21 May 17

We slept in till 08:45, surprising considering all the train noise from the adjacent tracks. “Northern Light” was already gone and we were shortly passed by a couple of flotillas of power boats heading both east and west, all of whom (except the sole Canadian boat in the group) waked us horribly. We finally pushed off the dock just after 10:00. Lock 11 was first, followed by Lock 12, which is back in working order today, and on through Locks 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17. We were in Lock 16 with the downstream gates closed, when they opened back up and we had to wait while three stink-pots joined us for the lift. Then, of course, they all wanted to pass us as soon as we got out of the lock. The last lock - 17 - is a 40 foot lift and the downstream gate is a guillotine gate, rather than the conventional hinged gates. Just past Lock 17, we pulled into Canal Harbor at Rotary Park, which is run by the city of Little Falls, NY. Little Falls is a beautiful old mill town, fallen on hard times, like most of the towns along the Erie Canal. But is has an amazing array of solidly built buildings: municipal buildings, libraries, churches, hotels and old mill buildings, most of the latter of which have been converted to lofts, condos and/or shops. We had a nice walk around town after dinner. Not much going on of a Sunday evening, but it is still pretty and the view of the falls from the road bridge is pretty spectacular.

Just after we pulled out of Lock 16, the stern gland started humming and vibrating again and heated up. We slowed down to idle and I undid the lubrication/cooling hose and there was good water flow from both ends, so I don’t know what the problem is, but it stopped humming/vibrating and cooled down, so we carried on. After we got into the dock, I changed out the new hose for a clear one and replaced the cobbled together fitting on the stern tube with a proper one I found at Ace Hardware yesterday in Amsterdam. Hopefully, this will hold together and we can stop worrying about this issue.

Dinner aboard. “Syrena” from Penetang, ON is parked behind us at the dock. We passed them along the Hudson; they keep their boat in Georgian Bay and are headed home, perhaps we will see them later on.

43-02.099’N, 074—51.917’W; 39.2 N-m; Sum(2017) = 145.1 N-m