Thursday, October 19, 2006

Made it to Ilion, NY with a further 61 miles under our keel. The terrain is drastically different as we are entering the foot hills of the Catskill Mountains and we are traveling the general path of the Mohawk River that works its way to the Hudson. Too cloudy to get pictures of the autumn leaves. We have 89 miles to the Hudson River but concerns about further rain predicted tonight may put the local rivers in flood condition and the canal system may shut down until the water levels are more manageable. After the most recent rain the lock east of us just opened today! We made a great purchase in Buffalo which has helped us go through the locks smoothly- it was two way radio headsets- so when we go through the canals I can talk with Gordon while on the foredeck reaching for a line without shouting at him, while he is located at the stern steering us toward the dock walls. Most of the locks today carried us about 20 to 24 feet down- the walls at times give one a clausterphobic feeling when the canal empties. We are too busy to take a picture of this effect. We were lucky today- the rain held off all day until we tied up in Ilion with rain fall and thunder just as we finished tying up to the dock.


Sunrise as we approach Lake Oneida. There is some debate as to whether it classified under the NY Fingerlakes. The crossing took about 2 hours.
















The colors are still in the trees.














Dredging the channel. It took a bit of maneuvering to get around the barge.