Happily Stranded

Sylvan Beach, NY

43 11.74 N 075 43.69 W

This morning we arrived at Sylvan Beach with the intention of crossing Oneida Lake. When we got here however, the lake was already too rough. Waves were breaking over the jetty and the spray from the breaking waves flew horizontal from the wave tops. With Victoria on board it would be inappropriate to attempt anything rough.

Therefore, we'll stay here for two days until the weather settles down. By supper time, 6 other cruising boats pulled in behind us. None of them want to cross the lake either.

However, our layover gave us the excuse we needed to arrange for a reunion. In high school, Libby's best friend was Emily. The two of them did everything together. Indeed, my first date ever with Libby was a double date with Emily and her future husband Baden. We haven't done a good job of keeping in touch tough, it has been more than 40 years since we've seen them.

Emily and Baden live near by so today we called them. They were very happy to hear from us and they came right over to Sylvan Beach. We spend the afternoon chatting. The four of us also took Victoria on an excursion to search for a near by geocache. We didn't find it.

Emily and Baden, being so nice, invited us out to dinner. After dinner they drove us to the top of that ridge I wrote about a week ago. The ridge top in Madison County, NY is today a big wind farm. The wind mills there are 233 feet high and very impressive when seen close up. Indeed, they look majestic.

Strangely though, one of them fell down last winter. Until the investigation to why it fell is complete, the entire wind farm is shut down. Therefore, it looked pretty silly to see all those massive wind machines sitting still on such a windy day.