Day 12 - Thu 9 Jun 2016
Docked – Waterford, NY

[photo: all week the local school kids have been getting tours and rides on the canal boat. Their gathering spot was right next to our boat. Diane as a retired school teacher was ready with the earplugs]

We did party a bit much last night and despite hitting the sack early, we slept until almost 0700. Actually, I got up at 0430 and checked weather, started the A/C in heating mode, and went back to bed. I decided the forecast winds and strong gusts were not going to make it fun on the river, but especially nasty in the locks.

When down low in the lock, you would be shielded, but once you were exposed after lifting to the top, the wind would make it much harder to hold position against the wall, or when trying to motor away from the wall, depending upon which side you were on. When 0730 rolled around, I checked in with the guy in charge and he said it was no problem to stay another day. We are ahead of schedule and if we don’t enter the first lock until tomorrow, the 10-day pass should be just right for when we leave the canal system.

With that decision made, we enjoyed some blueberry pancakes and stayed snug inside with the really chilly wind howling outside. Our entertainment for the morning, unfortunately for the ‘performer,’ was a small cuddy-cabin cruiser that came up towards the lock and abeam us with lots of fenders out on both sides. So far, so good, but apparently the lock would not be open for him for at least a half-hour and he wisely decided to tie up at the concrete wall before the lock.

The problem developed when he tried to get close enough to the wall to tie up. For some reason he aimed at a 45 degree angle at the wall and hit it rather badly with the bow pulpit. The boat bounced off and made the bow go to starboard, so he went around in a circle and did the exact same thing, only harder this time. Eventually, he got tied up and then successfully entered the lock a while later. This was across the river from us so we had no way to help.

Diane made a delicious BST (we had spinach, but no lettuce) for lunch and we continued enjoying the fact that we were not out there battling the winds. We each alternated between little chores, reading, and trip planning to fill the time. One task was for me to reduce the juice/gravy from the slow-cooker turkey breast to a better consistency. It also helped heat the boat a bit, but tasting it made me realize we needed something to help soak up all that incredible deliciousness.

So, I decided to make some biscuits using the complete pancake mix we had on board. It already has the baking powder components in it and worked very well. It was also a chance to get used to using the convection feature of the microwave. I must say they turned out great and after smelling the hot biscuits fresh out of the oven, we remembered why we stopped baking bread at home. Way too tempting!

Just after the galley effort, we spied a large sailboat with mast strapped on deck come abeam us towards the lock. The wind was catching them and the skipper did not seem to have a good grasp on his limited options for maneuvering. It got really scary when he tried to back up, but whatever limitations his boat might have had, coupled with what appeared to be poor decisions, left the boat getting sideways and being blown very close to the bridge abutments. He managed to pull it out before collision, but it looked close to us. He wisely circled out in open water until the lock gate was open for him.

Very few people were out and about today, including the occupants of the 10 or so boats docked here. It finally warmed up over 60F later in the day, but the wind chill made it feel in the low 50s. By 1600, we decided to eat the turkey, mashed potatoes and snap peas for a hot, hearty supper and we surely enjoyed it. We had not heard anything about a docktail party, but wanted to have eaten before anything started.

Sure enough, we saw folks gathering on the dock next to Trawler Life and I went over. Diane elected to stay snug and warm in Diva Di reading. I brought chips over in a wooden bowl made by a friend from Nova Scotia, Mike Turney, and the folks were impressed with the bowl. This was a much different gathering from the one on our boat yesterday, but still fun to meet the new folks. Most of them are Great Loopers and one supposed fact was thrown out there that more people climb Mt. Everest every year than complete the Great Loop. I will try to verify that sometime.

In the hour or so between the end of the party and bedtime, Diane and I sat inside listening to very prominent sounds resonating throughout the boat. We had heard them last night, too, but did not get too interested in them while in our post-party mode. It sounded like short blasts of croaking, at sometimes varying pitches. The sound was almost continuous, but with enough variation to my ear that it did not sound like a man-made source. My guess is numerous croaker fish, but Diane vehemently disagrees. My Internet searches were in vain that night, but I did find some evidence to support my claim later. At least the other boaters here were hearing it, too.

Tomorrow, Fri, we had planned to move through about 6 or 7 locks and perhaps anchor in a nice spot. The forecast is now predicting another band of thunderstorms tomorrow afternoon and very strong winds following that on Sun. We might not want to be moving on Sun, so we will have to see how far we feel like going today. Weather dictates all while boating.

[Trying to post this before 0600 on Fri, I kept getting errors on the SailBlogs site, to that’s why it is late.]