Friday, October 20, 2006

We are spending the day in Illion, NY- 11 miles from Little Falls, which is the largest lock on the canal- a 40 foot drop from west to the east side of the lock. As predicted, it is pouring rain with bouts of fog. The locks east of us are closed because of flooding conditions. For the last few days we have been traveling in the Seneca River which weaves in and out of the Erie Canal. We will be traveling on sections of the Mohawk River during the next few days as it weaves in the canal. We have spent the day drying out some of the "wet-sections of the boat", and doing laundry etc. I had to sleep in for foredeck bunk last nite because the navigator bed got wet with some leaking....which we have been trying to dry out today. Gordon pulled out the ceiling and I used the hair dryer to dry out sections of the ceiling! Every boat we have had has had some leaking...it is just a matter of finding the leaks and seeing if you can fix them or work around it. I don't know what the Handley's do when they experience monsoon rains in the South Pacific. Below are pictures taken yesterday.




Two power boats waiting in the same little marine with us chomping at the bit like us to get going.














Following the "red buoy" around the bend in the river"













Passing a dam just before Lock 19. We had to slow the boat down on several sections of the canal due to a lot of debris- floating logs and tree branches.