Leaving Mid-Lakes at 0750 we arrived at Lock 32 two hours later. This is the lock that has the waterfall feature, or rather the perpetually leaking gates as they were installed incorrectly.
Lock 32
Approaching the Genesee River that goes into Rochester.
We needed to stop at Allen’s Canalside Marine to check out a boat we might be interested in. There didn’t appear to be anyplace to dock inside except maybe at the fuel dock. The listed price for diesel was $3.78 which scared us off, we didn’t want to ask to stay at their fuel dock with out buying some. Just across the canal was a day dock in a park with a bridge over the canal a short walk down the street.
Liberty at Henpeck Park (that is the actual name).
This is the craft we thought we might be interested in. The hull is steel and the boat isn’t unattractive. Of course the brokerage listing shows photo’s from when the boat was new.
We knew it was sort of a fixer-uper and the cabin sides had some “rot” but didn’t imagine that all the sides were shot.
I am not sure why whoever finished off the hull thought it would be a good idea to build the cabin sides out of tongue and groove material that didn’t have a lot of rot resistance. It appears that every joint has opened up to let moisture in meaning that all of the cabin sides need replaced. The interior is also tongue and groove but there doesn’t seem to be much evidence of water damage. Unfortunately, unless you know how the boat was constructed one doesn’t know if it possible to remove the outer material without disturbing the interior of the boat. This might be a project for somebody else. Why don’t brokers put current pictures in their listings? It would save them a lot of time and effort in the end as people show up expecting one thing and are shown something dramatically worse.
After that depressing expedition, we walked back to the boat and headed west to Spencerport, one of our favorite stops. The books we left at their book exchange last fall are still here. We will see if any “move” when we stop by in the fall again.
They have a used book store here that we visited. Last fall it the sign said open, and we were there during their posted business hours but the lights were out and the doors locked. We had better luck this trip.
For the princely sum of $9 we bought a book on Howard Hughes (350 pages); I told the Mate maybe I can pick up some tips from reading it, a 450 page Harlan Coben mystery novel for the Mate, a DVD with 28 hours of old, classic movies and another “cute” DVD.
We are the only boat here and the first people to sign their guest registry this year.
Today: 27 nm in 5.2 engine hours. Two locks. Total: 4325 nm.
Dave
Life aboard LIBERTY 