Underway Again #2

We played follow the leader through the locks until we reached Herkimer.

 

Herkimer does not have depth above 6 feet this year as the water is low so "Saber Tooth" went on to Lock 18. The plan was to catch up to them as John had to replace a rudder seal.  However after I hurt my leg, we decided to spend the next day in Herkimer so I could rest my leg but "Saber Tooth" went on. The following day was sunny and Roman helped me up to the front of the boat where I sat on one of my old patio cushions with my foot elevated and my camera, binoculars and Skipper Bob book beside me.

 

For those who do not know Skipper Bob wrote a series of guides indicating where best to stop, to anchor and things that you generally needed to know. His guides are greatly prized as he died in Dec. 2007 and very few are available. Every time we came to a lock I would grab the rope with my boat hook and things went along smoothly. If you notice, I am leaning against the 2x4 support Roman had put together to support the mast.  It was sturdy enough and did not move at all.

 

The locks were all going down now and that was much easier.

 

In this lock the door opened up and not from the centre.  It was like a shower going under the door.

Here the sign on the trail near the canal indicates the trail is for bikes. I guess the horse couldn't read the signs.

 

Lock 17 is impressive.  Not only is it the highest Lock on theErie Canal, it is one of only two locks in North America where the entrance gate is lifted above the boater. 

 

It was a beautiful day! Great rail for laundry. We made it to Amsterdam by 6:00 and stopped just before Lock 11.  It was a tiring day and we went to bed early with the sun.

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The next day it was drizzling but we decided to push on. We were hoping to catch up to "Saber Tooth" I had on my rain gear and a plastic bag around my foot as it was too swollen to put a shoe on.

It cleared up and remained cloudy but clear and calm We easily made it through Lock 11, 10, 9 and were slowly approaching Lock 8 going eastbound when the boat started to accelerate instead of slowing down.  Roman had lost control of both reverse and forward (single lever control). The lockmaster and I tried to stop the boat but were unable to do so. Our reaching hooks were bent and broken. The boat continued to the end of the lock and stopped only when the mast and the two furlers (main jib and stay sail) which were on top of boat crashed into the closed gate at the end of the lock.


We sustained major damage as the two furler foils were snapped and the drums were smashed. The bow sprint was pushed to the back and the bow and starboard side rub rail was scraped and damaged. There may be more damage but we won't know until we go to step our mast in order to continue down south to Florida. We pulled the boat back through the lock to assess the damage. Roman discovered that the throttle linkage connection to forward and reverse at the end of the cable to the gearbox had broken and it was stuck in forward position all the way down. He had a brand new replacement cable with me and replaced it. We called our insurance agents, Robertson & Robertson and so far they have been very helpful.

 

 

 

Here we are just before Lock 8.  I am sitting resting my foot with my crutches beside me while Roman is fixing the cable.  This is a large tour boat that went through Lock 8.  If you look closely you will see all the tourists taking pictures of our boat - something for them to talk about when they get home.

We continued onto Waterford through Locks 7 to 2.  Each of the locks was over 30 ft.

 

We arrived in Waterford about 7:00 on Wednesday September 23 and we are still here.