Friends and Family

Friends and Family
Tuesday 15 September
Nice slow day down the canal. Cool and clear (mostly). Arrived in Pittsford early and tied up next to a large collection of Duck poop. There were several hundred ducks on the lock wall when we arrived. Found out that they sold duck food across the canal and people were continually feeding them. Annie took on the mission of clearing the wall of ducks. Anytime she saw several ducks along the wall she ran down the walkway chasing them back in to the water. It was hopeless, no sooner had she run one way when they were back on the wall behind her.
That afternoon we watched the local high school rowing team come by, several times. The coaches boat threw up a larger wake than any of the power boats cruising the canal. They would probably curse me if I did it to them.
Our friend Roger arrived at about 8:45. He is going to ride with us tomorrow. It is nice to have a friend along for a day.
Stayed up jawing til 11:00 (that is late for us on this trip)

Wednesday 16 September
Headed out about 8:15 today. Coldest day yet. Really nice rainbow this morning. The rain was west of us and we never saw any of it.
We were held up at the Fairport lift bridge for almost a half an hour. The bridge operator never answered our radio call or our horn signal. Had to find a dock, Carole got off and walked up to the bridge tower. She opened the door and called in and got no answer. Went upstairs and the door was locked, but the bridge tender's dog was there. She had to walk to the library where they made several call until they located him. Meanwhile I had called the canal office, they gave me the regional control phone number, for the wrong region, but they helped anyway and called around. The bridge operator returned, called me and without any comment he said that he would open the bridge when I was ready. No apology or any other comment. When the regional office called back I told them he had finally been found. At least they apologized.
The rest of the day went well. Lock tenders were really nice (this is the norm), little wind nice scenery.
We arrived in Newark, NY about 1:00, took a short walk around town until Roger's cab arrived to take him back to his car in Pittsford. Sorry to see him leave so soon.
It was really nice having him aboard. A fresh view of the trip and different conversation was fun. Besides I got someone else to steer for me without bothering Carole.
Another quiet day.

Thursday 17 September

Bummer! My package has not arrived. It is a computer chip with the charts for the part of the canal and Hudson river that are missing from our charts. It was due to arrive in Tonawanda last Thursday or Friday, but never got there until Monday – Three days after we left. I arranged for it to be sent on by priority mail to Newark. It was mailed on Tuesday, should have arrived Wednesday or Thursday, did not make it again. Post Office was really helpful, but no package. They are supposed to forward it to Seneca Falls. We shall see.
Easy trip to Seneca Falls. Canal goes through Montazuma Wildlife Refuge. We did not see much in the way of Wildlife. Birds have been about the same for most of the trip, although we did see several Bald Eagles. The bird life so far has been lots of Canada Geese, Black and Mallard Ducks, Gulls, Kingfishers, Cormorants, and Great Blue Herons. Also some swallows and maybe martins. We have also seen several Green Herons, and a few flickers. I guess that this is not the best time of year for birds.
We met three other couples at the dock in Seneca Falls and were having cocktails with them when Eileen and Sal (my sister and Brother-in-law) arrived. They drove to Watkins Glen and the dockmaster, Terry, drove them to Seneca Falls. Terry runs a sailing charter in Watkins Glen in addition to his being the dockmaster (or dockboy as he puts it). He has a cutter rigged Cabot Rico 38. He and his mate Lisa drove Eileen and Sal up to Seneca Falls and we spent another hour talking and swapping stories before they had to leave.
Dinner out again.

Friday 18 September
Cold morning and we are off to Seneca Lake
Not many boats out on the lake. In fact we only saw two, and one was Terry's as he was on the charter he told us about. We did have a helicopter flying by as if it was strafing us. It made about ten passes. We were near the Navy Underwater Research Laboratory on the lake, so Carole thought they were trying to chase us away. We did eventually go away at our leisurely 7 mph.
Arrived at the Marina about 2:30 in the afternoon, and struggled to dock in a 15 mph crosswind and a very tight dock. With help from another boater I was able to spring the boat around a piling and slide in.
After settling in we took a ride out the Race Track(We had Sal and Eileen's car). Sal had raced on the Watkins Glen Course in the sixties and we were interested to see what it looked like. He even remembered how to get there from town. Once there we could not find an entrance that was open. We did find a field we could walk across and could see that there were cars running around the track, but we were looking through a chain link fence. As we backtracked around the race track we finally found the main gate. We were not allowed in, but were told if we came back the next day at 11:30 we would be allowed to follow a pace car around the track. 25 bucks for the whole carload and we could hang out and watch the SCCA races until 2:00. It was a no brainer – we were coming back!
Lumpy night at the dock with a steady north wind and dock lines singing all night.

Saturday 19 September
Clear and cold again, but the morning was in a car so the cold did not bother us.
We arrived early 10:30 at the track and it was good that we did. We were about 4th in line for the “Thunder Road Tour” as it called, and we went up in to the stands and got to watch some sports cars practicing, followed by a sports car race and then a formula car race. It was really great fun, sitting in an almost empty grandstand watching the cars race by. We were between turns two and three (I think) and we could see some passing (and attempted passing) and see which cars were were running well and which were not doing so well. In the Sports car race we saw every make and age of car from an MG TD (circa 1951) to Porsches, Triumphs, MG Bs, Mustangs, and a Cobra. We watched two cars in the Formula Race dueling for the lead most of the race. There was a crash (which we did not see) during the formula race and it held up our track tour until almost 12:30.
The track tour was really fun. Sal got into the spirit of it and even though we were only doing 55-65 mph the only thing missing was the roar of the engine – we did think that we should have removed the muffler for the run, but we did not have any tools and they did not let us near pit row.
When we returned to the stands we found out that the racing would not resume for a while and there was no place to get lunch so we left.
Next it was my turn – I wanted to hike the Watkins Glen Gorge in the State park. After all that was what we came for in the first place. The racing was a bonus.
After lunch we headed for the park. The park was free although they charge a whole 6 bucks for parking. The gorge is spectacular. The Gorge is a mile and half long and rises 900 ft. with 19 waterfalls., The pictures (to be posted later) do not do it justice. It is an amazing sight. I walked both up and down and it was awesome both ways. Every turn was a new vista, and they just kept coming, and each was unique and beautiful. The water had carved the rock into pools and cuts. The canyon was 50 ft. wide in many places and maybe 200-300 ft. deep. Just spectacular. It is times like these that I wish I was really good at descriptive prose. I do not seem to add lots of adjectives when I write. Must be the engineer in me.
Later we even had time to get to two wineries before they closed. Can not say that I would recommend any Seneca Lake wines.
Quite a day! Really one of those you remember for a long time.

Sunday 20 September
Really cold this morning – 43 degrees out. A sea smoke fog layer on the water and very little wind.
Said goodby to Eileen and Sal and headed back up the lake. By the time we got to the canal it was shorts and T shirts.
We'll spend tonight and tomorrow in Seneca Falls.

Monday 21 September
Still no package. A call to the Newark, NY Post Office confirmed that it had just arrived (they remembered me) and would be going out today. Should arrive tomorrow – we shall see. The postal workers have been really helpful and courteous. Not what I expected, but have found to be the norm in the two Post offices I have dealt with.
Sightseeing day today. Seneca Falls is where the first woman's suffrage meeting took place in 1851. A declaration was signed on the second day (by men and women) to declare that women should have the right to vote. The original church that held the meeting is almost not there (two walls left) and is being rebuilt as best as can be determined. When completed it will be easy to see which is original and which is new. We went to the Elizabeth Cady Stanton house. She was one of the organizers of the convention. Much of the artwork in the town is about the Women's Rights Movement.
There is also a 1.5 mile sculpture walk. Again much of it is themed towards the women's movement. However two of the last ones were not. One called “pump man” was made from pump parts (Gould Pumps is the largest employer in the area and has been here well over 100 years. The other was an interesting glass and metal sculpture that looked like it was a waterfall or maybe the canal. I hope that we have a picture.
Got to try a wing place for an appetizer. It was a local bar and I took the wings back to the boat. They were in fifth or sixth place. Decent, but nothing outstanding about them.
Tomorrow it is back to the Erie Canal.