Coxsackie, New York - 3 kilometres walked, 2.5 miles on paddleboard
The New York Canal Corporation finally broke their silence on the projected opening day for the Erie Canal. It will not be open to westbound vessels for four to five weeks due to major structural problems discovered with a moveable dam and an earthen embankment, both of which need to be repaired in advance of opening.
After a long call with Ana we decided that she will still drive here this weekend as planned, but we will dock the boat for two weeks at the local marina and I will return home with her. At the end of the two weeks we'll reassess the situation. If the Champlain Canal is open by then (which is a different lock system that runs north to Montreal then links up with the St. Lawrence Seaway and upstream to Lake Ontario), then I may bring Magnus with me and we'll sail the boat back that way. If the lock repairs are going faster than anticipated, then we will return here and await its opening.
Yes, it's a major delay, but there's nothing we can do about it besides wait it out. I am happy I will get to go home and be with Ana while the kids are away on their holiday. And I plan to spend a lot of time hanging with Winnie the hamster while Ana's at work. At night, the three of us will party hard.
Other than the bad news, which came right at the end of the day, I had a lot of fun today. I began the day with a long paddleboard ride around Coxsackie Island. I hadn't had the board out for a very long time due to the heavy winds and currents but I figured out that leaving at 6am gave me slack tide to paddle upriver then the changing tide gave me a nice boost downriver. Paddling in the current was dizzying. When I looked at the water below me, it seemed like I wasn't going anywhere. But when I looked at the trees on the shoreline, I was speeding by rapidly. Made me think of Einstein's theory of relativity and I tried to remember how that works, but it just started making me dizzy and I didn't want to risk falling into the frigid, sludgy water, so I just got back to thinking about chili dogs and cheese nachos and 80's glam band metal song lyrics.
After my paddle and breakfast I carted our one empty propane tank up to the Sunoco station, which is run by two perpetually smiling Indian gentlemen. I stepped inside the store.
"I'm back with my cylinder," I said to the older fellow, the man I had spoken with yesterday to confirm they did do fills.
"Ah yes, welcome, yes I can fill that for you," he said, smiling and nodding, his collared and checkered shirt buttoned up to the top.
"I'll just pay for it now since we're in here. How much?"
"Twenty-five," he said as he walked away from me and into a storage room to grab a pair of gloves.
"Twenty-five?" I said to the other man who was at the cash register. "This is just a small, 11-pound tank."
"Twenty," he said, tilting his head and pointing at his partner with his lips, then giving me a slight smile.
I gave him a twenty dollar bill and he stuck it in his pocket. I think it should have been fifteen, but I still felt like I was getting a deal.
As I was returning to the boat one of the fishermen stopped to talk to me and said something like, "You're getting close to 24."
"24? What does that mean?"
"24 hour limit for using the dock. You're almost at the limit."
I'd actually already been there for four days, but this must have been his first day fishing stripers.
"Where does it say that? I've looked at all the signs here and didn't see any mention of a limit," I said to him.
"It's there somewhere. The town enforces it."
"OK, thanks. I'll look into it," I said, then walked down the gangplank and back to the boat. I knew what was going on. The fishermen wanted to fish off the dock and we two sailboats were taking up most of the space, leaving only enough room between us for one fisherman. I scoured the town website and could find nothing. I tried calling them several times throughout the day and nobody answered. So I think I will stay put until either somebody official tells me I have to leave, or one of the fishermen unties my lines and SeaLight self-sails her way down the Hudson with me running wildly down the shoreline cursing and waving and planning my next move.
I spent several hours toothbrushing the shrouds, taking a break only to have a quick visit with my boat neighbours Perry and Cathy, who gave me a tour of Panacea and Perry showed me his built-in water maker. They asked me to join them for pizza tonight, which I happily agreed to, and countered offered snacks and drinks in SeaLight's cockpit as a warm up to dinner.
While I was having a shower, I opened up the window to de-steam the room and saw something strange on shore. Something white and sort of bent over. And a fisherman also bent over holding something in his hand. And a tiny brown eye. It was a little kid, with his pants down, bent completely over, hands grasping his own ankles while his dad wiped his bum with a rag. I guess he couldn't hold it, or maybe it was just too much trouble to walk to the bathrooms. I mentally geotagged the shore area in which they were standing as a place to avoid walking.
I had a smashing time with Perry and Cathy. After touring them through the boat we sat down to snacks and drinks. I tried to put together a visually stunning snack plate, but nothing compares to the ones Ana does. Fortunately, they've never seen hers so thought mine was pretty good.
We went to Patrick Henry's Tavern and shared a delicious thin crust pizza, had a beer, and shared stories about cruising the Bahamas. Cathy and Perry are originally from a small town in Indiana but now live in Buffalo and dock their boat in Rochester, one of our favourite stops on Lake Ontario. They are lovely, kind, and so easy to talk to. It was nice to be with cruisers again.
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