Greek's Folly on the Great Loop: Beginning of year 4 of our Loop Adventure

June 11, 2018
We departed from Homewood early Monday morning to head to North Port, Michigan where we will store the boat for the winter of 2018-19. We are going to rendezvous with our companion boat Short Vacation, where their captain John is driving back from Brewerton, N/Y. we will leave both sets of cars at the marina for the summer and rent a car to drive back to Brewerton. We picked up the rental car and started back to New York. We arrived at John's boat at 4 am in the morning after driving 10 hours. We all promptly crashed and slept.
That morning at 11:00 am we were at the marina and Greek's Folly was already in the slings ready for launch. Upon launch the batteries wont start the engines so we needed to plug in to charge the batteries. This should have been a tip off of a battery problem we would have to deal with later. We stayed at Winter Harbor for 3 days cleaning and trying to get our outboard motor running. They had repaired over the winter but evidently not as well as they thought. After 3 days of tinkering with it I suggested to Tom the marina owner perhaps I should take the motor to a Mercury dealer to look at it. He said go for it so I took it too Marina 2000 a mercury dealer. There Mike the owner diagnosed the problem as a power module and $300 later the motor ran great. Back a Winter Harbor, Tom refunded my money I had paid them over the winter to repair the motor. Very fair and up right way to treat customers. Winter Harbor is a class place to store your boat and deal with.
We them moved our boat across the river to Brewerton Boatyard where Short Vacation was moored.
WE continued to clean and work on the boat there until our departure.

June 21, Thurs - Brewerton NY to Oswego NY

Departed Brewerton Boatyard with Short Vacation. The day started with calm winds but as we continued the winds increased to 20 mph. We did 7 locks - 1 on the Erie and 6 on the Oswego canals. As we locked, we became a flotilla of 5 boats, all heading to Oswego or beyond. A flotilla has an advantage in that we lock through together, the lock doors were open for us and we made good time with our travels, arriving at the Oswego wall in the mid afternoon. We met many other Loopers and cruisers, exchanged stories, shared experiences and boat cards. The 4 of us then walked into town for the Thursday night farmers market. Of course our purchases included tomatoes, homemade bread and Amish made pie and sticky buns. (My mouth is watering already) It was a quiet night at the wall, resting for an early day tomorrow.

Greek's Folly being launched at Winter Harbor Marina it's winter
home, indoor heated.

Sunset from Brewerton Boat Yard

Brewerton Boat Yard

June 22-23 Fri, Sat Oswego NY to Prinyer Bay, Canada

Up early, Tom checked the boat and we made the first opening of lock 8 at 7am continuing out onto Lake Ontario with 4 other boats - each heading to their own destination. It was cool, the sun was shining brightly as we hit the lake. There are over 30 fishing boats just outside the mouth of the channel as we head straight north to open water. The water is a 1-2 ft beam sea chop, which after an hour begins to decrease to wonderful waters for a northerly crossing. By 1300 we reached the northern shore of Lake Ontario and grabbed a mooring ball off Prinyer's Marina. The Bay is peaceful, with deep water and very relaxing. We checked into customs via the phone and are now set to do our traveling in Canada. The rest of the afternoon and Saturday were filled with boat projects - prepping the fishing poles, update boating files and log, minor cleaning, tuning the dingy motor and of course snacking and eating. Altho Saturday is overcast and cool, the day was comfortable, and enjoyable. Docktails were enjoyable on the back of Short Vacation and we seem to be falling into a comfortable routine.

Short Vacation crossing Lake Ontario on a near perfect day.

From the mooring ball at Jim's Pinyer Cove Marina. $30 per night
Canadian.

Looking down Pinyer's Cove

June 24-25 Sun and Mon Prinyers Cove to Picton

It was a short 2 hour ride from Pinyer's Cove to Picton ON. We travel thru a passageway with deep water and enjoy the ride to Picton which is at the end of the waterway. We dock at the Harbour Inn - they have new docks, short docks which area also narrow. We take up 2 spaces as well as stick out 10 ft. past the end of the pier. We secure Greeks Folly with many lines and feel secure knowing high winds should not accompany the rain which begins to fall. The early afternoon is again wet, but we enjoy watching other boats arrive at the municipal dock, watch the young boys fish and play in the rain, enjoy the ducks paddling around and chat with locals. The rain stops, the sky brightens and we walk into town, up the hill and to the left. (It always is up a hill). There are many shops to visit, most closed on Sunday. and will be a nice activity for tomorrow.

Monday is sunny and bright. We walk into town, which today has alot of car traffic and foot traffic. Pam and Colletta stop at most of the shops, while Tom and John pick and choose their favorites. We grab a slice of pizza and soda at popular lunch stop, then head to a local brewery. Tom and I decide to walk, and Pam and John follow later with their bikes. The walk was farther than expected, so the beer tasted especially good. We enjoyed the stroll home, taking a detour along the water and stopped to chat with local residents along the way. Picton is a cute town, growing and becoming popular helped by the 30+wineries in the area.

The Harbor Inn at Picton, nice place but short docks

Short Vacation and Greek's Folly doing their thing

Checking the water depth so a Krogen named Coconuts

could stern in at the dock. Plenty of water.

A long walk for a cold beer, but worth it.

June 26-27 Tues and Wed Picton, On. to Crate Marine, Belleville

The morning is casual as we leave about 0945 and head north up Adolphus Reach. Many cruisers are moving, many boats are fishing and we just lumber along casually enjoying the green tree-lined cliffs and houses with their wonderful view of the water and of us. We pull into the marina and meet our neighbors who did the loop in 2001. When they went thru New York, the twin towers were still standing. We are pleased to realize that many of our boating skills still exist and have not left us even though we were CLODs (Cruisers Living on Dirt) for over 9 months. The captain has retained all his docking skills but continues to remain cautious as our cruising season has just started. Tom and I got the bikes down, headed into town to take care of business and explore. The downtown area is a little depressed and undergoing some major road construction, but we did manage to find a Dairy Queen which was a nice treat. The marina had a nice area to grill and socialize so we used that space to enjoy dinner and the company of our friends on Short Vacation (John and Pam) and Aurora (Steve and Diane). It stays light up here in Canada until about 2130 which makes for long lovely evenings. Wednesday was our third rainy day in the last six days, however we are never at a loss of things to do on the boat - even in the rain. Tom thought the rain had stopped so we rode our bikes on the scenic path to the grocery store. We picked up our groceries only to find that the rain had restarted. We decided to venture home, in the rain, on our bikes with umbrellas in hand and wearing yellow slickers. We did make it home safety but were wet in the end. If that wasn't enough, the rain stopped again and this time we rode with John and Pam on the scenic path. We took a detour to stop by the Dairy Queen again and then rode thru town.