4/10/18: Now that we’ve found a new home for Shanti, and knowing that we still want to sail this spring, summer, and fall, we’ve been asking ourselves, “Where should we go, knowing we want to end up in New Bern”? We’ve looked at several options, and after long discussions about the positive and negative aspects of each choice, think we’ve settled on one for this season’s cruise.

Option 1: The Down East Circle Route

This is a well-known and well-established route that many boaters take, and some do it year after year. It starts in New York City and follows the Hudson River to the Erie Canal. It follows the Erie Canal to the Oswego Canal into Lake Ontario. From Lake Ontario, it then travels the St. Lawrence Seaway, through the Northumberland Strait and follows the coast of Nova Scotia to Maine. Once in Maine, it goes south along the east coast of the US from Maine back to New York City. Basically, this is the rest of our originally planned cruise, from Lake Ontario forward.

This is the plan we’ve talked about the most, since it encompasses most of our original journey. We have all the charts, chartbooks, and cruising guides for the areas. We’ve researched most, if not all, of the marinas and ports along the way, and also know different places where we could anchor. We know this route the best, since we’ve been planning it for the past couple years.

However, it would also mean that we would have to drop (unstep) and carry the mast of the boat, since we would be on the Erie and Oswego canals for the first part of the journey. Unstepping the mast, making support cradles, and securing it to the boat is not a fun thing. It’s also about 2,000 miles from Kingston, NY back to Maine, so we would be under a little bit of time pressure to get back to the States by early fall, in order to make it to North Carolina before winter.

Option 2: A modified Down East Circle Route

This route is pretty much the same as the first option. The difference is that instead of leaving the Hudson River and heading west on the Erie, it continues north on the Hudson through the Champlain Canal and into Lake Champlain. From there, it follows the Richilieu River/Chambly Canal, entering the St. Lawrence Seaway just northeast of Montreal. It then follows the same route as the first option.

This route would cut off several hundred miles of the first route, shortening the time to get back to Maine in a reasonable time. We would miss the Thousand Islands (where the St. Lawrence River starts after leaving Lake Ontario), and also Montreal, but we would be saving time. We also would have to unstep and carry our mast, as there are many low bridges until the St. Lawrence Seaway. We’ve also been unable to find a suitable facility to re-step the mast on that part of the St. Lawrence. For some reason, they just don’t exist in that area. We’ve searched up and down for about 100 miles in either direction and haven’t found anything.

Option 3: North, then South

We talked about this route last fall while we were on the Erie Canal, and we’ve been seriously considering it since then. From Kingston, NY, we would continue south on the Hudson River. At New York City we would take a hard left, follow the US coast north to Maine, then cross the Bay of Fundy and continue up the Nova Scotia coast, going maybe as far as Prince Edward Island. Once there, we would simply turn around and head back the other direction to New York.

This plan is really starting to grow on us. It doesn’t require us to unstep the mast, which is a big plus. After New York, there are hundreds of marinas and anchorages along the way, so we can really take our time enjoying the trip. Plus, we wouldn’t be under any pressure to get anywhere. We would just go as far north as we wanted, then turn around and head back south. Basically, it would be a more leisurely trip (we think). But for this trip, we would have to get all the charts and books for the east coast, and familiarize ourselves with the area (although we would eventually need them anyway, since both options above take us to Maine and then south along the east coast).

After New York City

Each of those options puts us back in New York City. From there we would head south along the New Jersey coast, up the Delaware Bay, through the C&D canal to the Chesapeake Bay, and south to Norfolk, VA. In Norfolk we would take the Intracoastal Waterway to North Carolina and finish the season in New Bern sometime in October or early November.

So, which way are we going?

As it stands right now, we are going with option 3. Based on our experiences crossing the Great Lakes last summer, including the excellent finish down the Erie Canal, we would really like to take a more leisurely cruise this summer, without feeling under the gun to get anywhere (except for arriving in New Bern later this fall). We definitely want to complete our original journey, and hope to do so, but that will be for another summer. Besides, we’ve heard a lot of good things about Maine and Nova Scotia, and are really excited to explore them.

It’s now early April, and we are getting ready for the trip. We are obtaining charts, cruising guides, and tide & current tables for the east coast. We are researching various marinas, anchorages, and things to be especially aware of (for instance, timing the tides and currents for the passage down the East River and through Hell Gate in New York City). There are some things we need to do with the boat to get her ready for the trip. We need new dock lines, a new hot water heater, and are putting some steps on the base of our mast to make it easier to attach the mainsail to the hoisting line (halyard). We are even re-evaluating the clothes we are taking, insuring we have enough variety for both cold and warm weather.

New Bern and beyond

Once we get to New Bern, then what? To be honest, we aren’t 100% sure. First, that’s too far away to make any firm plans. But beside that, we just don’t know. We will most likely return to the midwest for a while, but hope to return to the boat a few times a year, staying for several weeks (or months) at a time. We don’t know yet how to make that happen, but we believe where there’s a will, there’s a way. Eventually we would like to move permanently to either New Bern or Beaufort, SC, but that will probably be a few years down the road.

For now, we are focusing on the second part of our journey, and we’ll see what happens after that. One thing we’ve learned from last summer’s adventure is the need to be flexible and roll with life’s events as they happen. Some of our most memorable times were those we never planned for, but just happened unexpectedly. We hope this summer brings us more unexpected (but happy) moments.

A new addition to the family!

We received some exciting and happy news earlier this week. Kate’s daughter and her husband welcomed a baby girl into their family. We are grandparents! Kennedy Grace Flannery was born on 4/10/18 at 11:07AM. She weighed a whopping 8lbs 5oz and was 20-1/4″ long. Mom and baby are both doing well… Baby Kennedy is probably doing a little better than mom and dad being they’re both sleep deprived (but for the record, we’re sleeping just fine).

We were excited to spend time with Kennedy during her first couple days. She’s a very calm and mellow baby, except when it came to her first bath: she wanted none of that and let everyone know – that girl’s got a set of lungs! We only stayed a couple days, as they wanted time to bond and figure out their new home routine, so when they left the hospital, we made our way back to Minneapolis. We were sad to go, but happy we were able to be there to meet her. We know she’ll be happy and safe with her big doggy brother, Jordy, to watch over her.

Pics of our new grandbaby