Lock-a-Mania

We left Shady Harbor Marina at 9am, later than we would wish but we had to fuel up and it wasn’t open earlier. 250 gallons of fuel, septic pumped out and we were ready to tackle the locks.

Or not– within an hour of leaving the dock we were boarded by the Coast Guard, for a safety check. Frightening at first, as their boat approaches with their blue lights flashing and you wonder why you are being pulled over. Four of them came aboard while another three stayed on their vessel. They checked fire extinguishers, life jackets, safety equipment, etc. You will be happy to know we passed with not a single ‘dink’. I was pleased because preparing all of that was one of my pre-departure tasks and I never thought we would be stopped and inspected. It was an overcast, drizzly day with few boats out so I guess we increased our chances of being selected. The Officers were extremely professional, pleasant, and agreed to a picture.

• 

• 

We proceeded to deal with 7 locks. We handled it all quite perfectly if I say so myself, but having our friend Kevin aboard who had previous experience was very helpful. It was harder to hold the lock lines than I anticipated and my arms were tired by the time we were through the fourth one. The lines were muddy, yucky messes which got on us and the boat. Thank goodness we had been warned and each of us had a good pair of gloves. The all day drizzle and coolness probably kept some boaters away which meant we didn’t have ‘traffic’ issues to deal with. I feel more confident for future locks but not thrilled about being the handler by myself. Captain Jim stays largely at the helm. He handled all the maneuvering perfectly, but was also surprised at turbulence and need for constant attention.

Our 3rd challenge of the day was dealing with several low bridges. Irish Eyes’ air draft, the distance from the water line to it’s highest point, is 21′. Some of the bridges had clearance of only 17’6″. Knowing this in advance we had a hinge put on our highest equipment which when lowered brought us down to 16’5″. Nonetheless, it is quite nerve racking when it appears you may hit the underside of the bridge. We had a ‘watch’ whose head I was afraid might be knocked off!

All’s well that ends well, with cocktails after tie up at the Fort Edward town dock, and a walk into town for pizza.