A Day of Surprises

Canajoharie, NY
42 54.56 N 074 34.24 W

We had a great dinner with Pete and Mary Ellen in Troy last night. Yummy.  Thanks much Pete & Mary Ellen, that was fun.

This morning we got off to a late start, but the day was splendid.  My goal was to make a photographic blog post of the remnants of the Hurricane Irene damage at locks 8-12 on the Erie Canal.  I was quite curious as to what it would look like.

Surprise number one.   The damage has been repaired.  Everything looks spendid.  True, there are some follow ups and some earth moving still to be done, but everything is fully functional.  This applies not only to the NY Canal properties, but also to the private homes along the river banks.

In Rotterdam Junction, last year we saw the household debris piled high at the highway curb from all the houses that were flooded.   Today we could see their back yards facing the river.  Everthing looked to be in Bristol shape.  The lawns were lush and well manacured.  The houses looked freshly painted.  Lawn furniture sat there perfectly placed.

I took a bunch of pictures, but there's nothing dramatic to see.  I'll post them soon.

Even more amazing, the NY Canal Corporation managed to complete most of those repairs by November 2011.  Very impressive.

Surprise number two.  We passed a Westsail 32 going the other way.   It was Second Wind, out of Cleveland, Ohio.  In 2010 I swapped some emails with Tom, the owner.  He told me that in 2012 he would sail his W32 to Florida.  That was so long ago I forgot.  What a surprise to see him today.   We didn't think fast enough, we could have turned around, backtracked a little and had a mini rendezvous with Second Wind.  Too bad; missed opportunity.

We wanted to stop for the night at lock 12.  The Lock 10 master told us that lock 12 was a poor stop.  We resolved to go 5 miles past lock 12, to Fonda NY where there is a terminal wall.   When we got there, it was right next to a stock car race in progress.  The noise and the dust were terrible, so we moved on.  Another 5 miles and we got to lock 13, just at dusk.   Alas, the lock master said that they were under construction and we couldn't stay there.   So on we went, another 8 miles in the dark, picking out the red and green buoys with a flashlight.  That's not the recommended way to travel.

Anyhow, we finally got to Canajoharie and tied up at the city dock. Surprise number 3.  Also at this dock was Pogo Pelli, with Bob and Trish on board.   That couple we've met in several other places, incliding Vero, Marathon, and perhaps Oriental.   They trailer their 23 foot sailboat around and make shorter cruising trips.  This time, they splashed the boat in Buffalo and they are heading for New York Harbor for the Fourth of July.