The travel restrictions that have been placed on Canadians travelling to the USA have forced us to change our plans. We originally wanted to bring Tropical Horizons II up to our summer port at Trent Port Marina for the summer, planning to travel shortly after the Erie Canal would open. Well, as it is often the case when travelling by water, plans change. The COVID 19 virus has changed the world and how we interact in it for the foreseeable future. At least until a vaccine is found and even then no one knows what the effectiveness of such a vaccine would be.
The pandemic had effectively shut down the world for a number of weeks and months. This led to the closure of all Erie Canal job sites halting all maintenance and repair work being performed on many of the lock stations. With these projects on hold, the canal opened much later and as I write this post, some parts will remain closed until mid August. This closure along with the travel restrictions imposed by Canada has led us to make some big changes in our plans.
As I am a dual citizen, I am free to travel between both countries without any restrictions. I often moan about the fact that I need to file and pay taxes in Canada and the USA, but this is a circumstance where I was happy that I kept that up. Karen on the other hand had to fly down to the USA as this was the only mode of travel available to her without restrictions. So after I dropped Karen off at the train station in Ottawa for her long day of travel from Montreal to Albany, I picked up a U-Haul trailer and started loading it up. Tank and I got on the road at just around noon that day, whereas Karen was on the train at 6:30 am.
Arriving at the border, I was asked why I was heading down to the USA and what I would be doing. The answer was simple, I was going to work on our boat and move it from a boat yard in Maryland to a ship yard in Albany. Satisfied that I was not violating any restrictions I was sent on our way towing a 16 foot trailer behind me.
I made it to the airport in Albany about 40 minutes after Karen landed just around 8:00 pm that evening. Leaving the airport we headed to our first stop, a small hotel outside of Albany not far from where the ship yard that we would be using was located. I had made arrangements to meet with the yard manager the following morning to provide him with multiple documents about Tropical Horizons II and the work that we would want them to perform over the fall and winter months. On arrival at the hotel, everyone was wearing a mask and were all keeping distance between themselves while waiting in line. The hotel clerk was behind a shield and wearing a mask as well. We checked in and settled down for the night.
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| Ready to hit the road again after our stay in New Baltimore NY. |
The following morning we met with Eric Everson of Scarano Boat Building and left him with a flash drive with all of the documents needed to review the work to be done on Tropical Horizons II. After a brief discussion with Eric, both of us wearing masks, we heading back out on the road; direction, Maryland. We arrived later that afternoon in Kent Narrows and checked in to another hotel just across the street from the yard where Tropical Horizons II was laying. We backed the trailer in next to her and unhitched it from the truck. I was happy to see her but my heart started to sink when I saw the rust stains starting to show up on her hull. My heart sank even further when I stepped aboard her only to find out that all of the batteries were dead, switches were left turned on, and our stash of Wicked Dolphin Rum was gone. To say I was feeling a little overwhelmed would be an understatement.
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| Tropical Horizons II, in need of some serious TLC. |
The next day, we had made arrangements to meet with John Barrows, the former owner. He had agreed to help me out with commissioning Tropical Horizons II so we could get her out of that yard and into Lippincott Marina just around the corner. John was great and offered me lots of encouragement. We worked tirelessly for 2 days and got her in the water and over to the marina where we would be able to have her plugged in and clean her up hoping that we could breath some life back into the battery banks.
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| Finally in the water again! |
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| Off to Lippincott Marina. |
As a trade for his time on helping me out, I spent two more days working with John on his boat and we called it even. Needless to say the week long stay at Lippincott revealed some other challenges that we needed to face. Stay tuned!
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| Our new home for the next week. |
