Messing
About in Boats, Boots, and Byways:
Archive of Erie Canal Journal entries for 2002:
31 August 02 |
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One
of our favorite destinations is the Erie Canal,
which originally began in downtown Buffalo,
and later when the canal was widened and renamed
the Erie Canal Barge Canal, the canal began,
and still begins, at North Tonawanda on the
Niagara River where Tonawanda Creek empties
into the river.
We have biked in five-mile bites from Lockport
to Brockport, and we've rowed a time or two,
too.
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Diamonds!
We're rich!
31
August 02: We
spent about five hours on the water, putting in at Albion
and motoring upstream toward a big lake connected to
the canal near Presbyterian Road and Eagle Harbor. The
color of the day was yellow, including the first goldenrod
blooms that I've seen this year (not a good thing).
We also saw the first leaves that had turned -- sumac.
The stretch of canal is not as populated with walkers
as some others, but we saw a lot of bike riders, mostly
older, since we were on the water at midday. There were
a lot of boats, because of the Labor Day weekend starting.
We were prepared to go through our first bridge raising
but didn't have to. When we got to the lift bridge at
Eagle Harbor, we saw that we could drift under with
two or three feet to share in the headroom category.
The sky was blue and temperature was in the mid-70s
to start and low 80s later, but humidity was low. A
wonderful day on the water. The bead of epoxy did its
work -- no more leaks! We had to switch to the second
battery in sight of the ramp because to oomph went kawoosh
all at once. I could have stuck with the battery but
wanted to test the drill of changing to the other. The
critical component was tossing the anchor overboard
to stabilize things so I could fuss without any need
to use an oar to fend off the shore. The switch took
about five minutes and was hassle-free. The difference
in battery power was noticeable, but later when I hooked
the first battery to the charger, it shows the usual
starting point on the amp meter. I still have to learn
more about the meter things .... .
I'm getting better at the trailer thing, too. No longer
feel lost about what to do to make the rig go this way
or that. I'm scheming on a bowsprit piece to get the
anchor out from the bow to make it easier to deploy;
it'll hang from the sprit, too. Got a beautiful piece
of 2x4 poplar to make it with. Tomorrow, maybe. The
quality of light and wind made diamonds in the water.
Like the kitten in the cat litter commercial on TV sez:
"Diamonds! We're rich."
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Herkimer
&
Perkins
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