It is now Sunday evening, June 12. We have been in Little Falls, NY since Friday afternoon. Friday, at about 6 PM, we had to go through one of the largest lift locks in the world. It was a 40 ft lift. We were a little intimidated by the size/depth of the lock, and we even went through with another boat, but we did great. We stopped at the nicest town and marina that I have seen in all my years on the water. The Little Falls Marina, along the canal is amazing. It is only $1 a foot for your boat for fee. The lock master, Chris and the rest of the crew will drive you anywhere in town that you want and will pick you back up. They close up and give you a key to the marina to get into the showers and toilets, but there is ice, shirts, cups, that you could take, but here we are and all the rest that were/are here, with a key to the place. The town is just above Lock 17, which is the big lock.
Yesterday, everyone sat out the day due to the wind. Last night a bunch of us from different boats got together outside our boat for drinks and a BS session. They enjoyed hearing our trials and tribulations, especially mine about attempting to dock and how fast the boat is comparable to our sailboat. We had a great time and made some new friends. Blake and Jane are still (so they say) enjoying themselves, however it is almost certain that we will not get to the Thousand Islands this trip. The weather setbacks and waiting have taken a large chunk out of our time to get anywhere.
We sat our again today. Gusts up to 45 miles an hour! Tomorrow is supposed to be much better. Jane, myself and Rich from a Ranger Tug, out of Vermont went for a long walk today back to the lock and around Moss Island, where there were a lot rock climbers on the island climbing the cliffs on the island.
Blake, Jane, Nancy and myself took a taxi out to the Herkimer House. General Herkimer was a Revolutionary War, general/hero that fought and was gravely wounded in the Battle of the Oriskany. His house is still standing and there are about half dozen authentic pieces of furniture that belonged to him still at the house. It was very cool. Afterwards, we had the tax drop us off in town across the canal to get ice cream. TASTY. Tonight we are just relaxing, enjoying the evening. Tomorrow we start westward again along the canal with the hopes of getting across Oneida Lake.