Buying a sailboat on the Great Lakes or buying on the ocean?

[icemate]

Nothing to think about. Fresh water craft equally equipped is far better than one sitting in salt water and salt air. If you can sail on the Great Lakes, you can sail on the Ocean with ease. Trip down memory lane (Erie Canal) is peaceful and educational. The lock tenders are the most polite and helpful people you will ever meet. Taking my 37' sailboat through many times I was amazed when lock tenders would often offer to wait so I could make another lock and cut trip time down. Some of the most helpful, polite people on the canal. Recommend this route as long as you are not in a big hurry.

[DarwinHolmstrom]

Originally Posted by icemate

The lock tenders are the most polite and helpful people you will ever meet.

I've found this to be true of people who love the water in general. I understand that we all have our human failings, even people who spend their lives on sailboats, but it seems like people who live for the love of seeing the world on a sailboat seem to have human failings that mesh well with my own human failings.

[Ardbeg]

Darwin: You sound like a gold bug as am I. Grrr FIAT. 99.9% of people do not understand what we are talking about. Anyway, I would definitely do the St Lawrence down stream. I did both ways from Kingston in 2017 and would never do the upstream again. In fairness it was the year of the big floods. We had the wind on the nose the whole way back and ended up motoring most of the way. I have also done Erie Canal and found it BORING. Not as pretty either as I was led to believe. Sleeping on the boat beside train tracks is not a joy either. Back to the St Lawrence. If possible I would leave Lake Ontario in June so you have the summer to visit the Gulf. You will not regret the trip. That will put you around NYC or Chesapeake for the fall when you need to head south. Go for it. Check with me next spring. I might go down again if you need crew.

[DarwinHolmstrom]

Originally Posted by Ardbeg

Check with me next spring. I might go down again if you need crew.

Thank you! If they open up the St. Lawrence to U.S. pleasure craft I might take you up on that generous offer! And yes, I like to collect shiny tin more than filthy paper.

[joelhemington]

Originally Posted by DarwinHolmstrom

I was just about to go for a motorcycle ride, mostly to keep the battery charged--I hardly ever ride anymore because if it's nice enough to ride motorcycle it's nice enough to be out sailing and I'd rather be on the water--and my motorcycle had been stolen. Checked the security cameras and some skinny dude of European descent pushed it away at 1:25 am. I'll take that as a sign that I should make an offer on that C&C 37 and live on the water. Can't get much more off-grid than that. Now I'm hoping for Canada to open up so I can finally visit the Maritime Provinces. My ex-wife was Canadian but her family consisted of Alberta Tories who weren't especially fond of the easterners and referred to the Quebecois in terms I refuse to repeat.

Yep, when I was in Vancouver I met several Canadians that wanted Quebec to become a sovereign nation. It's not the people they dislike so much as the fact that Quebec sucks up most of the social net money in Canada and they resent the fact that they have to pay such large import duties on luxury items from the States. Here the conversation tended to turn to how many flat screens you could cram in a van and what was the best route for smuggling them across the border The flat screen TVs that we yanks can buy for $600 cost about four times that in Canada and the exchange rate does them no favors either.

[Ardbeg]

Another thing. If your boat has spent its life on Lake Superior, the thru hull black water discharge is probably sealed. You will have to fix that to discharge overboard at some point with a Y valve or something similar. Not many pump outs east Of Quebec City. You will still need a way to seal it closed when transiting USA waters of the Great Lakes.

[DarwinHolmstrom]

Originally Posted by joelhemington

Here the conversation tended to turn to how many flat screens you could cram in a van and what was the best route for smuggling them across the border.

I wouldn't have much to contribute to that conversation. For the first twelve years I was married my wife and I didn't have television and we had a lot of fun, traveling on motorcycle and camping. For the next ten years we had television and not much fun together. After trying to watch that garbage for a few years I took up another hobby and learned to play guitar. When I was always upstairs playing guitar instead of downstairs watching television with her, my now-ex-wife would ask me why I was mad at her. It didn't seem to soothe her when I said I wasn't mad; I just didn't care for watching the Kardashians and Celebrity Apprentice. In the eight plus years that we've been divorced I haven't had a television (though I do watch MotoGP racing on my computer). I have no intention of having a television on my boat either!

[DarwinHolmstrom]

Originally Posted by Ardbeg

Another thing. If your boat has spent its life on Lake Superior, the thru hull black water discharge is probably sealed. You will have to fix that to discharge overboard at some point with a Y valve or something similar. Not many pump outs east Of Quebec City. You will still need a way to seal it closed when transiting USA waters of the Great Lakes.

Again, thank you! I'm a writer by trade, but for twenty years my day job was publishing books for a company out of the UK called Quarto. The imprints I worked for, Motorbooks and Voyageur, both published boating books at one point or another. I found many of the writers I published on forums like this. If I was still in that line of work I'd be trying to work up a book idea with you!

[Rorzech]

The St Lawrence sea way may be longer, but isn't it just a big river flowing down stream out to the ocean ? You should be able to just float your way to the ocean with no motor or sails. I would think going up the river would be the hard way and would make using the EC more economical and enjoyable .

[DarwinHolmstrom]

Originally Posted by Rorzech

The St Lawrence sea way may be longer, but isn't it just a big river flowing down stream out to the ocean ? You should be able to just float your way to the ocean with no motor or sails. I would think going up the river would be the hard way and would make using the EC more economical and enjoyable .

That seems to be the case. I watched a video in which some people were cruising downstream at 11 knots with very little engine. It was the fastest they'd ever gone in their C&C 44 with a 40hp Yanmar engine.

[Mike OReilly]

I've already said it, but my vote is definitely for the St. Lawrence route. It is longer, and harder, but it is a journey few forget. Each leg brings different challenges. I found past Quebec City was the most memorable. The river just gets bigger and wilder and more stunning the further down you get.

Originally Posted by Rorzech

The St Lawrence sea way may be longer, but isn't it just a big river flowing down stream out to the ocean ? You should be able to just float your way to the ocean with no motor or sails. I would think going up the river would be the hard way and would make using the EC more economical and enjoyable .

Not really. Down past Montreal to Trois Rivier the river feels a downstream current, but past there the tidal currents quickly and strongly assert themselves. So as a sailor you pretty much can only make ground on the ebb tide (going down). The tides around Quebec City and for the next 100 nm or so the tides are large (up to 20 feet), and the current can run 8 or 10 knots. We flew past Quebec City running about 5 knots over water and 15 knots over ground.

Originally Posted by DarwinHolmstrom

I'd love to read your work! Is any of it available online?

Oh, there's lot of boring stuff. A fairly recent sailing article was published here in Waterway Explorer Magazine. Look here, on page 84.

https://online.anyflip.com/krqw/prfj/mobile/index.html

If you really are bored I've got like a 100 medical articles archived here:

https://www.cmaj.ca/search/author1%3...type%3Ajournal

And I maintain a personal blog: CLAFC – Creativity, Learning, Adventure, Freedom & Cessation – Creativity, Learning, Adventure, Freedom & Cessation

As for writing for motorcycle magazines today, that doesn't pay what it used to pay since most of the paper magazines are shut down or have converted to non-paying internet journals. I'm afraid that is true of most forms of writing, and pretty much everything else at this moment;

I know... I've spent much of my so-called career fighting for the rights of writers. It used to be an OK way of making a decent living. Today, we're little more than serfs in the new economy -- much like most other workers. Best not to get started on this...

[Nicholson58]

I always recommend buying a Great Lakes boat. Lightly used, no salt. All of the equipment you buy for ocean sailing will be new.

We sailed Lake Michigan for several years before the Welland and St Lawrence, east coast to the Chesapeake and joined the Salty Dawgs to the Eastern Caribbean. Great adventure indeed

[NaClyDog]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

I found past Quebec City was the most memorable. The river just gets bigger and wilder and more stunning the further down you get.

And with a bit of luck and the right time of year just past Quebec City, the whales. We got lucky a few years ago and saw more than a handful. Wow, just did the math in my head and the few years ago is over 15 years ago.

[DarwinHolmstrom]

Originally Posted by NaClyDog

just did the math in my head and the few years ago is over 15 years ago.

Funny how that goes! I suspect that when living and traveling on a sailboat the months and seasons fly by even faster.

[hpeer]

A few comments.

I think this is more a question of time and intent than anything else.

If you have the time and few intentions then the St Lawrence and let the adventure begin.

I don’t recall your nationality, just you were living on the USA side of the border. Over wintering an American boat in Canada has some legal challenges.

Keeping the boat North limits your usable sailing time.

The absolute quickest Atlantic route is through the Straits of Cansou, but missing the Brador Lakes is an inadmissible offense.

Others may differ in opinion but IMHO the Erie Canal is a 6’ max route. We came through with 5’4” and touched once or twice. I’ve heard people say no problem with 7’, but then they had to wait for a dredge to get through. Above 6’ you MAY be dependent upon state maintenance and/or water levels.

7’ will also make the ICW “interesting” should you desire to go South on the USA east coast. Our big boat is 6-1/2’ draft, steel. There are places I had to power through, not soft mud. I know a fellow who did the ICW in a 7’ draft Jeanneau and he only got towed 4 times.

In the USA buy tow insurance from Boat US. And remember you health insurance risk.

If you have someplace to get to, say you want to end up in Florida to cruise the Bahamas and want to live on the boat most of the year, then you may want to consider trucking the boat. There is an outfit that has a reverse auction for trucking. You list your load and all trip particulars including the time frame and truckers send you their resume and quote.

Still lots to consider here.