We listened to the wind all night and felt the boat being tossed around at the dock, the weather forecast was correct. The nominal wind speed wasn’t all that much, 15 to 20 but it was the gusts that were near 30 that gave us pause. Since our wind instrument is at the top of the mast and the mast has been lowered for canal work we really don’t know how hard it is blowing at the moment, but checking the wind speeds a various airports around us we get a pretty good idea. Airports always have good wind instruments so we are not relying on some weather station in somebodies back yard for our data.
We planned on four locks today, only one of which had pipes that we could tie too. The other simply had lines dropped down from the top of the lock (not attached at the bottom) requiring us to hold on to the line to maintain position. To make matters worse, Lock 17 required that you only use the south side of the lock, in our case the port side of the boat would be along the wall as we head west. Our wheel is offset to starboard, with the engine and thruster controls outboard of the wheel alongside the starboard side of the pilot house; great for a starboard side to docking as we can hold a lock line with one hand and still access the throttle, shift and thruster controls with the other hand. Lock 17 would have us either run the lock line through the cabin to the starboard side, or not have engine control. Neither of those options is a good one if the wind is trying to blow the boat around in the lock.
After considering all the options, we choose door #3; not moving today. This is a nice dock, it is free and it has ample power also free thanks to the good citizens of Canajoharie. All they ask is that we patronize the local business establishments which we gladly did. So far we have given some business to McDonald’s, Rite Aid and Ace Hardware.
We half thought about hiking down to see the “boiling pots” for which this town was named but the 43 degree temperatures and the wind gusts had us rethink that plan. It just isn’t a pleasant day for a walk.
This afternoon we received a phone call from Gary, our advance team aboard Lady Barbara who is now well west of us. They made an attempt at crossing Lake Oneida today and turned around. You know it is rough out there when an active stabilized 76 foot boat that can cruise at 20+ knots has to retreat to calmer waters. Evidently there is no room at the east end of the lake to stay overnight as all the docks and marinas are full (boats waiting out the weather). The last we heard Lady Barbara was heading east going back through some of the locks they had just passed through in search of a place to overnight.
Gary said we made the right call in staying put today. That was good to hear from somebody who has made over 50 trips through the Erie Canal. I told Gary he should stick with us, maybe he could learn something :).
The two boats behind us showed up today. The big blue boat came up from Troy and they said they had to fight their way through the locks with all the wind and required four people on deck to do it.
It is interesting when sitting at the dock how you tend to get itchy feet and think things really aren’t that bad. Then a blast of wind hits the boat, brings you back to reality and you are thankful you are not in a lock trying to maintain position. They are still calling for wet snow tonight and I believe it.
Today: 0 miles
Dave
Life aboard LIBERTY 