Well the last day of September and we sure are not as far along as one might have thought. It has been very stress free and just now we are starting to think about the next steps. Sure we have been reading about getting to Bahamas and researching the charts etc. but now we only have 4 more
days to finish getting the boat ready and our to do list is still large.
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| Julie's sewing workstation! |
Today the solar panel hook up got finished, and Julie was attempting to sew some covers for some floatation pillows. Julie's work station is on the bed. A carpenters tape measure, kitchen scissors, the New York Canal charts for a straight edge, and the folding chair as a flat surface. A bit of a challenge, but not bad.
The aft toilet has started to act up a bit. The flushing mechanism is being finicky so we better take a look at that too. Then there is that small rad fluid leak, and the left burner on the stove is not working properly, and the engine needs an oil change. There is also the ongoing problem of our water line losing pressure. We also need to get the jack lines installed, and purchase some harnesses. As this stuff gets done, more stuff gets added to the list. There will never be a day when the to do list is empty. For some reason we thought (or at least Julie thought) that we would be twiddling our thumbs.
We do get sufficient sleep though. 8 hours is the norm. Last night we did not shut down until midnight after watching a movie so sure enough it is 8:30 by the time we are rolling out of bed. (We even made up the 30 minutes we were awake in the night). We both sleep well here, but typically we are awake at some point in the night and if one of us is awake, we are both awake. The style of bed we have which is called a pullman requires one person to climb over the other person to get out of bed. Not a big deal since we are such great sleepers. We are much happier with our pullman vs. the typical V-berth in a sailboat. For the non boaters, a V-berth is shaped like a "v" and as far forward in the boat as possible to take the shape and space at the front of a boat. The pullman style is off to the side of the boat like a train would have, and is much more rectangular. The pullman berth was one of the many features that attracted us to the Caliber sailboat.
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| Lucy and Julie at lock 17 |
By 2:00 the solar panels are hooked up and lunch is finished so finally we get to go and explore the area. We hike a couple kilometers to visit the boats below lock 17. There are now 4 boats there and we get a tour of John and Lucy's 44 foot Dufour. Much different than our boat and well lived in with lots of stories. After the boat tour we head up to the lock and luckily there is a 72 foot Marlow power boat just requesting a lock down. We get to view the entire process on the canals largest lock. It is powerful to watch the water being released from the lock. A real engineering marvel. The day is so glorious with the sun shining. It takes about 30 minutes in all. The lowering of the boat actually occurs quite quickly but the lead up and exit seems to take about 20 minutes. Today there have been 4 or 5 new boats passing by us and going through the locks.
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| old buiding converted to apts. |
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| Dawson on Moss Island |
After the boat is released we hike Moss Island which has some pot holes created from the glaciers. It is a lovely little hike. We are surrounded by hillside views with fall leaves and historic homes popping through the trees on the limestone cliffs. The town is quaint with a long history of being settled and developed. There are historical buildings throughout town. We pick up a few things we need including an ice cream cone and are heading back to the boat by 5:30 to share our stories with our fellow boaters. By 6:30 the sun is disappearing and the evening starts to cool down. We cook dinner, clean up from our days projects, and move into our evening routine of coffee and King's cribbage.
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| Signs downtown Little Falls |
Cheers
Julie and Dawson
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