Boating By The Numbers

So there I was...going ashore in the dingy after anchoring in the east end of Oyster Bay found on the north shore of Long Island.  I loved the picturesque beauty of this bay from the first time I anchored here several years ago and the smell of the saltwater, after a year in it's absence, made it feel like something of a homecoming.  Walking into the quaint town I passed a sailing center, a place that seeks to raise sailors and sailing to a competitive level, where who walks out the door but Dawn Riley.  She is one of the premier women sailors in the world.  I remember watching her years ago when she was the first woman to captain and manage an America's Cup sailing team.  She went on to race on four Amerca's Cup teams in all.  Thinking I must be mistaken, I did a little research and found my sighting to be true.
  As I'm getting close to the end of my journey on the water for this season I began to tally a few things.  Since my retirement, a year ago in August, I have navigated Eventide well over 1,300 miles, through 4 different canal systems and 62 locks the largest of them in the St. Lawrence Seaway that empties 24 million gallons of water in 7-10 minutes to drop my little boat down to the next level.  When I arrived in Waterford a week and a half ago it completed a very large circle that took me up the Erie Canal (lots of locks) into the Oswego Canal (fewer locks) and through Lake Ontario (huge lake that gets nasty in a storm) into the St. Lawrence River (Thousand Islands, beautiful) and eventually by Montreal (practice your French) and then through the Richelieu River (beautiful homes on it's shoreline) to the Chambley Canal (makes you think you're in Europe) again back into the Richelieu River that eventually spits me out on the northern end of Lake Champlain (water is so clean and vistas are stunning) that exits on the southern end into the Champlain Canal (more locks) where at it's end you find yourself again in Waterford.  A few more miles and I get to stop and rest for awhile.  Then Kim puts me to work.