Today, we managed to maneuver through 5 locks back to back. The last locks on the Eerie Canal system happen to be the greatest height difference in the smallest distance in the world as it pertains to locks. We basically were lifted up and over the Adirondacks. 

David and I are definitely getting better at locking TC. She has so much windage, and is super heavy as well as slippery which makes docking or locks a scary endeavor. 

We did well, thank You Lord!. We had a couple of last minute calls but we seem to be reading the ropes and cables and ladders better and placing the boat in good positions. David is getting really good at controlling speed and kissing  the wall so we can grab the rope or ladders or cable to keep us stable in the lock. We can’t use reverse as TC has major prop walk to the starboard in reverse and the bow drifts fast from the wall meaning Nuria can’t grab the line. We have to stop about 22,000 lbs of aluminum by our own hands.. so we have to take it in super slow. The poor lockmasters must be yawning as they watch us enter the locks. Encouragingly, they always say they much prefer slow boat entries over fast ones that cause wakes. 

After theb5 locks we reached Watertown. A beautiful old city incorporated in the 1750s. It also was home to the first female gold medal Olympian in the US in 1920 for swimming. 

We walked through the main street and shopped at the one grocery store. The food is expensive and I feel for the Americans as it is hard to afford for them. Inflation is much higher here for food. I wish we ate usual stuff like bread and pasta and rice as it would be much cheaper than the quasi paleo diet we eat. 

The city harbour has a free wall to dock at.  It also offers free wifi, glorious hot showers and volunteers who work the office and tell you all you need to know, like where we can do laundry and get wine. The one lady told David who was alone at the time, that the town didn’t have any liquor store but she had lots of wine at her place and it wasn’t far.  Bless her soul!!! 

Tonight we are figuring out the Aquamap app issues and David went to see Chris and Jackie about anchorages in NY area. We will be hitting open. Ocean after NY city for about 12 hrs and we need to know where to land after that. I am sort of wishing we could just stay in open water and sail south to Florida but David wants to do the ICW at least once. 

We will stay here at Waterford to rest and prep for Hells Gate and the open crossing . I’ll also do some laundry and wash the floors . It’s been pretty non stop since we left Kingston as we knew the canal was closing on the 12th and didn’t want to dilly dally in case we needed repair time somewhere. 

The canals both Oswego and Eerie have been gorgeous and the locks well managed. We rarely had to wait for the locks to open and if we did, never more than  15 min. The adirondacks are spectacular and the old world feel of the small townssomehow reassuring in this quickly evolving world.