We left Sylvan Beach early in the morning to avoid thunderstorms. Went through locks 22 - 19. Had a good day, making 41 nautical miles. We finally stopped around dinner time at Ilion Marina. It's a nice place. Lots of green grass, showers, even a little restaurant where they had a free concert on Sunday to raise money for a local charity.
But the BEST part of Ilion was meeting Dawn and Jack (again, like a dope, I didn't take a picture, errrrr). Dawn is 72 and Jack is 75 and they have more spark and energy than a lot of 50 year olds I know. What a cute couple! They used to have a 27' O'Day, similar to ours, but that was back in 1975 - 80. Then in 1980 they moved up to a 40' Irwin. Jack said, "I owned my own company but had a couple fella's working for me that I knew could run it. I begged Dawn to just give me one year on the boat and promised that if she hated it, we could come right back. Well, wouldn't you know that we ended up living aboard for 22-1/2 years!" "You get hooked," explained Dawn. These two told us stories and gave us lots of great tips, since they know the east coast like the back of their hands. They said the best part about cruising is the ability to get up each morning and decide where you want to go...doesn't matter where. As Jack put it, "I don't care where I'm at, I'm there on purpose." And believe me, these guys are dedicated explorers! In 1990, they bought a motor home and shipped it to England so they could start spending the summers traveling Europe, and the winters traveling Florida and the Bahamas. Due to health problems, they are now restricted to just their motor home. They still have their boat and Jack refuses to sell it. I can understand. We invited him aboard but he said he just couldn't. "If I get on that boat, I just know I'll cry," he said. "I'm so jealous because I know you two kids are gonna have so much fun." (Kids? Did I say I love this guy?) We discussed the ups and downs of cruising, of course, emphasizing the ups. Jack says the trick to staying young is to follow your dreams. He summed it up best when he said, "If you’re not excited about your life, you don’t have a life!"
August 4: Lock 17 then Fonda, NY
On August 4 we got to go through lock 17, the deepest lock on the canal. Talk about impressive! I've posted some pics, but you really need to look at the video to get a feel for the massive scale of this lock. Bob, one of the folks who received word of our blog wrote to tell us, "when you come out of lock 17, you'll feel like you're coming out in China." No kidding!
On August 4 we got to go through lock 17, the deepest lock on the canal. Talk about impressive! I've posted some pics, but you really need to look at the video to get a feel for the massive scale of this lock. Bob, one of the folks who received word of our blog wrote to tell us, "when you come out of lock 17, you'll feel like you're coming out in China." No kidding!
The lock starts full but quickly drains out to reveal the 40 foot doors. This is looking behind us. Just think...those doors are the only thing holding back a 40 foot wall of water! gulp!
This is looking forward. Ok, I'm not exactly camera-ready, what with my lovely yellow rubber gloves. Maybe I'll start a fashion trend...NOT! I use the boat hook to keep the bow (and the overhanging mast) from hitting the wall as the water goes down.
Here's Lonzo coming out behind us. He had on his foul weather gear because the forward doors raise up, rather than swinging in like on the other locks. Consequently, you get a bit of a shower.
The following video shows the back gates, then pans over the wall to the forward gates.
The following video shows the forward doors rising up. The shelf of white weights are the counter weights that are lowered in order to open the doors.
NOTE: I need video help! I have no idea how I got the little video screen to show up in the Q&A entry. I copied and pasted the embedded info to link to youtube but it didn't work this time. If anyone knows how to do this, please let me know at billandboop@yahoo.com.
thanks!!!
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