PROJECT DAYS

Monday June 22

Another day waiting for the locks to open, and I decided it would be a project day for me. The marina is across the street from a lumber yard, so I walked over and bought a 2X4 to make up couple of more fender boards. Luckily I have enough carpentry tools on board to do basic work, and within a short time had the new fender boards mounted on the starboard side, so now we are covered on both side of the boat. The next project has a little more backstory. Last year I had to replace the horn (needed for sound signals), and it was a real learning experience about the boat’s wiring. However, none of that learning did any good this year when the horn didn’t work. I got out my new digital multimeter and tried to diagnose the issue. Everything I tried just confused me more and more, until I asked for help from one of the marina guys. He pulled out his antique analog multimeter and quickly solved the problem (including the fact that my cheapie Harbor Freight multimeter was a piece of junk). The wiring turned out to be all good, so I took the horn down from the mast, took it apart and emptied it of water and some sort of insect nest which filled it up. The horns mounted on the mast are notorious for these problems, so I had brought along a self-contained air horn, thinking I would install it in a protected area, and now that I knew the wiring was good, this was the next project. I un-installed the horn wiring from the inside of the mast (leaving a new pull-cord, in case I want to run other wires up there) and ran it under the flybridge coaming to a fully protected area which has an opening for the sound to come out. Other than the fact it was a tight spot where I could barely squeeze my shoulders through, it worked out well, and I soon had a two-trumpet air horn which sounded off heartily when I pushed my horn button. I also cleaned and repaired the original horn, just to have around as a spare. The next project was to re-pack the bearings on the left pedal of my bike. On our long ride yesterday, the pedal rotation got harder and harder, to the point the pedal would hardly move around flat when pedaling. I took it all apart, thinking there would be a bad ball bearing or two, but it all looked OK, and a good greasing and adjusting the races made for a functioning pedal again.

All the time I was working on my projects, Elaine had been out exploring the local geography. On an island near the lock, we had seen a number of rock climbers, and had heard that this rock was a compressed sedimentary rock (called gneiss) which was very old. There were supposed to be large “pools” in the rock, depressions 15-20 feet across and up to 30 feet deep, so she went looking for them. She had a rudimentary map, but a couple of hours searching ended up being futile. It was nice gneiss, though.

Tuesday, June 23

Well, it looks we might be travelers again. Some of the locks re-opened at 10 AM this morning, a day earlier than projected. We actually could have left Little Falls today, but the forecast was for heavy thunderstorm activity this afternoon with possible winds up to 50 mph , so we decided another day tied up here would be OK. It’s supposed to be nice as soon as the storm passes through, so maybe an early start tomorrow and a bit longer than normal day should put us in Sylvan Beach, on Lake Oneida, by tomorrow evening.

Historic house in Little Falls

I took the opportunity today to do some online testing for my U.S. Coast Guard Captain’s License. Before we left on this voyage, I signed up for the course, intending to whip through it during all of my down time. Well, it’s amazing how little downtime one has on a trip like this. It seems like there’s always something that needs fixing, some sort of project that needs to get done, someone anchored nearby, or on a nearby dock that I end up talking with, or, of course, those daily “Sundowner” get-togethers — and there’s no studying after those! I’ve got more studying and testing to do, but got a lot done today.

Elaine went with some other cruisers on a history tour of Little Falls. A volunteer with the Historical Society gave them a tour of the local highlights, including ornate houses, mansions and other historic structures.

An old Masonic Lodge, turned into an art studio

The thunderstorms did hit this afternoon, with heavy rain & strong winds, so we are glad we stayed put. What’s one more day…?