Week 2: June 13 – June 19

As planned, we stopped just outside of Lock 14 and tied up at Riverfront Park in Canajahorie. Once again, we met more loopers. Docktails on the Idyll Time III hosted by Dan and Janet brightened spirits in spite of the weather. Once again, too many snacks so dinner seems like overload – we decided to just eat some leftover chicken cutlets from the other night.

With our buddy boats we left early to get through Lock 14 when it opened at 7am. Everything was fine until we got outside of Lock 16. The lock master advised that there were a few tugs and barges using Lock 17 so we would have an hour and a half wait. When offered the choice, we decided to wait on the upper end of the lock and locked through. Until we get the shaft leak fixed in Brewerton, we are running slower than usual and used the “wait” time to get to Lock 17, our last lock for the day. Arrived at Lock 17 and still waited another hour. Tough lock – 40′ rise and needed to use the bow thruster to maintain position.

Registered at Little Falls Canal Harbor – great little place – water/electric/WiFi (if your boat is close enough to the Clubhouse; we weren’t)/ clean restrooms and showers – all for $1 a foot. Rain continued, pounding rain most of the day. Good day to catch up on vacuuming the grass clippings from Riverfront Park, testing recipes in my new Instant Pot – meatloaf and potatoes, and chocolate banana bread. Recipes were a success.

Sue from Lucky Me, ever the organizer, coordinated a looper dinner for Saturday night and a game night (Left, Right, Center)/ birthday celebration for Dan from Done Diggin’. To celebrate his birthday, all boats brought a gift – something from their boat that they either didn’t want or need. Two fun nights!

Everyone but us left on Monday morning, Ali and Jeff (daughter and son-in-law) were able to stop by for a visit. It was easier to stay put than to have them try to find us somewhere along the canal. They flew east into JFK from San Diego to attend two weddings – one in PA and one in VT. They visited with one of Ali’s former college roommates who lived at a midpoint between the weddings. Since I had one of their cars (C-Max) for a loaner last year, they decided to make this into an adventure and drive the car cross country instead of shipping it back. This also enabled them to visit places they wanted to see (Niagara Falls, Grand Tetons, +others), along with visits to long time friends who now live scattered across the U.S.

We enjoyed their visit and the thoughtful things they brought with them: cookies from both weddings (some made by family members), air pods for easier communication on the boat, an ID for Kodey as “first dog” of the Answer, and a customized Shutterfly book of family photos for when we get lonely. Be prepared if stopping in Little Falls, there are practically no places open for lunch on a Monday! We found Bonitas, a sandwich shop that served a wide variety of sandwiches, paninis, and salads.

Once again the next day was cloudy and chilly – no sun until midday but at least it wasn’t raining. We left alone, early as usual, planning to travel to Utica. Lock 18 was probably the easiest lock we went through – only one in the lock. As it turned out, we were alone in all the locks we covered that day.

This was a long travel day. We decided to skip the stop at Utica or Rome and head to Lock 22, Sylvan Beach, to meet up with our buddy boats. This way we only had to cross Oneida Lake to get to Brewerton for repairs. Once we are “fixed,” we will both travel easier. Along the way, we passed a work boat going east pulling long dredge cables and also two loopers heading east (very unusual).

Random Act of Kindness: When passing by Ilion, a sailor, with his two golden retrievers, on Teake, called out and advised he was stuck at the dock. We grabbed some lines and pulled him off. He was very grateful.

Arrived at Sylvan Beach just in time for Docktails with our buddy boats and a few new ones. Another free dock but no electric. Took a walk into town to see their “Bike Night”. Peter counted 213 bikes – wide variety of motorcycles.

Generator cut out when I started coffee so needed to wait until breakfast. Breakfast with TxAu, Lucky Me and Done Diggin’ at the Pancake House. Good food and pleasant staff. Everyone has a reservation for Ess-Kay for Wednesday night but they couldn’t accommodate us. Spent the night at Winter Harbor.

Kodey has been enjoying his daily walks and multiple naps as we travel — no need to use tinkle turf yet.

We left after breakfast and the water on Oneida Lake was like glass. TxAu and Lucky Me had an opportunity to run faster to clean out the gunk that accumulates at much lower speeds than usual. It was nice to see the sun but once again, possible showers are projected for the afternoon. It’s been a real rainy start.

Later that morning Ess-Kay called and explained that there would be no room for us on Thursday as a few boats that were projected to leave, decided to stay. Also decided to make another phone and push the repair since that was primary. Good thing for buddy boats! As we were in Winter Harbor trying to get some action from Ess-Kay, one of our buddy boats was pushing the repair at Ess-Kay for us, even offering to leave and go to the free dock so that we could get it. Finally, Ess-Kay called and told us to come over at 9:30am.

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