Traveling to Seneca Lake, NY for the 4th

Morning on the Canal

Yesterday was another marathon day of 9 hours of cruising.  We said at the beginning we wouldn't have a set schedule, well we kind of bent the rules on this one.  A couple of weeks ago we met a wonderful couple (Jeff and Sandy) at our marina in Sandusky who were holding out there while some undesirable weather passed. We hit it off immediately.  They were on their way to the canal (like us) and we decided to try and meet up with them along the way.  Well they were able to get a good weeks jump on us and were much further along the canal than what we were.  But with a couple of MARATHON cruising days we were able to catch up with them here in Seneca Lake, NY and will now spend the 4th of July holiday with them.

Captain almost lost his hat.

Our cruising day yesterday consisted of 9 hours on the water, re-accuring rain, 10 locks and numerous bridges, one that just about took Mike's hat off.  We were made aware of this low hanging bridge by some cruising guides that we have so we planned ahead of time to lower the bimini on the fly bridge so that we could get through.  Wouldn't you know the minute we did this it decided to rain.  "Man plans, God laughs".  We made it through with literally no room to spare.

We traveled through a total of 10 locks and with not much trouble at all.  It's always interesting when you have on lookers at the locks.  These are folks that have come to see the show. At one lock we had a couple that were literally standing near the lock watching us and asking questions, which is really no problem and we enjoy talking to the folks, but don't you know this time when Mike goes to lay down the boat hook it goes flying into the lock.  Ugh!  Luckily it floats, but it was so far down from the deck of the boat he could reach it.  Well being the ingenious man that he is he quickly went into the salon, grabbed our hose and used it to fish the boat hook out of the canal.  "Improvise, Adapt and Overcome" is Mike's motto.

In the Galley with Mom making
lunch.

Watching it rain.

We also started something while cruising yesterday.  Because some of the passages are long we look for cheap entertainment on board.  Well as many know up until two summers ago we have had schnauzers in our family.  So I (Jana) had purchased a small stuffed version, after loosing our two wonderful boys and brought it along on the boat.  Well in honor of our big guy "Moose" we now have antics of "Moose on the Loose" and we have found him in the craziest of places.  I told you cheap entertainment.

This is what happens when Pop needs to retrieve a floating boat hook.

We love the puppies, even though at this time we don't have one of our own.  But in the boating world you can find them every where.

This little girl reminded us of our grand puppy Izzie

Jeff and Hatch were waiting for us when we docked in Seneca Lake, NY.

The Captain hopped down from the bridge to help with the lines.

10 locks today.

Yes you can tend to lock lines in ruffles.

More to come after today's festivities.