9/22/14
St Johnsville, NY
Position: 42 59.7N, 74 40.7W
Posted by Bill

Most of the day today we had cold rain and really strong winds (15-20 MPH). Fortunately the wind was mostly behind us so we did not feel the full brunt of the wind chill, and it gave us a .5 knot boost of speed. The lock operators were slow today and cost us at least an hour of time. Most of our locks are descending when you travel east and they have to fill the lock before they let you in. The larger the drop, the longer it takes to fill the lock. Most of the operators up to this point have had the locks ready, but today we had to wait several times. The time is not the worst factor…I had to hold the boat in a steady position for 10-15 minutes in a river/canal 100 feet wide, with a .5-1 knot current, 15-20 MPH winds, and various floating obstacles (logs, stumps, branches). We have a single propeller and no bow thruster, so it was not a fun time. The winds were also blowing us around in the locks really bad and it took a lot of muscle to control the boat.

So we did 50 miles and 7 locks, landing in St Johnsville, NY. Not much here, and the only place open on Monday and Tuesday was a bar called Cosmos, so that’s where we went. I am wearing my OSU sweatshirt and the owner yells O-H when we come in. I yell I – O. He says he is a big fan. The place is a little scary but the owner is nice and he ended up cooking some damn good food. He liked us and gave us a huge serving of fries. A good stop after all.

Exiting a lock.

Looking back at lock 16. This was one of the prettier lock areas.

Docked at St Johnsville Municipal Marina.

The big boat in front of us pulled in shortly after we did. I helped with the dock lines as he docked and commented on how nice it would be if our boat went sideways like his (with the bow thruster and twin engines). He told me how easy it was and I said “this is my boat here…it doesn’t go sideways unless the wind blows it there.” He then proceeded to tell me how he had several sailboats too, even one he bought from Jimmy Buffett. I call him Sal…what an ass.