August 8 – Wednesday
It rained hard in the night and there were remaining showers when we woke today. As we were preparing for departure, Pam, the gal from the GB36 Trilogy that had tied behind us late yesterday, came by to say goodbye and give us a special news paper from Canada about the Rideau. It was unfortunate that she and her brother John arrived as late as they did on Tuesday, we would have loved to visit more than time permitted. We had made a dinner reservation and had to walk to the restaurant. Pam and her husband had been cruising on their boat and his limited vacation time ran out so Pam enlisted her brother John as captain for the remainder of the voyage back to the St. Lawrence where they keep the boat. John is a well seasoned sailor but made time to help his sister out with the trawler. They live in Kingston, ON but keep the boat in the U.S. and do all of their boating here.
We got underway at 07:30 and headed for the first lock of the day, #11, 6 miles away. We cleared it by 09:00 and continued on in occasional drizzle. There was one more up-lock to do (more difficult to hold the boat in place) and then all the remaining locks will be down. The weather seemed to improve as the morning and locks moved by and soon we were wearing sun glasses as we cleared #5 at 1:45. The eleven locks on the Champlain Canal are numbered 1 through 12 (but no 10) beginning at the southern end near Waterford, NY. We had planned to stop for the day at the wall of #5 lock, but when we reached it, all of the space was taken by an old paddle wheel tour boat and some canal service vessels. By that time the sun and humidity was present in full force and we just had enough for the day. Fortunately, just another mile south was a nice little marina at Schuylerville so we took a slip and relaxed in air conditioned comfort for a while. Later in the afternoon the couple we had met at the restaurant the evening before, Nancy & Jack also came in and a bit later we saw Trilogy at the fuel dock but didn’t get a chance to talk to Pam and John before they took off again. Since we all are moving south it is likely we may cross paths again.
Dinner was to be cooked on the grill and since on-boat grilling is prohibited, I (RCB) rigged up an arrangement with C-clamps to mount our gas grill to a heavy charcoal burner that was in the marina picnic area. For appetizers we grilled some marinated pork kabobs we had picked up in Quebec when we stopped at Chambly. The main course was salmon fillets purchased in Ilion, NY in July and a great salad that included tomato, cucumber and some greens supplied by (once again) Vermont friends Sherry & Frank.
I needed a shower before turning in, and took advantage of the marina facilities, which included lights that are controlled by a motion sensor switch. I open the door to the individual shower room and presto, the light came on. Undress, get soap and things, adjust water temp and pull curtain and you are ready to go. All soaped up and the light goes out. Hmm, now what. No worries mate - put hand outside of the curtain and wave and on comes the light. Continue soaping, reach and wave. Apply shampoo, reach and wave – you get the idea. Toweling off outside of the curtain posed no problem.
It’s off to bed for both of us. Tomorrow we expect to see our last lock of the trip – the total will have been more than one hundred.