tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66262615884270187722024-03-13T06:41:21.492-04:00Slow BoatSustainable voyages around North America's waterwaysCynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833334788490148269noreply@blogger.comBlogger387125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6626261588427018772.post-23013096336927311862023-06-15T16:11:00.035-04:002023-09-05T14:39:52.788-04:00Read about the past adventures of SlowBoat:Our landmark trip around America's Great LoopA cruise on the historic canals of CanadaA summer spent exploring the Erie CanalNow Trending: Electric Canal Boats!Back in 2010, when we first refitted a former diesel-powered canal boat to "run on the sun," solar boats were a rarity. If you were to Google "solar canal boat," you'd get a hit on this blog, and Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833334788490148269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6626261588427018772.post-87378905246924957292021-06-16T14:57:00.020-04:002023-06-03T19:47:59.451-04:00Pausing for the PandemicFor more than a year, solar canal boat Dragonfly sat “up
on the hard” as we waited out the Covid-19 pandemic. No cruising, nada, zip.
Boating sure is fun!Now Dragonfly is back in the water! In May we did the
ritual grinding of the boat bottom; in June we had our first little cruise—just
up to Fairport for the famer’s market, and Pittsford, for the dockside craft
beer.
We’ll do more cruises likeCynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833334788490148269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6626261588427018772.post-69827682268296749772019-11-07T15:39:00.000-05:002019-11-07T15:50:40.325-05:00Intermission, with BBQSolar canal boat Dragonfly is spending the cold months on dry land, wrapped cozily in plastic and propped up on stilts at MidLakes Marina in Macedon. To read about our past adventures:
- Great Loop cruise: 6,000 miles around eastern North America
- Little Loop" cruise: 1,000 miles and the historic canals in Canada
- Terra (Sorta) Incognita: Cruises to Ithaca and Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833334788490148269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6626261588427018772.post-15534173771099671042019-09-24T12:59:00.002-04:002019-09-26T11:18:25.545-04:00Ten Years Canallin'
It’s hard to believe, but true: We recently celebrated 10
years as “canawlers.” That’s the old-timey name for the owners and pilots of an
Erie Canal boat. How does time fly away so fast?
Ten years ago, in August of 2009, we were kayakers. We had
zero experience piloting a powerboat.
Our adventure started when Cap, being a
kind and thoughtful son, had the idea to rent a houseboat Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833334788490148269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6626261588427018772.post-47818062165138748772019-09-19T12:12:00.004-04:002019-09-26T11:18:41.087-04:00What IS It?
The summer is over. Our cruise to Buffalo and back is over. But here's one more installment of the SlowBoat "What IS It? quiz.
The picture at right was taken near Pittsford, NY, when we were cruising with friends Clare and Doug. We spotted this odd watery phenomenom in one of the little side channels you see all along the canal.
So, what IS it? What causes these watery mushrooms to swell up Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833334788490148269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6626261588427018772.post-24591573413599072462019-09-13T21:30:00.003-04:002019-09-26T11:18:56.342-04:00Last Muleskinner on the Erie
The blog has been on hiatus while we were at our internet-free
family camp in MA. Now we’ll catch you up on the final days of our
August cruise to Buffalo.
Mon., Aug 26th: From the old salt port of Holley,
we puttered our way east under sunny skies to dock in the college town of Brockport,
where earlier in the month we’d enjoyed the local street
festival and duck race.
A mule Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833334788490148269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6626261588427018772.post-7998242871587698532019-08-27T19:35:00.003-04:002019-09-26T11:19:22.953-04:00What I'm Reading
I love to read books that connect to the places I’m traveling.
On this trip, both Cap and I read Salt, by Mark Kurlansky. It’s a
sprawling history-of-the-world through the lens of humanity’s quest for salt.
We knew that the Erie Canal made it convenient and cheap to
ship goods around the northeast. We knew that apples, grain, and lumber were important
canal cargos. But we DIDN’T know how Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833334788490148269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6626261588427018772.post-64831155461472026822019-08-26T19:46:00.001-04:002019-09-26T11:19:50.233-04:00Making a Home with Cobblestones
As we headed back east from Buffalo, we flagged the village
of Albion as a place to stop.
The Cobblestone Museum was just
three miles north of the boat dock—easy biking distance
Cobblestone Museum . . . hmm. It’s NOT a geology museum for the fist-sized, rounded stones dropped across upstate New York by retreating glaciers.
But there ARE plenty of cobblestones here! They’re
Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833334788490148269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6626261588427018772.post-81158540145942361292019-08-25T15:41:00.002-04:002019-08-25T15:41:41.387-04:00Is There a Doctor in the House?In our years of cruising on Dragonfly, we've rescued several boats that needed a tow, most memorably a cruiser adrift on the heaving waves of Lake Michigan.
Cap has also put his EMT skills to work. Last summer on Lake Champlain, he patched up a sailboat captain who had mangled his hand in a winch.
On Monday night, in Lockport, he got called out on yet another rescue.
It's a Gull
Two Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833334788490148269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6626261588427018772.post-25757474082730206082019-08-23T16:30:00.005-04:002019-08-23T16:30:43.217-04:00The Kindness of Bikers
On Tuesday we traveled from Lockport to Tonawanda.
Then we pondered our next move. Our goal on this trip was Buffalo--the western terminus of the original Erie Canal.
But when the Erie was reconfigured in the early 20th century, to accomodate big barges, the shallow old canal was filled in, and vessels were re-routed onto the Niagara River.
The current often--though not always--runs fast. Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833334788490148269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6626261588427018772.post-33003514941026230182019-08-22T15:23:00.003-04:002019-08-22T15:25:53.633-04:00Layers of Color
Del and Pam in Lockport.
My darling daughter gave me a gift before we left on this trip. It's a piece of crewelwork to stitch, showing a dragonfly, perched on marsh plants.
The project calls for stitches that are what I'd call indirect. You take a stitch forward, then take the yarn backward a little ways.
Forward, then back. Forward, then back. Building up layers of color.
Our trip this Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833334788490148269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6626261588427018772.post-40520689051690222802019-08-19T17:21:00.000-04:002019-08-19T19:21:00.789-04:00Of Castles and Canal Boats
Dragonfly is cruising the Erie Canal this summer.To read about our Great Loop Adventure (a 6,000-mile circumnavigation of eastern North America), start here. For our "Little Loop" trip (around the historic canals of Canada) start here.
If you've ever visited SlowBoat (or if you're very observant when we post pix), you've probably noticed that, on the stern deck, the left-hand rear Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833334788490148269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6626261588427018772.post-53240605217789847092019-08-14T19:31:00.002-04:002019-08-14T19:31:34.619-04:00The Original Big Apple
On Tuesday, we headed west from Albion toward Medina. Our "Erie Canal Cruising Guide" advised us that we would see apple orchards along the route.
This guide was published in 2006, and a lot of
the information about docks, restaurants, and cruising amenities is out of date.
So we took the advisory about orchards with a grain of salt. But this time the guide was right.
Once we Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833334788490148269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6626261588427018772.post-19973726088935602402019-08-12T18:39:00.000-04:002019-08-13T13:50:07.584-04:00Art for the MassesWhen you visit Lyons, New York, the welcome sign at the edge
of town declares that this is the home of “Mural Mania.” We visited the former Peppermint
Capitol of the World last summer and had fun checking out all the scenes of the town’s historic past.
In Shik Lee checks out the Macedon mural.
Besides painting its own walls, Lyons claims credit for infecting
other canal towns in western Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833334788490148269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6626261588427018772.post-42324685769172761272019-08-11T20:25:00.001-04:002019-08-11T20:25:17.833-04:00Terra (Sorta) Incognita
What happens when you come to the end of the earth . . . or Brockport?
On Thursday we cast off lines at our home dock in Macedon,
headed west. The goal of this month’s cruise: Go all the way to Buffalo, the
western terminus of the Erie Canal.
We’ve cruised the canal all the way east, to Albany. But the
farthest west we’ve ever been is Lockport. So we want to finish the route—end to
end.
Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833334788490148269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6626261588427018772.post-15958967461974418542019-08-09T21:52:00.003-04:002019-08-10T08:13:54.447-04:00Packet Boat to Palmyra
Our boat was designed to look like the packet boats that once carried passengers on the Erie Canal. So it's fun to play at being a packet boat. On Tuesday, our friends In Shik and Steve
brought their friends, Sandy and Dru, visiting from Washington, DC, to the
boat for a day cruise.
We’d already done a “best of the Erie
Canal” tour heading west--our cruise to Fairport and Pittsford with Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833334788490148269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6626261588427018772.post-65040582927552927612019-08-07T20:49:00.001-04:002019-08-07T20:49:47.752-04:00A Sultry Calm
Our guests, Clare and Doug, stepped off the boat in Fairport
on Sunday morning. We motored gently back to our home port of Macedon. They
went on to Rochester, where they visited the Memorial Art Gallery. Later that
day, Clare texted me a photo of this striking painting.
The English-born artist George Harvey painted “Pittsford on the
Erie Canal: A Sultry Calm” in 1837, 12 years after the Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833334788490148269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6626261588427018772.post-18861632323874292232019-08-05T14:24:00.004-04:002019-08-05T14:24:57.762-04:00Set Your Watch to Barge Time
Welcome aboard, Clare and Doug!To see who else has been cruising withus, check our "Visitors" page.
We love having boat visitors. This past weekend, our
friends Doug and Clare joined us for a “best of Erie Canal” cruise from the town
of Fairport to Pittsford and back.
We traveled at our usual 4 mph—the historic speed at which mules
pulled Erie Canal boats in 1825. The sun was shining, Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833334788490148269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6626261588427018772.post-68878845558287185702019-08-04T16:56:00.000-04:002019-08-04T17:19:12.525-04:00What a Load of Carp
SlowBoat will depart
for her cruise west to Buffalo later this week. Meanwhile we continue to catch
you up on her adventures during the July 2019 cruise down Cayuga Lake.
Fins cutting the water. Cue the "Jaws" theme music . . .
Fish That Pig Out
We didn’t need an alarm clock to wake us during our stay at Treman Marina. We were jolted
out of sleep each morning by the sound of loud Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833334788490148269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6626261588427018772.post-14266610382947494442019-08-02T15:28:00.002-04:002019-08-02T15:33:25.716-04:00Boat Gourmet Uses Up the Leftovers
Chicken and sugar-snap peas. Serve al fresco with a beer and say, "High Five! We didn't sink the boat today!"
We call our travel on Dragonfly a “voyage of
sustainability.” Sure, we’re testing the boat’s home-made solar propulsion
system. But we also try to live sustainably in other ways, lots of them having
to do with dinner.
Last week we had super-hot weather. One “good-boatkeeping”
Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833334788490148269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6626261588427018772.post-4925089096446194022019-07-30T10:47:00.000-04:002019-07-30T10:47:13.509-04:00What IS It?
SlowBoat is taking a few "Make and Mend" days (learn what THOSE are here) in Macedon before heading west to Buffalo. Meanwhile, we'll catch you up on our July cruise down Cayuga Lake.
Spotted near the dock at Thirsty Owl Winery.
The July 16th “What IS It?” quiz challenged you to identify a
strange structure protruding from the waters of Cayuga Lake (right).
This quiz was a first Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833334788490148269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6626261588427018772.post-59557666645177945662019-07-29T14:38:00.001-04:002019-07-29T14:38:08.920-04:00Mind Your (Boat) Manners
Sunday, July 21. After a glorious 10 days in Ithaca, NY, we reluctantly
loosed our lines from the Treman Marina dock on and headed north up Cayuga Lake. It was a bracing, sail-boat-y kind of day, with winds from the north
throwing miniature white-capped waves in our path.
Rain . . . It's Nature's Boat-Wash Function
Not too hot, not too cold, not tooooo rainy . . . can't complain!Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833334788490148269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6626261588427018772.post-91862315387763143672019-07-22T17:42:00.005-04:002019-07-22T17:42:50.780-04:00Best Little Marina in Ithaca
Full moon rising over Ithaca.
Mission: Accomplished! We
successfully navigated Dragonfly all the way down Cayuga Lake to Ithaca, New
York.
It was a trip down memory lane, not just down the lake. Cap and I used to work at Cornell. So we were back on familiar turf.
Ignore Your First Impression
We arrived on a Thursday and docked for a little more than a
week at Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833334788490148269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6626261588427018772.post-14430756117802227032019-07-17T14:19:00.000-04:002019-07-17T14:19:37.483-04:00The Brotherhood of the Boaters Strikes Again
Cayuga Lake cottage: Do you not love the cuteness?
July 9: Sheldrake Point to Lansing
As you know, cuteness is a key quality for the crew of the Dragonfly. And as we continued our trip south on Cayuga Lake, we noticed a
trend. The cuteness quotient of lakeside cottages increases with decreased
distance to Ithaca.
Maybe it’s because the cottages closest to town were built first,
Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833334788490148269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6626261588427018772.post-86213105707602333122019-07-16T16:07:00.001-04:002019-07-16T16:07:29.090-04:00What IS It?If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know that occasionally, we post images of perplexing objects and invite you to answer the question, "What IS It?"
Remember how Rocky and Bullwinkle used to say, "Fan mail from someflounder"? Maybe this is a mailbox for lake trout.
This picture (right) was taken near Sheldrake Point on Cayuga Lake, but we've spotted these mailbox-sized structures Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833334788490148269noreply@blogger.com0