July 5, 2001 Belated happy 4th of July! We celebrated the holiday in Cape Vincent, NY, which is on the St. Lawrence River. Cape Vincent is a wonderful, little town - - very "all American". And, for the boaters, the town has room for approximately 12 transient boats between a town dock and a fisheries dock, no charge (no electric or water). We are at the fisheries research dock and it is wonderful. The water is so clear! And the temperatures have been in the mid-50s at night and low 70s during the day. It is perfect. We spent one night on the lock 8 wall in Oswego before crossing Lake Ontario yesterday (4 July). We are now out of the locking business until we hit the Trent-Severn canal. Oswego is a nice town and we were able to stock up on supplies - - which we promptly ignored because we found free food at a Happy Hour at Admiral Woolsey's restaurant. We were also able to put the mast back up on the boat since we are out of the Erie Canal and passed the canal's low bridges. We left Oswego early in the morning and although at noon NOAA was issuing a small craft advisory for the lake, we beat the wind and weather and were safetly docked in Cape Vincent before anything hit. Last night, we grilled BBQ chicken and corn-on-the-cob and watched fireworks from a town in the distance over the water. Oh, what a life ... We plan to leave here tomorrow and head for Clayton and Alexandria Bay, still in NY. On Sunday/Monday, we will head a little north and be in Canada. It is hard to believe that we have been in New York for nearly 6 weeks - - I think we have seen every side of this state (NY harbor, Long Island Sound, canal system, Lake Ontario), all of them very different but wonderful! We are still seeing other boats that we have seen along the way. In Oswego, we even ran across (no, not literally!) other MTOA (Marine Trader Owner's Association) members that we had originally met in Baltimore 2 years ago. They are in the process of doing the Great Circle (i.e. along the east coast Intercoastal Waterway, through the canals, through the Great Lakes, down the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, and then back around Florida). Again, Brian was ready to jump ship and go with them - - what the heck's another 6 months off, right? ... I am starting to be convinced that I will be returning by myself in September/October! All for now. We'll touch base again when we can. It will be interesting to see about the Internet access capabilities in the libraries in Canada. Cruising along (... slowly ... ). Jeri and Brian
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