Antares Cruising East

If we can move even a short distance every day, that is extremely satisfying. Whenever did we think of that as a measure of success? We haven’t had shore power or water for over a week, forcing us to pay attention to electric and water usage. …never do those at home… We have been extremely fortunate with the brilliant sunny warm days and the clear chilly nights. As the sun lowers in the sky and the temperature begins to drop, we get cozy in the cabin to eat a hearty meal, chat with family, update Facebook, plan our route, and watch some TV. Usually John falls asleep in the middle of Jeopardy, and I doze until lights out. If fresh air and exercise is good for the kids, it must surely be good for the old folk.

We know from all the locking through, that there are terminal walls at most of the locks, and sometimes even at both ends. From Skipper Bob’s reviews, we found that Lock 20 is pretty, quiet, and rural; that city folk would find it too quiet to sleep. With less than 10 miles to go, that was a perfect distance for an easy Sunday cruise. From Rome it was a straight shot. We could see leftover evidence of the flood from June: dead trees, roots, and branches blocking the spillways and dams to the Mohawk River, including a few safety buoys. We figured out how much voltage the percolator used, and deemed it ok to use while the engine was running. We tied up before 11:00 am, and our only chore was to fill the water bottles from the one tap across the canal. True to its review, the park was full of picnickers, children, walkers, and those interested in watching boats lock through. We hosted sundowners, and instruments came out to play. It got chilly quickly, and I shooed everyone away. We have been heading east for one month today.

We got word that there has been only one boat tied up to the Lock 17 terminal for over a week and there is plenty of room for more. This would be a long day with 4 locks and 26 miles to cover. The engine started a little bit hard this day; well, so did I. 48 degrees can have that effect on people and engines. Once going, all systems were normal and we moved out at 7:30 am to enter Lock 20. Lock 19 was unusual because this is the working fleet headquarters. Most of the fleet were assigned to other places to dredge, but a few were there to make us go around them and come too close to the dam, if you ask me. The illusion as you approach the lock is that the trains are going right over the top, and there was a train every 10-15 minutes. There was too much static on the radio to know if the lock tender heard my call; too much metal around. The light did turn green as we approached, so he did hear me even if I didn’t hear him. Then we couldn’t talk face to face because the trains were so loud crossing their own bridge above the canal. I just wanted to clear out from there, and settled on waving to the lock tender as we exited. We had traveled 22 miles in 5.5 hours when we went through lock 18. Within an hour we were at the famous Lock 17. This is the biggest drop of all, 40.5 feet, and the downstream side opens with a lift gate. (All the others have doors that open). It’s so cool passing under this huge gate at the bottom of a well and all the water dripping off comes down on you. There was one red hulled sailboat at the terminal wall: Maraki, of Grand Rapids, MI, Lucy and John. We walked a long mile upstream to visit the marina that services the vessels and their crews at our location. Thankfully, Chris, the harbor master, gave us a ride back where Antares was already in shadows from the overhead road, the lock, and the southern hills. We have noticed more hills along the canal.

Where we were docked is not much, especially since we have no electric, no water, no showers, no Wi-Fi, no internet, no phone….. BUT, we loved this town of Little Falls. The walk along the canal to town is far, but picturesque, the people helpful, the stores small but filled with what you need. There must be greeting cards with Little Falls photos on them—autumn and Christmas especially—holidays on a hillside. On Tuesday, John set up the solar panels, including the two new ones. They put out enough amperes to keep the refrigerator going and still add a charge to the bank of batteries…a good investment. On Wednesday, we spent some time in town and a special treat for me; going to a salon. Lunch was at Piccolo’s, a local burger place only 20 feet from the railroad tracks. We began cutting down on the amount of water used, so laundry began to pile up. Not a concern though.

Word from down the canal was that commercial traffic would begin moving Thursday noon. This is fantastic news and all of us were as excited as kids on Christmas morning. Immediately several left for the next lock (call from Lock 16 said most of the boats had left there, also). We all planned to move forward if only for the 8 miles distance. By 10:00 am, we were one of only two boats left. Lock 17 started letting more boats through to tie up near us. That was it; time for us to leave. Then these new boats were going, too! All were directed to proceed to Lock 16. At the end of the day, about 12 sailboats stayed on the upstream side of the lock, and 4 powerboats tied up at the downstream side. We were in a fine position to run the gauntlet on Friday. Others were not so lucky. They tried to crowd the closed locks 14-12, and were sent back upstream to Lock 15 or had to “hover” for their turn. Who wants to hover for 30 minutes and use up fuel? We filled up four jugs of drinking water and waited.