June 19 update

June 16

We spend the day cleaning the boat inside and out. We share a taxi with our neighbor
and go to Wal-Mart for necessities. We are learning we should have stocked up better at Waterford. We can only hold 5 days max on perishable food, so if you get stuck at a lock wall for 3 days you can not get to food. We carry 2 more days with canned meat, but you feel somewhat helpless. In addition, groceries along the route, except for convenience stores, are a minimum of 1 mile from any stop along the canal at least so far.

June 17

We can move today at 8 a.m. We are 1 mile from lock 17 so we will try to move to the upper wall of lock 16 for the night.
We run in a pack of 4 boats all day until one leaves for a marina just before lock 16. The three of us finish lock 16 and tie up for the night. It has finally been a hot day and we all meet in our cockpit for a cold beer and snacks. A really nice day.

I double check all lines at 11 p.m. as the radar is showing major storms heading to us by midnight. At 12:15 we are still in the clear so it is back to bed. It seems I slept through the major wind as Fruitcakes the boat directly in front of us on the wall tells me in the morning we were hit with a wall of wind in excess of 50 mph at about 4 a.m... We never woke up through the 1 hour ordeal.

June 18

We have a light drizzle and 15-20 mile per hour winds all day. We move on to lock 20 for the night and tie up there.

Everyone has their day in the lock when nothing goes right. I cannot get the boat on the wall.

Current, wind, and the just plain cussedness of the boat keep us from tying up. We are a major hold up in the locks as first we get the bow in and the current moves the stern out further than the bow hook can reach. We have boats already tied front and back so it is somewhat like parallel parking. Finally that is what I do, Alice drops the front wall line and I back the stern in for her to get that line then she walks forward to get the bow line. Bow thrusters are a blessing.

The crew lost her smile on this one lock.

June 19

Today we moved through the lock 21/22. These are easy as they take us down. We move to Sylvan beach for a free lock wall for the night. We get in early and are in need of ice. We ask some local fisherman where we can get it and they send us to a restaurant. The restaurant gives us enough ice for all the boats at no cost so we go there for lunch as repayment. His generosity paid handsomely with 5 for lunch.

Finally a lot of boats we started with catch up with us at Sylvan in the afternoon. Some we have not seen since Waterford 8 days ago. We go to a Grand Banks 52 for cocktail hour. The fly bridge has enough room for 13 people to sit and talk for an hour. Then it is off to the local car show to finish the evening.

Sylvan beach is a nice town. There is about 2000 foot of concrete wall for boats to tie up.Lots of restaurants, a meat market, and groceries all within a half mile, make our cruisers job a lot easier.

The canal takes on a different look the last 2 days as we have long stretches of canal where you hear or see no outside traffic. Prior to this section we had the turnpike and CSX railroad as a constant reminder of civilization, now we see trees and an occasional town every 10 mile or so.