Almost a day at the Beach

Gypsea and Field Trip are behind us in the canal.

We left Rome in a parade of four boats at 7:00 am today and went through two locks.  For the first time in the Erie, we went down in the locks.  We entered with full water, grabbed ropes on the side, and were lowered 25 feet.  About five miles after the second lock, George and I tied up to the free wall at Sylvan Beach, NY.  Our friends went across Lake Oneida to Brewerton.

Aunt Aggie is on the free wall at Sylvan Beach, NY.

We find it tricky and sometimes tiring to make plans.  We make them and change them daily.  Today was cloudy.  Rain was expected.  Should we go on to Brewerton or stop in Sylvan Beach, a town we had wanted to visit?  Is it fun to visit a beach town in the rain?  We like small towns more than the average bear, so we stopped.

It was not raining at 9:30 when we tied up. We walked to the laundromat on Main Street with three loads of dirty clothes.  I stayed and read a Maeve Binchy novel, and George went back to Aunt Aggie to do some engineering.  He returned at noon to help carry back.  Then we had lunch and did a new chore.

On the way to the laundromat we passed a tiny farmers market.

I bought a tomato, an onion and zucchini bread.

I sat outside the laundromat and watched the rain.  Just behind this park is the beach and the lake.

We have a leak coming from the fly bridge floor into our salon.  Uggh!  We have a lot of rainy days.  Uggh!  George had the idea of reinstalling the isinglass covering on the back of the flybridge to block the rain.  We only get the leak when the rain and wind comes from behind the boat.  There's nothing to block it.  This sounded odious to me, but we went up to do it after lunch.  Boats seem to be designed so that everything fits tightly.  We could zip the panels to the bimini but not to each other.  Why couldn't they give us another inch of fabric? We avoided harsh words and got the job mostly done. There is a space that we hope we can zip once the isinglass heats up - you know, once the sun comes out and shines on it.

In the hot summer of 2014 we drove from the fly bridge. We wanted more air, so we took down the back panels.  

In the cool and rainy summer of 2015 we drive from the lower station. Here's hoping this blocks some of the rain.

We took a nap, I read, and I talked to my friend Anne from Atlanta.  Then I woke George, and we took a walk around town.  The amusement park is across from the canal.  It is charming and tiny, just the right size for my grandchildren.  How I wish they were here to ride the carousel and play mini golf and drive the roadsters!

 See the ferris wheel?  More photos tomorrow.

We will have dinner and walk across the road to Crazy Clams to watch the USA Women's Soccer Semifinal.  The young woman I talked to there did not know it was going to be on at 7:00 pm.  But she took our names and promised us a table and a TV tuned to the game.  USA!

Rome, NY

Erie Canal near Rome, NY

We exited in a leisurely fashion today from Little Falls, NY.  The other four looper boats docked there planned to go all the way to Sylvan Beach.  We planned a shorter trip:  35 miles and 3 locks.  We let them get ahead of us by an hour, so we could get a pump out and go in the locks alone.  About an hour into the trip, Dream Girl pulled in behind us and went through locks with us, which was fine.

We dodged trees and logs all day.  There were also stumps in the waterway.  George did a great job driving the boat.  We had cloudy skies, light rain, and moments in which the sun broke through.  But the clouds won the day, and we never got the promised sunny skies.

"Look," George says.  When I look up, I see a barge coming at us, carrying pipes.

Lots of dredging is happening on the canal.  These pipes are probably going to a dredging site. 

About ten minutes away from the Rome City Dock, we got a call from Pat on Gypsea, one of the boats that was ahead of us.  They could not get a spot in a marina at Sylvan Beach, so three boats had stopped at the Rome dock.  She wanted us not to freak out when we came around the bend and saw that the dock was full.  They would make room for us.  I appreciated the call.  We got our lines and fenders out on the starboard side.  Bob from Field Trip called and said we could raft to them.  Four loopers were waiting to grab our lines as we slowly eased up to Field Trip.  We are in a safe spot for the night, and we will move out early tomorrow, hoping to get a space on the free dock at Sylvan Beach before another storm comes on Tuesday.  

Parts of the canal west of here closed today due to high water, so boaters are piling up again.  This happened a week ago too, but we were in Atlanta and missed the crowded docks.  I wonder what it would be like to go through the Erie Canal on sunny days. 

A storm of Mayflies

Yesterday we stopped at Little Falls, NY.  There were six boats on the dock.  We all hunkered down for a big storm last night.  The rain began in the evening, and the wind picked up, and George and I stayed up until midnight, playing bridge online and reading.  When he finally went to sleep, I stayed awake and finished a novel.  The rain was pounding us, and I wondered how long that power could continue.  But before I closed the book, the rain had quieted, so I did sleep well.

After a leisurely reading of the AJC this morning, George changed the fuel filters for the first time.  I was his helper.  All seemed to go well until we cleaned up and started the engine.  It sounded terrible! There was air in the fuel line.  Why?  How to get it out? Who could help us?  I went to the office for a shower, and George went around to different boats, asking for advice.  He found Bob from Field Trip and had a consultation.  Thirty minutes later Chris, the dock master, called a local diesel mechanic, who said he'd come over and take a look.  Chris offered to take Martha from Field Trip and me to Price Chopper, the grocery, and George waited for the mechanic.  When I got home, the problem was fixed.  Our emotions had run up and down the scale from "We are so handy" to "We are the pits and
should not own a boat."  Now they were back in the middle around "We are doing ok" and "Aren't we lucky that other people are around to help us?"

It was time to go to the movie.  We decided to watch The Princess Bride at home instead for a few reasons:
      It was lunch time, and we do not miss a meal.
      The weather was still misty, but I didn't want to ask Chris for another ride.
      I had just walked in from Price Chopper and wanted a minute to unpack and relax.
      I had a plan for a crock pot meal and wanted to put that together.
      We were invited to visit Patriot for docktails at 5:00.
George had never seen The Princess Bride; I have seen it twenty times; we both enjoyed it.

After the movie we washed off the boat, which was dirty from locking through and from a mayfly invasion last night.  Wouldn't you think a big rain would clean the boat?  That's what I thought.  However, the mayflies came out and frolicked and died all over the boat.  They stuck to the floor.
Then crows followed the mayflies and pooped in several locations as they ate the insects. The boat looked worse than ever.  We filled our water tank and also rinsed the floor.

Carcasses galore! 

Many were still alive but not moving on.

We're headed down the dock to meet new friends and check on their plans for tomorrow.  I think all of us will be headed out unless we get a notice that the canal is closed due to flooding.  We did not get as much rain as had been predicted, so we'll be able to move west. I do want to give a shout out to Chris, the dockmaster here.  She drove boaters to lunch, to the laundry, and to the grocery store.  She was a huge help, calling the mechanic for us.  She is one of the reasons that Little Falls is a great place to stay.

Canajoharie to Little Falls, NY

Yesterday we toured Canajoharie, NY.  We went to the art gallery, which is in the library.  Both the library (1924) and the art gallery (1927) were funded by Bartlett Arkell, the owner of Beech-Nut Foods.  Beech-Nut Foods was right across the street, on the Erie Canal for many years.  We learned a lot about the Arkell family and the company before we saw the art.

I admire business owners who care about their towns and fund organizations that improve everyone's life. That sort of generosity and civic spirit seems to be missing sometimes today.  It was fun to see all the products made by Beech-Nut and the way they were marketed. There was a miniature circus in the Beech-Nut pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair.  There were unusual perks: In the early years all women had free manicures and piano music was played while they worked. We have noticed the closed factories and depressed small towns along the Mohawk River.  One good person's industry and generosity really makes a difference in a small town.

This looks more natural than the Tombigbee Waterway because the canal is 190 years old, and trees have taken over.

We left the Mohawk River today and moved into the actual Erie Canal.  It looks like a river, 

but the Mohawk is actually to the right side.  We traveled just 20 miles and four locks today to reach Little Falls, NY.  This is a busy small town with restaurants and shopping and a municipal dock.  

We walked around town and had lunch.  We found the grocery store and a theatre with first run shows.  We will go to the movies tomorrow!  The afternoon show is just $6.00.  

 You can see the old pathway on each side of the canal. 
There still seems to be a space for the mules to pull a boat.

 Lock #17 just before Little Falls is the tallest lock on the Erie, raising boats 40 feet.

Boaters grab ropes only on the port side; the other side looks damaged.  

The gate of the lock lifts to let the boat enter the lock, a bit of a creepy, guillotine look.

 This is the view from our boat at Little Falls Harbor.  There are modern 

showers, bathrooms, lending library, and TV room inside this 100 year old building.

We are expecting rain today and more rain and wind on Sunday, so we will stay two nights here.  There are four looper boats on the other end of the dock.  We haven't seen other loopers for two days, so this is fun.  With the rain, I don't know how much we can visit.  Still we can meet some new folks and exchange plans and news.

Five more locks + 36 miles and we are in Canajoharie, NY.

We are traveling on the Mohawk River, part of the Erie Canal.

Today is a beautiful day in upstate New York.  The breeze is cool, and the sun is out. Both lockmasters and boaters are in excellent humor.

We left our free dock above Lock 8 around 8:00 am and traveled west through five more locks.  Mostly these used the rope system, which I like.  Yes, the ropes are muddy, but we wear our work gloves.  The locks were fairly small, so we moved quickly.  We followed a Canadian trawler, Kindred, on the Mohawk River and through the locks.  We never met them or chatted, but we were together all day.

Kindred sits in front of us in a lock.  Can you see the dog on the fly bridge?

After Lock 13 Kindred stopped in the channel.  We saw their dog on the swim platform behind the boat.  We thought there was a problem.  Was Rover about to leap to freedom?  Had he finally called it quits to life on the boat?  As we watched, Rover took a "bathroom" break on the platform and then jumped back into the boat.  That was a new trick!

Hurricane Irene did lots of damage to this area of NY in 2011.  Locks and walls and docks and marinas were torn up.  Some have been fully repaired, but work continues on the locks on the Erie Canal.  Today we saw major construction at Lock 11, pictured below.

The din in the lock chamber was overwhelming:  Construction racket, 

 the chamber's noisy filling with water, and a train's close passing all happened while we were inside.

  We used hand gestures to communicate.  Happily, only friendly gestures were needed today.

We stopped for the day at the Canajoharie Free Dock, beside a riverside park.  There is even electricity here.  Woohoo!  George is doing a bit of work, and we will soon explore the town of Canajoharie.  There is an art museum in the library with 350 paintings by American artists, including Winslow Homer oils and watercolors.  Across the bridge is Stewart's convenience store with ice 

cream.  Happy Friday!

This is the view from Aunt Aggie, looking up at the park.

Eight Locks on the Erie Canal

A small waterfall on the Mohawk River

We left Waterford, NY, this morning at 8:20 and started through the Waterford Flight, a series of five locks that take the boat up 170 feet above the Hudson River.  These locks are numbered 2 - 6 because the Federal Lock at Troy is #1. When exiting one lock, you pretty much move right into the next, or you see it around the bend.  All the chambers are open because the lock master calls ahead to report that you are coming.  There is no stopping between locks in this section.  These locks have a steel cable running from the top and connected at the bottom.  I loop our mid-ship line around the cable and pull us tight.  I like to be about 2 feet off the wall.  That way our fenders don't scrape, but we are not floating too freely in the chamber either.  We were the only boat in the first five locks, so it was easy and quick.  The lockmaster started closing the gates behind us before we were even settled.  

This is the view as we enter and tie up to the wall.

This is the view from the top, once we have been lifted 35 feet.  

We went through two more locks, # 7 and 8,  after the first flight.  Each of these was eleven miles down the river.  We had to wait twenty minutes for Lock 7.  While we waited about 100 yards off the lock, a fast boat came up, passed us, and went right up to the lock gate.  It was not proper etiquette, but it was just as well since he would have blown by us once the lock opened.  A jet ski entered the lock before the fast boat.  Brave guy.  

The Erie Canal in 2015 follows rivers and lakes and not the original canal.  We can see pieces of the original nearby at times and on maps.  Once power boats became common, the canal needed to be deeper and could follow natural waterways: The boats could go upstream. We were on the Mohawk River this afternoon.  It was quiet and lovely. 

At the end of the day, we went through Lock 8 near Schenectady and Scotia, NY.  We pulled over after the lock and tied up for the night on the free south wall.  There are a couple of boys swimming in the canal and sunning on the dock.  There is a barge stopped here too.  Daisy Belle III from Montreal, whom we met yesterday in Waterford, just pulled in.  The husband and wife are French and are named Michele and Michelle, pronounced the same way. We went out to help them tie up and met John, the friendly barge captain. He will be spending the night on his barge. 

In Lock 8 there were only ropes to grab to hold us to the wall,

another first for us.

This is our view off the stern:  You see the lock with the water at the top

and Gypsea, a looper boat, coming through.

Transitioning back to Aunt Aggie and on to Waterford, NY.

At Waterford, NY, it's decision time:  Which way to go - Erie Canal or Champlain Canal? 

We chose the Erie route. 

 Whenever we go home, I have to adjust to being back on the boat.  Yesterday was no exception.  I was anxious about the wind in Albany and had trouble sleeping.  I was nervous as we took off the lines this morning.  We did all our morning checks and had a smooth leave-taking, but it took me a while to relax.  Luckily, the Hudson was flat.  There were few boaters out.  The sun was shining.
Today's weather is perfect:  80 degrees now at 4:30 pm with a cool breeze.

We went through the Federal Lock at Troy, NY, without a problem.  The lockmaster did answer our call on channel 13.  We only had to wait 5 minutes for the lock to open.  George came in slowly, and I put the line around the pole.  Two more boats followed us in the lock.  It was just a 14 foot rise, and then we were free and almost to Waterford.

Waterford is charming and famous for several reasons.  It is the oldest incorporated village in the USA.  There is still one building from 1770 downtown.  It was originally a hospital, then a tavern, and now it looks like apartments.  Ethelda Bleibtrey, the first US woman to win an Olympic gold medal, is from here.  She won three swimming gold medals in the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp.  Wow!
After we signed in at the Waterford Visitor Center and paid our $10 fee for electricity, we walked downtown, had lunch at Don and Paul's Coffee Shop, and toured the historic area.

Don and Paul's is the place to go for breakfast, but we stopped in for lunch. 

We had good sandwiches, and our lunch cost $10.20.

Next we walked to the grocery store.  The store let us bring our shopping cart all the way back to the dock.  They pick up the carts on Saturday.  So we walked a loaded cart over the Hudson River and back to Aunt Aggie.  Now we are stocked up with food for a week.  Yahoo!  

Aunt Aggie is tied to the free floating dock in a line of looper boats.

Boaters can stay for free for 48 hours here.

This is a staging area for the Erie canal.  Tomorrow we will go through the Waterford Flight, five locks in a row.  Boaters must continue through all five without stopping.  We hope to go further, covering about 24 miles and 7 locks.  We're back in the groove.  

A decorated mule at the Waterford Visitor Center

Note:  Yesterday was our 42nd wedding anniversary.  Oh, doesn't that sound like a long time!  
I wrote two short poems about renewing our vows.  You can see them on the Songs and Poems page in this blog.  

Surprise!

 Summer flowers bloom at our daughter-in-law and son's house in Atlanta.

We left 73 degrees and cloudy in Albany, NY, and flew home to 101 degrees and sunshine in Dublin, GA, on Tuesday.  What a shock! This spring I promised not to complain about the heat of summer, and I have not.  I am glad to feel the rays.  

I could not write about our plans because we came home early for a surprise birthday party for Geva, George's mother, who turned 88 yesterday.  She was really surprised and enjoyed an evening with

girlfriends and all her children.  Geva is an amazing woman, who has taught me much about living. 

Last night George and I turned in at 10:30.  We had awoken at 3:30 am that day to catch our flight.  Geva and her friends from our generation stayed up laughing til midnight.  

We are here for granddaughter Zoe's birthday tomorrow and a wedding this weekend.  We'll return to Aunt Aggie on Tuesday, June 23, and head to the Erie Canal the next day.  Please check the blog again on Wednesday, June 24, for boating news.

More of Jessie's flowers

Rensselaer and Albany

Today we stayed at the Albany Yacht Club because we are leaving Aunt Aggie here soon and returning to Atlanta for a week.  We go home about every 6 weeks.  I always feel a bit of stress when we leave the boat.  Will she be safe?  Will all of our looping buddies be ahead of us by the time we return?
We need our southern fix, however, so we go.  And every time we have either found our friends again along the loop or found new friends that welcome us. And so we are headed to Atlanta again.

George worked on this cloudy day.  I plotted new routes for our Canadian travel. After lunch we went for an explore along the streets of Rensselaer near the marina.  Rensselaer is on the east coast of the Hudson River, and Albany is on the west bank.  We walked for about four blocks in two different directions and found little of interest.  There was only one working establishment in each block.  Mostly there were homes and businesses for sale or lease.  The area was depressed and depressing.
Other than the liquor store and a police station, there was not much going on.

We had invited two other looper boats, Penny Pinchin' and Sea Tiger III, to come for docktails, so we prepared for them.  We enjoyed our time with these new friends.  We had been at Georgetown with Penny Pinchin' but never sat down to talk.  Sea Tiger is from Naples, FL, and Penny Pinchin'  is from California.  Ron from Seattle came by and shared some stories from his three year loop adventure on his Katey Krogen.  He is on a different dock, so we had not seen him.   They will all move into the Erie Canal while we are gone, but maybe we'll meet again later this summer.

We are getting reports of different Erie Canal locks being closed due to high water.  (New York had
major thunderstorms on Friday night.)  The Erie locks also sound in bad repair, so that is worrisome.  When we looked at the loop, one of our expectations was going through the Erie Canal.  I am eager to
see them with my own eyes.

Zoe (on the right) will turn 3 on Thursday.  Can't wait to celebrate with her!

You can tell it will be a good party.

Percussive Maintenance?

 Tour boat came by Aunt Aggie while we were sitting at the pool yesterday.

We loved our stay at Catskill Marina.  The downtown area is vibrant but has some vacant buildings hoping to be discovered. The good news is they've kept their old buildings.  They just need a few more businesses.  I can't imagine how cold and snowy this area is in winter.  We are here at the perfect season: sunny during the day and cool at night with no humidity.  The air is sweet. No wonder Yankees love summer.  It is our spring.  

On Saturday three sailboats from Montreal came into the marina.  They were full of young, French speaking folks.  We gathered that they were in the area to be de-masted.  Why?  I ventured out today and asked where they are going.  They are headed home to Lake Champlain, their home port.  However, the bridges between the Hudson and Lake Champlain are too low for sailboats.  They wintered in Nassau.  Now they are returning home.  They built structures to hold the mast.  There was lots of hammering and discussion on the docks as each boat completed the task.  

See the wooden bracing on the sailboats?  Aunt Aggie is the third boat.

We waited for the tide (maybe our last time caring about tide) and left Catskill at 11:30 am for the four hour trip to Albany. We arrived at 3:25 pm, slack current, so we could dock easily.  We had a lovely river cruise although there were many fishermen and family boaters out.  It was, after all, a sunny Sunday afternoon.  Everyone wants to be on the river in the sunshine on Sunday.  Happily for us, these boaters were mostly not too large.  George did call out one sport fisherman headed to us with a huge wake, and the guy slowed down.  

Once we arrived, I did a major clean of the outside of the boat, which was covered in seed pods, tiny flowers, and branches from Friday's storm.  George vacuumed inside.  Once Aunt Aggie was clean, we were happy and satisfied and could have happy hour featuring nachos to go with our Mexican leftovers.  

We needed the microwave to prepare the nachos and heat up the leftovers.  Hmm.  The microwave did not work the last time we tried it.  So depressing to have an appliance that doesn't work.  It makes me feel like a failure.  I can just hear George's grandmother, Big Mama, saying, "Martha, I thought you wanted nice things."  Well, we turned off everything on that battery bank:  outlets, water heater, and battery charger.  Then we tried the microwave for the nachos.  Success!  

After our appetizer, we were ready for the main courses, our leftovers.  I put one plate in the microwave and it stopped working after two seconds.  Oh, no!  George got up and banged on the appliance:  percussive maintenance.  Yes!  It worked!  We were able to heat both plates.  So, now we are believers in using force as needed to heat our food.  

Mama Duck and 11 ducklings beside our dock on Catskill Creek.   

Night falls on Catskill Creek, NY.

News flash:  At 8:15 pm the three demasted sailboats from Catskill Creek passed our marina at Albany.  George spied them.  They are headed home.

Silently moving up the Hudson, three sailboats carrying their masts head for home. 

A Walk around Catskill, NY

Giant trees stand beside the creek.

Catskill, NY, is a charming, quiet town.  We are docked in Catskill Creek.  Three large sailboats from Montreal are coming in right now.  George went out to help grab lines.  Our marina has a pool, in which we took a refreshing dip (72 degrees) yesterday.  We are tied below large shade trees.  The air is filled with cottony seeds.  Yesterday I was happy to be here beneath the trees.  Last night in the powerful thunderstorm, I was not so glad.  In Atlanta we have a history of falling trees.

This marina was damaged by Hurricane Irene and has just been rebuilt. The floating docks are new; the laundry and shower building is up-to-date, spacious and clean. We can walk easily to town.
It's just my craziness that makes me look at trees with suspicion: One way of looking at the trees is that they survived the hurricane, so they are strong.  Another view is that they survived but may be weakened and are ready to fall on me and Aunt Aggie. Although winds of 60mph were possible last night, we did not get much wind.  There was a lightning show and heavy rain.  I read and played solitaire until the danger had passed.  George checked the boat and went to sleep.  Even after all these years, he amazes me.

Today is gorgeous.  We walked downtown, did laundry, and took naps.  Downtown is decorated with cats.  We found a small gourmet grocery owned by a woman from North Carolina and bought raisin bread, apples and a lime.  Then we had lunch at a diner.  We also walked down the road to Riverview Marine, which has a ship store.  There we found marine toilet paper.  Yahoo!

I don't stock up the boat as some cruisers do, preferring to believe that we will find what we need since we are always close to civilization.  However, we have lately not been at standard marinas, and we are on our last roll of tp.  I bought some single ply at Shop Rite, but the captain rejected my purchase since it was not "marine" tp.  So I have been reading the marina descriptions more carefully, looking for a well stocked store.  Today I did purchase extra.

Cat-too - George named this one "Things I eat." 

Purr -enniel 

Dancing with the Stars 

Cat of the Baskervilles sits in front of the police station. 

Frosty the Snow Cat

Tomorrow we will leave this beautiful spot around 11:00 am in order to catch a rising tide for a push to Albany.  We are almost done with tides, but there is a five foot tide in Albany, so we still have to be aware. Also there is a lot of current at our Albany marina, so we want to arrive at slack tide around 3:00 pm.  

Right now we are taking our g + t over to the pool. 

Poughkeepsie to Catskill, NY

 View from our boat last night at Shadows Marina, Poughkeepsie, NY.

The lights on the bridge are blue.

Yesterday and this morning we were at Shadows Marina.  The star of that show is Captain Keith, the dock master. He tied our boat and set our fenders and ordered us around to secure Aunt Aggie.  We were happy.  We did get waked twice big time - crashing dishes and drama.  Otherwise, a quiet night.  We walked to the Mid-Hudson Bridge, but the elevator was being serviced, so we did not walk another mile to get onto the bridge.  It is an old railway bridge that is now a pedestrian park.  Anyway, we got exercise before dinner.

After I took the picture above, I turned around and saw George inside the boat, washing dishes.  It was a sweet, everyday moment of our life.  

George is a faster washer than I.  

This morning we waited til 8:30 to ask Captain Keith to help us leave the dock.  The current was rushing past the boat, and we feared that we would not have control once we loosed our lines.  He came out quickly.  George said,"What's your vision, Keith?"  Keith paused but did not share the vision. 

 Instead he said, "Captain, get on the helm."  George moved to the helm.

To me, he said, "You will help me." He untied a fender and told me to tie it mid-ship on the port side. I did.

He untied lines and handed them to me.  He held onto the bow line.  He told George how to move the boat.  "Give it one bump in reverse, Captain." The boat backed along the dock.  Keith pulled the bow in.  The stern swung out, and the current caught and pulled it.  Now our boat was perpendicular to the dock.

"Wait.  Now give it a bump in forward, Captain."

We did a few more maneuvers according to his directions, and voila´ we were facing the correct direction.  George slowly drove Aunt Aggie out of the marina.  Woohoo!  We learn from everyone we meet.  We also appreciate them.  I shouted thanks to Captain Keith, and we were on our way for the day.   

As we moved north on the Hudson River, we passed barges and a couple of pleasure boats.  We passed FDR's house at Hyde Park and the Culinary Institute of America and a seminary that had been active for 100 years.  We saw lighthouses too.  

These are actually houses with the light almost beside the house. 

Since we never cruise at night, I don't know if these are still operating. 

In the early afternoon, we docked at Catskill Marina.  It is lovely: quiet and shady and small.  It reminds me of places we visited when we were children in the country. We came down a creek, and the dock master waited for us and reeled us in.  We took a dunk in the pool today.  The 72 degree water was refreshing.  We read at poolside.  I have a James Patterson book, which grew on me.  My mother and sister Susan always read him, so I picked this up at a laundry room and am enjoying the story.  We're staying two nights here.  I am eager to walk downtown and explore. We are headed out for Friday night supper as soon as I take a shower.  Happy Friday!

The view behind the boat