Monday morning started out sunny and bright. The rain from the following evening had finally quit and the sky was blue and not a cloud to be seen. It was going to be a good day.
Our plans were to set out that morning for a 3 day cruise heading east on the canal to Newark and Lyons. We prepared the boat and were able to get away from the dock with no problem. It had been a couple of years since I myself had been cruising and I was glad to know it all came back to me, like riding a bike.
We left the marina and headed out onto the canal. So many beautiful memories came gushing back from our many years of cruising the canal in the past.
We entered lock 30 Macedon with no problem. We joined 2 other boats, a large cruiser and a hire boat. I was able to grab the line on the lock wall with no issue and Mike then put the boat in idle and he hopped down to grab the second line from the stern. We were secured on the lock wall and ready to transcend down our first lock of the season.
We dropped in the lock about 12 feet or so to allow us to enter into the next part of the canal. Sorry I don't have the exact measurements. As you descend down the lock you will notice the lock walls become extremely slimy. The goal is to keep the boat as close to the wall as possible without allowing the wall to rip up the side of your boat. Thus you have fenders, usually 3, between the boat and the lock wall. It is up to Mike and I then to keep the boat close to the wall by holding the lines that are secured to the top of the wall. You can see this in the photo above. Yes we wear gloves. You absolutely do not want to do this with your bare hands, no matter how tough you think you are.
Once the lock has dropped you down to the level of the next part of the canal the lock doors will open and each boat will depart carefully. We were second in line to depart from the lock. As Mike put the boat into gear the starboard engine died. Ugh! not again. He tried diligently to get it started but to no avail. We were able to get out of the lock with only one engine (the boat has 2) so that the 3rd boat could also depart the lock. Once we were out of the lock the lock master then closed the lock gates behind us. Mike continued to try and start the engine but no luck. You see the boat will work with one engine but operating a boat with one engine is much different than operating it with two. At this point Mike had not had any prior practice operating this boat on one engine. So he radioed the lock master that we needed to transit back through the lock as we had lost one engine. The lock master quickly opened the gates and we were able to re-enter the lock and then make our return back to the marina at Macedon.
As we approached our marine Mike tried calling the on the radio to the marina folks that we needed help docking as the wind had picked up and well docking a two engine boat on one engine is difficult. No one answered the call so we were on our own. As we entered the marina there was no one in site to ask for help except for a dear woman who was quietly reading a book on the back of her boat. I hollered out to her that we were in distress and if there was anyone there that could assist us in docking. She quickly ran to our dock. Any other time there were several folks in the area but not today. So Mike slowly brought the boat over to our dock and was able to gently put the boat at the end of our dock so that he could jump off the boat and grab a line to pull us in. By this time he had turned the engine off. With the help of this dear woman and me tossing lines to Mike he was able to get the boat back into the slip and secured. Whew! disaster averted.
Once the boat was secured Mike went up to the marina office to find the gentleman that worked on engines. At the time he was busy working on the hire boats but would be over to us as soon as he could. At this point all we could do was wait. Shortly after lunch the gentleman arrived and he and Mike quickly got to looking over the engine. After about 30 minutes of the two looking over the engine and discussing the best way to proceed the man left and Mike headed out to the auto parts store. I don't know all the technical jargon but once Mike completed what the man had suggested the engine seemed to run much better.
By this time it was a little after 3:00 p.m. and it was too late to head out on a cruise now, besides we were mentally and physically exhausted by then. We made the decision that we would head back home the following day as we had only a short time for cruising and that time was pretty much half gone by now. We needed to get back to Ohio by Thursday for some family obligations.
Needless to say we were disappointed but in boating you have to be able to go with the flow. So Tuesday morning we headed back to Ohio. Mike will return to the boat in about a week as there is more work that he would like to complete. I though will be staying home as I have commitments here that start next week.
Who knows what the rest of the boating season will bring. We will most likely be back up for a short period in October to have her pulled out. Here's hoping next year brings us better luck.
No comments:
Post a Comment