Highlights of the Eastern Erie Canal

Sarah and I are furiously typing side-by-side in the Canajoharie, NY public library. Since leaving Fairport, the highlights have been a visit to the Ess-Kay Boatyard in Brewerton, NY. We stopped there just prior to crossing Lake Oneida (the largest body of water in the Canal system) and were able to get diesel, pump out, marine parts, even the coaxial cable fitting that Wayne needed for the top of the mast to ensure our radio works once the mast is back up. A delightful lady named Kim helped us there. Highly recommended! We crossed the Lake which seemed like an actual lake with wind and waves (unfortunately the following waves made Sarah quite ill and she was the first one aboard to lose her lunch since we shoved off...) We arrived at Sylvan Beach about 3 hours later and tied up to the wall at a lovely little cafe, whose owner John was so very kind. The Cafe (of course I left the name of it on the boat) was established in 1977 (for all of us class of '77-ers) and the folks are just lovely there. It is right on the wall - you can't miss it! Just behind the cafe is an amusement park where Wayne kicked booty in mini-golf. Sarah came in second of course and I wound up in last place. Some things never change. We had walked the beach in the late afternoon and were delighted to be able to watch three very skillfull kite surfers - it looks like such fun. That will have to wait until next year. After leaving Sylvan Beach we had intended to tie up in Utica but IT IS IMPOSSIBLE. The wall there is like Mount Everest, and there are no facilities to speak of, so we went on to Ilion. Highly recommended as well - at Ilion there are hot showers, electric hookups, a cute little cafe, and walking distance to everything. Today we went through 5 locks including lock 17 - a 40-foot drop and arguably the largest lock (or largest lift/drop) in the world. It was impressive. Canajoharie is an industrial little town but the library here boasts a lovely new art gallery and a collection of American artists including works by Winslow Homer. The name of this facility is the Canjoharie Library and Art Gallery and they can be found at 2 different websites: http://research.mvls.info/can and www.clag.org
The folks here are wonderfully nice and it is an amazing thing to find a museum of this nature tucked away in the middle of nowhere. We are hoping to get to Waterford in 2 more days, then Troy and will be updating the blog when we catch up with life. For the moment, all is well!