The Lady J: Oswego NY and Lake Ontario

Wrights Landing in Oswego, NY

Well we made it to Lake Ontario and may I just say it is beautiful here. Yesterday was a bit of a tough cruising day. Our actual cruising time was only about 2 hours, but we were out much longer. As with most all old boats this seems to break down daily and I don't just mean the crew. Yesterday morning we left Minetto in beautiful sunshine and started our way up the Oswego Canal in search of Lake Ontario. We approached our first canal within minutes. Mike must have called the lock master a dozen times on the radio and no reply. We finally cruised close enough so he could see us and he opened the gate. We were able to secure ourselves along the dock (ropes this time no cables). As we were securing our lines the lock master hollers over to us and asks if we called in on the radio. Our answer was yes sir we did several times. He then informed us that he was not able to hear us and to check our radio. Well guess what the radio on the flying bridge is not working, no wonder he couldn't hear us. Okay this wasn't insurmountable as we have another one located in the lower helm. Then as we were going to leave the lock our port engine wouldn't start. About that time you just wanted to say "REALLY?" and you can add a few expletives before or after that. Mike decided we could get out of the lock with one engine and we asked the lock master if we could tie up just outside the lock until Mike could figure out what was going on. After about an hour of letting the generator run to fire up the battery (hoping this might solve the problem) nothing. So we made the decision to continue on to Oswego on one engine since it was only about an hour away and we had better chances of getting parts there if we needed to than in Minetto. So off we went.

We arrived in Oswego just about an hour later and were able to dock without any fanfare. We settled in and Mike immediately started trouble shooting the engine. Within minutes he was able to find the culprit, a loose terminal on the wire from the battery was the problem. He quickly had this fixed and the engine was once again in working order. Again, thank God for a wonderful man who is a superior mechanic. I did some laundry at the Yacht Club next door, who is in the midst of getting ready for a regatta today. Nothing like dodging, boats, tents, delivery trucks, and tons of people just to get to a washer and dryer. We spent the rest of the evening touring town and enjoying a nice dinner at a local cafe.

We also picked me up some new sunglasses as my others somehow became cracked. We came back to the boat for a while to relax and then later that evening went for a nice walk over to the park next to the marina. So glad we did as there was a concert taking place with a "Big Band" playing some great jazzy music. We enjoyed that for a good hour along with a hundred or so other folks. The sunset was spectacular. All in all it was a good day.