Roger Arrowood : 1952-2015

The day we left West Point we received news that a good friend, Roger Arrowood, died while on a diving excursion in the Florida Keys.  Roger was a good friend and a very good man.  He, and his wife Jacki, both retired from the Navy as Captains.  We first met them, and their dog, Rowdy, in the Bahamas in the winter of 2007-2008.  Just like Gene Hackman in  the movie Crimson Tide, Rowdy is a Jack Russell terrier.  The Arrowoods were in the Bahamas on their trawler, Pelican.

My first contact with Roger was at a Chili Cook-off where we were competitors.  He is shown at center leaning forward wearing the goofy chef's hat.  I'm on the left in my Exxon apron... which did little to enhance my cooking credentials.  The smile on his face was a Roger trade mark.  He was up beat about everything, enjoyed life and had many friends.

Roger's sense of humor was well known amongst his friends.  He once gifted me with a t-shirt and made me promise to wear it before I unwrapped it.  

Another time, we let him borrow our car while they were visiting Florida.  He and Jacki made an unauthorized modification to my car's license plate that I did not notice for quite some time.

I've been planning my revenge and those who know me realize that I don't hold a grudge more than 20, 30 years...tops.

Since that first winter in the Bahamas, we've gotten together with the Arrowoods at our places in Florida and Virginia, at theirs in North Carolina and Roger crewed for us sailing around Cape Hatteras.  Most recently, we visited them at their new home in the Florida Keys last February.

Roger died from a dilated cardiomyopathy, something that has no symptoms and is often the cause of sudden death in athletes.  He was swimming back to his boat after diving when it occurred.  The memorial service plan includes the Navy spreading Roger's ashes at sea with full honors.

Roger will be missed by everyone who knew him and the world is lessened by his passing.


Roger Arrowood:  Requiescat in Pace

Cruising is like a box of Chocolates...

Ed. note:  If you click on a picture in the blob, it should blow up to a much larger size.  I realize many of you know that, but it came to my attention that not every reader was aware.

At the end of our last episode, Susan & I were headed back to the NY State Canal system.  We left the little town of Fair Haven and headed for the canal entrance in Oswego.  When we arrived and passed thru the first lock to tie up at the wall, my brother Mark had left his car there for us with the keys hidden inside.  What a guy!

We headed south from Oswego with only 29 more locks to the Hudson River.  The locking on the way south & east went much better than the trip north mostly due to much lower water flows and our recent practice on the way north.  I'm going to take a moment here to elaborate on locking and docking since quite a few folks have asked questions.

This pic shows our boat (center, left) in the standard size lock with six other boats, after we are secured to the lock wall.  To get us secured, you can see Susan (below), using a boat hook to snag a line that she then ties to the 40,000 lb boat.  The captain is required to put the boat in reverse to stop the boat at the correct point and but not reverse too much and pull her into the water.  The captain then moves smartly to the stern and secures another line before the boat goes sideways in the lock.

Once the water level goes up/down, the boats motor out like a row of ducks to the next lock.  We transited 60 locks on this trip, about 7-8 each cruising day.

I mentioned in an earlier post that the highest lock, Little Falls, had a guillotine gate on the east side.  Susan got a great shot as we exited the lock.  The boat must pass under the guillotine and it disturbs us to do this more than it should.

Cruisers on the canal often stop at the same places and get together on the docks at the end of the day for what is called "docktails".  This gathering occurred in Amsterdam, NY, after a nine lock day.  Temptation's crew is seated farthest from the camera.

Lest you think the trip is nothing but stunning views and unlimited booze, as we were motoring east on the canal after one of the locks, we heard and felt a large BOOM.  I jumped up and looked astern to see one end of a large tree pop up from under our boat.  It then sank back out of sight.  (Ed note:  Robin, cover the grand kids eyes.)  @$%^$%#$#!$%^&% we struck a submerged log!

I then went into discovery mode to check for damage.  Luckily I could find no water coming in nor were our water intrusion alarms sounding.  However, a check of the propellers revealed that the starboard (right side for the infantry) prop had a serious vibration starting at about 1,400 rpm.

As a result, we need to find a boat yard to haul the boat out of the water, remove the prop, send it to a prop shop for repair/replacement, inspect the prop shaft, rudder, yada, yada, for damage and repair as necessary.  This will likely cost us 3-5 days of delay and several BOAT units.  For non-boaters wondering what the heck is a BOAT unit?  The acronym BOAT stands for Break Out Another Thousand.  Hey, one definition of cruising is " fixing your boat in remote places".

The eastern terminus of the Erie Canal is in Waterford, NY, at the junction of the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers.  This is a great stop and we enjoyed three days there including lunch with my sister, Patsy and her husband Stan, who live nearby.

Waterford has a long Erie Canal history.  Since the early barges were pulled by mules (circa ~1830), they have a mule statue on the dock to honor the beasts.  That is not graffiti on the mule, it is part of the monument, somewhat like a mural.  There would a picture of us astride the mule but for several signs with dire warnings not to.

From Waterford we enter the Hudson River and head towards NY City, albeit slowly because of the propeller problem.  The Hudson has several light houses on small islands in the river.  They are quite picturesque.

When we decided to revise our plans, Susan recalled that we could now include a stop at West Point for a reunion of the West Point Glee Club.  I can almost feel and hear the astonishment from many readers at the thought that this organization would have me as a member.  Nevertheless, over 100 alumni voices gathered for the event whose highlight was a joint concert with the West Point Band.  The concert venue was the outdoor amphitheater at Trophy Point.  You are over a hundred feet above the Hudson River looking north in this shot.  

Aside:  Just after this shot, a group of new freshmen (plebes) wandered though the amphitheater in combat uniforms with rifles.  Well, wander is probably a bit unjust since they were on a training patrol.  However, I, like many other old goats, suspect that everywhere we ever worked, went to school, etc, has gone to hell since we left.  It's a requirement for Old Goat status. 

The concert seemed to be a big success and was great fun for our group.  In the "looking for Waldo" picture below, I am in the last row, due north of the director's right hand.  I'm the short guy in a gray shirt with gray hair between two tall guys in gray shirts with gray hair.

During the reunion weekend, we docked at Cornwall-on-Hudson just 4 water miles away.  We depart here tomorrow for Haverstraw Marina where we will begin the repairs from the log incident.  Susan promises that the next update will not be full of details about props, cutlass bearings, rudders, shafts, etc.  I think there are at least two readers who, if those details were included, would not set themselves on fire.  I'm willing to defer to the vox populi.

Change of Plans - Ver 6

As the title suggests, we've changed our plans.  Long time cruising friends and our children are not surprised since they know our plans are chiseled in sand.  I won't spoil the suspense and tell you the change.  Read on.  

On July 2, we left Oswego, NY, and headed across the east side of Lake Ontario towards the Thousand Islands.  The light house at the end of the break wall in Oswego doesn't look this good up close; it's in serious need of a coat of paint.

It was a fairly smooth crossing and we got to Henderson Harbor quickly and anchored.  Henderson Harbor (pop. ~ 1,400) is well protected from almost all directions and we liked it so much we stayed several days.  For such a small town, they had a surprisingly good July 4th fireworks show that lasted over an hour.  Our anchorage is shown below.

From there we continued up the Lake Ontario coast into the St Lawrence river.  Pictured below is the Horne's Ferry Terminal on Wolfe Island, Ontario.  Wolfe is located at the mouth of the St Lawrence and is the largest of the Thousand Islands (pop: ~1,400).

We tied up at the seawall in Cape Vincent, NY, across the river about 1/2 mile from the ferry.  The sunset shot over Wolfe Island also shows, if you look closely, many stick-like structures above the tree line.  These are giant windmills, 86 in total, which constitute the 2nd largest wind farm in Canada.

Right after we tied up at Cape Vincent, a tug and barge pulled up to the other side of the seawall.  Boating readers know that we boaters always help each other out docking and departing the dock.  Keeping with the tradition, the captain went out to help.

Boating readers also know that the "help" mentioned above rarely extends to boats that weigh more than 50,000 lbs.  The combo above likely weighs in north of a quarter million lbs.  Undaunted, I caught their line and started pulling them up the dock...really.

I'm thinking "...strong like bull.." and Susan is thinking "...dumb like bull...".  Despite my expert assistance, they still managed to smash the barge into the seawall.

We spent 2 nights at Cape Vincent, a much larger town than Henderson at ~ 2,800 residents.  The pic below shows a fellow boater apparently from a local boating club.

From Cape Vincent, we headed northeast, which is downriver, on the St. Lawrence River through the Thousand Islands.  BTW: Thousand Islands is an approximation.  There are 1,834 islands but that number does not roll trippingly off the tongue.  Also, the French called them Mille-Isles.

At this point some of you may be wondering why we're headed northeast instead of northwest as described in our trip summary.  Re this post's title, Susan & I had been discussing the trip thus far with the medical delays, weather delays, etc and decided we didn't want to see Chicago and St Louis that badly.  So we came up with a new plan to see the Thousand Islands and maybe some parts of Canada and then back track our route thus far to Chesapeake Bay.  We would still bring Temptation to St Petersburg, FL, but would do so along the familiar, east coast route this fall.   Hence the deviation down the St Lawrence.

Continuing our tale, as we headed down river we were reminded several times that the St. Lawrence Seaway handles about 50 million tons of cargo each year.

The islands are very beautiful and many have only one house.  This is island 873...trust me.

One of the visual highlights of the Thousand Islands is Boldt Castle in Alexandria Bay.  Some rich guy named Boldt started building it over 100 years ago for his wife and, when she died suddenly, he had the 300 workers lay down their tools and walk away.  It has since been partially restored.

Near Alexandria Bay, we stayed for 2 days in Clayton, NY, and I visited the Antique Boat Museum which was an amazing display of wooden boats from canoes through hydroplanes.  Heading back up river, we stopped again at Cape Vincent before setting out south across Lake Ontario.  As we exited the St Lawrence, we cruised briefly into Canadian waters.

On the south shore of the lake, we stopped at Little Sodus Bay, NY - the place where we missed the family reunion last month.  We've been into the town, Fair Haven (pop: 741), twice.  Fair Haven has several good restaurants.  One (O'Connor's) featured Irish folk dancing (surprise!).  The star of the show is shown both performing and as the rose among-st the thorns - my brother Mark (right) and his friend Robby. 

Walking back to the boat we passed a service station and, because of the business I was in for 25 years, I couldn't help but take a picture of the sign on a gas pump.

From Fair Haven we head for Oswego and the NY Canal System again.  Stay tuned.  We promise we won't change plans again...and the check is in the mail and I'll respect...