July 20, 2011 - Amsterdam, NY to Illion, NY

A 50 mile day which sounds short and easy but the temperatures touched 90 again with little wind and there were many locks in between.

We stopped at Canajohari, former home of Beechnut to see their Arkell Art Museum. It was well worth the stop with great art depicting the history of NYS in this region during the 1800s.

Lock 17, the largest in the NY system had a problem operating their gate system and we had to hold up before the lock for about a half hour. Met a guy single handing a brand new Back Cove 30 from Portland Maine to Toronto, quite a feat getting through these locks single handed.

Lock 17

Illion Marina

We are now at Illion, a very nice canalside marina with nice facilities and a cafe right by the dock. Met a very nice Canadian couple aboard a small trawler that they purchased through a foreclosure in Florida and are taking it home to Canada. The boat needs much work but they got it for a steal and this is going to be his "project."

We're looking forward to getting out of the locks for a spell onto Lake Oneida. One of the AC units has stopped pumping water, hopefully it is something clogged in the strainer but may have to get in the water to see if anything is on the outside. Since it may hit 100 today, sounds like a good idea. Fortunately the AC in the sleeping area is working like a champ.

Full set of pictures are at: https://picasaweb.google.com/golphinut/201107BlueBelle02?authuser=0&feat=directlink
Click on any of the photos above to enlarge them.