A Good Day on the Canal and Yet Another Weather Day - Days 271-272

June 11-12, 2016
Day 271-272

The weather prediction for this day was for severe thunderstorms beginning around noon.  We decided to get up early and make tracks westward for as long as possible until the storms caught up with us.  We have a Sirius weather radio on the boat so we can track the progress of storms in real time on the chart plotter screen and be able to see when we will be getting into the storms.  We were able to travel until about 11:00 am until we pulled over and tied to a free wall in Amsterdam, NY to wait out the storm.  We had lunch, walked the dogs, and took a nap while waiting.  About 1:15pm the storms had mostly passed (they were not as bad as predicted) and we got underway again.

Below is one of the numerous low bridges over the Erie Canal, many are as low as 20 feet.

The scenery along the canal was beautiful and we enjoyed the trip even though it was chilly and drizzly for much of the afternoon.  I wound up navigating from the inside helm quite a bit to avoid the wind and rain.  This was a great day for Sharon and me as we transited the canal and eight more locks.  We have finally become a smoothly operating boating crew and everything went very well as we approached the locks, locked through, and exited the locks.  It was a good feeling to be a team!

After a long day on the canal, we finally arrived at the St. Johnsville Marina and Redneck Boat Club as the sign on the marina office said.

When we pulled into the marina to dock we saw a huge white tent and about a hundred people waving and welcoming us to St. Johnsville.  In this gazebo they had set up a buffet dinner and had a karaoke DJ playing music.  This I had never seen before, but the DJ played recorded music and sang all of the songs himself.

We later found out that this was actually a surprise 70th birthday party for one of the local residents.  She had been lured to the marina by her family on the pretense of looking at a cool boat that had arrived.  The daughter who was throwing the party came over and invited all of the boaters at the marina to come and join the party, so we did!

Below is Sharon and me, Duane and Diane Ising from "Diva Di" and the son of the birthday girl, Chris, and his daughter Meadow.

Here are some of the boats at the marina.  PDQs "Vagabond", "Building Our Wings", and "Diva Di" and a Fountaine-Pajot catamaran called "Betsy Marie".   We decided to wait out the weather here for one more day since high winds were predicted for the next day which can make locking hazardous.  The other captains had made the same decision so we all stayed put.  Sharon and I walked into town and picked up a few supplies at the local deli/grocery and the drug store.  Most places in town were closed since it was Sunday, even the restaurants, so we didn't stay long.