I rose early to walk Emma in the morning. The air was thick. At 0600, it felt muggy.
With a little teasing, I was able to get her to run a little ways with me. Her endurance is better than mine; after all, I was sprinting to keep ahead of her. Once I recovered, we ran again. While doing this, I was teaching her a new word.... rrrrrrrrun! She's a quick study!
We departed Little Falls at 0730 on July 18th. After being lifted at Lock E18, the Lock Master informed me that dredging was going on past Guard Gate 5; a few miles ahead. Power boats could go around the dredge. We had to radio ahead on Channel 13 so they could move the dredge; allowing us to pass through in deeper water.
0940 we hailed the dredging crew. They knew we were coming and asked us to give them a couple minutes for the tug to move the barge. When they called back, they gave us very clear directions. We had to go between the green channel marker and them; staying as far away from the channel marker as possible. As we passed by the Crew Leader asked if we had Grey Poupon.... We were about 6 feet from the barge in 17' of water. The dredge pipeline was about two football fields long and then turned to go ashore where we saw heavy equipment moving the tailings. Tailings is the generic term for anything that is dredged up; mud, sand, rock, gravel, etc.
By 1100, we had reached Lock E19. We landed (moored) the boat with great difficulty. No matter what I did the boat was being pushed away from the wall. Grace used the boat hook to grab one rope at the bow and slid the boat hook to me. Thank God for my long arms. I could barely reach the rope at my end (the stern). So much so, the thought of falling overboard rushed through my head.
The whole lift was difficult. We had to fight to keep the boat inline. The bow was being pushed away hard. I could see Grace pulling as hard as she could, but making just a little progress at getting the boat back towards the wall. The ropes were long enough for me to walk forward, and we switched positions; me on the bow, Grace on the stern. I had to plant both feet and use my legs to bring the boat back to the wall a few times. As we reached the top, the Lock Master said he lifted us as gently as he could. I told him I thought the wind was bouncing off the lock wall and we had trouble controlling the boat. He said everyone was having trouble today and we did better than most.
An hour after exiting Lock E19, the NOAA Weather Radio alarm went off. A line of thunderstorms was heading our way. The second time I listened to the broadcast, I marked the location of the line of storms on a map. Most were south of us. Some were headed our way. Grace took the wheel and I carried Emma below. As the storms got closer, I used the iPad and local doppler radar to get a better assessment. The sky was darkening. As the clouds approached us they were noticeably lower. I swore if the mast was up, the masthead would have been in the clouds. I had Grace give get my rain coat and large sunglasses that fit over my glasses. That way, The rain would spot the sunglasses and I still had clear eye glasses when I needed them. The sky opened up as soon as I had the raincoat on. Grace and Emma were down below with orders to stay away from metal. I could hear thunder rumble a short distance off to my left... south. Visibility was very low. The rain came down so hard, it was like a silk curtain had been pulled in front of us. With the mast down, I do not have a functioning radar system. I saw a bridge on the chart about a quarter mile away. I could see a faint outline of the actual bridge at the end of a very long straight stretch of water. I decided we could wait out the storm under that bridge. However, the rain came to an abrupt halt before we even reached the bridge. All together it rained for about 15 minutes. All the thunder and some lightning was always behind us. We were thankful to have just skirted the edge of what seemed to be a very nasty storm.
At 1300 we approached Lock E20. The lock had few ropes hanging down, and they were all near the front of the lock. This was okay. The walls at the back and middle of the lock were in disrepair with deep crevasses that would swallow our fenders. We were able to secure ourselves at a fairly smooth section of the wall near the front of the lock. We were in Marcy, NY; between Utica and Rome.
Lock E21 is 18 miles away; just over 3 hours at our rate. This was a good stretch for lunch. Grace made us sandwiches and brought up some snacks, as well. As if on queue, when Grace went below with the lunch dishes the sky grew dark once again. Grace took the wheel and I carried Emma below. Then, the NOAA weather radio alarm went off again. As before, a line of severe thunderstorms were headed our way. Unlike a couple hours ago, the sky cleared above us. It stayed dark to our south and was pitch black to the north. We were going to go right between two of the storm cells. We had a light sprinkle for about a minute. The winds did pick up. My hand-held anemometer (wind speed instrument) registered winds over 20 knots.
The wind had died down to about 14 knots as we approached Lock E21. The first of two locks that lower us down to the level of Oneida Lake. We still had a clear memory of the Lock E19 and the troubles we had. The wind was stronger now. However, this time we had a plan based on our previous experience... if needed. It turned out the that the lock experience went very smoothly and we did not have to deviate from our normal locking procedures.
One mile later, we were going through Lock E22. We were just 4 miles from Sylvan Beach. With the storms that have passed through, there was no doubt in my mind that Oneida Lake would be a rough ride. We decided to stop at the pier in Sylvan Beach. Grace walked Emma while I checked the weather forecast.
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| We went to Eddies for dinner |
When we returned to the boat, we took Emma for another walk. This time, we could take her on the beach since it was not so crowded. She went in the water. She was biting at the waves, then hopping to avoid the waves, then she just got out. She loved all the different smells on the beach and meeting all those new people. She stood still while a four-year old boy hugged her, hanging all his weight on her neck, until the boy's father told him to stop. We practiced our new word too! Rrrrrrun, Emma! Since she was on her leash, I had to sprint along with her. She was a very happy dog!
The forecast showed the winds dropping to less than 5 knots around 3am through most of the morning. It will take us 4.5 hours to cross the lake. Right on the chart for Oneida Lake, there is a warning to seek shelter when there are approaching storms. It states: " Oneida Lake can go from flat calm to 6 foot waves in 10 minutes...". I decided we would get up around 5am and go. That would give the lake a couple of hours to settle if the forecast was correct. So, we went to bed early to get as much rest as possible.
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