Have you ever seriously thought about living your dream? We did and now we are full time cruisers onboard M/V Big Run. Everyday is a new page to be written in our ship's log as we travel to new places and revisit some ol' favorites. Come along and share our experiences and journeys.

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Welcome to our Adventure

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Flashback (Taking It All In)

     Although some lakes and ponds in the Adirondacks allow power boats, we did not kayak on those bodies of water. Because we kayaked on "remote" waters, we did not find trash, graffiti or other signs of the masses. I guess most of the lakes we visited required some work on our part to get there before we got the kayaks wet. That eliminated the hooligans who might destroy such places with their carelessness and disrespect for what mother nature has provided us. I believe on this particular day (see photo), we saw one other group of kayakers, who respected our privacy with a distant wave hello and paddled on.

     Here, in this photo, Sharon can be seen enjoying the peace and tranquility of Slang Pond. The rock outcropping Sharon is sitting on is part of a designated campsite, one of only 2 sites on Slang Pond. Most of the lakes we visited had designated campsites, and each one of those campsites was carefully placed to take advantage of something unique to that particular lake and its surroundings.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Flashback (Boot Camp)


     If you are familiar with our blog you are probably saying to yourself "I saw that picture before".  And your are right.  This photo has been published in the right hand column of random photos as "Our favorite spot in the Adirondacks".  We've been there twice, and we have never been disappointed.   Before I tell where this special place is let me tell how to get there.  From Paul Smiths, take NY Rt  30 north, turn left onto NY Rt 458 , go a very short distance and turn left onto a dirt road, drive  for about 8 miles to a small parking lot.  As you travel the dirt road, rub your good luck idol that no one is traveling in the other direction for there  are very few places to pull over and let another vehicle pass.  From the parking lot, you have about a 1 mile hike with your kayak. Note - we strongly recommend the use of kayak dollies to access this body of water.  Once you have launched your kayak, the paddle to Boot Camp Island is about 2 hours up the flow as the channel snakes through the aquatic vegetation.   Although there are other locations that are more remote, this  was by far the most remote location that we paddled in the Adirondacks.  This waterway is far off the beaten path of publicized places to kayak for the average Joe.  The place is Quebec Brook flowing into Madawaska Pond, also referred to as the Madawaska Flow. If you have a Adirondack Paddler's Map, you will find Madawaska Pond NNW of Paul Smiths.   If you have the time, this is a very good remote paddle.  Be prepared for an all day adventure, starting with the off road excursion by vehicle, a short hike, a great paddle to the cabin, and the return trip.   We do not know of any approved camping sites on this body of water.

     The second photo sums it up very well as to how we named the spot Boot Camp.  Yes, in the center of the photo is a boot that has been hung on the wall.  Having built and lived in a log home for 18 years, I was fascinated with the design and construction of this old log cabin, vertical logs instead of horizontal logs.  The vertical logs would shed water quickly and also dry faster.  We never did go inside because the floor was ready to collapse, and the cabin was probably a haven for snakes.  Rumors from the locals was that a crazy ol' trapper lived here many years ago.  I don't know about the being crazy part.  Was he deemed crazy for where he chose to live - remote location, beautiful scenery and no people!

Monday, November 16, 2009

Bitter Sweet Moment

     Just what exactly is a bitter sweet moment?   Bitter in the fact that we hauled the boat for the winter.  Sweet, that it's the last time we haul the boat for winter.  Next year we may haul the boat in the fall for preventive maintenance measures, but then its right back over the side and off we go at a mind numbing 7 knots speeding down the ICW.  The photo below shows Big Run in the sling of the travel lift being raised out of  the haul-out slip.

Who's a Slacker?

     I know what your thinking, another photo of the "event", the sunset.  I'll  have you know I was up bright and early (6:30 AM) today, in time to catch a magnificent sunrise.  The water was very calm, the birds were just getting started on breakfast and I was standing on Big Run's foredeck in a t-shirt as we were experiencing a unusually warm spell for November in Maryland.
PS - Don't expect too many sunrise photos!

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Changes

    We all go through changes in our lives, so do blogs. We didn't change the blog template much, however we added a reactions and comments section to each entry. We did reserve the right to view the comments before they get posted. We don't expect to censor the comments unless they have profanity or malicious thoughts. In those cases, we will delete the comment in its entirety. Have fun, we can take it.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Still Hav'n Fun - Part 2

    This past weekend had the potential to be a good weekend on the boat. We had the fall foliage, cool temps and our favorite anchorage all to ourselves. Despite the rain, the one mile visibility, we had a great weekend. We fended off the cool, damp temps by firing up the diesel furnace, tuning in a football game, making pizza and later we watched game 3 of the world series.


     It was also a great weekend for wildlife sightings. During the cruise to the anchorage, we spotted a very large buck swimming across the creek. I tried to get a good photo of the deer, but he had no intentions of letting us get close enough for a decent picture. We did manage to get a photo of one of the two bald eagles, that have taken residency at Millstone point, as it flew close to the boat.
     So, rain, foggy conditions, swimming deer, bald eagles, good food, football and baseball - Yeah, were still hav'n fun!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

T-Minus 12 and Counting

     It doesn't matter what you call it, 12 months or 1 year, it's a short amount of time. The countdown continues and so do the preparations. Sharon has finished those projects to reduce snail mail. Over the course of the next year we will still need to monitor all mail we receive. As mentioned in the T- Minus 13 blog entry, we will be subscribing($) to a mail service to receive our snail mail and forward($) our mail to a location of our choice with ample notice to the service. We want to reduce mail (weight) which has to be forwarded($). Most mail services also offer a scan option ($), where they scan($) the envelope so that you can then view the envelope online($) and make a decision to trash it or forward($) it. And if you would like to pay another fee($), they will open($) your mail and scan($) the envelope's contents for viewing online($) , so once again you can decide to trash it or forward ($) it with your next mail package($). Did you catch the underlying theme ($) here?
     As a preparations bonus this past month, Sharon has decided to enter all of her recipes into a database (RecipeMaster) she downloaded from the net. This will minimize storage of all the recipes she has on paper. RecipeMaster will also allow us to access recipes by categories, ingredients or country of origin . Sharon has also been able to adapt the program to our dining habits by modifying categories and ingredients. As our live-aboard adventures take us to different regions of the world, we will be able to enter those local recipes that we like into our database. I already know of one recipe, the Abyssinia Special, Sharon can enter into her database whenever we catch up Kim and Eric on board the M/V Abyssinia. The Abyssinia Special is a crab and halibut recipe we've discussed in our earlier blog entry "Flashback Alaska - Call me anything but late for Dinner".
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