Still in Sylvan Beach

As you can see we did get to hear "The Boys of Wexford". Their session was short because another band was playing at 9 PM. The Boys were to be playing in the park at the gazebo but the weather wasn't conducive.

We rose early this morning and walked to church about a half mile over the bridge. It was at the Catholic Church in Verona. The entire service lasted only 30 minutes barley long enough to get warm. We walked back to town looking for a coffee shop but only one was open and it was standing room only so we went back to the boat. The rest of the story I'll leave to Larry.

Well...............I woke up this morning at 2 AM or so to a loud noise or bang. I checked our boat to see that it was still secure to the wall, checked the boat behind us and ahead. Checked the dinghy. No problem. I went back to bed figuring a log banged into the boat. Wouldn't be the first time.

Late this morning I was measuring the clearance around the back of the boat for a wind generator. The two (Kiss versus Rutland) I am interested in have different length blades so I was checking which one would be best. One has a diameter of 5 feet, the other is 3 feet. The 5 feet blades (Kiss) have twice the output of the other but I want to use it when the mast is stepped and it has to clear the dodger. The smaller unit, the Rutland looks like the one I am going to get. I decided to walk back to the boat behind me and checkout his mounting system for his Rutland Wind Generator. I happened to glance at my boat and saw that the mast was down on the arch and the wood support I was using was broken. The screws probably had 'shattered' at 2AM and the noise I heard was either the screws shattering, the mast dropping on the arch or a combination of both. The next couple of hours was spent getting to a hardware store to buy a button jack (6 ton) and some wood. Scott and Todd from two of the boats around me gave me a hand to steady the mast while we jacked it up and put the new wooden bracket in place. The new one has at least twice as much strength as the old. I am glad it decided to go at night and I had the day to fix it rather than it failing in the middle of Oneida Lake and possibly losing the mast over the side.

Always jobs to be done!

Tomorrow we plan to head across Oneida Lake (20 miles) and then on to Oswego. It will be a long day of around 54 miles and 8 locks. Each lock can take 20 minutes depending on boat traffic and we travel at about 6 knots (~7 mph). Without the locks it will take 7 hours so we are looking at 9 to 10 hours tomorrow. Then off to Sodus Bay and then to Rochester.

Cheers!