Bye Bye Erie Canal

Or almost. We are docked in Waterford, NY, which is really the end of the canal, but we still have one more lock to go through at Troy. And of course, there is always next year.

I made our last blog in Canajoharie, while we were out walking around town, reprovisioning, and grabbing a bite to eat. What I didn't mention was that for an hour while I was writing that blog, Serena had become a tour guide for the locals. No matter how many times it happens, it still feels weird to be an attraction. There was a young lady yelling at us from the top of lock 17, "hello Vita", over and over. One gentleman and his grandson were taking pictures of at us at a lock, and then showed up later while we were docked in town, and had a tour of the boat. It is amazing the novelty we become to those that dream, but are not sailorly afflicted. I think Serena gets a kick out of it though. Vanna, show me a T.

Also in Canajoharie, Serena fell in love with the Geese, which she calls, gooses, geeses, and/or big ducks, depending on the moment. I am not quite sure how the domestic geese got there, but they seem to be free. Serena particularly befriended one goose that the other geese and even the ducks chased away. Coincidentally that goose got fed more bread than the others. I know, the sign says don't feed the geese, shoot us! I guess that makes up for somebody retying our dock lines. We think perhaps it was the harbourmaster, but since we never got to see him, then I guess we'll never know. It does bug me that someone would retie our lines, like we didn't know how to do it. I suppose, there are some boaters out there that don't, and I have seen some of the abominations that people use, but if it works, what the hey, leave em' to it.

I'm jumping around here, sorry. But this post has a lot little stuff. Below is Serena's new shirt that we picked up while we were fueling up. The Redneck Boat Club. If people remember the Trailer Trash shirt she was wearing all summer, then this fits right in. I almost bought a second one for our friend Denis, because this just had his name all over it. Maybe in the spring on the way back.

The flooding has changed the navigation a bit in the Erie Canal. Not only are there a lot of temporary channel markers around, but some markers are not quite where they should be. We gave up looking at the numbers to figure out where we were, because they were moved all over the place. At first we thought someone was playing a game, but apparently not. The ones below seem to be slightly out of place.

 These two pictures show lock 9, I think. Where you see the gravel behind the lockmaster, and the water, was pretty lawn and a lock house just a few short weeks ago.

Below is a house we saw on while we were travelling down. I was curious whether the insurance company would cover it when it eventually fell into the river, which should be soon. The picture doesn't really do it justice. And, this wasn't the only one.

 We got stuck waiting for lock 6 because this barge and tug were coming through. Looking at the size, I think you would have let him through too. Now were the ones taking pictures of the barge and crew, you could tell they got a lot of that from people too, They took it well, smiled and waved. Celebrity status, just like Vita.

For the last too days we have been sitting in Waterford, NY. We spent some time visiting with our new friends from Lake Simcoe. Cs'ta Time (CS36) and Serenada (Ontario 32). They are headed south too, left there snow shovels at home. Both crews are snowbird virgins, just like us, so its nice to compare notes with somebody else, six heads are better than two. We also managed to get some shopping in, laundry, and some boat chores. I think I may have temporarily solved the fuel problem, but I won't know for sure for a few days. Serena got some badly needed cleaning in, and some reorganizing, but not too hectic.

Tomorrow we hit tidal waters for the first time. We aren't too worried about it, but we are making an effort to understand it. Like everything else, we know in a few weeks it will be like we where sailing in tidal waters our whole lives. We also get our mast up tomorrow, hopefully, then Vita will be a sailboat again. She did fine as a powerboat, but as I mentioned before, sailboats were meant to be free, like a bird on a good breeze.

We are starting to run a little low on time. We need to be in Annapolis, MD., for about the 18th of Sep. I fly to London, England on the 20th to crew in a boat delivery, from England to Spain, for a couple weeks. Luckily I come back on the 7th of October, just in time for the Annapolis sailboat show. But that means that we can't spend too much time sitting around drinking beer and watching the world go by. Now I know why everyone says, "don't set schedules", because having a deadline, blows. We could have spent a month coming through the Erie, and every place we've stopped begged for further exploration, but there just isn't enough time.

Okay, I'm done, go do something fun.