Canal at Sylvan Beach, NY, this morning.

 

 

We left Sylvan Beach at 0900. Our first stop was just the other side of the bridge for fuel and water. The marina was closed however both boats had enough of both to get us through the day.

 

We motored ALL day, doing only four locks but traveled some 42.5 miles. For the most part the canal was nothing but a ditch of water lined with trees. There were many dead trees reaching into the water from both shores with many, many branches of all sizes floating and again many, many deadheads. The water was quite muddy making visibility of all the debris quite difficult. And I thought dodging the mooring balls in Prinyer's Cove was challenging. Jorge commented the only thing missing in the water were the crocs! Having said all that, there was dredging occuring along the canal so maybe that stirred things up.

 

We stopped at Ilions Village Marina for fuel and water shortly after 1600. We used the facilities for hot showers and then decided to continue another 1.5 miles to Herkimer which promised to be an adequate sized community. We had had a bit of rain just after we fueled up with the skies threatening more. We were making the short run to Herkimer when the heavens opened up, complete with thunder and lightening. We docked in the rain and, of course, the storm passed shortly after we docked. Second shower of the day (some days we don't get any).

 

We met a couple in Sylvan Beach in a sailboat traveling from Trenton to the Bahamas. We were playing leap frog today with them. They left before us this morning. We passed them when they stopped to visit a town and then they caught up with us while we were fueling up and showering. I imagine there will be a lot of this going on during our trip.

 

We have traveled just about half the distance of the Erie Canal that we have to do and are now heading "down the locks". NYC here we come!