Day 273
All of the cataramans on the wall at St. Johnsville, NY left about the same time for the 8:00am first opening of our next lock, Lock 16. Traveling together were three PDQs, Building Our Wings, Diva Di, and Vagabond, and a Fountain-Pajot named Betsy Marie. The day was spend locking through another 7 locks and traveling slowly in between since the speed limit on this section of the canal was 10mph. Sharon and I went 60 miles to Sylvan Beach, NY on the eastern end of Lake Oneida, the largest lake contained entirely within New York. In our last two locks we were locking down rather than up, having reached the highest point on the Erie Canal during our transit.
Gathering at Lock 16 to wait for the first opening.
Betsy Marie exiting a lock.
This is a "guard gate" along the canal. Guard gates can be closed to contain the water in the canal in the event of a breach.
Four cataramans in a lock.
Building Our Wings with Sharon holding a rope on the lock wall. Astern is Vagabond. Photo credit to Duane Ising of Diva Di.
The free wall at Sylvan Beach had around eight boats waiting to cross Lake Oneida the next morning. Right behind us was "Veritas", a sailboat. We had met the owners of Veritas at the Southall Marina in Hampton, VA where we kept our boat last summer, so they came aboard for some docktails while we caught up and shared stories about our experiences on our voyages.
Waves were breaking over the jetty at Sylvan Beach that evening, which is why we did not attempt a lake crossing then and decided to wait until morning.
No comments :
Post a Comment