16 May 2014

Today had started off being a rest day. We had found a marina near a small town. It had all the facilities we would need and would be a great place to sit out the storm that was coming. 1-2 inches of all day rain, a great day to stay in, warm and dry.

Bernie, the dock master, called me out at 9AM to say that the Erie Canal people had called and they wanted everybody to move as far west as possible. So we got set to go and were off the bulkhead at 9:45.

Lucky for us the rain had not started yet, but there was lots of junk in the river. So we headed up towards Lock 16. It had a very short lift so we were through a little after 10AM and on our way to the famous lock 17.

It’s huge, it’s the largest lift on the Erie Canal. The lock lifts (or lowers) every boat an astounding 40 feet. It replaced four locks on the old canal by just one. It has two unique features, first the locking gate drops down from the top. When you enter the lock you go under the gate that is suspended above you. The second thing is it has a water saving side pool which allows about half of water from a locking to be reused on the next locking. It’s weird in the lock since you can feel the flows change.

It was also our first time at using the port (left) wall. It worked out well since the wind was pushing us to that wall. So we didn’t need to tug on the lines to stay in place. On the other hand it made it harder at the top to get off the wall, but we managed without any bumps.

Lock 18 at a little after noon was easy. It was also a small lift at 20 feet so it was an easy passage.

And then the rain started. We had already decided to call it a day shooting for the Ilion Marina. With the rain coming down it was a good move on our part. By the time we traveled the 5 miles, it was pouring. Docking along the wall was easy, but both Susan and I were soaked at the end.

Susan made a great hot lunch of tuna melts, and started cooking sausages and tomato sauce for dinner. The aroma’s wafting through the boat were great!

The Erie Canal rapidly turned into a muddy trash filled mess and the flow picked up. The Canal Authority closed the locks at 3PM and it’s clear that they then opened the dam gates alongside each lock to keep flooding from happening.

We both were exhausted from yesterday and the mad dash for today so we both got naps in.

We’ve been watching the Flood and Flash Flood Warnings and the water level rising. Since we got here at 1PM the water has risen about 18″ (now about 8PM). I’ve been adjusting the fenders down as we rise up the wall. I’ll keep an eye on it overnight. The National Weather Service predicts the crest to be about 6AM, so we should be fine with the 3′ of wall that we have remaining.

The sausages and sauce were wonderful! But then you knew that!