Castleton NY (2013-10-17)

N42° 31.752', W73° 45.695'

We had had a good trip back to Ottawa (with great results, as reported in the last blog post :-)), but it was time to get back to the boat and get this wagon rolling again.  The trek south has restarted, and the pursuit of the sun has begun in earnest. 


We returned to the boat on Tuesday at about noon.  The drive back to Waterford was good, and even better was that we got to use our NEXUS cards on the return trip.  When we arrived at the border we found a long line-up waiting for the US Customs agents to clear them through.  Dutifully we pulled up to the end of the line, prepared for a long wait.  Just then we noticed that there was a NEXUS lane, and it was empty.  We scooted over to the NEXUS lane, and after a couple minutes a Customs agent came over to the booth, and waved us forward.  After a couple questions we were cleared to continue.  I felt a little bad for the roughly ten cars that were there before us, and were still waiting as we drove away.

After getting back to the boat we did some puttering about and then went to the Price Chopper to do some grocery shopping.  One of the neat things in Waterford is that the visitor's center has an arrangement with the stores in town to allow boaters to bring their purchases back to their boat in the store grocery carts.  Much nicer than slogging a bunch of grocery bags a few blocks.  The carts are left at the visitor's center, and a couple times a week the stores send someone down to retrieve them.

Yesterday we did some cleaning up on the boat, but the main task of the day was to do an oil change on the engine.  Doing an oil change on an inboard boat engine is a little different than changing the oil in your car.  Usually boat engines are buried deep in the hull of the boat, with little accessible space under the engine to put an oil drain pan.  Instead, you have to come up with an alternative method to remove the oil from the engine.  In this case, I have a Pella oil extractor. 

The extractor tube is inserted into the oil dipstick pipe, the vacuum pump gets a dozen or so pumps and just like magic the oil is extracted from the engine.  It's good to warm up the engine for 10-15 minutes before starting to extract the oil as warm oil pumps faster than cold oil.  It also helps to lift any impurities in the oil out of the oil pan and puts them into suspension so they can be extracted along with the oil.

After a while the extractor tube will start to make a gurgling or slurping sound, meaning that it has extracted most of the oil.  It's good to move the tube around, trying to move it deeper into the oil pan to ensure maximum oil extraction.  In our case, the specs on our engine state that it has a 12 litre oil capacity.  I extracted 10 litres of oil and estimate that there was roughly a litre in the old oil filter.  This leaves only a litre still in the engine.  It might be possible to extract most of that remaining litre, but the time it would take for it to completely settle into the oil pan would be longer than it was worth.

After removing as much oil as possible, the next thing to do is to change the oil filter.  On this engine, it's mounted in an inverted position, so it's a bit tricky to get off without making a mess.  Liberal application of absorbent cloths helps, but a trick I use is to first loosen the filter, wrap it in a rag and then enclose the whole thing in a large zip-lock bag.  Give the filter the final couple turns to free it from the engine block and immediately turn it over and seal the zip lock bag.  This works fairly well at catching most of the oil that will spill out of it.

Absorbent cloths to catch any oil that spills

The old oil filter sealed in a zip-lock bag

One thing that most people forget to do is to make sure that the O ring from the old filter is with the filter, and not still stuck on the engine block.  When you're ready to install the new filter, put a bit of oil inside it to prime it, rub a bit of fresh oil on the new O ring to lubricate it, and then quickly install it in place.  After that the absorbent cloths can be cleaned up, along with any spilled oil, and then the process of filling the engine with new oil can begin.  I always like to take my time with this step, giving the new oil a chance to settle before checking the level.

After the oil change we settled in for a couple episodes of Breaking Bad.  We're at the start of season 5, so we're both looking forward to the big series finale at the end of this season, and sad that this great show will be coming to an end.

This morning we resumed our travels, leaving Waterford at around 1000.  We decided we'd have a short first day, and set our destination as Castleton, a trip of just under 20 miles. 

About a half hour after leaving we found ourselves at our last lock for quite a while, the Troy federal lock.  After the lock we are on the tidal part of the Hudson River.  This will be our first experience with tides and the currents associated with them.

There's always lots of interesting things to see while travelling by boat, and today was no different.  Today, as we were passing through Albany, we saw this ship docked on the city wall.

USS Slater, DE-766

I was pretty sure it was a WW2 destroyer, but it ended up being a destroyer escort, the USS Slater.  It's one of the last WW2 DE's left floating in the US, and is now used as a museum.

Early in the afternoon we arrived at Castleton.  We stopped at the Castleton Boat Club gas dock to sign in and then crossed the river to pick up one of their mooring balls.  This is also another first for us, as we've not been on a mooring ball before.  It only costs $5.00 for the mooring ball for the night, and that includes use of the bathrooms and showers at the boat club, as well as use of their wifi.

September Dream tied to a mooring ball

Castleton Boat Club across the river from the mooring ball

Tomorrow we'll continue our travels down the Hudson River.  In a few more days we should make it to New York City.