Started out the day (after coffee of course) going to Amsterdam but didn't make it. The locks close earlier now that the summer trade has ended. Instead of closing at 7 they close at 5pm so we ended up putting in at Fonda (where Henry Fonda was born - for those to young: Peter Fonda or Jane Fonda; for those still younger - grand daughter Bridgette Fonda).

Lock 17 was our first Lock of the day. Wow! It was a 40 and a half foot drop. Spectacular, then we had to go UNDER the gate to get out. We were baptized in Erie Canal water as the gate rained down on us. It was pretty exciting for me (honest), until I saw how greenish brown the water wrang out of my gloves (yuk - LOL).

Going up to Lock 16 (6miles further down stream and another 20 ft drop), it just didn't look right and I couldn't figure out why until we got closer. There was a huge commercial Canal Boat that filled it completely so that they had to take the lines out of the water - I mean it filled the Lock! As it was lifted up it looked enormous! We barely had room to get out of the way when it left the lock - quite impressive! All the people (some kind of cruise boat) were waving at us and I could hear the captain come on the loud speaker talking about how sailboats de-mast to transit the canal and go south for the winter. Once we got into the lock we had to fish for the ropes to hang on to because they were all up on the wall.

7 miles more and at Lock 15 (another 8 ft drop) we were the entertainment for an audience of little girls that were waving their hands off- at us (they were so cute). I waved until I was below their line of site, then noticed that they ran ahead to watch us emerge at the bottom. I miss the days when we had little girls to explore the world with - it's sad that it ended and it seems so abruptly...

3 miles further to Lock 14 and an 8 ft drop. There was a 5 engine train hauling oil tankers that would have made a spectacular picture if I'd have grabbed my camera in time, then once we traversed another 8 miles to Lock 13 we decided that there was no way we were going to make it to Lock 12 before 5pm. It was 3:30pm and with almost 13 miles to go at 5.5 knots per hour we were looking at a little over 2 - 2 and a half hours so we tied up in Fonda on the North wall before the Bridge (N42degrees57.023 minutes x W74degrees22.276minutes). This was an interesting stop. The bollards to tie up to were not made for smaller boats - we had to connect 2 ropes together to reach the next bollard and there wasn't a cleat or anything in-between that we could use. This was definitely a place for barges to tie up to. It smelled of thyme and dead things... I kid you not (hopefully not Henry). Every time the wind shifted to over the back of the boat from up stream on shore of the park it smelled like something had died up there (gag)... Luckily the wind didn't shift that way to often so the BBQ Pork chops/broccoli/cheesy potatoes for dinner smelled and tasted pretty good... This looks like a public works park that we tied up to - the gate to the park closes at 3:30 but to be honest - it's not a park I would stop at unless I had to (we had to).