Monday and Tuesday we traveled 85 miles and made our way through eleven locks!
Monday was a fairly uneventful day. We made our way from our beautiful tie up in front of Lock 22, through the Lock first thing and proceeded down the Canal. We passed through Lock 21 New London, our last of the three up locks eastbound (more on up versus down locks below), Lock 20 Whitesboro, Lock 19 Frankfort and ended our 35 mile day at MM 89 and the Village of Ilion Marina. This was, unfortunately for us, a highly rated stop that did not nearly meet our expectations… basically it was, to quote Bob, “out of a scene from Deliverance”!!! Regardless of that, we did manage to get a lot done on this evening. Accomplished laundry, groceries, a stop at O’reilly Auto for a wire (Bob is still trying to correct our thruster battery charging issue) and even had time for Julie to have a small hair cut and color by her personal hair stylist, aka Bob. When traveling on a boat it is not easy to get your hair done! Lucky for Bob no worries on this front lollllll. A major thunderstorm, with too close for comfort lighting, moved in as sunset approached. We faired very well.
Tuesday early morning, we quickly exited the Marina at Ilion (and we use that term very loosely). We were not sure how far we would travel this day so we planned a few options of where to stop for the night. It was a lovely weather day so we felt pretty good to press on through seven locks and 50 miles! Our first was Lock 18 no name for this one. Then on to Lock 17 Little Falls. Little Falls is our largest drop on a single lock at 40′. It is an impressive Lock to travel through for sure. It also has a lift gate on the east side instead of the typical swing double doors. Little Falls is one of only two locks in North America where the entrance/exit gate is lifted above the boater. We pressed on through Lock 16 St. Johnsville, Lock 15 Fort Plain, Lock 14 Canajoharie, Lock 13 Randall and Lock 12 Tribes Hill. We ended our day tied to the wall, with power, on the west side of Lock 11 Amsterdam, MM 39. Bob cooked omelettes for dinner and we enjoyed a beautiful sunset.
Lock 17 East Lift Gate
Wednesday we are hoping to have it in us to pass through to the end of the Canal at Waterford, NY. The Waterford Flight of five locks is like a stair case and are each just over a 30′ drop. It will be a ten lock day if we can do it… stay tuned!
Side Note One: George as an eye issue we are concerned about. We had a 20 min video chat with a vet through Chewy.com. If you are an “autoship” customer the chat is free. Good to know for all the pet owners out there who may be traveling with your little guys (or gals). We got some great insight on the problem and will try to find a place to pick up some meds for him. We may need to find a vet for him to be seen in person as well. We will keep you posted.
Side Note Two: Up versus Down Locks – Think of a lock as a bathtub. When you are going to take a bath you start to fill the tub. Your little rubber duck is in the tub for the fill and he gets jostled around a bit, not a super smooth journey for him to the top. When you are done with your bath, you drain the water and as the water goes down, your little rubber duck nestles gently against the side. This is the general way the locks go. Julie much prefers the smoother ride of down locks. Not all downs are smooth though, some have turbulence. The guide books we have do a great job of describing what to expect at each lock. Some have very rough concrete walls that have aged. Some have smooth steel walls which are awesome to travel through. All have green slim! Today at Lock 11 we saw tiny crawfish at the wall, so fun!
That’s it for now!