Oh yeah - a photo of the whole boat

Chad said he didn't really have any pictures of the whole boat, so here are a couple of them. The Privateer 35 Cambyration anchored in Sawmill Bay, Chaumont, NY (13622).





Meant to post these before, I took them the morning before departure for Oswego.

Catskill, NY

Well, they're in Catskill, NY. Engine trouble. Ugh.

More Little Falls Pictures

We also found some pretty cool houses on our little tour.




This little geometric house was nestled in amongst several larger and more conventional houses.






This house was located right by a public green.





Another shot of Leeann's baby turtle friend.





Chad works on putting the new inpeller in.





I help Chad clamp down a water hose.

Pictures from Little Falls

When Ange and I visted Chad and Leeann in Little Falls, we three girls took a little bike ride around town and checked out interesting architecture. It was kind of like a scavenger hunt. We'd get a glimpse of something that looked promising from a distance and set out in search of it.





I liked this bank building because of the stone railing on the top.




This church is one of the first buildings we found.





It was hard to get good pictures of it without including the power lines.



I thought the saints in the little alcoves were nifty.



While we were looking at this one building on a hill, trying to figure out what it's current use was, the owner came home. Turns out she bought the building from the Masons and lives in one part, uses another part as studio, and rents out a part.

More engine trouble...

Well, they're having more engine trouble, so they've decided to bite the bullet and get a mechanic to work it over. Chad's pretty philosophical about it - he figures it's a pain, but once they get it fixed they won't have the constant wondering and worry about what's going to break next.

Got the latest progress charted - they're somewhere around Athens, NY.

Dateline Waterford

Well, here's where I have them as of today, although I think they might be a bit farther now.

When we swang by Little Falls to see them, Ange, Leeann and I took a scenic bike tour while Chad took the truck and tracked down his ^%E*@%R% package. He changed the impeller and then we went and had a nice dinner at a little Italian place in downtown Little Falls.

More Sushi!

Sushi on the boom at the Oswego Yacht Club.



Sushi trying to figure out how to catch a duck.



She settled down on a sail bag in the cockpit after getting sick and just soaked up the sun.

Sushi!

Sushi as we first set out from Chaumont.




Sushi taking a ride on Chad's kayak.


Sushi on the blue tarp that shaded the boat in Chaumont.

Well, they're stuck in Little Falls for a few days...

So, where, one might ask, is Little Falls, NY? At least, I asked myself that question. I found a map of the NYS canal system and marked the course of Chad and Leeann's trip so far.

1. Chaumont - where Chad was all summer, refitting Cambyration, tending bar at the Crescent Yacht Club.


2. Oswego - the place to which we sailed for the first leg of the voyage. Had dinner with Lisa, of the Sellers family, and her husband. This is where the masts were taken down and where the trip through the canals and locks started.


3. Rome - where Chad and Leeann stopped Monday.


4. Little Falls - the place where Chad discovered engine troubles, forcing a delay.

Cambyration 7 - at the Oswego Yacht Club

Once we arrived in Oswego, we docked the boat and went to the Oswego Marina to see about getting the mast taken down. On the way there, we passed several restaurants. Neither Chad nor I had eaten very much on the trip, due to a slightly green feeling, but now there were tantalizing food smells coming from everywhere.

On the way back to the boat, we stopped and had dinner at Coleman's. It was very good, especially after a long day of sailing.

Once back at the boat, I lay down on the deck and just relaxed. We hung for a bit, and eventually I said I thought I'd go up in the cockpit and take a nap until my niece arrived to pick me up (THANK YOU CAROL!)

Chad and Leeann were both concerned that I would be cold and miserable up there, but I assured them I was not being hard core, that I actually preferred it. Each of them at separate times came out and gave me another blanket.It has been a while since anybody actually tucked me in for bed. Very sweet.

I slept like a rock. Usually if I'm woken up more than a few times I can't get back to sleep, but that night I was woken by five different phone calls and each time I fell back asleep into dreams within minutes.

Cambyration 6 - Getting Close to Oswego

After a bit more than eight hours, we are getting close to our destination. Leeann takes a turn at the video camera (I'm actually on film - what a rare occasion!).

Cambyration 5 - Why the Cat Yakked

This one is fairly representative of the rocking, rolling, and wallowing that we had for most of our trip. If you're prone to motion sickness, it might make you feel a little funny.

Hours later, standing up, sitting down, closing my eyes, the world would roll around me. It was gone after my nap, but it was a bit disturbing for a while.

BTW: There are no shots of anybody throwing up in this video.

Cambyration 4 - Kathy tries to kill Chad

So, I have mentioned before the difficulty of steering in the rolling following seas, with the wind shifting on the stern quarters. Here, I demonstrate how a momentary lapse in attention (while steering with one hand and filming with the other)can have *consequences*.

The wind shifted a bit and the main came around to the other side while Chad was up the main mast. Chad had good holds and was unscathed. Leeann, thankfully, was asleep in the cabin at this time.

The wind was only moderate, so it wasn't so bad, in a heavy wind an involuntary gybe can be disastrous.

Cambyration 3 - from the bow

I hang out in the bowsprit and film back on the boat and on the bow wave, and cool stuff like that.

The Cambyration is a Privateer 36. It's not a racing boat, so it doesn't scream along at death-defying speeds, but it definitely does move well. Chad said that even in the moderate wind that we had it moved faster than the top speed of his old Privateer 25 (Eden).

The house and the decks are teak, the hull is fiberglass. It weighs over 11,000 pounds (including weighted keel). Chad did numerous repairs on the boat, including recaulking the decks, repairing/replacing the head (marine toilet), installing fresh water tanks, rewiring the boat and running LED lighting for it, acid flushing the engine and replacing the carburetor, fixing rigging, it was a real restoration project, and of course it's not done yet.

They'll continue to work on it in North or South Carolina - wherever they end up. A lot of people have asked how these two youngsters, both in their early twenties, can afford to do this boat trip. It's simple. They worked for it.

Chad has been a professional painter for some years with his father's family business. In addition, he has worked retail, tended bar, and done odd jobs and marine repairs, including things like waxing and buffing other people's boats.

Leeann has worked for Petco in Michigan and then in Watertown when she came out here to help finish the work. Although she is fun and sometimes whimsical, as they both can be, she is also very serious about doing her job well. You won't see a "who cares" slacker attitude coming from her.

Pretty much, they both work their butts off, they have maybe more than a touch of perfectionism, and they spend frugally and methodically.

After having met tons of people their age who are spoiled, have a huge sense of entitlement, and who don't want anything that's not given to them on a silver platter, it is really great to meet these two who are not like that at all.

Having said all that, they both enjoy the suport of their relatives. Their parents and extended family have sent care packages, and have lent emotional and logistical support to this venture. They both obviously love their parents, and it shows in how they talk about them.

Cambyration 2 - after Sawmill Bay

For some strange reason, when Google Video did its magic transformations on the video, the sound developed an echo. It sounds like we're in a bucket. Oh well.

Chad took over the wheel for a while (he had to steer his own boat SOME). But mostly, he was having fun playing with the canvas and tinkering. He's a pretty kinetic guy, so I think he was happy to run around the decks as a way to work off some of his excitement.

We started with the jib, mizzen, and main sails, then he took down the mizzen and put up the mizzen stay sail for a while before going back to the mizzen. It was prety hard keeping all of the sails filled with wind at our backs, and we did a lot of experimentation to try to find the right balance.

We really needed a whisker pole for the jib, but didn't have one. Eventually Chad improvised a bit with a small gaff, but we emissed the whisker pole, for sure. As the wind picked up it got even more challenging because the seas got higher. This resulted in a lot of wallowing which started to affect Chad and me and most especially Sushi, the boat cat. Leeann apparently has a cast iron stomach.

In addition to the vague queeziness (well, explicit for Sushi) we had to contend with the steering. Keeping a straight course when the seas are *almost* directly behind you and the boat is wallowing is surprisingly challenging.

Instead of just holding the wheel and pointing in one direction, we had to compensate for each rolling wave and the different directions it would push the boat on the up and the down slopes.

I was still getting used to steering like a car instead of steering like a tiller but it was coming together more.

I am totally in awe of Leeann. She was just puttering away in the cabin while the boat was rolling and rocking like a slow thrill park ride, yet she never got green around the gills.

For those of you who don't know, the worst thing you can do if you are seasick is to go below decks. It's much better to see the horizon and have fresh air. Unfortunately, it's hard to explain that to a cat although Sushi eventually seemd to figure it out on her own.

Did you know that you can give a cat Dramamine? 11.5 mg for an average weight cat apparently.

Cambyration 1 - Leaving Chaumont

This video shows us getting ready to head out and the beginnings of the sail. Sorry for the choppiness of the video, but it's kind of hard to man the wheel and film at the same time.

It was pretty cool. Unfortunately I didn't capture it well, but there were people lined up on their decks cheering, waving, clapping. We didn't even notice until one neighbor actually blew a bosun's whistle. We looked around, and all the sudden saw people everywhere watching our departure.

I was having fun getting used to using the wheel instead of using a tiller, because you turn a wheel like a car, but a tiller goes the opposite direction.

Chad was having a great time putting up all the canvas he could, and generally squaring things away on what was basically the shakedown cruise.

Although the weather forecast had predicted 5 mph winds, which would have made for a slow sail, we were pleased to have something a bit more brisk. In additon,the prevailing winds are usually from the west, but we were extremely fortunate to have a north wind, which gradually shifted northeast. So to go south and then west, the wind was at our stern or stern quarter the whole trip.

Where to put all of my pictures and videos of Chad and Leanne

SO, I have a lot of pictures and video of Chad and Leeann, so I figured I'd put them in a central location.