Moving Again on the Canal
22 May 2012 | Mohawk River/Erie Canal
Sorry I have not updated my blogs in a while. Once you enter the canal there is very little internet access and with the masts down there is practically no chance to "grab" any "stray" signals.
We sat for a day and half day while they lowered the river almost 4 feet. We saw all sorts of things floating by, docks, logs, telephone poles, whole trees, even 2 green markers. It wasn't until Thursday afternoon before we were allowed to move on.
By then Paul had to return to Ottawa. We had planned to be much further by then. So Paul called a taxi to take him to the bus station. He was home by midnight.
Me, I was there another 5 days before I could find crew to help me through the locks. Although I am usually a single hander I think having at least one other person on such a big and heavy boat is the prudent thing to do. I still had another 23 locks to go though.
After many phone calls and one offer to help me for 250.00 a day, my old sailing buddy Al showed up on Sunday morning and we were off. His wife was kind enough to drive him from their home in Hamlin (about 250 miles away) to Lock 7. She must have really wanted to get rid of him for a few days.
It was nice catching up with Al as we had not seen each other for a number of years. Raining on and off we were able to make Oswego by early Wednesday morning to have the masts re-stepped.
Only one incident worthy to note, in Lock 9 there was a "valve malfunction".
According the the lock tender a valve got stuck and the water came in faster than normal. In locking up, the water comes in from the bottom and has a tendency to push the boat away from the wall somewhat. This time it BLEW the boat off the wall almost smashing it against the other side of the lock. Al and I had to let go of the ropes as we were almost horizontal and about to be be pulled off the boat.
I was able to to motor forward enough to control the boat trying to stay in the middle of the lock and avoid a major crash. NOW THAT GETS YOUR HEART PUMPING............. especially since you have 10 feet of expensive mast sticking out from the front of the boat.