evidence
of man (besides the ditch, of course) between towns. We only saw
a few camps (as far as we went), just the occasional crossing
bridge or power line, and even those had surprises now and then.Lock 26, near Clyde, NY - The next morning we continued westbound.
Much of the dug canal has no other evidence
of man (besides the ditch, of course) between towns. We only saw
a few camps (as far as we went), just the occasional crossing
bridge or power line, and even those had surprises now and then.
It was about 2 hours to lock 27, then just a short distance to 28A. We took time to top off the water tanks at 28A, then on to 28B. A short distance from this is the town of Newark's docks. We set out in search of a few supplies (more ice and water). Some office workers lunching at the marina park directed us to a mini-mart near by. We brought the supplies right back to the boat cooler since it was hotter than blazes.
Next we set off in search of a lunch spot, preferably an air conditioned one. Just across the west bridge was a fine, cool, busy Italian restaurant that was very crowded which we took as an endorsement by the locals.
We had given thought to over nighting at
Newark, but given our timing and some other
considerations like, I think we can still make it to Oswego, we decided
to turn around at this point.
We went all the way back to lock 25, arriving around 1800, and we locked through so we'd have that behind us for the start of the next day. The lock operator was very friendly, and offered us a tour to show ~1918 equipment still in operation.
Cap'n Bligh ... 
Once again, we cooked on board since we were away from any town. After dinner I noticed some strange behavior. We had been using the (supplied) 12" electric fan which runs off the boat inverter to provide some cooling on this hot evening. The inverter shut itself down, apparently because the battery voltage had dropped too low. Hmmm, we'd been motoring all day, why are the batteries low? We limped through the night with lights dimming further wondering if we could squeeze in a shower to wash off the sweat of the day before things went totally dark.
We had a cell phone with us, and I called MLN right away leaving a message that we had a situation.
