Canajoharie to Schenectady, July 21th

There are no pictures taken this day. The weather was cloudy and much of interest had been captured the other way.

We stopped for lunch on the upper wall of lock 11. I called the lockmaster to let him know we would not need a drop. She said that the museum is closed now. I told her that we wanted to stop to eat at Russo's. It was nice of her to let us know about the museum, but there is still a nice park to walk around in there and I'm a bit surprised that this area seems to be becoming less boater centric.

Russo's bar you may recall from our trip on the way out, was not the first place you would choose to eat. However, the food is wonderful. For example, the sandwiches were made on home baked bread. After lunch, we walked back to the boat in some light rain and then locked down through 11.

We make it through lock 10 and then through lock 9 just as the rains began. We figured we were set once for a while once we cleared lock 9 and it could rain all it wanted and hopefully pass over before we got to the next lock. It did rain heavy at times and visibility was only to the next marker. Just enough to continue. However, just as we approached lock 9, the lightning came and I decided to move to the lower station to pilot to avoid being the lightening rod on the flybridge.

When it was time to call the lockmaster, the thunder storm cell was at it's peak. I called the lockmaster and told him we were going to hang back until things cleared at bit. He came back with an entheastic, "I roger that!" I sat in neutral most of the time by the side of the canal. Amazingly enough, even with all the wind, very little station keeping was needed to stay put. When the cell had passed, we eased up and the lock master called and asked if we were game. We were.

As we were locking though, the weather cleared. He told me the east bounder wasn't going to be a happy person. I asked why. He said that he was a delivery captain and he had halved his lock time so he was making him wait. The lockmaster explained that running on plane in the canals causes branches and sticks to wash into the canal making it hazardous for other boaters.

For the rest of the trip, the weather turned sunny again. We arrive at Schenectady Yacht Club and took care of laundry, went for a swim, and returned the Erie Canal Guide that John had so generously lent us. We all visited with another east bound boater in a trawler.

In the evening after an on board dinner, another thunderstorm cell passed over. I watch it for some time after it departed. It seemed to have header southeast and intensified. From the distance, I could watch the cloud to ground lightening and there was a very high number of strikes per minute and the storm continued for some time.