September 2, Sunday Lock 12 to Guard Gate 2

We woke up to a dense fog. It was 48 degrees and the water temperature was in the 70's, so it was a bit moist. So we had coffee, read books and then went for a walk while waiting for the fog to burn off. We saw more boats today on the water than we have seen this whole trip through the canal. The last lock we went through today, Lock 7, had 3 other boats in it! We are now on the last page of our Erie Canal guide book. We stopped just before Guard Gate 2 and will go through the last 5 locks tomorrow.

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September 1, Saturday Little Falls, NY to Lock 12

The fireworks last night were superb. The band that played all evening was good also.

We had a beautiful day again today. The scenery is beautiful here through the Adirondack Mountains.
The sky was blue and temperature got close to 80 degrees. There are not as many good places to stop as we near the end (actually the beginning) of the Erie Canal, so we stopped just before Lock 12 to tie up beside a small park. We are right next to a train track and it's pretty loud at times. In fact, quite often. We hope we get some sleep tonight. While we were fixing dinner Mike was saying something about the trains when I looked out and saw a HUGE boat going by us. I told him I thought we had bigger things to worry about than trains at the moment. I was scared-it looked like it could side-swipe us. Well, Mike went down to watch it go through the lock. It had to be 42or 43 feet wide because it took up most of the canal which is 45 feet wide. It was over 100 feet long, but we're not sure how much over. I sure hope we don't end up in any locks with that boat.

We are near the Schoharie Crossing, a site of the original canal with remains of an original aqueduct. We could see it as we went by and thought about taking the dinghy over to look at it since walking to it entails crossing a very scary looking bridge, but we never quite got motivated to go.

Thanks to all who called with results of the football games. Go Michigan State!

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August 31, Friday

For the second evening we find ourselves tied to a wall in Little Falls N. Y. We are moored stern to stern with the Lois McClure, which is a replica of a canal schooner, circa 1862. There is a band playing in the Canal Park and the Rotary Club fed us ribs and chicken for dinner. The Lois McClure has drawn quite a crowd this afternoon and many folks have felt obligated to chat with us as they pass by...others think we're part of the show.

Little Falls is on the Mohawk River. The valley is narrow, probably about one mile for the heights on one side to the other. At the base of the valley is the Erie canal, the Mohawk river, one highway and three well used railroad tracks. Some of the slopes are wooded, with a few fields cut out. There is at least one ski resort in sight in the distance, but mostly it's forest.

The town itself is old, a few buildings build in the 1700's are still in existence but most of the older structures date to the early 1800's. The people are pleasant but reserved.

This morning I changed another fuel filter that I had skipped last week and hope that it resolves our engine problem. Let me explain. Ever since our arrival in the Canal, our engine has acted weird as we leave a lock. The engine runs perfectly for hours, we enter a lock, tie up leaving the engine idling for the 20 minutes or so that it takes to lock down. When we exit, the throttle doesn't control the rpm's. The engine races, slows, races, slows, sputters and then seems to find itself and run with missing a beat until we pass through another lock. Once, while leaving a lock the engine stalled altogether. (Now you have Mike's version-apparently he was not bothered by the engine stopping?)

I replaced the primary and secondary filters last week and the problem continued. I tried idling at 1K and the symptoms were reduced substantially but still existed. Then, I tried shutting down the engine while we were in the lock... which solved the problem completely.

Today I tore apart the lift pump and replaced that filter located there. The old filter looked clean....but felt hard, almost like it was calcified.

If anyone wants to take a stab at diagnosis please feel free. It will be interesting to see if my efforts today make any difference.

This is a nice place. The scenery is great and the fireworks should be starting soon!

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