Jack Tar Adventures

Tues June 9: Little Falls NY to Sylvan Beach NY (locks E18-22)

Link to today’s route:  https://share.nebo.global/voyage/e319268e-11c2-4a03-bc86-391fb6e9a6b0

We had a glorious morning! Sixty-five degrees and sunny.  We spotted a huge turtle swimming breaststroke right next to the boat, but I didn’t quite catch the pic in time.

We continued to see a lovely white-flowered bush along the riverbank.  Yup, you guessed it, yet another invasive shrub.  I’m gonna have to stop looking this stuff up 🙁
Periodically, along the canal, we have come across these guard gates.  They’re lowered when there is flooding to prevent flooding from spreading.
To our north, we passed the town of Herkimer (you may remember his Georgian-style estate pictured yesterday).  There was a town dock wall where they didn’t offer power or water, but there were 50 stores right there to pick from!
More remnants of the old lock system

Big goings-on as we approached lock #21.  We radioed ahead to the lockmaster per usual, and Peter mentioned the two go-fast boats that I had spotted behind us in case they wanted to lock in with us.  The lockmaster said, oh yeah, he knew all about them and the sheriff was on his way to the lock to talk to them.  Apparently, they had been going way over the speed limit and waking small fishing boats, kayaks, and marinas.  We never did see the sheriff, but both boats got a good talking-to from two lock officials.  They sure did slow down before the last lock and all the way to Sylvan Beach.

Lock #21 was also the first lock on the Erie Canal in which we descended (locked down).  So instead of grabbing the ropes with my hands from the bottom of the lock that are hanging down from the top of the lock wall, I had to use a boat hook (a long, extendable pole with a hook on the end) to hook a rope to pick up at the top of the lock wall.  The ropes hang down through buoys usually at about 20-foot intervals.  Sometimes there are cables that run up and down the lock that you can thread a boat line behind and cleat to the boat.  Then the boat line just slides up and down the cable as you rise or descend in the lock, so that you don’t have to hold on to a rope.

If you have a really loud motor on your boat, motorcycle, car, or pickup truck and you would like to compete with other loud motors close by, then Sylvan Beach is the place for you!!  It’s too bad because otherwise, Sylvan Beach is a nice little old-fashioned beach resort town with a well-maintained beach and park area.  Motor boats and pontoons were anchored very close to the shoreline for easy access to the beach, where there were a lot of swimmers enjoying the beautiful afternoon and evening.

It became hot in the afternoon, and a night thunderstorm didn’t do much to relieve the situation.  The boat was rocked pretty well because the city dock wall we were tied up on was exposed to the open lake.  We finally got some sleep when the storm passed.

Leave a comment