The Captain and the Admiral finally getting back on the water

VALOIS POINT, New York - The summer has flown by. It started slow after I had to have a hernia repair (ouch), which meant about a month of relatively limited activity. There went June.

Then the Star-Gazette newspaper and a regional magazine called Mountain Home called me for duty a lot. The assignments were all fun, but all seemed to coincide with the best boating weather.

A great day to head down the lake

We also had a hot spell - a really hot spell - that sent Admiral Fox and I diving not only into Seneca Lake, but into air conditioning. It was actually hard to breath at times. High 90-degree temperatures and 90-percent-plus humidity does not make for comfortable living. Ask anyone who lives in Florida in the summer.

And then, there's the book.

The draft of The Fracking War is now safely in the hands of three expert editors to read, critique and eventually return to me for rewriting, editing or a trip to the landfill. What a relief! (Though this morning I woke up rewriting a chapter in my head...)

Spirit of Louise at Village Marina

Today the Spirit of Louise pontoon boat will head out for a down-lake adventure to Watkins Glen. I just arranged for a berth at Village Marina for a few days - right next to the Sheriff's Boat. We hope to explore the south end lake, perhaps even the wilds of Montour a few miles down the channel.

Then on Saturday, the Spirit of Louise will become a press boat for the day. I will be covering a floating protest against a proposed propane storage project that has the community united - united against it.

About 100 kayaks and other boats will join the floating entourage. I'll be shooting still photos and taking video for the newspaper. I'm really hoping for calm water. Really hoping.

The summer also ended up with virtually no blogging for me - the book and commercial writing assignments took up all the writing energy I had.

But at least until the beta readers return The Fracking War, I'll hit the keyboard more often. In fact, I just finished the latest novel by James Lee Burke - Light of the World. A review of it is definitely in order. A great book. But then, his books are all great.

Seneca Lake days are over, packing for Mexico gets underway

WATKINS GLEN, New York, USA - Adm. Fox and I pulled the Spirit of Louise pontoon boat out of the water Wednesday, a harrowing affair in 15-20 knots of crosswind at a shallow launch ramp.

But after three tries, I finally drove the boat up onto the trailer (risky business, indeed) and summer officially was over for the Valois Point Yacht Club.

Doug Hazlitt offers a Heineken salute

At Village Marina we found Eric and Tina Hazlitt just about to head out for a final summer sail and were lucky enough to jump aboard for a few hours of sailing. Eric's cousin Doug Hazlitt was out and about on his newly built sailboat and, well, of course we raced!

 No need to dwell on results here, except to say it was a lot of fun in some pretty stiff breezes. It was so windy I could barely hang onto my wine glass as we tacked back and forth heading back into the dock.

We left the Spirit of Louise in the Village Marina parking lot overnight and will take the ship down to brother Dan's shop in Big Flats today where it winters under some heavy tarps.

At the helm with Tina Hazlitt tending the jib sheets

Getting the pontoon boat out of the water means it's time to get serious about packing for Mexico as well as ramping up our efforts on preparing stories and photos about our trip to Tonga and the Regatta Vava'u.

Adm. Fox set a date of Nov. 8 for us to put on a show-and-tell slide/video show at the Hector Wine Company about the trip. Gulp. Where did I put all those video chips?

And in the midst of all this, granddaughter Samantha turned 15 yesterday. Fifteen. Jaysus! Happy Birthday, Sami... We'll Skype tonight.

Awash in the news business - but the boats are launched for summer

WATKINS GLEN, New York, USA - Admiral Fox and I arrived home safely from our Erie Canal jaunt, leaving the 72-foot motoryacht Ziggy in son Dustin and amiga Elizabeth's good hands at the port of Oswego, right at the outlet of the canal/river into the chilly waters of Lake Ontario.

That dynamic duo, plus a new captain hired by the boat's owner, took Ziggy the rest of the way to Michigan where the ship nows rests with its happy owner.

Almost the minute we returned, I had to complete a number of writing/video assignments for local newspapers, including a one-hour video shoot (and print version) about U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's (D-NY) visit to a local middle school to check on how well the federal dollars are being spent on a project to help children get access to wireless devices.

You might think the feds would be offering incentives to get kids off digital media, but that's another issue.

Here's the video:



I've also been chasing a local political/environmental struggle. A major propane supply and transit company, Inergy (of Kansas City, MO) wants to store 2 million gallons of liquid propane gas in salt caverns a few miles north of town. The critics of the project have a litany of potential safety and economic issues they believe disqualify Inergy from moving forward, even an inch.

Inergy is hanging tough and fighting back - it's a very lucrative deal/project if they can get past the state Department of Environmental Conservation (which deals with environmental issues) and the Town of Reading Planning Board, the ruling authority.

But here's the bummer. A pivotal meeting about the topic - by the very Town of Reading Planning Board - is the same night as a major brewfest here. And the brewfest is being held to raise money for the legal fund for the people fighting against the project. So, Brewfest or a community meeting?

Gawd.

Here's a link to the group opposing the project: GasFreeSeneca website.

 The best news off all is that the Spirit of Louise pontoon craft is in the water and is sitting at the Valois Point Yacht Club ready for service. The blue rowboat/launch is on shore and ready, too. The Red Rocket sailboat should hit the water this week, in plenty of time for my boat-partner Jennifer Fitch's arrival in a couple of weeks.

After launching the Spirit of Louise last week at Village Marina, we motored from Watkins Glen to the VPYC, taking a couple of hours to do so and making two stops along the shoreline: Mike & Karen Schamel's and Eric & Tina Hazlitt's. It was long, hot trip (temperatures in the 90s) but thanks to plenty of hydrating fluids (largely Labatt's Blue) we made the trip in fine shape.

I even jumped in the lake at the VPYC dock that day to celebrate the beginning of summer. Water temperature - 64 degrees, according to Eric Hazlitt.

It felt a little colder, but still, ahhhh.

That size lighthouse would look great on the shore at the VPYC

Water days on Seneca Lake - and one treasure hunt at a pond

VALOIS, New York, USA - This has been the summer of water for Admiral Fox and I, with lake temperatures in the 70s (perfect for swimming) and also fair winds for sailing and boating.

Unfortunately, the engine on the Spirit of Louise pontoon boat has come down with a serious mechanical flu, taking it out of service for the balance of the season. So, in a week or so, the boat will go into storage with a cure to be applied next spring. The cure might include buying a new - and more powerful - engine to replace the vintage 35 HP Mercury on there now. Maybe that replacement will be a 60 HP Merc.

Zoooooooommmmm.

For the balance of the summer, however, we have the Red Rocket sailboat, two kayaks, and the new blue rowboat.

We'll still be on the water for sure.


Jennifer hoists the Red Rocket main sail


Jennifer at the helm

My boat partner, Jennifer Fitch Marshall, just ended up a way-too-short visit (one week) but had a great sailing week. We went out together one day, and she remembered her lessons well from last summer when we purchased the Red Rocket together and she did her first solo sailing.

Sometime this winter, we hope to get both families aboard a charter boat in the Bahamas for a week - or more - of sailing in those warm waters.



But two days ago we had another waterside adventure - the search for the wedding ring cousin Brett Beardslee lost in the pond at the nearby Pee-Wee Farm. About an hour after saying his wedding vows July 10 to his wife Jesse, the two dove in the pond to go for a swim and the ring slipped off his finger.

Ouch. Or maybe more accurately, oops.

Brother Dan Schwartz, Admiral Fox, Capt. Dan Olsen and Lorraine and I mounted a rescue operation at the pond, where we were met by amigo Brad Phillips who had his diving gear on when we arrived.

Brother Dan made some modifications to his metal detector to check for the ring and Brad did some serious mucking about below the surface where the ring is likely to be resting in a foot of soft mud.

Alas, no joy - at least on that first try.


Brother Dan splicing the metal detector cable

Here's a short video of the treasure hunt for the wedding ring.

New dock, new kayaks, new car: Can summer be far behind?

VALOIS, New York, USA - In the past few days, Admiral Fox and I picked up our new-to-us car from car dealer Hal Van Skiver, had the dock guys from Schamel Brothers show up with their barge to start pounding in pilings for our new dock and - in a total surprise move - the Admiral bought us two kayaks so we can get on the water quickly.

Can summer be far off?

The car was three weeks coming, but worth it: a used 2002 silver-blue Lexus SUV that has so many computer and electronic features it's scary. Still, it is probably the most comfortable car I have ever driven, and so far, getting good gas mileage (good being defined as 23 mpg on the highway).

And, perhaps most important, it has a sun roof, a feature the Admiral has wanted since we sold our sun-roofed Jeep Laredo two years ago to an Ithaca woman who specializes in rescuing injured wild animals.

Now if we just could get some of that sun...


The new car, with new kayaks


The Schamel Brothers pile driver at work

Friday, the pile driver showed up and the air was filled for an hour with clanging and banging as we started the process to get our dock extended out into deeper water. The Schamel Brothers crew will also be putting a large "L" on the end, so we will have a spot to sit and more places to tie up visiting boats (as well as our own).

The posts are driven 6-8 feet down into the lake bed forming a permanent base for the dock. The water should be 6-7 feet off the end, perhaps deeper depending on how quickly the bottom falls away. We need to ensure that it's deep enough to dock the newly-painted sailboat Eric Hazlitt has been working on since last summer.

We have been promised that Monday the crew will be back with the rest of the posts to drive and shortly after that, construction will start on the actual dock.

Memorial Day weekend might be even more memorable this year, particularly if we can sit on the end of the dock.


A sailboat motors north, waiting for the wind

While we wait for the dock to be finished, we have pulled out the gear for our sailboat - The Red Rocket - which we expect to launch this week so it we can use it Memorial Day weekend. The parts were right where I left them, along with a small family of spiders who apparently were studying the instructions on how to rig the boat.

The pontoon boat - the Spirit of Louise - is in storage at Keuka Lake and will splash Friday June 4, the earliest it has been in the water since we bought it.

And the Admiral already figured out that we can carry the two new kayaks on the bow of the boat when we are out and about - even if I have to move the beer cooler a little to accommodate them.


Spirit of Louise at the launch ramp last summer

In the City of Brotherly Love, where America meets the world

PHILADELPHIA, Penn., USA - The couple two tables away from me is chattering away in Japanese and if you listen carefully there are occasional snatches of Spanish and French.

The English spoken by the service workers has a definite twang to it, peppered with some new terms and a Philly dialect that I'm having trouble understanding. My ear is still tuned to Spanish. I remember Philly English faintly from when I went to Villanova University in 1966-1968. That's a longer story.

The Admiral and I have been flying through this airport now for four or five years and it seems almost finished. This cafe - Au Bon Pain - offers exceptionally good food (in or out of an airport) and, gasp, the staff is friendly and seems to enjoy serving the customers.

In Philadelphia. Who'd a thunk it?


Not the friendly skies, but cordial

Our last airplane experience was in December of 2009, when we jetted from Sacramento to Phoenix and then Phoenix to Puerto Vallarta.

Since then, U.S. Airways has changed a few things. For one, no peanuts or snacks, except in first class. And in first class, all you get is a bag of peanuts now, too. But the second change had Admiral Fox's blood pressure spiking to red levels as we got ready to depart Wednesday.

When we arrived at the PV airport hours before our flight, we asked to jump on a nearly empty Phoenix-bound plane. No problem, senora, the gate agent said. But the small problem (for us) was that U.S. Airways wanted to charge each of us a $50 change fee.

In the past, the airline would have simply put us - and our 50+ pound bags - on an earlier flight. They might have even smiled while they did it. (Might have...)

But nooooooo, not now. There is a new company policy. All changes initiated by the customer are subject to fees.

So we sat, are much farther along in reading our books, and I have $100 to spend.


View from the front porch at Valois

Three hours from now we will jump on a small U.S. Airways plane for the last leg of this three-flight sojourn, a Philly-to-Elmira, NY flight that can be exciting if there are any thunderstorms.

But no storms are forecast - and there is even a chance the temperatures might hit 80 degrees Saturday.

Eighty degrees!  When do we get the pontoon boat out of storage and launch the sailboat?


Last summer at the Showboat on Seneca Lake

Cottage gets a facelift and the weather finally warms up

VALOIS, New York, USA - The arrival of our amiga Laura Warner from Calgary meant that Casa Fitz/Fox has had two energizer bunnies in residence for the past week or so, resulting in a long postponed project getting underway: painting the trim on the house.

The cottage has always been kind of Wal-Mart white all the years I have been coming here. And in past years, one side of the house at a time, I have continued with that tradition, slapping on a generous coat of white paint, sometimes capturing spiders and other insects into the patina of the house.

Archeologists will probably thank me for preserving the bugs for study.


Laura and Sylvia painting the blue trim

The effect is dramatic when added to the new open view out the front. With the cutting down of some huge trees that shaded the house (and kept a nice crop of moss growing on the roof), the front of the house is now the focus.

I don't know if the project will continue all the way around (as I put on more Wal-Mart white), but it dresses up the front quite nicely.


Arnold and Laura getting to be good friends

At the same time as Laura and Sylvia have taken up painting as a hobby, the weather suddenly shifted from 70 degree days to 80-plus. And add some humidity into that. The net result is that we have been boating almost every day, including simply going out and letting the Spirit of Louise drift around while we go swimming.

We forgot our float toys the first day out and had to improvise. Laura showed us a Canadian invention that allows you to bob around in the water, and still have a hand free for the beverage of your choice.

And it works.


Laura suits up for a water expedition

Waiting patiently - sort of - for summer 2009 to arrive

VALOIS, New York, USA - The weather has not been bad, exactly, but summer isn't quite here. Sunday, the Admiral and I attended a party just down the lake (traveling by boat to get there, of course) and had a lovely couple of hours in relatively warm weather on a deck overlooking the lake.

We stopped at Cousin Roger's to pick up he and his wife Nancy for the short voyage and had a great time at the party - kind of a summer-is-almost-here celebration. The party followed a huge breakfast at the Hector Volunteer Fire Department firehouse, a monthly event held to raise money for the department.

But when we powered back to our dock, just after dark, the 75-degree temperatures had given way to 60 degrees. An hour later, it was 55 and I almost lit a fire in the fireplace.


Spirit of Louise at the Wolf's dock


Rowboat heads down lake

Cold or hot, my thoughts frequently wander to the Pink Flamingo and I wonder what's happening back in Arroyo Seco. Our amigos Chena and Chon did email once to say that the rain hasn't started and life continues as normal there - with normal meaning that temperatures and humidity have shot up. We found out today that our palapa roof restoration project has not been started, apparently, even though the contractor promised it would be done by this Friday.

Oh, Mexico...

But on a foray to the neighboring city of Penn Yan a week ago, we ran across some perfect decorations for the Pink Flamingo, though I am not sure how we would get them into our suitcases. I suspect I can show them to an ironworker-welder-artist we heard of in Mexico who will be able to duplicate them quite nicely.


Pink Flamingos in Penn Yan, New York

While we were in Penn Yan I also ran across yet another boat that I coveted on sight. In fact, if the price tag had been a tad more reasonable, we might have added the boat to the fleet.

(A tad by the way is slightly larger than a scoch, but smaller than a wee bit.)

The boat is a sister ship to one a high school amigo piloted around Chautauqua Lake in the mid 1960s. This unit is totally restored (the sales paperwork claims, anyway).

It would certainly look nice zipping up and down Seneca Lake.


Century powerboat


Century price and spec sheet

The rest of this week is dedicated to putting the finishing touches on getting the house, the guest house and the dock and waterfront ready for friends and guests. After Saturday's memorial service in Hewlett for my late brother-in-law, Bill Kearney, we hatched plans with family members for lots of visits to Valois, as well as at least one trip by myself and the Admiral back to the New York City environs.

This was the summer I had vowed to get Bill to visit us here, even if I had to truss him up and drag him. Once here, we knew he would love the countryside.

And he would have thought that purchasing that Century powerboat made perfect sense - for me.