A little ouchie...
A good bit of the Erie Canal is actually the Mohawk River. But after one of the locks today we didn't rejoin the river. Instead we followed an actual canal part of the Erie Canal. It wasn't as narrow, shallow, or overgrown as the Dismal Swamp Canal. But it had its share of prop bending logs floating in it. At one point we motored around a little stump looking thing that could have been nothing much at all. It turned out going around was a really good idea as it was actually a tiny bit of a big chunk of tree fixed solid in the mud. Running over it would likely have had us limping into a marina somewhere for repairs. It is better to be lucky than good.
The actual canal part of the Canal wasn't that long today and, shortly after having missed the tree, we rejoined the Mohawk river. I declared it official. I like rivers. I'm not a big fan of canals. But you have to go where you have to go to get where you want to go.
The day ended at a free dock in a place called “Little Falls.” Our first approach was to a floating dock that looked pretty empty. But as I maneuvered toward that easy touchdown we were informed there were no services on that dock. We needed to move up the river a few hundred feet to tie up to the wall. It isn't as tall a wall as yesterday's wall nor did it have the big rubber permanent fenders installed. And there were a few boats on it already. The only open spot was about 52' long. First Light is 42' long so, lots of room, right? And, actually, it was pretty easy approach since there was neither wind or current complicating the issue. It should have been a no brainer of a parking job. Just when it looked like I had gotten it perfect I let the bow swing in about 1 foot further than I should have. So there is a bit of a white mark on the the wall and a minor ouchie on the hull. You have to look hard to see it. Deb claims it was her fault because she didn't have a fender in the right spot. But I was the one at the helm. So, even though going through 17 locks in the last few days made for a marked improvement in my boat handling skills, it would seem I still have a ways to go. One of the reasons to do new things is to learn new things.
(Ed note: he’s being modest. No way could I have gotten First Light into that spot. He did a great job.)
We are going to spend a couple of nights just to take a bit of a breather. In the last four days we have traveled 129 miles taking a total of 27 hours and 52 minutes. We have cleared 17 locks, anchored once, and been on three different docks. And yes, for the speed demon curious, we averaged 4.6 knots. But that average includes all the time spent in locks, going through 'NO WAKE' zones, and slowing down whenever we are passing small fishing boats, swimmers, (yes swimmers), kayakers, and canoes. The GPS data generally shows that we are actually doing around 7 knots at 1600 rpm when left to our own devices. One of the reasons I think that our fuel pump was going bad long before we saw it leaking is that speed. Before the new pump, we generally showed 6 knots at 1600 rpm and the engines were nowhere near as smooth as they are now.
We have been making what feels like good progress. Something that hasn't been the norm for this trip so far. Even with a little ouchie.
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