After the last rainy day jaunt across Oneida Lake, we were ready for some sunshine!

We stayed at Winter Harbor Marina for a couple of nights and were now ready to move on to Pirates Cove Marina in Clay, New York.

Winter Harbor is a fantastic place to store your boat during the winter. You don’t have to put your boat through the rigorous winterization process.

It can stay warm and cozy in their massive storage facility.

Although, you might want to make sure they know when you want to take your boat out because it very well may be stuck somewhere in the back and then you have to wait.

Tight Squeeze

Getting out of Winter Harbor was a little tricky.

Big boats have to parallel park against the sides and then back out.

Fortunately, when we were ready to leave, the conditions were perfect (no wind) and the water was like glass.

Sam maneuvered us right and back and then over to the fuel dock.

We were able to fill up and get a pump out. It was very convenient.

On to Pirates Cove!

We have been planning since before we even began America’s Great Loop, to be in Clay, NY at Pirates Cove Marina by June 18.

Our plan is to fly home for about 3 weeks and take care of business.

And by “business” I mean go to a wedding, family reunion, dentist, etc.

We have really pushed it on days that we should have stayed at the dock just so we could meet this deadline.

We were finally blessed with beautiful weather.

Few clouds and little wind made our trek down the Erie Canal incredibly enjoyable.

Lock 23

It was a relatively short trip and we only had to go through one lock.

Very easy.

No drama.

Just how we like it.

Peaceful Erie Canal

We have had strong winds and rain on a few days while traveling down the Erie but today all we had to do (after we got through the lock) was enjoy the journey.

In fact, we enjoyed it so much, we almost missed the marina.

Here is a shot of us driving by it.

Whoops!

So, we whipped it around and Sam battled annoying wind that had picked up.

But we got in the slip and settled.

This will be our boat’s home for the next month.

Time to Celebrate!

Pirates Cove Marina has a restaurant named Dock’s Grill and we enjoyed drinks, nachos, and this incredible dessert to celebrate.

We made it!

Our Thoughts

Our Trip