Severn Waterway was nearing an end. After Orillia, we had 32 more miles and four more locks including the Big Chute (Lock 44) before entering Georgian Bay.  We left Orillia

View aboard Velomer while on the Big Chute heading
toward Gloucester Pool

and headed for Big Chute intending to spend the night on the upstream docks before actually going on the Big Chute.  Although not a lock in the strict sense of the term, the Big Chute is a marine railroad that carries boats on a travel platform between Upper Severn River and Gloucester Pool a vertical distance of 58 feet.  The marine railroad platform slides into the waters of the Upper Severn River, loads boats (with crew aboard) on the platform and holds them in place with straps.  Once the boat is secure, the platform raises up out of the water along railroad tracks powered by cables, crosses Big Chute Road and travels down the incline to Gloucester Pool where it again slides into the water and releases the boats.  It is quite a site to behold.  We arrived in Big Chute at 2:45 PM and spent the rest of the afternoon watching the process several times to prepare ourselves for the experience the next morning. The next day Velomer glided onto the platform under fair skies. Everything went extremely smoothly and we were on our way.  Our next stop was Midland, Ontario in the Georgian Bay.  We had completed the Trent Severn Waterway leg of our Great Loop, a distance of 240 miles, 44 locks, 1 grounding and countless wonderful experiences and delightful people!