Shake Down Cruise

Selah is a Hebrew term with MANY meanings. We're using "pause and consider".

 David, our captain, doing some engine repairs before casting off.

 Martin Dudley (Uncle Fud) re-setting the flag stantion so it won't fall off enroute!

David & Amy, Captain & First Mate showing off our AGLCA burghee which means we are in progress of cruising the Great Loop.

Brother extraordinairre, Tom Briggs, inflating the fenders before heading out. Of course, DOG is helping!

Typically, a shake down cruise wouldn't be a three day journey, but it seemed to be the best option for us. For insurance (other than our insurance policy) we invited my brother, Tom Briggs and his buddy since childhood, Martin Dudley (affectionately known as Uncle Fud) for their boating experience and wisdom of all things nautical. Also, we know a good amount of humor is always needed for serious undertakings!

This is an impeller. It's missing some "fins" as I call them. It's a vital piece of the cooling system of our engine so we had to wait for a replacement part before leaving the marina in New Baltimore, NY (south of Albany).

A head is also a vital piece of equipment for the first mate to have. It was a stubborn repair and held us up for a few hours. Happy to have it operating now!

Brother, Tom, and Fud reading the manual - brilliant!

Martin doing his electrical genius work making the marine radio operable - we hope.

Who knows what they are doing here - it's most often a bilge problem meaning the engine or some part of what makes the boat go.

Most won't know what this is, but I do! Selah Way is a documented vessel
and requires the documentation number permanently applied on the vessel.
We used vinyl numbers from the hardware store and Fud applied epoxy.

There are soooo many details and major issues to deal with before splashing a boat. David worked tirelessly every weekend beginning April 6th until we left on May 25th. Over 21 days of mostly sanding, painting, steering repairs, engine repairs, electronic repairs/updates (thanks to our son, Graham Deutl), head installation and repairs, and anything else located mostly in the bilge.

We met our crew (Tom & Fud) at Donovan's Shady Harbor Marina on Thursday, May 24th in the afternoon. They arrived a bit before us and mistakenly loaded ALL their gear into the wrong 1980 Albin 36!!! Thankfully, when David and I arrived, we redirected them to OUR boat and they took the walk of shame down the wrong dock with an empty cart to collect their belongings and bring them down our dock to the right vessel. Sorry, George!!! Hope he appreciated the tidying up and expert knot work done on a couple of his lines.... (see the video "Whoops, Wrong Boat!" for full details ).

We enjoyed a great meal with our nephew and his family (Darin & Cyd Shears, Gabby, Ryan, Janice, Kim, and Sadie) and headed back to the boat for a good night's sleep.

The morning of May 25th (Friday), we woke up had coffee and breakfast and got to work immediately on the final fixes. There's seriously soooo much to do before casting off. The new head we purchased was not a "plug and play" situation, so it took a little more time than anticipated. We finally cast off the dock at 11:15 am and headed north up the Hudson River to our final destination at Point Bay Marina in Charlotte, Vermont on Lake Champlain.

Our first sunrise - more of these along with some sunsets to come :-).

                                             Moments before casting off from the dock - we're ready!

 

We cruised without any issues from Selkirk (Shady Harbor Marina) past Albany and Troy and arrived at the Troy Federal Lock - our first lock experience!!

We ended our first day beyond Lock C-2 at Mechanicville, NY public dock arriving at about 4:30pm. We shared the dock with a large cruising vessel headed to Burlington, VT and owned by the late Tony Pomerleau. His daughter was on board along with some friends and a captain flown in from Florida to take her up the canal. We had free electricity, clean, hot showers, and a store within walking distance for ice and cold drinks.

We had plenty of laughs along the way. At one point, we had to hug the shore as a large barge and tug passed by us. Here's the video of the episode. So many new experiences to share!

On Saturday morning, we woke up and had coffee (breakfast was had underway) and left the public dock to catch Lock C-3 when it opened at 8:00am. Saturday was our big day of locking through nine more locks. We entered the last lock at Whitehall, NY at 4:30pm and decided to take advantage of the daylight hours and continued heading north on Lake Champlain two more hours to Chipman's Point Marina where we stayed overnight. This marina feels like a throw back in time with its quaint, rustic feel with all the necessary amenities (water, showers, good people, and ice). Notice I didn't include fuel - only because we never need any!! It's true! Our single diesel engine is a "sipper" and so far it remains close to 1/2 full. We paid $45 for the night ($1.25/ft) and free ice, because it was last year's.

I was motivated on our way through the locks to do some cleaning, so I took on the main head and cleaned from top to bottom - boy, does it shine! I found the shower to have an incredible amount of water pressure - can't wait to try that out. But, when I finished in the head and went to the galley sink, I noticed we had "NO WATER PRESSURE" - oh no!!! Well, thinking that I might have blown a hose in my endeavors to have a clean head, I fessed up to the captain. He and Fud spent the first few hours of Sunday morning trying to narrow down the area where the leak originated. We refilled the water storage and after more coffee and a good breakfast headed north again.

Sunday morning was a windy, overcast day with temps in the '60s. We left the dock at 11:15am and headed north to our final destination. We thought it was take up to 3 hours but finally arrived at our dock about 4 hours later at 4:15pm. We celebrated our arrival and quickly headed out by car to take our crew back to Albany and retrieve our cars. David and I drove back to VT and spent the night on the boat. It felt really great to finally have Selah Way home.

The shake down cruise was a successful voyage! We are so thankful for Tom and Fud and the knowledge, experience, and confidence we gained from them. David has decided that 11-12 hour days at the helm are too much. New rule - stop before 4pm and enjoy yourself! This was already a known fact, but this trip was more of a job we wanted to have accomplished in 3 days. And WE DID IT! Three days - 21 hours - and lots of laughs, good talks, and plenty of food.

Selah Way - we are looking forward to a wonderful summer on Lake Champlain and wherever else the anchor takes us. Hoping to share this time with friends and family along the way so stay tuned!