Sailing Kianda: Lock Up, Lock Down, Lock Down, Lock Up

The perfect summertime weather is making our experience through the New York State Canal System a real holiday. We've been told we're ahead of the flow of Canadian cruisers heading South for the winter. So far, we have only seen 3 other boats heading East on the canals so where ever we go, we always have 'the place' to ourselves. The canal system will be closing for the season a month early this year – hopefully that doesn't ruffle the feathers of any late Snowbirds coming through.

Many of the towns along the way have free docks for transient boats and most of the locks have adjacent walls where we can tie up for the night for no charge as well. We spend a portion of our day motoring through the canal and normally we take either a morning or an afternoon for visiting ashore. This segment of our journey is very tranquil and I'm savouring it because I know the ocean will be different. For now, it's 'easy peasy lemon squeezie'...most of the time...until something goes wrong...

The other morning, our muffler went from sounding like RrrrRrrrRrrrr to PuhPuh...Puh....Puh and soon after, the engine began to overheat. Certain boat problems can be half-ignored for a while but this obviously demands immediate attention so we stopped the boat mid-canal. Luckily we were in a wider section where we could anchor with a bit of swing room. Dave found the problem in the water intake pump – it was full of eelgrass! He basically pulled a large order of wakame out of there! I helped by standing over his shoulder repeating « Oh my God!» as he cleaned out the filter. The greens had been sucked into the water intake pipe and were choking our system. Our boat clearly can't handle weed; makes her cough big time. And then she had the munchies. We have a grate that we can/should place on the end of the thruhull so that nothing chewy gets sucked in, but neither of us is willing to risk an ear infection by diving under to put it in place. I just say no to canal water in my ear canals.

There's not much going on in small town Phoenix, NY. The kids are friendly though. A boy (about 10 years old) biked over to our picnic table and said: «So where you guys from?» This led to a long convesation; he told us about everything from the local bad guy to where I can get a haircut (same place he goes). All good info. He asked about Canada and told us we have accents. He eventually left saying: «I'll let you go back to what you were doing and I'll go back to what I was doing» (which was biking back and forth around us as we used the public WiFi).

A sailor who says he has never run aground is either lying or has never left the dock. It has only happened to us a few times and it was bound to happen again eventually. So it's good we got it over with early on...

We debated stopping in Rome, NY. They have a hardware store within walking distance and since we need a few items, we decided it would be nice to stop there and stretch our legs - plus they have newly renovated town docks we could use. It all looked very inviting and I was eager to start making «When in Rome... » jokes. I was at the wheel on approach when the depth sounder beeped in warning. In about a second our depth went from 4 feet under the keel to -0.4 feet. We ran aground on a mud shoal!

We tried the usual manoeuvres to get free but nothing worked. We were good n'stuck. In hindsight, I still can't see how this was avoidable. I blame the town of Rome for building a dock where the current from a nearby dam creates a mud shoal directly on approach from the West without signage to warn boaters. Neither the navigation chart nor the guidebook mentions it (though another sailor noted it on the Active Captain App but we only look at that when we're anchoring).

About 10 days ago, we bought a TowBoatUS membership so we put that baby to use! We would have to wait 3 hours for our tow to come but we much prefer to wait than to risk damaging the boat by attempting to free ourselves on our own (we'd already done a number on our winch but I'm not getting into that story except to say that replacement parts have been ordered).

We read that now and then, the town mayor comes to the dock to talk with visiting boaters. So I began shouting to people on shore: « I demand to speak to the mayor! » « Get the mayor down here! » Dave said : « Forget the mayor, we want the Pope! » (Get it? We're in Rome?) I'm kidding – we didn't shout - we had lunch and went about our life like normal people stuck in the mud.

Jeff showed up in his red tow boat pleasant as pie and had us back afloat in under 5 minutes. I asked if it's unusual to have to come so far out to help someone and he said 'not at all'. He told us the estimated cost for the tow sans-coverage would have been $2500! Wow, getting insurance worked like it's supposed to for once! We no longer desired to go to Rome and it was only 2pm so we continued on the canal to knock off some miles.

A little later we were in another lock waiting to be lowered when a random guy (with a gigantic rabbit on a leash!) came around and said : « I hope you guys don't lose your engine like the last two boats that went through this lock. » Dave connected the dots really quickly and shut off our engine. We noticed the weeds gathering up around the boat and immediately realized those previous boats had sucked up weeds and stalled their engine. We explained our preventative engine shutdown to the lock operator and he was kind enough to pull us through by line to a clearing beyond the weeded area to fire up the engine again. We were very glad not to have a repeated weed situation and running aground was enough mishap for one day.

We pulled in to Canajoharie, NY one morning hoping for a good coffee shop. We found one that was hosting a princess party so we enjoyed our beverage surrounded by little Snow Whites and Cinderellas. We were very underdressed for the occasion. A 20 minute walk through town brought us to a river with rock formations that create pools to swim in. We didn't expect it to be so great and couldn't resist going in the water. (What are underwear if not emergency bathing suits?) This beautiful spot may have been the highlight of our week.

On our last day on the Erie Canal, we transitioned 12 locks! By the last one in Waterford, NY we were happy to be done. In the 40°C heat, the canals are draining. We'd had our fill.

We stayed put for a day in Waterford to relax. The little old lady at the visitor's center reception told us we should have breakfast at one particular diner « because it's cheap!». She even showed us a menu and pointed at the prices, « Look! » she said. When picking restaurants « cheap » isn't usually the deciding factor for me but, it's a small town without a ton of options so we went (and it was good). On the way, as we were leaving our boat, a man walking by said « Did you go through Lock 7 yesterday? I recognize your boat. » We asked him what he meant and he told us he saw our boat in the local newspaper! We had noticed someone taking pictures of the canal at Lock 7 but that isn't unusual and we didn't think anything of it. So after breakfast we went to the corner store to get a paper and and there it was; « The Kianda » photographed to an article about canal rejuvenation.

That afternoon, it was our turn to gawk and take pictures of a boat in the lock. The Waterford Lock 2 doors opened as we were walking by and we got to watch a tall ship go through. It happened to be the Fair Jeanne – a Canadian boat registered in Ottawa! Basically just like Kianda but bigger.

Tomorrow we start a new segment : the Hudson River!