Fun on the Erie Canal, and Graduation time!

Today I'm in Seattle for Katie's graduation! She will be awarded her doctoral degree tonight in Marketing from the Univ of Washington. I arrived yesterday and will head back to the Albany Airport tomorrow night, arriving Monday morning. Congratulations to Katie! My next posting can show a photo of her in her cap and gown.

Since my previous posting a week ago, Breaking Away has moved only about 400 yards. Last Saturday, Bruce and I had anchored in a cove just across the river from Crescent Boat Club marina after we went through the first five Erie Canal locks (when I got my citation for us not wearing our life preservers). The next morning we moved those 400 yds and docked at the marina.

Later that day, my cousin Steve Hatch visited us!! He knew I was near to his truck delivery north of Albany, so we linked up. He left his trailer at a nearby truck stop and drove his cab to the marina (see photo). The dockmaster was nice enough to lend me his car so that Steve, Bruce and I could drive a half mile to a tavern on the river to eat some lunch. We had a wonderful visit, and for Bruce and me it was interesting to hear about the adventures of a cross-country truck driver. His stories of icy roads in winter were particularly hair-raising. So nice of Steve to make the effort to visit. I hope other followers of this blog can do the same if you're out here.

The next morning Bruce flew home for the week. I took a nice bike ride, and then rode to the Wal*Mart to buy groceries (in my California biking jersey and shorts!). The customers who saw all my loot didn't think there'd be ANY WAY I'd squeeze all of it into my backpack, but then again, they could see I was a Californian who obviously must be odd (to be shopping in biking clothes in the first place). Anyway, I did jam it all in, and hauled it back to the boat. Then I spent the next 5 hours deep-cleaning the boat. Heck, two guys had been on it for only a month, why bother? hahaha It gets detailed once a month whether it needs it or not!

Of course, there was another reason for a good cleaning, since Janet arrived that same night at about 10:30. We had a blast on the kayaks (see photo), the dinghy (see photo), taking walks along the road there which used to be the original 1825 canal, and eating all that food I bought. On Thursday, we took a taxi ride a few miles into Cohoes, which is the town next to Waterford. We walked all over to see historical sights there, and then walked to Waterford and saw everything there that I'd mentioned in previous postings. As we got out of the taxi, Janet saw "ruins" on the hillside, and it turned out they were one of the locks from the original 1825 canal. There were no signs or anything, but a map we got later showed it as Lock 18, the first of the 18 locks it took to drop the canal down to the Hudson River. We were high over the Cohoes Falls at that point, so the canal had been kept level from where the Crescent Boat Club was, and then dropped quickly with 18 closely spaced locks.

We had wanted to take the boat out from the marina for one or two nights to anchor, but a nagging electrical problem and solid rain on Tuesday/mostly Wedensday prevented it. Interesting about the electrical issue, and lucky that we were in place long enough to get it diagnosed and fixed. For a couple weeks, Bruce and I had noticed funny things about short battery life and flashing "check battery" lights, but they hadn't stopped us and we just kept going. But when our "low battery" alarm sounded on Tuesday and we were plugged in to shore power, I knew something was seriously amiss. The electrician already knew my boat since his own boat was in the marina and he'd seen me on Sunday. He thought the problem was all related to the batteries needing water. That DID solve the problem with the two main batteries (that weigh 150 lbs each), but not for the three inverter batteries. He thought they might charge overnight once the main bstteries fully charged. They didn't. So, he came back on Wednesday, reviewed the boat's wiring schematics, called the electrician in MD who installed the wiring for the inverters (which I added after I bought the boat last fall), and after nosing around in the cramped engine room for a while, finally discovered a burned-out fuse holder that linked the charger to the inverter batteries.

He drove off, found a new, heavier-duty fuse holder, and came back and installed it. Finally those three batteries could receive a charge and everything got back to normal in the electrical system...many hundreds of dollars later!! Ahh, the joys of boat ownership! But I felt lucky we got that alarm to sound and were there docked anyway, to have it fixed. Not having the inverters working would have meant that while anchored out, no computer and no cell phone charging. And even when plugged in at a dock, it would have meant no TV and no CD music. The TV I could have done without, but music??? At least for the two days the inverters were off, we had my ipod and its speaker docking station.

On Monday, we'll do more grocery shopping and then head west on the Erie Canal. Breaking Away's adventure continues!